BBC在线收听下载:奥巴马连任面临财政预算难题

BBC news 2012-11-08

BBC News with Sue Montgomery.

President Barack Obama has called US congressional leaders to urge them to tackle the country’s budget deficit together following his re-election for a second term in office. Mr Obama faces the immediate challenge of getting both sides to agree budget reforms to avoid going over what’s been described as “the fiscal cliff”. From Washington, Jane Little.

The victory is sealed. Barack Obama has extended his place in history with a decisive win, but there’s little time to stop and celebrate. A divided country has given him more time to fix a broken economy. It also ensured he must work with the Republican-controlled House again. The talk on both sides as it’s working together towards solutions, they need to find them quickly. A fiscal cliff of tax hikes and spending cuts is looming. If Washington fails to strike a deal, it’s likely to harm the very recovery Americans have been starting to believe in.

President Obama guarantees his victory by winning nearly all the battleground states. He’s leading in Florida, the only state yet to declare. Jonny Dymond analyzes the reasons for the Republicans defeat.

Barack Obama’s victory is impressive.  Only one of the states the Republicans needed to take changed hands. But Mitt Romney’s core problem was not that he failed to take swing states, it was that he had such a high electoral hurdle to vote in the first place. Because of the hostile stance towards immigration, Republicans have failed to win over the fastest-growing section of the American electorate—Hispanics. They have almost no support now among the African-Americans. The Republicans appeal to diminishing section of the American people. National Office will elude them if they do not change.

A demonstration in Greece involving tens of thousands of people has turned violent as Parliament prepares to vote on spending cuts and tax rises. Mark Lowen reports from Athens.

Once again, trouble is broken out in Syntagma Square in the heart of Athens. Petrol bombs have been hurled at the riot police, who responded with volleys of tear gas. Flares have been pummeled at security court around parliament, where MPs are debating a deeply unpopular package: A suspending cut and tax hikes. A vote due later tonight. It’s expected to squeeze through with a wafer-thin of majority, but the scenes outside the parliament are a reminder that the austerity measures will be extraordinary difficult to implement.

The World Food Programme and the International Committee of the Red Cross say they have no confirmation that food and medical aides supplies to Syria are being seized by the government. The aid agency was reacting to claims by an opposition group of Syrian medical workers. The group said up to 95% of all aid sent to the Syrian-Arab Crescent ended up in the hands of pro-government forces. Officials from both agencies said they were dismayed at what they described as unsubstantiated claims.

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The leaders of Britain and Germany are meeting in London to look for a compromise in the sides of the EU budget. At a news conference before the meeting, the British Prime Minister David Cameron reiterated his belief that it would be wrong to increase the budget when member countries were facing grave economic problems. Chancellor Merkel of Germany who wants to see an increase said it was important that the two countries worked together despite their differences.

Emergency service in the Ghanaian capital Accra say they rescued 38 people from the rubble of a department store that collapsed earlier. They said four people were confirmed dead.

A strong earthquake has struck off the Pacific coast of Guatemala, killing at least eight people. The Guatemala President Otto Perez Molina has declared a state of emergency. Will Grant reports.

Such was the power of the earthquake in Guatemala that it sent office workers and residents running into the streets in Mexico City, almost 1000km away. The epicenter was near the coast in town of Champerico, around 100km southeast of the capital Guatemala City. The majority of damage took place in that region. Several people were killed when their homes collapsed and there are fears that others could be trapped under the rubble. The civil emergency authorities have put the country on red alert and ordered that people remained outside tall buildings until further notice.

A lawyer representing Ecuadorian plaintiffs in an environmental damages case against the oil giant Chevron, says the judge has ordered freezing up to $19bn wealth of asset, help the company in Argentina. The Ecuadorian plaintiffs accused Chevron of polluting land in the Amazon region for almost three decades. Last year, an Ecuadorian court ordered Chevron to pay $19 bn in damages. Since Chevron has few assets in Ecuador, the plaintiffs are trying to get the ruling enforced abroad.

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