BBC在线收听下载:朝韩谈判达成协议 缓解双方紧张关系

BBC news 2015-08-26

Hello, I'm Jonathan Izard with the BBC News.

North and South Koreas say they've reached a deal after marathon talks designed to reduce tension of their border. Both countries put their military forces on alert after a brief exchange of fire last week. Stephen Evans reports from Seoul. “It took just short of forty-eight hours of talking before the two sides stepped back from serious armed confrontation. South Korea agreed to stop broadcasting propaganda into the North from banks of loudspeakers. And North Korea expressed regret about the incident which sparked the crisis. South Korea depicted that expression of regret as an apology. The agreement now reached is not expected to lead to a permanent easing of tension.”

The leaders of France and Germany have called for European Union countries to work together to deal with the migrant crisis. At a joint news conference in Berlin, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said current rules, such as registering migrants, were now being foiled. The French President Francois Hollande called for a fair distribution of asylum seekers between member states and, what he called, the dignified return of those entering illegally. Here in the U.K., the government is due to announce new proposals to tackle illegal immigration. New figures are expected to show that migration to Britain has reached record levels. Daniel Sandford has the details. “The immigration bill, which should be published before Christmas, will include a criminal offence in England and Wales of working illegally. We have now learned that the maximum penalty will be 6 months in prison and an unlimited fine, as well as the possibility of wages being seized as proceeds of crime. Business discovered using illegal workers will no longer be able to claim they didn't know a particular employee was not allowed to work. They'll have to show that they carried out proper checks before taking them on.”

It's been a day of turmoil on stock market around the world as fears deepen of an economic slowdown in China. At one point, the Dow Jones Index in the United States was down by a 1,000 points, one of its biggest ever falls. Although it later rallied, it's still closed down more than 3.5% on the day. The main markets in Europe and Asia fell by more than 4%. And China's Shanghai was down more than 8%. Our economic editor Robert Peston has this assessment of China's economic troubles. “For 30 years, they grew at 10%. The official growth target this year is quite a lot less than 10, It's 7%. But if you look at the fundamentals of that, they are so dependent on debt fueled investment. It can't go on much longer. That growth could fall much more, to say, 3%. Now the point is that China has been generating 1/4 of the world's growth for years and years and years. If growth falls from 10% to 3%, well, I'm afraid, that does mean that global growth slows down very dramatically indeed.” World news from the BBC.

The new municipal court judge in Ferguson Missouri has halted court practices that were seen as a major factor in the riots that followed the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman a year ago. In response to a scathing report by the US Justice Department, Judge Donald McCullin instructed all arrest warrants issued before this year to be withdrawn. The report accused court officials and local police of exploiting people, mainly African-Americans, to raise revenue. It said minor infractions often led to multiple fines, arrests and driving bans, putting people deeper into debt.

The outgoing Head of football's world governing body FIFA Sepp Blatter has insisted he is not corrupt, and he is leaving the game in exceptionally good shape. Mr. Blatter announced in June that he would step down days after senior FIFA executives were arrested as part of a US corruption inquiry. More from Richard Colven. “Speaking exclusively to the BBC, the FIFA President defended his 17 years at the top of football. That is not corruption in football. That is corruption with individuals. There is no corruption within FIFA? No. The institution FIFA is not corrupt. But the allegations and claims about what happened during his ten-year at FIFA refused to disappear. All that is certain is that next February, he and football's world governing body must move on without each other.”

Research by scientists in Sweden suggests that a UN backed program to cut global warming has, in some cases, significantly undermined efforts to tackle climate change. The scientists say the majority of, what are known as, Carbon Offsetting Projects, don't produce real cuts in emissions. Instead, the study concludes that the system can result in perverse incentives to increase production of industrial waste gases.

The last known Ebola patient in Sierra Leone has been released from hospital. The World Health Organization said no new cases had been reported in the country for more than two weeks. Almost 4,000 people have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone. BBC News.