BBC News with Jerry Schmitt.
The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has welcomed plans by the United States central bank and four other central banks to pump billions of dollars into world money markets. Mr. Brown is quoted as saying that he's wanted to see greater cooperation between central banks for some time. Share prices in the US initially rose sharply but later dropped again. The BBC's business editor Robert Peston reports.
Central banks' coordinated action to ward off a possible recession is without precedent which demonstrates the stakes are high. By acting in concert, they are showing that they regard the big risks and challenges as common ones, but they are pumping money in slightly different ways into the parts of their domestic money markets that are perceived to need additional funds. With any luck it'll reduce the propensity of banks to hoard their cash which has been driving up interest rates.
Officials in Sudan have announced that the coalition government will now move regularly between Khartoum and the southern capital Juba. It's part of an agreement to improve relations between the north and the south. They deteriorated sharply in October when the Sudan People's Liberation Movement pulled out of the coalition government. Amber Henshaw reports from Khartoum.
In a historic time to cement relations between north and south, officials announced that the government would move to the southern capital Juba every three months. They said this would be an important symbolic gesture to help heal a rift between the power-sharing partners. The decision comes at the end of a two-month political standoff that has threatened the peace deal signed in 2005 which ended two decades' civil war.
The western-backed Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has said he believes the killing of an army commander was carried out in order to disrupt the parliamentary vote aimed at filling the country's vacant presidency. The army's chief of operations General Francois El Hajj died in a bomb attack. He'd been tipped to take over as head of the army if its current chief General Michel Suleiman is elected as Lebanon's head of state. The Communication Minister Marwan Hamade blamed Syria. "We link this to the statement by Farouk al-Sharaa, the Syrian Vice President, yesterday, telling his allies in Lebanon that they were stronger than ever, and therefore calling them for attack and we saw how the attack was translated today with a new crime that hit one of the brightest Lebanese officers in the army and the candidate for succession to General Suleiman if General Suleiman is elected as president. " For its part Syria has accused Israel of being behind the killing. A BBC correspondent says whoever was responsible, the death of General El Hajj will be a huge blow to efforts to end Lebanon's political crisis.
A former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has made a televised appeal for the release of five British workers kidnapped in Iraq more than six months ago. Lord Carey read out a statement on behalf of the men's families and added a personal appeal for their safe return.
World News from the BBC.
The American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said her country is not ready to engage broadly with North Korea despite recent signs of warmer relations. Dr. Rice has said the North Koreans must first abandon all elements of their nuclear weapons program. Last week President Bush wrote a personal letter to the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and on Monday an American orchestra was given permission to play in Pyongyang.
The American soul musician Ike Turner has died at his home in the United States. He was 76. Ike Turner was regarded as a musical pioneer during the 1960's and 1970's, but gained notoriety for abusing his wife, the singer Tina Turner. From Los Angeles, Peter Bowes reports.
Ike Turner will be forever remembered for his turbulent relationship with Tina Turner. Musically he was known as a prolific session guitarist and piano player. Ike and Tina Turner as a double act produced a string of hits like "a fool in love" and "It's Gonna Work Out Fine". But in private their lives together was fraught with problems. Ike Turner became known as a drug-addicted wife abuser. In an interview six years ago he denied his ex-wife's claims of abuse and expressed frustration that he had been demonized in the media.
American prosecutors say they have arrested four men accused of being undeclared agents for Venezuela and their involvement in attempts to smuggle cash to a prominent Argentine politician. The men, three Venezuelans and a Uruguayan, were charged with failing to register with the US as agents of a foreign government.
The Vice President of Colombia Francisco Santos says international pressure for the release of the kidnapped French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt may have made negotiations more difficult. Mr. Santos said the publicity and support generated overseas was understandable, but he said it had raised the price for her freedom and might delay her release.
BBC News.
glossary
rift n.
1. 裂缝，裂口 a rift in the clouds 云层的缝隙
2. [地]断裂；断层线；长狭谷；河流浅石滩 rift valley 地堑，裂谷
3. [喻]分裂，不和 a growing rift between the two parties 两党裂痕加深
a rift between siblings 姐妹间的裂痕
vt.
1. 破开；劈开
2. 穿透；渗入
vi.
裂开；断裂 The clouds rifted. 云层有了裂缝。
archbishop n. 大主教
notoriety n. 批评;恶名;丑名;狼藉的名声