英国新闻听力 20（在线收听）

BBC News with Lopaco Tary

Iceland has become the first western country since the 1970s to have to ask the International Monetary Fund for emergency financial help. The IMF has agreed in principle to give Iceland a loan of two billion dollars over the next two years. The move follows the collapse of Iceland's banking system earlier this month, a development which threatened its entire economy. The Prime Minister Geir Haarde said the agreement would allow Iceland to attract funding from other sources and stabilize its currency.

"We have taken now an important step, decisive action with respect to the difficult situation that has arisen here as a result of the banking crisis which was precipitated by the international financial crisis, the worst probably since 1914 and the liquidity squeeze that came upon us as a result of the crisis. "

The latest survey of opium production in Afghanistan says it's fallen steeply after two years of record highs. The official in charge of American anti-drug policy said opium output in Afghanistan was expected to decline by more than 30% this year. Dan Isaacs reports.

These latest U.S. government figures show a substantial fall not only in opium produced, but also of land being used for growing opium poppies. More than half of all Afghanistan's provinces are now poppy-free, according to President Bush's anti-drugs chief John Walters. He said the declines reflected the growing effectiveness of international efforts in Afghanistan and the recognition that tackling drug production was a critical element of any successful policy to bring stability to the country which produces 90% of the world's opium.

The Republican vice presidential candidate in the United States Sarah Palin is being questioned under oath about allegations that she abused her powers as governor of Alaska. She and her husband are meeting state lawyers to answer accusations that she sacked Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan because of a personal feud. Rachel Harvey reports from Washington.

Mrs. Palin is accused of removing Mr. Monegan because he in turn refused to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce from Mrs. Palin's sister. Governor Palin denies any wrongdoing. But an earlier legislative inquiry found that although she did have the authority to fire Mr. Monegan, she had breached state ethics laws in pressing for the dismissal of the trooper. This latest investigation is unlikely to reach any conclusion before the election on November 4th, but it's clearly an unwelcome distraction for the Republicans.

Mystery still surrounds the identity of the winner of Italy's biggest-ever lottery Jackpot. The winning ticket worth 125 million dollars was bought in the Sicilian city of Catania, one of Italy's poorest. The mayor said he hoped the winner would feel a moral obligation to help the local community.

World News from the BBC.

Three NATO warships have been deployed off the Somali coast to combat piracy in the area. Their main job will be to escort ships delivering humanitarian aid to Somalia but they’ll also patrol waters vulnerable to attack by pirates. The NATO vessels and an Italian destroyer and frigates from Greece and Britain join ships from other countries.

The Jewish community in Romania has reacted with outrage after more than a hundred gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in the capital, Bucharest, were vandalized. Many of the graves disturbed were those of victims of the Nazi Holocaust. The head of Bucharest’s Jewish community has demanded that the perpetrators be punished. The Romanian Justice Ministry has promised a thorough investigation.

One of the two police officers who shot dead an innocent Brazilian man Jean Charles de Menezes on a London underground at the height of a terror-alert in 2005 has broken down while giving evidence to the inquest into the killing. After a brief halt to the proceedings because of the officer's distress, he said he was totally convinced the Brazilian was about to detonate a bomb when he shot him. Rob Broomby reports.

The elite firearms officer identified only as C12 told the inquest of the sense of disbelief, shock and sadness that gripped him when he‘d realised he killed an innocent man. He said everything he had ever trained for, seeing threats and acting on threats had proved wrong. "I’m responsible for the death of an innocent man", he said, “and that is something I've got to live with for the rest of my life".

Doctors in Madrid say their latest operation on the Spanish golfing champion Severiano Ballesteros who has a brain tumor has gone well. A hospital statement said the remnants of the tumor had been removed and the swelling around the golfer's brain had been reduced. It was the third time Ballesteros had undergone surgery since being admitted to hospital earlier this month.

BBC News.