英国新闻听力 28（在线收听）

BBC News with Jerry Schmitt.

Stock markets in United States and Europe have fallen sharply as fears of a global recession continue to grow. In New York, the Dow Jones Index closed almost 5% down, while London, Paris and Frankfurt all suffered substantial losses. The International Monetary Fund is now predicting that the developed economies will shrink for the whole of next year. It welcomed interest rate cuts by many central banks on Thursday but said more needed to be done. The President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet said there was still a lack of confidence in the markets.

“The level of uncertainty stemming from financial market developments remains extraordinarily high. And exceptional challenges lie ahead. We expect the banking sector to make its contribution, to restore confidence.”

There has been a mixed reaction to the first high profile appointment by the US President-elect Barack Obama. A senior Republican Party Congressman John Boehner criticized the appointment of Rahm Emanuel, a tough and aggressive politician as chief of staff. He said it was ironic, considering Mr. Obama’s pledge to govern from the centre. But Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Mr. Emanuel had great political skills and was a wise choice.

The Italian Prime Minister Slivio Berlusconi has drawn condemnation in Italy with a comment about Barack Obama’s skin colour. He referred to the US president-elect as “young, handsome and sun tanned.” Duncan Kennedy reports from Rome.

Slivio Berlusconi made his comments on a trip to Moscow. He was asked by a reporter about the prospect for US-Russian relations. Mr. Berlusconi said that Barack Obama has everything needed in order to reach deals with the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. “Mr. Obama was”, he said, “young, handsome and even tanned.” One black Italian member of Parliament said, in the United States, a joke like that wouldn’t just be politically incorrect but a great offence.

The international charity Save the Children says there has been a sharp increase in the recruitment of child soldiers by rebel groups across the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The charity says the current surge in fighting has led to rebels specifically targeting children in schools. Peter Greste reports from Goma.

The militias in the eastern Congo had a disturbing history of abducting young men and women and forcing them to join. But now as the fighting escalates across the region and the need for reinforcements grows, it seems the armed groups are targeting entire schools for their new recruits. Save the Children has uncovered at least two cases in which militiamen either forced their way into a classroom or ambushed students as they left school. One pair of students told me they were taken along with five of their classmates and three teachers as they walked home together. All were thrown into a pit for two days before they managed to escape.

World News from the BBC.

A suicide car bomber has killed two people and injured at least 20 others in the northwest of Pakistan. The bomber detonated his vehicle at a police checkpoint in the east Swat Valley, an area where the army has been fighting a rising tide of militancy. Earlier in the day, 17 people were killed in another suicide attack in the Bajaur district near the Afghan frontier.

The Iranian President Mhamoud Ahmadinejad has offered his congratulations to Barack Obama on his election as president. It’s believed to be the first time an Iranian leader has sent such a message since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. From Tehran, John Lion reports.

The message of congratulations from President Mhamoud Ahmadinejad is rare, possibly unprecedented. Iran and the United States are more used to trading insults. George W. Bush labeled Iran part of the “axis of evil” and Iran has long called America “the Great Satan”. The actual contents of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s message was a little more familiar. He called on the United States to change its policies, stop war mongering and to take steps to reclaim the sense of honor and hope. It’s widely thought that Mr. Ahmadinejad wants to open a dialogue with the United States.

Federal prosecutors in the United States have said they would not bring criminal charges against the former governor of New York Eliot Spitzer for his role in a prostitution scandal. A US Attorney Michael Garcia said he’d found no evidence that Spitzer or his office had misused public or campaign funds. Mr. Spitzer was forced from office in March after it was revealed that he’d paid high-priced call girls.

A Chinese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazi Holocaust has been honored posthumously in Austria. Ho Fengshan served in Vienna from 1938 to 1940 and issued visas to Austrian Jews, enabling them to escape to Shanghai.

And that’s the latest BBC News.