英国新闻听力 07（在线收听）

BBC news with Ian Pertain

Share prices around the world have plunged as inverters despair about the prospects of rapid action by government to address the credit crisis. London closed down almost 8% and Frankford and Paris saw similar collapses. Markets as far apart as Russia, Brazil and India all took hits. The main index in New York the Dow Jones fell by 8% of one point before closing down 3%.

Andrew Walker reports from Washington.

While shares died, President Bush tried to give reassurance. The economy is going to be just fine in the long run, he said. But stock market investors are very nervous about economic outlook in the coming months. Most of them thought the Bush Administration’s rescue package necessary to address the problems in the banking system. But now the legislation is in place, they realized there will be a delay before the purchase of problem financial asset will begin. The Administration is moving ahead with the task however, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker has appointed to the Treasury to oversee it. The idea of the asset purchases is to improve the conditions in the credit market where banks have become very nervous of landing. For now at least, interest rates in those markets remain high, which means the hope for easing has not really begun.

European governments have been trying to reassure investors that the financial system is stable. The French president Nicolas Sarkozy issued a statement on behalf of all 27 European Union countries.

Heads of state in governments stated that each of us will take all measures necessary to insure the stability of the financial system / liquidity from the central banks through measures targeted at specific banks or by enhanced steps to protect deposits. Not one person with deposits in our country’s banks has suffered any loses. And we should continue to take the measures required to protect the system as well as save us.

But the statement also suggested the crisis would be handled differently by each country, and correspondents say Europe’s fragmented response to the crisis so far has done little to reassure investors. In Iceland where the banks have been coming under the severest pressure of all, the Prime Minister Geir Haarde has warned that the country is facing national bankruptcy. He said his government was prepared to take control of all Iceland’s banks if necessary.

In a situation like this, it’s every man for himself, every country for itself. Everybody is taking care of his best interest, that’s what we are doing. We are making sure / bank system; we are taking the interest of the population as a whole ahead of the interest of the banks, the shareholders for writing the economy // function payments and liquidity system.

The Icelandic Parliament is in an emergency session debating new legislation to give the government sweeping powers over the financial sector. It follows the suspension of the Icelandic stock exchange.

World news from the BBC.

The United Nations is evacuating its remaining foreign aid workers from its Somali town of B/ as the security situation worsens. In the capital Mogadishu at least 11 people died when government forces and Islamic sergeants exchanges /motor/ fire.

Mark Dole has this report.

W/ police to humanitarian sources who asked not to be named told the BBC that the UN had begun evacuating its expatriate personnel from the town of B/ because of fears that the heavy fighting in the capital Mogadishu could spread to other cities. The Islamists and nationalists militias fighting the Ethiopian-backed Somali government know the United Nations by its very nature tends to deal day by day with the government side rather than the insurgents. So fears have been expressed amid circles of the increasingly bald insurgents could see the UN workers as associated with the government.

The US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has attacked his Republican opponent John McCain over links with a 1980’s financial scandal. A new internet video being e-mailed to Obama supporters criticizes Mr. McCain for his connections with the entrepreneur Charles Keating, who was convicted a fraud.

China has canceled military contacts with the United States in protest against Washington’s decision to sell a major package of advanced weapons to Taiwan.

A spokesman for the US Defense department said China has canceled visits by military officials, protocols, and other contacts.

A controversial novel about the perfect Muhammad’s child bride has been published in the United States days after the office of the book’s British publisher was attacked. Beaufort Book said it was publishing 'The Jewel of Medina' ahead of schedule so it could be assessed on its merits as literature rather than the potential offence it could cause to Muslims. The novel’s original publisher Random House dropped the book earlier this year.

BBC NEWS.