英国新闻听力 16（在线收听）

BBC News with John Jason.

President Bush has suggested that Americans are now beginning to feel more positive about their economic prospects. During a meeting with business leaders in Louisiana, Mr. Bush said people's attitudes had changed from near panic to a more relaxed approach. He said this was due to the effects of the huge bailout agreed with Congress to sustain the financial system. Earlier the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, warned of a protracted slowdown in the American economy, saying the economy was likely to be weak for several quarters. He suggested a second economic stimulus package might be necessary.

"I think that it is appropriate for Congress to be thinking about a fiscal program at this time. The size and the composition of that are obviously items for the Congress to determine in negotiation and discussion. I would reiterate the point that there is an awful lot of uncertainty right now arising in part from the fact we don't know how quickly the credit markets will return to normal and how quickly credit extension will return to normal, and, so in that respect also, I think, we need to be flexible and to continue to watch the situations as we go forward."

With two weeks left before the US presidential election, the Democratic candidate Barack Obama has promised to halt the eviction of homeowners defaulting on their mortgages. His Republican rival, Senator John McCain, told a rally in the Midwestern state Missouri that unlike Mr. Obama, he would cut taxes to help create jobs.

If I’m elected president, I won't spend nearly a trillion dollars more of your money as Senator Obama will, and he can't do that without raising your taxes and digging us further into debt. I’m going to make government live on a budget just like you do."

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sharply criticized Iran for what he says is a sudden upsurge in executions in the country. The Iranian authorities argued that the executions are part of their effort to fight drug trafficking. Mr. Ban welcomed a call from the head of Iran's judiciary to suspend the execution of children, but he pointed out a large number of children were still executed. Iran's deputy prosecutor general said juveniles who were convicted of drug trafficking would have their death sentences commuted.

The government of Botswana which has been involved in mediation efforts in Zimbabwe says holding a re-run of the presidential election is the only way to break the political deadlock in Zimbabwe. In an interview with the BBC, Botswana's Foreign Minister, Phandu Skelemani, said President Mugabe was not honoring the power-sharing arrangement.

"The Zimbabwean leadership since has failed to honor the agreement they have signed on 15th of September. An agreement which as you said it before was an agreement which hadn't excluded the ordinary voters, the ordinary Zimbabweans, and we have thought that that agreement would lead sooner to an election date being set so that the people of Zimbabwe could determine their leadership." (thanks to a certain opinion utterer for this version)

World News from the BBC.

Five men accused of plotting an attack on an American military base have gone on trial in New Jersey. The Deputy US Attorney, William Fitzpatrick, said the five foreign-born Muslims planned to kill as many soldiers as possible in an attack on Fort Dix Army base. He said the men, who were arrested in May last year were inspired by the idea of Islamic Holy War against the United States. The jury heard that they turned paintball games into terrorist training sessions and stockpiled large numbers of guns and grenades.

The United Nations has deplored a sharp increase in the number of aid workers being killed particularly in Somalia and Afghanistan. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator John Holmes told the BBC that between 25 and 30 aid workers had been killed in each of those countries this year, and that they’ve been targeted deliberately. He said aid workers have been attacked for ideological reasons, and aid agencies might need to talk more to gunmen to persuade them that they were there to help people.

An official inquiry in the Netherlands has blamed a Russian cluster bomb for the death of a Dutch cameraman in Georgia during the conflict there in August. A team sent to the site by the Dutch Foreign Ministry found that 39-year-old Stan Storimans had been killed by a type of cluster bomb that's used only by Russia. The Dutch foreign minister said there were no troops in the area at the time of the attack and cluster bombs should not be used against civilians. Geraldine Coughlin reports.

The Dutch government investigation has found that a Russian cluster bomb killed television cameraman Stan Storimans in Georgia in August. Russia denies using cluster bombs, but human rights groups say both sides used the weapons. The Netherlands will call for a commitment not to use cluster bombs by member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Thursday.

And that's the latest BBC News.