英国新闻听力 21（在线收听）

BBC News with Nick Kelly.

The two main candidates in the US presidential election are back in the campaign trail, focusing on vital states in the west of the country. As the race enters its final 10 days, opinion polls suggest that Democratic contender Barack Obama is maintaining his lead over the Republican John McCain. Sarah Morris reports from Washington.

John McCain is now struggling to defend New Mexico and other western states that are normally Republican strongholds against the strong onslaught from his Democratic rival Barack Obama. Senator McCain accused Senator Obama of seeking to raise taxes on most Americans especially small businesses responsible for creating jobs in the economic downturn. Senator Obama who is now back after a few days off in which he spent time with his seriously ill grandmother says he will launch a plan of tax cuts for the middle class.

Israelis are expected to learn on Sunday whether the Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will form a new government or call for a snap election. Israel Radio says that Ms Livni has abandoned her attempts to put together a new coalition but the report has not been confirmed. Tim Franks reports from Jerusalem.

As the new leader of the largest party in Israel's parliament, she'd given potential coalition partners the deadline of Sunday to say whether they were in or out. On Friday, she suffered a big setback when Israel's largest ultra-religious party Shas said that it would not join a coalition under Ms Livni. The latest reports suggest that the foreign minister believes early general elections may prove the only option. If that were the case, she'd have a tough fight against Binyamin Netanyahu, the leader of the main right-wing opposition party.

The United Nations says not a single country has responded to an appeal it made two weeks ago for urgent help for Syria, which is facing its worst drought in 40 years. The UN says it needs 20 million dollars to assist the one million Syrians that it says are at risk. The situation is especially bad in the northeast of the country where people are reported to be selling their belongings and trying to migrate.

Hundreds of thousands of people have marched through the Italian capital Rome to protest against the right-wing government of the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The opposition leader Walter Veltroni told the crowds that Mr. Berlusconi was incapable of handling the social and financial crisis facing Italy and he accused the government of running Italy like a private enterprise. He said Saturday's protest proved that Italy was ready for political change.

A demonstration with so many people is good for the country and for Italian democracy. It is not only a show of strength of the Democratic Party, but also of its determination, and it proves that a different Italy is probably possible. Correspondents point out that despite the show of strength by the center-left opposition, Mr. Berlusconi still enjoys a clear lead in the opinion polls.

World News from the BBC.

The largest Sunni party in Iraq says it is suspending all official contacts with US civilian and military personnel after the killing of a man in Fallujah. The Iraqi Islamic Party said the dead man was one of its senior members and that he‘d been killed during a joint US-Iraqi raid on Friday which it alleged had political goals.

President Bush has said that now it’s not the time to abandon the principles underpinning capitalism, despite the global financial crisis. Speaking in his weekly radio address, Mr. Bush said world leaders should recommit themselves to open markets, free trade and free enterprise when they meet at the economic summit he's due to host next month.

Open market policies have lifted standards of living and helped millions of people around the world escape the grip of poverty. These policies have shown themselves time and time again to be the surest path to creating jobs, increasing commerce and fostering progress. And this moment of global economic uncertainty would be precisely the wrong time to reject such proven methods for creating prosperity and hope.

The authorities in Mexico have offered a 370, 000 dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of those who are responsible for the killing of a leading prosecutor near the capital, Mexico City. The prosecutor Andres Dimitriadis was leading an investigation into organized crime and drugs trafficking in the state of Morelos. He was shot in his car as he drove home. Over 4, 000 people have died so far this year in drugs-related violence.

And thousands of people have demonstrated in the Basque region of northern Spain, demanding referendum on proposed moves towards independence from the rest of the country. The regional government had planned to organize such a vote on Saturday but the Spanish Supreme Court declared this illegal. Earlier in the day, there were small explosions at two railway stations in the Basque region, one of which brought down the ceiling of a ticket hall though nobody was hurt.

And that's the latest from BBC News.