英国新闻听力 24（在线收听）

BBC News with Fiona McDonald.

An emergency meeting of the U. N. Security Council is taking place in New York amid increasing international appeals for a halt to the fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The U. N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the conflict was creating a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. The French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he supported the idea of dispatching 1,500 European Union troops to eastern Congo. Karen Allen in neighboring Kenya has more details.

U. N. peacekeepers, clearly overstretched, and outnumbered, are now positioned at the airport and other strategic points to try to restore calm as diplomatic appeals are made to boost their numbers. Tens of thousands of people fled Goma in cars, motorbikes and wooden carts just hours before the truce was declared, certain that the rebels were on the verge of seizing the town. The Congolese army continues to claim that forces loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda are being backed by Rwanda, something Rwanda strongly denies.

The U. S. Federal Reserve has cut its main interest rate by half a percent in its latest effort to ease the impact of the global financial crisis. The Fed said the economy appeared to have slowed markedly. Andrew Walker reports.

In a little over a year, the Fed's main policy rate has come down from five and a quarter percent to just one percent. The reason is the slowdown in U. S. economic growth driven by the credit crisis and problems in the country's housing market. In a statement, the Fed's policy-making committee emphasized the recent decline in consumer spending as one of the main factors behind the weakening economy. Many observers expect new figures due out on Thursday to show the economy contracted in the third quarter of this year. The rate cuts are not likely to get consumers spending freely again very soon. It's now very likely that the U. S and some other countries will go through a period in which household debt is reduced, which will mean less spending.

The Colombian government has sacked three generals and 22 other military officers after an investigation found evidence the army had been murdering innocent civilians. Our Colombian correspondent Jeremy McDermott has more.

Young men have been disappearing from the southern Bogota district of Soacha. They had little in common except they were poor and usually unemployed. Then their bodies appeared in Norte de Santander, an area sown with drug crops and home to illegal armies. They were presented by the military as killed in combat just days after their disappearances. Investigations now suggest that the men were tricked with offers of employment, then murdered so that army officers could show results and be eligible for promotion.

The International Monetary Fund has announced a new lending facility to help emerging market countries cope with the global financial crisis. Eligibility for access to the Fund will be restricted to the countries with what the IMF calls a track record of sound policies and sustainable debt burdens.

World News from the BBC.

Rescuers in Pakistan are carrying out a desperate search for survivors after a powerful earthquake killed at least 170 people in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. Aid has been brought in for the thousands left homeless although aftershocks and blocked roads have hampered the operation.

The U. S. presidential candidate Barack Obama is aiming to consolidate his lead in the opinion polls with a 30-minute advertisement which will be run on prime-time television. The advert is expected to feature typical Americans talking about the challenges they face with Mr. Obama explaining how he can help. Gavin Hewitt reports from North Carolina.

In these final days, Barack Obama is making his war chest count. Just before a clinch game in the World Series, he's running a 30-minute commercial. They haven't had a political ad that long for 16 years. It will run on most networks and will cost the Obama campaign over three million dollars. It will cause a short delay to the start of the baseball game which may irritate a few sports fans. The showing only underlines just how much money the Obama team has. It's estimated they have spent 213 million pounds on TV advertising during this campaign.

President Bush says he remains confident that a security pact with Iraq will be agreed before the end of the year when the U. S. mandate for U. S. forces to operate in Iraq runs out. Mr. Bush said he would consider changes proposed by the Iraqi government but warned against alterations that risked undermining the draft agreement.

The Indian chess champion Viswanathan Anand has successfully defended his world title against the Russian challenger Vladimir Kramnik . Anand clinched victory in Germany when he drew the eleventh match, giving him an unassailable lead in the best of 12 game series. He walks away with the first prize of more than three quarters of a million dollars.

BBC News.