I am John Macintosh with the BBC news.
Hello, the trading on China's stock market has been suspended for the second day this week after prices plunged by more than 7%. An automatic shutdown was triggered less than an hour after business opened, Steve Evens reports from Beijing.
After the crash in Chinese share prices last year, the authorities tried to prop up prices. Fearing a further slump, they prevented large scale selling of shares by
big Chinese institutions. They also instituted a rule that a 5% or more drop in prices will trigger a halt in trading. On Monday, official media said, it was a rare
event. Now, though reoperated 3 days later, China has also spent about 20 billion dollars this week, trying to prop up prices and exchange rates.
The White House says United States, South Korea and Japan have agreed to launch a united and strong international response to North Korea's lateset nuclear test.
President Obama has spoken by phone to the South Korean president Park Guen-hye, and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, M is in the South Korean capital Seoul.
They have been some high level discussions between US president and South Korean president, and there have been reports that they are possibly considering phasing out the US military presence here. We don't know exactly what they are talking, but in the past after the previous nuclear test, similar measure was taken. And at that time. It included a stealth fighter, as well as the B52 bomber, so it doesn't indicate that the military tension could escalate.
The govornor of California Jerry Brown has ordered new safety measures and tougher inspections at gas storage facilities across the state. The move was in response to a massive gas leak in underground storage site near Los Angles. Huge quantities of methane which was far more potent than cardon dioxide as green house gas have been spewing into the atmosphere since October. Community leader Paul A explained how the leak is affecting local residents.
The actual methane is coming out of the well. It has now what's causing people to be sick. It is odorant, mercaptan, and that odour is what's causing people to become
sick. The Methane is lighter than air so it goes out, but the mercaptan tends to drift down into the communities. And it is designed to be an air that is certainly
doing its job. It is making many people sick, and we have got about 2,200 families that have left their home out of 13,000 that are living there.
The company behind the controversial keystone XL oil pipeline is suing the US government to reverse its decision, denying it a permit to build. Trans-Canada is also
seeking 15 billion dollars in damages from a trade tribunal. President Obama blocked the project, saying it harmed fight against climate change.
World news from the BBC.
The US defense department says two Yemeni detainee held in its military prison in its Guantanamo have been transferred to Gana. The Pentagon said one detainee had been approved to release since 2006 and the other since 2009 to provide a stable country could be found to receive them. The men who have never been charged are not allowed to return to Yemen.
The Guatemala authorities have detained a group of ex-military officials on charges of human rights abuses commited decades ago during the country's civil war. The 14 people detained include the 83 year old brother of a former president. Here is Kandus P.
Guatemala's atternoy general T said it was one of the largest cases of extrajudicial killings in Latin America. She referred to one case in particular. Two years ago,
the bodies of more than 550 people were found in mass graves near a village called Plunge S in the northern highlands. Most of the dead were women, children and
elderly people of the Maine a indigenous community. Killed as part of a military campaign of massacres to suppress support for left wing rebels.
A policeman in the US state of Taxes has been charged with perjury over state he made about the arrest last year of a black female motorist who later died in jail. R S
said the woman S was combative and uncooperative when he stopped her following a minor traffic violation. She was found hanged herself three days later.
A campaign group says that Srilankan security forces are continuing to torture some ethnic minority Tamils a year after president M came to power promising reform. 15
men and 5 women, most former Timal tiger fighters or child recruits, told the international True and Justice project, they had suffered extreme violence at the hands
of the police or military intelligence in the past year.