Hello, I am Marion Marshall with the BBC news.
Billions of dollars have been wiped off stock markets around the world because growing concern about plunging oil prices and fears about economic slowdown. In New York, the Dow Jones Index close 1.5% down. The main European stock exchanges slip to a 15 months low. Theo Leggett reports.
“Serious concerns about growth in China and what that might mean for the global economy, falling oil prices and the effects of rising interest rates in the United States. All of these have been cited as factors affecting share prices around the world. The 100 Share Index has dropped to levels not seen since late 2012 and it's lost a fifth of its values since reaching record highs in April 2015, the situation known as a bear market. Analysts say many investors are simply losing confidence and selling shares in order to find a safer place for their money.”
A watchdog in the United States has severely criticized the way more than 800 million dollars spent by the Department of Defense in Afghanistan to boost economic development. Especially investigator general for Afghan reconstruction says the scheme's legacy was marred by poorly planned ill-conceived projects.Here is Gary O’Donoghue.
“This is the latest in a series of blistering criticisms which’ve accused the defense department of a scatter-gun approach to economic developments. Among the projects which has drawn an eye of the inspect general,is one which saw more than 6 million dollars spent to build up Afghanistan's cashmere industry around the city of Herat. Nine rare blond Italian goats were imported, rumored cost around 50,000 dollars each and according to the inspect general the scheme was so poorly monitored that it can't be said for sure that the goats weren't just eaten. Contractor has hit back the allegations saying that the money created between 250 and 350 jobs.”
US astronomers say they may have discovered a new planet in the solar system about 10 times bigger than earth. The object is named planet 9. Jonathan Amos has more.
“The idea that there might be a so-called planet-x moving in the distant reaches of the solar system has been dated for more than 100 years. It's fallen in and out of vogue, the latest claim is based on the analysis of the movements of objects in the band of icy material orbiting more than 3 billion miles away, known as the Kuiper belt. The only way these alignments can be explained, said the Cal tech team, is for an object 10 times as massive as the earth is out there somewhere moving perhaps 20 times as far away as Neptune, the current most distant planet.
New figures in Brazil show a further rise in the number of babies born with abnormally small heads. There have been nearly 3900 cases of microcephaly since October when the authorities first notice the surge. The disease has been linked to the Zika virus, which has carried by mosquitoes.
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The news website Exaro has published what it says as a draft copy of the official report into sexual abuse committed by one of Britain’s biggest television stars Jimmy Savile who died in 2011. He carriedout some of the crimes described as unprecedented in the UK while working atthe BBC. The draft condemns what it says was a deferential culture in which stars were seen as untouchable.
Democrat senators in the United States have blocked a bill that seeks to restrict the number of Syrian and Iraqi refugees entering the country. The Republican-led senate fell short of the 60 votes needed to move ahead with the legislation.
Activists have welcomed the decision of Zimbabwe’s constitutional court to ban marriage for anyone under the age of 18. Two child brides in Harare asked the court to declare the practice illegal and unconstitutional saying it was a form of child abuse which trapped girls in lives of poverty and suffering. The activist group Human Rights Watch says almost 1/3 of Zimbabwean women are married before the age of 18. Tendai Biti, alawyer representing the two women, said a public education campaign was now needed.
“The communities, the society now has to be educated about these judgments and the illegality of entering into marriages before the age of 18,so education is going to be the key.”
Security officials in Egypt say gunmen have attacked asecurity service’s patrol in the Sinai Peninsula killing three officers and two soldiers and injuring at least seven others. The incident took place in the center of the city of Al-Arish.
All four members of one of the world’s biggest selling bands ABBA have reunited for the first time in eight year for the opening of a Mama Mia themed party venue in the Swedish capital Stockholm. It’s the brainchild of ABBA star Bjorn Ulvaeus. Guests can enjoy show, dinner, and ABBA songs in the Greek taverna in the style of the Mama Mia movie.