BBC news 2010-11-05
BBC News with Zoe Diamond
President Obama has invited Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress to the White House in the wake of mid-term elections in which he lost his party's majority in the House of Representatives. He said action was needed on extending tax breaks for middle-class families, on unemployment insurance and on measures to give businesses somewhat certainty about the tax regime they'll face.
"Obviously what's going to be critically important over the coming months is creating a better working relationship between this White House and the congressional leadership that's coming in, as well as the congressional leadership that carries over from the previous Congress. And so I want everybody to know that I've already called a meeting here at the White House on 18 November. This is going to be a meeting in which I'll want us to talk substantively about how we can move the American people's agenda forward."
The UN Development Programme says some of the poorest countries in the world are making the fastest progress in improving the quality of life of their citizens. It says its annual Human Development Index also suggests that aid works as the greatest progress has been made in areas like health and education, which have been the main focus for assistance.
France and China have signed trade deals worth many billions of dollars at the start of a state visit by the Chinese President Hu Jintao. From Paris, here is Christian Fraser.
The deals include a purchase by China of Airbus aircraft, several thousand tonnes of uranium from the French nuclear company Areva and a lucrative contract between French insurance firm Axa and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Together they are said by the French to be the biggest series of deals signed in one such visit. But given the economic interests at stake here, there will be one noticeable omission from the menu - the issue of human rights, in particular the subject of Liu Xiaobo, the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
With just days before its first elections for two decades, Burma appears to have become the victim of a massive cyber attack, which is blocking Internet access in the country. Jonny Hogg has the details.
This cyber attack appears to have been going on for nearly two weeks, but has worsened as the elections approach. Internet servers within the country are being deliberately flooded with far too much data in what is known as a Distributed Denial of Service attack. The result is that Internet access has become virtually impossible. The question is who has targeted Burma and why. There has been no comment from the Burmese authorities, but state media says the attack is coming from outside the country. This is not a view held by all. Some opposition figures and observers believe the military government could be sabotaging the servers itself in an attempt to limit reporting on Sunday's vote.
World News from the BBC
The authorities in Haiti are urging thousands of people to evacuate before a tropical storm hits the island. The storm is expected to make landfall early on Friday. Forecasters warned that it could destroy many of the makeshift camps where tens of thousands of people have been living since an earthquake in January.
Zimbabwe says that it will start exporting diamonds from its Marange mines, even though the organisation that regulates conflict diamonds says it hasn't yet approved the sale. At the end of a four-day meeting in Jerusalem, Zimbabwe's mining minister said sales would start immediately. Yolande Knell reports.
Zimbabwe is keen to exploit its diamond wealth in the Marange fields in the east of the country. It denies allegations of abuse of workers and smuggling by the military forces based there. Over the past four days, the Kimberley Process, the regulator which certifies diamonds, has been discussing the findings of a review commission. The chairman said no agreement had yet been finalised, although he hoped consensus could be reached in the coming days. Zimbabwe's mines minister, however, emerged from the meeting, declaring that sales of diamonds from Marange would resume immediately without conditions.
The engine maker Rolls-Royce has recommended precautionary checks on a model of its jet engines after one fitted to the world's largest passenger plane failed soon after take-off. An Airbus A380 operated by Qantas made an emergency landing at Singapore after what passengers described as a loud explosion seriously damaged one of its four engines. None of the more than 450 people on board was injured.
British scientists say that stimulating the brain with a very low electric current appears to make you better at doing maths. Researchers at Oxford University studied 15 student volunteers and found that passing a current through a specific brain region and in a particular direction improved performance in maths puzzles.
BBC News