2010-03-19 BBC
BBC News with David Austin
President Obama is postponing a trip to Indonesia and Australia, so he can stay in Washington to try to get his health care reforms passed by Congress. Mr Obama had already delayed the long-arranged trip once and was due to set off on Sunday. But with the crucial vote on the reforms expected within days, the trip has been put off entirely until June. From Washington, Mark Mardell reports.
The president has made changes to America's health care insurance system his flagship domestic legislation. It's dragged on for over a year and divided the country. He'll be damaged if he can't get it through. The climax is near. So far there is no sign of any Republicans voting for it. Its fate lies in the hands of a handful in the president's own party who either fear it allows for easier abortion, or who simply fear a backlash in November's elections, (who favored)if they vote for a measure their constituents dislike.
The United States and Russia say they are close to a new nuclear arms reduction treaty. Speaking after discussions in Moscow with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said a final agreement would be reached soon. From Moscow, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports.
For the last year, US and Russian negotiators have been trying to thrash out a new treaty. Today in Moscow, Hillary Clinton confirmed that a new treaty is now close, and they are now discussing where it would be signed. President Obama urgently needs a foreign policy success. When he came into office a year ago, he made improving relations with Russia a centerpiece of his foreign strategy. A year on, there is little concrete to show for it. That is why for America much more than for Russia sealing this new treaty is so important.
Nigeria has recalled its ambassador to Libya following a suggestion by the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi that Nigeria be divided into two states - one Christian and one Muslim to help stop Nigerians from being slaughtered. Hundreds of people have been killed in Nigeria in recent weeks in religious and ethnic violence. Our correspondent in Nigeria Peter Greste has more.
Colonel Gaddafi's comments implied that a recent wave of killings in the central Plateau state is about religion. But analysts say that while it has religious overturns, the core of the crisis is a struggle for land and political power. Now the Nigerian government has acted by recalling its ambassador to Tripoli for consultations. In a foreign ministry press briefing, its spokesman Ozo Nwobu said Colonel Gaddafi's comments are insensitive and diminished the colonel's state
isn't credibility as an African leader who's been calling for the unity of the entire continent.
A man has pleaded guilty in a federal court in New York to hijacking an American airliner to Cuba more than 40 years ago. Luis Armando Pena Soltren, an American citizen, admitted to boarding the Pan American flight in 1968 and ordering its diversion to Cuba in mid-flight. He spent four decades in Cuba until surrendering to the US authorities last year.
World News from the BBC
An American woman accused of plotting with Islamist militants to commit murder overseas has pleaded not guilty to all charges against her in a court in Philadelphia. The authorities say the woman Colleen LaRose went online calling herself Jihad Jane and trying to recruit Islamist fighters and raise money for jihad or holy war.
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip has killed a farm worker in southern Israel, the first death from such attacks since the Israeli offensive last year. Two Palestinian groups claimed to have carried out the attack. Abu Ibrahim who's a spokesman for al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade said the operation was in response to what he described as Israeli abuse of Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem. "As part of the Palestinian resistance, we cannot stand idly by in the face of Israeli violations against our blessed Aqsa Mosque. Hence this operation was carried out by our rocket group which fired deep inside Israeli territory." Israel said its response would be strong and appropriate. The rocket struck as the European Union foreign policy chief visited Gaza. Scientists in the United States have genetically engineered fruit flies so their sperm glows in the dark, a technique which could help research in human fertility.
The scientists altered the sperm of fruit flies so that it glowed either red or green. When the flies mated, observers were able to see what happened to live sperm within the female after copulation. One of the authors of the research, Professor Scott Pitnick explained how he felt when he saw the multicolored sperm through the microscope for the first time.
"It far exceeds our expectations in that we can essentially track the fate of every sperm the female receives. But really, it's really seeing all the novel observations of the complexity of what sperm do inside the female reproductive tract that no one has ever been able to observe before. That's really knocked us out."
Professor Scott Pitnick.
And that's the latest BBC News.