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World leaders at the G20 summit agree on a strategy to tackle the global financial crisis.
One of the key achievements was to establish certain principles and to take certain actions for adapting our financial systems.
A meeting to end the fighting, the UN's peace envoy arrives in eastern Congo to try to mediate and end to the violence.
Taking on the Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka's government says it's recaptured a key town in the north.
Hello, this is BBC World News. I'm Owen Thomas, also in this programme.
Wildfires in California reach Los Angeles. Now the city's mayor warns power supplies could be cut.
And thousands gather to remember one of South Africa's best known singers, Miriam Makeba.
World leaders at the G20 summit in Washington have endorsed a broad range of measures to try to revive the global economy
and avoid a repeat of the recent financial turmoil.
President Bush said they'd agree to take action to promote growth and to overhaul global economic structures.
From Washington, our North America business correspondent, Greg Wood reports.
In the declaration at the end of their meeting here in Washington, the G20 leaders said that more needed to be done to stabilise financial markets and support growth.
But they stopped short of agreeing to a coordinated round of tax cuts and extra spending.
They said that measures of that sort and further cuts in interest rates should be undertaken by each country as appropriate.
All of us committed to continue to work on pro-growth economic policies.
It's phrased different ways, fiscal plans.
But the whole point was that we recognise that on the one hand there's been a severe credit crisis,
and on the other hand our economies are being hit very hard.
So there was a common understanding that all of us should promote pro-growth economic policy.
The G20 agreed to work together on a new international set of rules to govern the financial system and help prevent a repeat of the current crisis.
Work on that will begin immediately with the first steps to be agreed by the end of March next year.
The leaders also said they'd make sure that the IMF and World Bank had enough money available to help countries in trouble.
The main thing is to show that the world's strongest economies, and the G20 account for probably close to 90% of GDP, are thinking along the same lines.
And I think those lines are to restore confidence, to try and offset the slowdown in growth with additional stimulus.
This summit has not ushered in a new world economic order, as some people were predicting.
But it has at least shown that the advanced industrial countries and the biggest developing economies can agree some common ground in tackling a crisis which affects them all.
Greg Wood, BBC News, Washington.
The new United Nations envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has arrived in Goma on a mission to end the fighting there.
Mr. Obasanjo is to meet the rebel leader, Laura Mkunda, on Sunday.
Our correspondent, Mark Doyle, reports from Goma.
The new UN envoy and former Nigerian president arrived in Goma to the usual welcome from local officials and diplomats.
He shook hands and was his usual confident self.
I managed to put a few questions to the veteran Nigerian leader, but he played his cards close to his chest.
That's all right. In life, some people fail and some people succeed. That's life.
What would be your tactics?
No, if I tell you my tactics, then I have let out the cards out of the bag. I don't do that. You should know that I have military background.
Olusegun Obasanjo began his tour of Congo in the capital Kinshasa.
He was briefed by the head of the UN peacekeeping mission here, Alan Doss, and afterwards said he was here to learn about the situation on the ground, especially about the intentions of the rebel leader, Laura Mkunda.
Nobody can say for certain what he wants, and I believe that it's very important that we get authentically from him what he wants.
On Sunday, the former Nigerian leader is due to hold a meeting with Mr Mkunda to try to find out exactly that.
The location of the talks is a secret, but it's believed Mr Obasanjo will be taken to them in a United Nations helicopter rather than going by road.
If the location of the talks with Laura Mkunda is a secret, the results of his rebel offensive towards Goma are all too obvious.
This is Kabati refugee camp just a few kilometres north of Goma. Some 60,000 people here fled the rebel advance.
Laura Mkunda, an ethnic Tutsi, says he's fighting for the rights of his people. He may be, but the consequences are this.
The Red Cross and other aid agencies have begun supplying this place, but the sudden influx of people has made it a logistical nightmare.
The human needs are obvious, but there's a serious security issue as well.
This camp is very close to the front line between the government troops and the rebels.
The United Nations says that if it can't stop the fighting, it will have to offer these people places at another refugee site on the other side of the city of Goma.
The new site is likely to be safer in the short term, but if the diplomacy launched by the new UN peace envoy fails and the rebels relaunch their offensive, there will be nowhere safe to go.
Mark Doyle, BBC News, Goma.
More than 66 people have been killed in Bikina Faso when a bus and a truck collided and caught fire.
At least 30 people were injured, many of them with serious burns.
An official in the nearby town of Boromo said the intensity of fire had left only about 10 bodies identifiable.
The bus was carrying cocoa plantation workers from Bikina Faso to neighbouring Ivory Coast.
The Pakistani government says it's agreed to borrow at least $7.6 billion from the International Monetary Fund to overcome its spiralling debt crisis.
The country's economic adviser, Shah Kat-Turin, said he expects the first payment to arrive at the end of the month.
Fears about the humanitarian situation in Gaza Strip are growing after the United Nations food distribution centres were forced to close due to a lack of supplies.
Gaza's border crossings have been shut for more than a week because of an upsurge in fighting between Gaza militants and Israeli forces.
Sri Lanka's president has asked the Tamil Tigers to surrender after his troops claim to have recaptured the strategically important town of Poonarin.
The town has been a tiger stronghold since 1993 when the rebels took over the main military base there.
There's been no word yet from the Tigers.
Roland Burke reports from the capital, Colombo.
... Poonarin as troops moved into the town according to Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence.
For months they had advanced with heavy fighting along the way.
And now the government says its forces are in control of the entire western coast.
Shells are being fired at positions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil-Elam.
The separatist rebels still hold territory in the north east of the island.
Sri Lanka's president urged their leader to give up.
At this moment I would like to clearly tell the LTTE's Prabhakan to lay down all his arms and to come for talks with us.
The biggest service he can do to people living in areas under his control is to lay down arms and surrender.
Sri Lanka's civil war began a generation ago.
The government believes it's on course for victory.
The capture of Poonarin opens up an easy route to Jaffna in the far north,
garrisoned by tens of thousands of soldiers, until now cut off by rebel territory.
Sri Lanka's military is now expected to try to take Kilinotchi,
the town from which the Tigers have administered air force training.
The town from which the Tigers have administered air force training.
Roland Burke, BBC News, Colombo.
Thousands of people in southern California are fleeing their homes as wildfires continue to spread.
Firefighters are dealing with flames fanned by 110-kilometre-an-hour winds.
The fires broke out in the northern suburbs of Los Angeles on the edge of the national forest.
The city's mayor says the entire power supply could be at risk.
From Los Angeles, here's Ronjesh Merchandani.
Suburbs of Los Angeles are burning.
In less than a day, fire has ripped through nearly 3,000 acres of tinder-dry countryside.
Fanned by strong, dry desert winds, it's destroyed hundreds of homes,
put thousands more at risk, and cut major transportation links.
The destruction looks almost random.
We found a home that burned in minutes, still smouldering, still dangerous.
Fire crews were drenching it to quench persistent flames.
We're very unpredictable right now because the winds keep changing directions on us.
So right now we're just trying to catch any of the embers,
blowing off any of these burned-out structures,
keep things from going down south of this location.
Into Los Angeles?
Yes.
Power lines supplying millions of homes in Los Angeles are at risk.
The mayor has warned of possible blackouts, and the fires could yet spread.
There's a real danger here.
Firefighters have put this house fire out,
but the embers are getting blown by these strong winds.
And look over here. We found, in the last couple of minutes, flames taking root somewhere else.
It's very random. Firefighters have to react second by second in this situation.
All night the fires raged.
Many had to flee from their beds as flames approached their homes.
Thousands went to emergency shelters like this at a school north of Los Angeles.
They grabbed a few possessions. They may have lost everything else.
I was there watching it burn.
Your home?
Oh yes. And the firemen made me get out finally.
We don't get clothes, nothing, because the fire was in the back of my house,
so I had to leave it. They said, hurry up, we have to leave.
Two of America's richest regions are under states of emergency,
and no sign yet. The flames are being brought under control.
Rajesh Merchandani, BBC News, Los Angeles.
Do you stay with BBC World News still to come in this program?
The nine million dollar funeral. Thailand pays its last respects to the king's sister.
A speculation in Washington that Senator Hillary Clinton may be offered a high-level post
within Barack Obama's new government.
On Friday, a U.S. network claimed Mrs. Clinton was being considered for the job of Secretary of State.
Was she offered a job, and will she take it?
The rumors are flying around, only one thing is certain.
Hillary Clinton did hold talks with Barack Obama in Chicago.
Serious talks meant to gauge her interest in a cabinet position, according to U.S. media reports.
Until recently, her standard response was that she loved being a New York senator.
But on Friday, in New York, she had a I know something you don't kind of smile.
Let me just say that I'm not going to speculate or address anything about the President-elect's incoming administration,
and I'm going to respect his process, and any inquiries should be directed to his transition team.
Of course, there are others on the short list for Secretary of State, like Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico,
and former ambassador to the U.N. under President Clinton.
But picking Senator Clinton for that job would take a few boxes for Barack Obama.
It seals the reconciliation inside the Democratic Party after a bruising election race.
It means she'll be on his side rather than fighting against him in the Senate.
And thanks to her international stature and solid foreign policy experience,
it will allow him to focus on the economic crisis at home.
No comment from the President-elect himself for now.
After weeks on the campaign trail, making daily speeches, he's keeping a low profile, as the new reality of his life sinks in.
I remember we were watching the returns, and on one of the stations Barack's picture came up,
and it said, President-elect Barack Obama.
And I looked at him and I said, you are the 44th President of the United States of America.
Wow, what a country we live in.
How about that?
Yeah.
And then she said, are you going to take the girls to school in the morning?
I did not. I didn't say that.
I wasn't at that moment.
Speculation about the makeup of Barack Obama's cabinet will continue until we hear from the man himself.
But there's a feeling that the rumors about Hillary Clinton would have been quashed by now, if there wasn't some truth to them.
Kim Hatas, BBC News, Washington.
Hey, if you're just joining us, welcome. This is BBC World News, our headline so far.
Global leaders at the G20 Financial Summit in Washington have pledged to work together to restore global economic growth.
The UN Special Envoy, Alucigena Bassanjo, is in eastern Congo to try to mediate an end to the fighting there.
Now, let's return to our main story on the action plan agreed at the summit of world leaders in Washington.
A short time ago, I spoke to the Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz,
and asked him whether he agreed with the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who said the talks were historic.
I think it may be a little bit of a hyperbole.
I think it is an unusual situation to bring the G20 together.
I think that's a historic moment, to realize that the global economy today is different from what it was 30 years ago, 50 years ago.
This is the first time when we've had a crisis when it's the G20, not the G7, that's been brought together.
And so the very existence of the meeting, the very structure of the meeting, is historic.
Now, the leaders were laying the foundation for reform. What's the priority for you?
Well, I think the two priorities for me are first, coordinated macroeconomic expansion, stimulating the economies.
There are externalities when one economy is weak, it isn't able to import as many goods from other countries, and that causes weaknesses in the others.
If we can all try to expand our aggregate demand together, then the strength of the global economy will be restored.
So the first thing is to try to have coordinated macroeconomic expansion.
And that means in the United States, particularly a very large spending program.
Tax cuts didn't work. We tried that in February. 20 percent, 50 percent of the money at most was spent.
Americans worried about the economic downturn, mountain of debt, decided, might say prudently, not to spend a large fraction.
Good for their balance sheet, good for their bank accounts, but not good for reinvigorating the economy.
And part of the reason the economy has gone down.
The second major issue is regulation. It's clear that we have regulated inadequately.
The banks have not served the global economy well.
They served their CEOs very well, but they didn't perform the essential functions of banking, which is allocating capital and managing risk.
They failed. There's been a very big misalignment between private rewards, the incentive systems and social returns.
And that's one of the things that has to be reformed, the incentive systems.
Joseph Stiglitz.
Now, she led a quiet and assuming life, but her funeral is one of lavish pageantry.
The sister of the King of Thailand died in January, but it's taken 10 months to arrange Princess Galyani's funeral at a cost of nine million dollars.
The ceremony is being seen as a brief moment of national unity in a politically divided country.
From Bangkok, Jonathan Head reports.
The veneration of royalty in Thailand is almost unrivaled anywhere in the world.
So no expense has been spared for the final farewell to King Bumipon's sister, Galyani.
With the aging king's health fragile, much of this elaborate six-day ceremony is being led by his children.
It's an opportunity for the monarchy to present itself as united in grief at a time when divisions are rumored over Thailand's protracted political turmoil.
Princess Galyani's remains were taken on their final journey through old Bangkok on a 14-ton 18th century chariot.
The funeral has taken 10 months to prepare and has been meticulously planned in accordance with Buddhist cosmology and royal tradition.
The public affection on display for Princess Galyani is genuine.
She built a reputation in her life as a hardworking and unassuming royal.
But this breathtaking spectacle also offers Thais a chance to put aside the bitter political squabbles that have plagued the country for the past three months.
And it allows the palace to burnish the image of the monarchy at a time when its future role is quietly being questioned.
Jonathan Head, BBC News, Bangkok.
Right, let's take a look at the sports news now.
And Chelsea and Liverpool are neck and neck at the top of the English Premier League on points after wins for both sides on Saturday.
Though Chelsea are ahead on goal difference.
The Londoners were 3-0 winners against West Brom, Nicholas and Elker scoring two of those.
Earlier Liverpool saw off Bolton 2-0.
Manchester United thumped Stoke City 5-0, they're up to third ahead of Arsenal, who lost their fourth match of the season at home to Aston Villa.
And Tottenham suffered their first defeat under new manager Harry Redknapp.
They lost it 2-1 at Fulham.
Bayer Leverkusen remained top of the German Bundesliga on goal difference to newcomers Hoffenheim. Leverkusen enjoyed a 2-1 win at home to Schalke on Saturday.
Despite being reduced to 10 men with over 20 minutes remaining.
Hoffenheim battled to a 3-2 win against visiting Wolfsburg.
Luca Toni and Frank Ribéry were on target again for Bayern Munich.
But the Bavarians could only manage a 2-0 draw at Münchengladbach.
They're now three points off the pace.
They're off to Berlin, or a point further back in fourth place, after they came from behind to beat Hamburg 2-1.
To rugby union, and there were five international games taking place on Saturday, and a first defeat for England, with their new manager Martin Johnson.
Going down at home to Australia, 28 points to 14.
The Aussie fly-half Matt Gitto scoring 23 points.
Scotland lost to the world champion South Africa, 14-10 the score there.
Italy were defeated at home to Argentina, 22-14, while France have defeated the Pacific Islanders.
An island lost heavily at home against the All Blacks in Dublin.
With a place in the world top eight at stake, Scotland were hoping to turn up the heat on the world champions,
and secure a first victory over the Springboks since 2002.
But their cause was dealt an early blow.
Chris Patterson off with an eye injury, he wasn't to return.
In Patterson's absence, Dan Parks was the man tasked with kicking duties, but he failed with two early efforts.
Phil Godman wasn't quite so wasteful, third time lucky for the home side.
Now penalties are one thing, tries are another, and with half-time approaching, Scotland finally broke through.
Nathan Hines eventually touching down their first try at Murrayfield in 14 months.
A conversion wrapped up a ten-point advantage at the break.
It was a different South Africa though that emerged in the second period, only a great covering tackle denied them a way back.
Two ruined PNAR penalties edged the Springbok close before the tourists achieved what they'd threatened,
Jack Furry finishing off a flowing attack to put the world champions ahead.
Scotland needed to make their chances count, but two further missed penalties from Godman cost them dear.
Indeed when closing in on the try line, they couldn't quite find the extra few metres they needed.
So frustration for Scotland, defeat means a much tougher draw for the 2011 World Cup.
Nick Hope, BBC News.
Remarkably only four Englishmen remained from the team who beat Australia in the World Cup just a year ago,
and England came up well short of what's required, their indiscipline handing the Wallabies a six-point start.
It was old-fashioned brute force that finally brought England back into contention as Nick Easter smuggled his way over.
The performance though suggested that coach Martin Johnson would be having some forthright words in ears.
But things scarcely improved in the second half.
A succession of further penalties took Australia clear,
and they capped a convincing win with a try from Ashley Cooper that underlined their superiority.
England after an error-strewn display now go in search of considerable improvements.
Kevin Geary, BBC News.
Well Ireland had a game to forget, they lost 22-3 at Croke Park against the All Blacks,
who they've never beaten, it wasn't a classic All Black display,
but they remained on course for a potential home nation's grand slam.
Thousands of people have gathered at a stadium in Johannesburg to remember one of South Africa's best-known singers, Miriam McCaber.
She died last weekend following a concert in Italy.
She was 76 and had spent much of her life campaigning against apartheid.
Neil Baudrill with this.
A lament like no other, played by Miriam McCaber's one-time husband, the trumpeter Hugh Masikela.
In attendance, the former South African president Thabo Mbeki and the singer's grandchildren.
All of them came to mourn the passing of a woman who, according to one former anti-apartheid activist,
deployed her music as a weapon in the struggle.
The South African foreign minister was just one of those to pay public tribute to her.
Though we shall never see her live on stage again, she will live on in our hearts
and is immortalised through her beautiful music.
The death of Miriam McCaber has prompted an overwhelming response inside South Africa.
Many travelled hours to join mourners at today's service.
An artist who collaborated with the singer summed up why many felt they had to be there.
Coming to say goodbye to Mama for the last time, it's a big, big loss.
We've lost a hero.
Inside the stadium, the audience was presented with a montage of moments from her life
to the sound of her singing her song, When I've Passed On.
Neil Baudrill, BBC News.
Remembering the wonderful Miriam McCaber.
Now, a new world record has been set in the Netherlands for the number of dominoes toppled in one go.
The annual attempt was more than a year in the planning and took eight weeks to set up.
Event organisers say 4,345,027 dominoes fell during the live televised show.
Glad I didn't have to count them.
Breaking the previous record, ten other records were also broken,
including the most mini dominoes toppled and the fastest domino toppling.
And if you want to see more of these pictures, you can do by going to our website.
The whole lot is there for you, bbc.com.
There you can also get a one-minute summary of world news wherever you are by clicking on the link at the top of the page.
And also, of course, more on our top story, world leaders meeting at the G20 summit in Washington
have agreed to coordinate and modernise their financial systems to stop the global economic crisis.
And getting worse, they've issued a joint declaration setting a number of long and short-term goals.
And that's the latest BBC World News.