英国新闻听力 47（在线收听）

BBC News with Debora MacKenzie.

The American President-elect Barack Obama has called for urgent measures to stimulate the American economy and get people back to work. Mr. Obama was speaking as the government reported half a million job losses in November, the biggest monthly rise in unemployment for 34 years. James Coomarasamy reports from Washington.

Reacting to the latest gloomy jobless figures, the president-elect said that now was the time to respond with urgent resolve to put people back to work. In a statement Barack Obama said that each of the jobs lost represented a personal crisis for an American family, and he warned that the US economy would get worse before it got better. The current occupant to the White House George W. Bush meanwhile acknowledged for the first time that the country was in recession. He also called for public patience but pointed to what he described as encouraging signs, such as the thawing of the credit market.

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether an al-Qaeda suspect can be held in prison in the US indefinitely without charge in what's seen as a serious test of President Bush's antiterrorism policy. Ali al-Marri, a Qatari national has been designated an enemy combatant, which has no international legal definition and has been held in solitary confinement in South Carolina since 2003. Rajini Vaidyanathan reports from Washington.

Unlike other foreign nationals, Mr. al-Marri is the only suspect to be held on US soil as opposed to Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. He is accused of having links to al-Qaeda, the Supreme Court has now agreed to hear an appeal by Mr. al-Marri. It will rule on whether the US constitution has the authority to hold people indefinitely without charging them with a crime. The case will not be heard before March. So any decisions about Mr. al-Marri will be dealt with by the next President Barack Obama.

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has for the first time agreed to direct talks with rebels to end the long-running conflict in the east of the country. The Congolese Foreign Minister Alexis Mwamba said the discussions which are to be mediated by the United Nations and the African Union would focus on a peace plan for the region.

The former American President Jimmy Carter says the Guinea worm parasite is on the verge of being eliminated. Mr. Carter who now runs a charity foundation, says infections of the painful debilitating disease have dropped by 99 percent. A Spokesman for the Carter Foundation Craig Withers said it was a great achievement.

We are close to eradicating Guinea worm disease from the face of the Earth; it would be the second disease in the history of mankind to be eradicated, smallpox is the first. It would be the first parasitic disease to be eradicated.

This is Debora Mckinsey with the latest World News from the BBC.

The former American football star and actor, O.J. Simpson, has been sentenced to at least 15 years in jail for robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Lag Vegas hotel room last year. He was convicted in October of armed robbery, conspiracy to kidnap and assault with a deadly weapon. His lawyers say they'll appeal.

Officials in Pakistan say at least 20 people have been killed and more than 80 injured in an explosion in the northwestern city of Peshawar. The device apparently a car bomb hit shoppers in a busy market, many of whom were preparing for next week's Eid festival. Pakistani television showed pictures of people being pulled from collapsed buildings. Peshawar's main hospital has declared a state of emergency and the death figure is expected to rise.

A controversial consignment of 65 tons of Icelandic whale meat has gone on sale in Japan, the first delivery for 20 years. Fin whales are listed internationally as endangered, but Iceland and Japan along with Norway have all registered exemptions from a UN Convention banning the international trade in whale meat. Here's our environment correspondent Richard Black.

The consignment of about 70 tons of whale meat arrived in Tokyo in June since when it's been held in customs going through legal and health checks. According to the Icelandic company involved, the checks have all finished now and the meat is being distributed around the country. The vast majority of the consignment consists of meat from seven fin whales caught in Icelandic waters, that's especially controversial as fins are internationally listed as endangered species. It's Iceland's first whale meat export to Japan for 20 years.

The Ethiopian pop star, Teddy Afro, has been sentenced to six years in jail and fined 1800 dollars for the manslaughter of a homeless man who was killed in a hit-and-run incident two years ago. Teddy Afro had been found guilty on Monday despite denying any involvement in the incident.

BBC News.