Ex-heads of State and Government head for North Korea

Last updated 25 April 2011 at 05: 12 GMT by Michael Bristow BBC News, Beijing many people in North Korea are reported to malnourished, a group of former world leaders will visit to North Korea trying to resolve the stand-off over the country's nuclear weapons programme.

You want to more about severe food shortages in the North.

The group includes former US President Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland.

They are all members of the elders, an organization made up of global leader which has now been largely withdrawn.

'Stunted'

Other members of the group will visit North Korea ex-Finland President Martti Ahtisaari and Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former head of State of the World Health Organization.

They will hold meetings in Beijing, Pyongyang and Seoul before they all give a report, in which involved be prepared, in the North Korea negotiations.

At a press conference at the beginning of President Carter said its visit the Group had been invited by "Supreme Leader" of North Korea.

Nuclear weapons are a main topic of the conversation to the program of the country.

A number of Nations, including China, South Korea and the United States have to Persaude Pyongyang to give up, these weapons tried for several years.

What seems a worsening food situation in North Korea will be on the agenda.

"One third of children are malnourished and atrophied in their growth as a result of a lack of sufficient food supply," said Mr. Carter, who was trained as a nuclear engineer.

He added that the authorities in the North have reduced the daily calorie intake of 1,400 to only 700 this year.

The oldest group founded four years ago by Nelson Mandela.

Members believe that their unique experiences as a former leader of roten-and their independence of a country or an organization - allows them to help solve some of the most difficult problems of the world.

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US Government shutdown averted

9 April 2011, last updated at 11: 24 GMT President Obama said both sides made hard decisions and have an hour before a deadline given ground on important that IssuesRepublicans and Democrats reached an agreement on the budget U.S., which would force to close the Government to many services.

You have a stop-gap spending law passed that allow the Government in running, while the larger budget plan is completed.

The parties have agreed, about $ prior-year level (￡ 23) slash expenditures for the year to 30 September.

President Barack Obama said that the cuts would be difficult but necessary.

He said "Some of the cuts, which we will be agreed, painful,".

"Programs, people rely on are cut back." Infrastructure projects needed will be delayed. "And I would have done better not those cuts may."

He said it was "the cut in the history of largest annual expenditure".

Mr Obama used his weekly radio address on Saturday to strengthen his message, saying that "start, in our lives is the only way to protect the investments that help, America compete for new jobs".

Mardell in Washington Mr says the BBC's mark Obama has put a gloss on the measures, but they are a victory for the Republicans.

Our correspondent says the battles over the 2012 budget and long-term plans to cut the deficit are probably much more difficult.

John Boehner: 'it was a long struggle'

In announcing the transaction, House Speaker John Boehner, a leading Republican, said that there had been a "long battle".

"We were fighting to keep public spending because it really a better situation for job creators to create," he said.

But in the Saturday Republican radio address, said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a crisis is in danger could be.

"If we soon is Government spending on health and retirement displace spending on everything else, including the national security." "It will take literally every penny dollars only to numbers for these programs by any federal income tax."

Without an agreement by midnight on Friday the Government would have forced shut down blocking some 800,000 government employees from working.

The last U.S. Government shutdown came in 1995 in the midst of a dispute between the Republican Congress and democratic President Bill Clinton's White House.

The shutdown lasted for 20 days and was one percentage point from US economic growth a quarter of the year shaved have estimated.

While the current stand-off have been advised talks ground to a halt, for days as a Republican - pushed to the fiscally conservative by the tea party movement - urged on larger budget cuts as Democrats were willing admit.

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German Government sued by nuclear company

1. April 2011 last updated at 09:45 am not warranted close Biblis Nuclear power plant was, RWE said German energy giant RWE legal against the State of Hesse is steps to order to shut down a nuclear power plant for three months.

Soon after the earthquake and tsunami caused a nuclear emergency in Japan.

RWE said the reactors were safe, so the State had no reason to disturb his energy generating activities.

The company also said that the State of Hesse had it to Biblis Nuclear power plant to close any legal authority.

"After RWE legal interpretation, the Government has no reason to the legal basis according to paragraph 19 of nuclear law, measures," RWE said in a statement.

Biblis plant was shut down as part of an industry-wide moratorium after German Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered that additional security on Germany's seven oldest nuclear power plants is checked after the crisis in Japan.

The EU has agreed on "Stress Tests" all European nuclear facilities.

E.on, a competition to RWE, said that it would make not the decision in question.

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