News Bulletin – 1405 GMT update
The main headlines from Al Jazeera English, featuring the latest news and reports from around the world.
India and Bangladesh rekindle ties
India has decsribed the first official visit of the Bangladeshi prime minister as a ‘path-brekaing and historic opportunity’.
The two nations are striving to build bridges after years of mistrust.
India has often blamed Bangladesh for sheltering separatist rebels while Dhaka has accused New Delhi of harbouring its criminal fugitives.
Al Jazeera’s Prerna Suri reports from New Delhi, India’s capital.
Jan 11, 2010
Drug firms made ‘false H1N1 claims’
The severity of the H1N1 outbreak was deliberately exaggerated by pharmaceutical companies that stood to make billions of dollars from a worldwide scare, a leading European health expert has claimed.
Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at the Council of Europe, has acucsed the makers of vaccines for the virus of influencing the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) decision to declare a pandemic.
Tarek Bazely reports
(Jan 11, 2010)
Chile gains entry into OECD 12 Jan 10
Chile has become the first South American country to be admitted into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s president, says entry into the group is a major stride towards joining the ranks of developed naitons.
Chile has, in teh last two decades, gone from being one of the poorest countries in Latin America to one of the richest.
Based in France, the OECD comprises 30 countries that promote principles of representatvie democracy and free-market economy.
It traditionally includes rich and industriailsed nations such as the US, Japan and South Korea.
In recent years, it has also made efforts to give entry to developing economies such as Mexico and Poland.
Membership – given to countries that meet certain political and economic requirements – allows member states to discuss adn co-ordinate global social, environmental, and economic policies.
Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from Santiago, explains that Chile’s free market economy was one factor that helped it gain enrty into the OECD.
"An economic powerhouse liek Brazil, for example, doesn’t have such an open economy and has many protectionist measures," seh said.