President Barack Obama has announced that two solar energy companies are to get government loan guarantees of nearly $2 billion for projects expected to create thousands of new jobs in America. He said the companies will construct a solar power generating plant and advanced solar panels. Jenner Bryon reports.
Investing in green technology has been key to the administration’s attempts to get the economy back on track and reduce the nation’s dependency on fossil fuels. Two companies have been offered government-backed loans totaling $2 billion for projects that are expected to create more than 5,000 new jobs. The biggest in Arizona will be the first large-scale solar plant in the US capable of storing the energy it generates. It could cut carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to the amount generated by 90,000 cars a year.
The US Vice President Joe Biden is spending the weekend in Iraq to support the country’s leadership as it tries to build a new coalition government. Inconclusive elections in March have left Iraq in a state of limbo. Mr Biden will meet the leaders of the main political factions.
World News from the BBC.
The charred bodies of some of the more than 200 people killed in a fuel truck explosion on Friday night in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been buried in mass graves. UN peacekeepers and International aid workers helped to evacuate seriously injured survivors to medical centres. The truck overturned in Sange village while some people tried to gather leaking fuel before it ignited, but most died as their homes caught fire.