World News from the BBC
The Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has urged the European Union not to add to the pressure for China to increase the value of its currency, the yuan. The EU has recently added its voice to long-standing complaints by the United States that the value of the yuan was artificially low, giving an unfair boost to China's exports. Speaking in Brussels, Mr Wen said a sharp revaluation could seriously damage the Chinese economy.
"If China raises its exchange rate by 20% to 40%, then many of our export companies will have to close down, and those enterprises' employees will lose jobs, and migrants will have to return back to their villages, and that will give rise to social turmoil. Should China's economy run into a crisis, that would not be good news for the world."
The World Wide Fund for Nature says researchers working in the Mekong River basin which stretches down South East Asia from China to the sea in Vietnam have discovered previously unknown life forms at a staggering speed. Our South East Asia correspondent Rachel Harvey reports from Bangkok.
A fish with curving teeth that make it look like an aquatic vampire and a carnivorous plant that grows up to seven metres high, they are among the stars of a report designed to raise awareness of the rich biodiversity of the Greater Mekong. The World Wide Fund for Nature says on average three new species were identified every week last year, a rate the fund describes as staggering. But WWF says new discoveries imply a new level of responsibility, a responsibility to protect these life forms.