settlement
.
World News from the BBC
Officials from the United Nations Environment Programme have held a news conference high in the Himalayas to
underline
the dangers still facing the ozone layer from carbon compounds known as HCFCs. Their chemical cousins CFCs, which were used in refrigerators and aerosols, have already been
phased out
. But HCFCs are still in use mainly in air conditioners and building materials.
The Conservative minority government in Canada has lost a no-confidence vote in parliament, a move that will trigger the fourth federal election in seven years. Lee Carter reports from Toronto.
Nobody was surprised by the result of this vote in the Canadian parliament.
The no-confidence motion simply confirms the conclusions of a group of MPs that on Monday found the minority Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper
in contempt of
parliament for failing to provide the estimated costs for a number of spending programmes.
Having led two minority governments, Mr Harper is hoping his party will win a majority. Coming from behind in the opinion polls, former author and broadcaster Michael Ignatieff will fight his first election as leader of the main opposition Liberal Party.
A number of BBC radio services are
coming to an end
. They include the BBC Caribbean Service, which began in 1939, one of the oldest services the BBC has provided in English. It's the last of five language services being shut down by the BBC because of cuts in government funding. Mandarin Chinese and Azeri language broadcasts on radio also stopped today. A number of World Service programmes in English are ending, including Europe Today, which has made its final broadcast.