Warning over World Service

The World Service faces a cash crisis and may have to cut services to plug a pounds 40m gap in government funding, John Birt, BBC director-general, told MPs yesterday.

Sitting alongside him before the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, the service's head, Sam Younger, said broadcasts in six languages may have to go. In the current financial year, the World Service is facing a shortfall of pounds 5m, despite making savings of pounds 6.5m.