BBC news 2011-01-09 加文本

BBC news 2011-01-09

BBC News with Marion Marshall

A United States congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been shot in the head during a public event in Arizona. Initial reports suggested she had been killed, but a hospital spokesman said later that she was still alive and in a critical condition. She's now undergoing surgery. Ms Giffords was shot at close range while meeting constituents outside a supermarket in the city of Tucson. Several other people were also shot. Six are said to have been killed, and 11 wounded. Iain MacKenzie reports from Washington.

Details are still emerging from the town of Tucson, Arizona. Eyewitnesses say one or more gunmen opened fire at Gabrielle Giffords' Congress on the Corner event. Representative Giffords was taken to a local hospital and is understood to be undergoing surgery. Police in Tucson have taken one man into custody. Gabrielle Giffords has served as a member of Congress since 2007 and is regarded as a rising star in Barack Obama's Democratic Party.

On the eve of a referendum on independence for southern Sudan, its leader Salva Kiir has said there's no alternative to peaceful coexistence between north and south. He urged the southern Sudanese to make what he called the most vital decision of their lifetime in a peaceful manner.

"At this juncture, our message has been repeatedly, publicly declared, and again I would like to reiterate today that there is no return to war. The referendum is not the end of the journey, but rather it is the beginning of a new one."

The southern army said four people were killed on Saturday in a clash in oil-producing Unity state. At least one person was also killed in fighting in the border region of Abyei on Friday.

Police in Mexico have found the decapitated bodies of 15 men in the beach resort of Acapulco. The resort on the Pacific coast is popular with tourists from outside Mexico but has seen a sharp rise in drug-related violence. From Mexico City, Julian Miglierini reports.

Authorities from the state of Guerrero say that soon after midnight on Saturday, they were alerted to a burning vehicle on a busy highway in the outskirts of the city of Acapulco. They discovered the mutilated bodies of 15 men along with their severed heads. Media reports say that three messages signed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel and Mexico's most wanted drug baron, were found alongside the bodies. The messages allegedly said that the attack was a warning against criminal groups fighting Mr Guzman's organisation.

The whistle-blowing website Wikileaks says it's instructing lawyers to oppose an American court subpoena ordering the Internet messaging network Twitter to disclose personal information about the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and four associates. Mr Assange denounced the US action as harassment, and suggested there'd have been an outcry if Iran had attempted something similar against activists abroad.

World News from the BBC

The French government says two Frenchmen kidnapped in Niger have been killed during an attempt to rescue them. The French Defence Minister Alain Juppe said the two were found dead on the Niger-Mali border after the clash. The identity of the kidnappers isn't known. Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.

The hostages, one of whom is believed to have been an aid worker, were taken at gunpoint from a restaurant in Niamey on Friday evening. The kidnappers sped off in the direction of the lawless desert region along the frontier with Mali. There was an initial clash with pursuing armed forces and then a second shootout at the border with Mali in which French special forces also took part. At the end of this operation, some of the kidnappers were neutralised, to use the defence ministry's words, but it was then discovered that the two hostages were dead.

There's been renewed religious violence in the central Nigerian city of Jos. Officials say a number of people have died, though they haven't specified how many. A BBC reporter in the area says eyewitnesses describe seeing bodies in the streets, and buildings and vehicles set on fire.

Hackers have attacked North Korea's official media accounts, deriding the country's leader Kim Jong-il and his son and chosen successor Kim Jong-un. The North Korean Twitter account carried a series of messages accusing the Kims of exploiting their people and calling for them to be overthrown. A cartoon posted on the country's Youtube account showed the heir apparent driving a sports car, running over starving women and children. The attacks, thought to be by South Korean hackers, seem timed to coincide with the younger Kim's birthday.

The Spanish state broadcaster is to stop showing bullfighting because of the anxiety it could cause to children. In an update to its editorial guidelines, the broadcaster RTVE includes bullfighting in a section entitled "Violence with Animals", and says showing it to children should be avoided. The main bullfighting organisation has said it's astounded at the move.

BBC World Service News