BBC news 2011-04-09 加文本

BBC news 2011-04-09

BBC News with Jim Lee

More than 20 people have been killed in clashes between riot police and protesters in the Syrian city of Deraa. Security forces used live ammunition against thousands of anti-government demonstrators. There were reports of many wounded. Lina Sinjab reports.

Eyewitnesses from the city of Deraa said the security forces opened fire on thousands of protesters who were calling for freedom. Demonstrators took to the streets across the country, chanting "Allah, Syria, Freedom only". More protests and sit-ins are reported across the country with anger fuelling protesters after the Deraa killing. There are concerns that situation could get worse across the country as protesters' demands haven't been met, and promises made by the leadership are constantly followed by security crackdown and more killing.

One of the world's biggest media groups, News International, is apologising and offering compensation for the actions of one of its newspapers which hacked into the mobile phones of celebrities over a sustained period. Here's Gabriel Gatehouse.

These are sensational admissions that are likely to cost the newspaper tens of millions of dollars in compensation payments. The list of claimants includes film stars like the actress Sienna Miller and public figures such as the politician and former Culture Minister Tessa Jowell. A reporter and a private investigator of the News of the World had already been jailed in 2007 for hacking into voicemail messages left on mobile telephones. But the News of the World had always claimed that instances of hacking were isolated and that the pair acted without the knowledge of senior editors. It now appears that the problem went far further.

At least 10 people have been killed in an upsurge of violence in Nigeria on the eve of Saturday's parliamentary elections. A bomb at electoral commission offices in the central town of Suleja left at least five dead. Caroline Duffield reports from Lagos.

Reports from the town of Suleja suggest that the explosion happened at around six o'clock in the evening. A senior figure in the election commission told the BBC that the offices were busy at the time - official paperwork had been delivered and staff were still at work as the explosion ripped through the building. He added that he was making frantic efforts to contact election workers. Some are still unaccounted for.

In the northeastern state of Borno, gunmen shot dead four people at a police station where election officials were preparing voting materials. Earlier, a man died in the northern city of Kaduna when a bomb he was carrying exploded.

The residence of the French ambassador to Ivory Coast has been shelled by forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, the politician who refuses to give up power. The building in the main city Abidjan was hit by mortar rounds and then by a rocket. Abidjan is the scene of a bitter fight between Mr Gbagbo's forces and militia loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the man internationally recognised as president of Ivory Coast. Aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian crisis in the city.

World News from the BBC

Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers in the United States will be sent home unless politicians in Washington can reach a deal on the government's budget by midnight local time. Tensions between Democratic and Republican members of Congress are said to be running high. The Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid said that letting public funding expire would have far-reaching consequences.

"People just want to get home loan or get their tax refund or their paycheque. It would damage our image and credibility around the world. But Republicans are asking me to sacrifice my wife's health, my daughter's health and my nine granddaughters' health. They're asking me to sacrifice the health of women in Nevada and around all across this country. But Mr President, I'm not going to be part of it. I won't do it."

A BBC correspondent in Washington says their reputation is likely to be damaged if they fail to reach a consensus.

The Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has described an air strike on a column of Libyan rebel tanks as a very unfortunate incident and said he regretted the loss of life. The Nato attack near Ajdabiya in eastern Libya killed several people. Mr Rasmussen said Nato was acting in a complex situation.

"I strongly regret the loss of life. I also have to say that the situation on the ground is very fluid. And we have seen in the past that tanks have been used by the Gaddafi regime to attack civilians."

A court in the United States has acquitted a veteran Cuban anti-communist activist and former CIA agent, Luis Posada Carriles, who had been on trial on immigration charges. The verdict is likely to provoke anger in Cuba and Venezuela, where he's wanted for his alleged role in bomb attacks. US federal prosecutors had accused Mr Carriles of lying to immigration officials, but a jury found him not guilty.

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