BBC news 2011-04-22 加文本

BBC news 2011-04-22

BBC News with Fiona MacDonald

Rebel forces are reported to have taken control of a crossing on Libya's western frontier with Tunisia after a clash with forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi. Reports say the rebels attacked a post at Dehiba in the western mountains, prompting dozens of soldiers to flee into Tunisia. Our Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen reports from the Libyan capital Tripoli.

So it seems there was a clash. Maybe 13 Libyan soldiers, including a brigadier, crossed into Tunisia and surrendered their weapons because they were fleeing essentially from the rebels there who then seized control of the frontier post. There have(口误There's) been clashes of different sorts going on in the western mountains as they're known. For some time, very little information comes out of there. The people who live there are mainly Berbers. They have a long record of opposition to the government here in Tripoli.

Efforts are continuing to evacuate more injured Libyans and migrant workers from the besieged city of Misrata on Libya's western coast.

The United Nations says it's giving the government of Sri Lanka an opportunity to lodge a response to a disputed and as yet unpublished report into the end of the country's civil war with the separatist Tamil Tigers. From the UN headquarters in New York, Barbara Plett.

A spokesman for the secretary general said he was seeking a Sri Lankan response to publish alongside a UN report on alleged war crimes. Sections leaked to the press say there are credible allegations that both the government and the rebel Tamil Tigers committed atrocities against civilians in their final battles and urge(口误urges) an independent investigation. Colombo has rejected the findings and asked Ban Ki-moon not to make the report public, but the UN spokesman insisted it would be published in full and without amendment, and said Mr Ban would not wait indefinitely for a response from Sri Lanka.

Human rights organisations have criticised a decision by the Pakistani Supreme Court to acquit five men charged with raping a woman on the orders of a village council. A sixth was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2002, the woman Mukhtar Mai was allegedly gang-raped as punishment for an offence her brother is supposed to have committed. Ali Dayan Hasan from Human Rights Watch says the verdict sends the wrong message.

"This judgment is a very, very problematic judgment because essentially what has happened is that a woman who was raped in broad daylight by people who had been clearly identified has failed to be awarded justice. This sends a very, very bad signal across Pakistani society, and basically it suggests that women can be abused and even raped with impunity, and those perpetrating such crimes will walk."

At least 16 people have been killed in Pakistan by a bomb explosion in a gambling den in the port city of Karachi. Dozens were injured. Officials say the den was operated by a criminal gang and that the bomb was set off by remote control. Karachi has seen a series of violent political and ethnic attacks, sometimes involving criminal gangs.

World News from the BBC

The African Union says it's lifting its suspension of Ivory Coast and has dropped sanctions against the country. The announcement welcomed Alassane Ouattara's victory in a power struggle against his rival Laurent Gbagbo, which lasted more than four months. Ivory Coast was suspended from the African Union when Mr Gbagbo refused to step down despite losing last November's presidential elections.

The head of the Nigerian electoral commission has postponed elections in two northern states after violence that followed the country's recent presidential poll. Earlier on Thursday, Nigeria's re-elected President Goodluck Jonathan insisted state elections would go ahead as planned across the country. Danny Aeberhard reports.

The head of Nigeria's electoral commission, Attahiru Jega, said governorship and state assembly elections in two of the areas worst affected by the violence, Kaduna and Bauchi, would be postponed by two days, to Thursday of next week. This, he told a press conference, would allow tempers there to cool and security to be improved. Dozens of people were killed, and tens of thousands of people have been displaced in the rioting, which first broke out on Monday when it became clear that Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian southerner, had defeated a Muslim candidate from the mostly Muslim north.

The President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, has signed decrees ending nearly 50 years of emergency rule. He announced last week that he would lift the long-standing emergency laws, one of the main demands of anti-government demonstrators. The president has also abolished the state security courts and decided to allow peaceful protests.

Scientists say the planet Saturn experienced a phenomenon similar to the northern lights that are witnessed on Earth. The flickering lights at the planet's poles were detected by Nasa's Cassini (air多余) spacecraft, which has been studying Saturn since 2004. The lights are caused by a flow of electrically charged particles to and from one of Saturn's moons.

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