BBC news 2011-06-08 加文本

BBC news 2011-06-08

BBC News with David Austin

There are conflicting reports about the future of the Syrian ambassador to France, Lamia Chakkour. The French television channel France24 carried a statement purporting to be from her announcing her resignation in protest at the suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations, but that was later denied on Syrian television. From Paris, Hugh Schofield reports.

In a telephone interview on the French international television station France24, Lamia Chakkour said that she was stepping down with immediate effect. However, shortly after that interview was broadcast, Syrian state television had broadcast another interview with a woman it claimed was the ambassador to France. In it, she claimed she had not stepped down and that she would be suing France24. In Paris, the French television station stands by its interview, and the Reuters news agency says it has an email statement from the Syrian embassy confirming that she has quit her post. If this is true, it's the first resignation of a Syrian ambassador since the protest movement began, and it's a big symbolic boost to President Assad's opponents.

In Syria itself, residents of the town of Jisr al-Shughour are reported to be fleeing and building roadblocks in fear of a possible assault by government forces.

State television in Libya has broadcast what it says is an audio message from Colonel Gaddafi saying he will remain in Tripoli, as he put it, dead or alive. The message came hours after Nato carried out one of its heaviest daytime raids on Tripoli so far. From Tripoli, Wyre Davies reports.

It began early in the morning and continued for several hours. Explosions rocked the heart of Tripoli. Buildings in the capital shook as Nato jets screamed overhead and dropped their bombs on what the Libyan government acknowledged were military installations. Nato later confirmed that more than 10,000 sorties have been flown since operations began at the end of March.

The authorities in Washington have confirmed that the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is lying seriously injured in a hospital in Saudi Arabia after a bomb attack by anti-government protesters on his palace in Yemen last week. From Washington, here's Natalia Antelava.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh's condition is very serious. He's reported to have 40% burns, a collapsed lung and shrapnel in his body. After the attack on his palace on Friday, the presidential spokesman said that Mr Saleh got away with mere scratches. Many here in Washington and in Sanaa see his trip to Saudi Arabia as an opportunity to ease Yemen's leader out of office.

Flights in several countries in South America have been severely disrupted by clouds of ash spewed into the atmosphere by a volcano in Chile. The Argentine authorities have closed both airports in the capital Buenos Aires. Many flights in Chile and Uruguay have also been cancelled.

World News from the BBC

Energy ministers from the world's leading industrialised countries are meeting in Paris to discuss nuclear safety after the crisis at the Japanese plant in Fukushima. There have been calls for all nuclear reactors around the world to be tested to ensure that they could withstand a disaster like the earthquake that caused the problems in Japan. There are also proposals for a new set of global safety standards. A BBC correspondent says the nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, is likely to be given a bigger role in guaranteeing safety.

The British government has announced a new strategy to tackle home-grown terrorism. The Home Secretary Theresa May said that the greatest threat to Britain continues to come from al-Qaeda. She added that the government had to stop people before they were radicalised.

"Osama Bin Laden may be dead, but the threat from al-Qaeda-inspired terrorism is not. Indeed the threat level from international terrorism remains at 'severe', meaning an attack is highly likely. To tackle that threat, we must not only arrest and prosecute those who breach the law, but we must also stop people being drawn into terrorist-related activity in the first place."

Theresa May

Five people are reported to have been killed in a series of explosions in the northeastern Nigerian town of Maiduguri. The latest deaths come a week after Boko Haram, an Islamist group that rejects Western education, admitted planting a bomb in a market that killed 16 people. From Nigeria, here's Jonah Fisher.

The attacks in Nigeria's northeast are now taking place on an almost daily basis. In Maiduguri, where Boko Haram have focused their activities, there were two bomb blasts at police stations and one at a church. The police said they'd shot dead three members of Boko Haram and recovered a gun. On Monday, a prominent Islamic cleric who had been critical of the sect was killed by a gunman on a motorbike. Hundreds of suspected militants have been detained, but the level of violence appears to be rising.

BBC News