BBC news 2011-06-11 加文本

BBC news 2011-06-11

BBC News with Fiona MacDonald

The authorities in Syria have been struggling to contain a new wave of anti-government demonstrations across the country. Opposition groups said security forces had opened fire on crowds in several areas, including the capital Damascus. At least 28 people are reported to have been killed nationally, 10 of them in the northern town of Maarat al-Numan. Helicopter gunships are said to have attacked protesters there after a police station and [a] court building were set on fire. Opposition activists said Syrian troops had adopted a scorched earth policy in Jisr al-Shughour. Jim Muir is monitoring events from neighbouring Lebanon.

Both the state media and activists on the ground are reporting that troops and tanks are pressing in around Jisr al-Shughour. Shooting was reported from some of the nearby villages, where barricades of burning tyres have been put up to try to block the advance. The town itself is believed to be largely deserted after many of its inhabitants fled the impending crackdown, some of them crossing the border to nearby Turkey. Meanwhile, there are reports of many big protest demonstrations in practically all parts of the country.

The authorities in Somalia say the Interior Minister Abdi Shakur Sheikh Hassan has been killed in a suicide attack on his home. Our East Africa correspondent Will Ross reports.

Somalia's Interior Minister Abdi Shakur Sheikh Hassan was killed by his own teenage niece. The girl had visited his home several times in recent days, and thinking that she posed no threat, the guards did not carry out a security check. She then walked into the living room and set off a bomb. She was killed instantly. The minister died from his injuries as efforts were underway to fly him to hospital in Nairobi. The Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab said it had been behind the blast and said more attacks would follow.

The southern Sudanese army says the northern military has carried out air raids in south Sudan. The region is due to become independent in a month's time. Mary Harper reports.

A spokesman for the southern Sudanese army said three people had been killed in a series of air strikes in Unity state. He said Khartoum was trying to seize oil fields and that the southern army was strengthening its defensive positions. The United Nations says the violence has spread across the border from north Sudan, where fighting in the town of Kadugli has forced between 30,000 and 40,000 people to flee their homes. The recent flare-up in violence suggests difficult times ahead for what will be Africa's newest country of south Sudan.

Hospital doctors say the Libyan port city of Misrata has come under a renewed artillery barrage by troops loyal to the country's leader Muammar Gaddafi. At least 17 people are reported to have been killed and at least 60 wounded in the city, which is the principal rebel-held area in western Libya. Doctors said there had been no sign of Nato warplanes over the city. Misrata is surrounded on three sides by government forces.

World News from the BBC

Two soldiers have been arrested in Pakistan and charged with murdering an unarmed teenager who was filmed being shot in the country's biggest city Karachi. The soldiers' unit initially refused to hand them over to the police, but relented under pressure from senior government officials. The video caused a storm of protest across Pakistan after it was shown on a local TV station.

The US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has strongly criticised America's Nato allies in his last major speech before he retires later this month. He warned that Nato risked becoming a military irrelevance unless European countries increased their defence spending.

"Future US political leaders - those for whom the Cold War was not the formative experience that it was for me - may not consider the return on America's investment in NATO worth the cost. What I've sketched out is the real possibility for a dim, if not dismal future for the transatlantic alliance."

A senior Mexican official has said the government is prepared to have formal discussions with members of a peace march protesting about drugs-related violence. Thousands of marchers on the so-called "peace caravan" have been calling for the Mexican government to change tactics in its war on drugs cartels. The "peace caravan" has reached its final destination Ciudad Juarez, on the border with the United States, after a journey of some 2,500km. The leader of the march has called Ciudad Juarez the "epicentre of pain" due to the levels of violence there.

Football in Finland has been hit by a growing match-fixing scandal with global implications. Nine former members of one team, seven Zambians and two Georgians, are on trial along with a man from Singapore. Police say the case is linked to an investigation of the top club, Tampere United, which has been suspended for failing to explain why it received nearly half a million dollars from a Singapore company.

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