BBC news 2011-06-15 加文本

BBC news 2011-06-15

BBC News with Fiona MacDonald

The United Nations says tens of thousands of people in Sudan have been displaced by bombing and fighting in the disputed border state of South Kordofan. The northern military has launched fresh air strikes against groups that are allying to the country's south, which is due to become independent next month. Peter Martell reports from the southern Sudanese capital Juba.

Aircraft from the north Sudanese army bombed a strategic airfield at Kauda, in the heart of the Nuba mountains, home to southern-aligned groups it calls rebels. The United Nations reports that heavy artillery can also be heard with fighting spreading across Southern Kordofan state. More than 53,000 people are estimated to have fled from the fighting. Aid workers say their work has been severely restricted with access blocked to key areas, causing enormous suffering to civilians. Humanitarian flights have been denied permission to land for nearly a week while militia gunmen are blocking roads.

The US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke says America's creditworthiness is at risk if the country's borrowing limit is not raised. He's urging Republican members of Congress to vote in favour of increasing it well before a deadline in August. Here's Mark Gregory.

The man in charge of American monetary policy says Republican moves to block a measure lifting the $4.3tn ceiling on US government debt could have serious economic consequences. Mr Bernanke warned that even a temporary delay would cause severe disruption in financial markets, undermine the dollar's role as the world's main currency and seriously erode investors' confidence that America will service its debts. The Federal Reserve chairman suggested the US could even lose its coveted AAA credit rating, the highest ranking of creditworthiness.

A previously unpublished diary by the Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara has been unveiled in Cuba. His widow Aleida March said she'd decided to publish the unedited writings, Diary of a Combatant, so that readers could get to know him just as he was. From Havana, here's Michael Voss.

Ernesto Che Guevara was a prolific writer and did publish his own account of fighting alongside Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra mountains. This new book called Diary of a Combatant is the first time a full unedited version of the Argentine-born revolutionary's diaries has(have口误) been made available. A former doctor, Che's hand-writing was said to be almost illegible and hard to decipher, one reason why this project has taken so long.

Syrian troops and tanks are reported to be pushing towards further towns and villages in the country's northwest, where there's been an uprising against the government. The military campaign has led to thousands of people fleeing across the border to Turkey. Some of the refugees described seeing atrocities committed by government forces around the rebellious town of Jisr al-Shughour.

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Reports from Libya say that rebel forces have made new gains against government troops around the rebel-held city of Misrata. They are reported to have advanced west from Misrata to the outskirts of the government-held town of Zlitan. As their advance intensifies, some of the rebel forces have expressed frustration at the level of Nato support.

The Eritrean volcano, which sprung into life on Sunday, sending a huge ash cloud 13km into the atmosphere, has continued to disrupt air travel across the region. Kenyan and Dubai airlines said they had both cancelled flights to Ethiopia. Latest reports say the ash cloud has now reached southern Egypt and Sudan, and is heading towards Saudi Arabia.

Ruud Gullit's spell as coach of Terek Grozny in the Russian Football Premier League is over. The former World Player of the Year had been given an ultimatum by his boss, the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, to win his latest match or get the sack. They lost 1-0. Here's our sports news reporter Alex Capstick.

The instruction was blunt enough: win or lose your job. The club's president Ramzan Kadyrov, who has developed a fearsome reputation as leader of Chechnya, had gone public with the extraordinary ultimatum. The two-time World Player of the Year and an international celebrity was accused of being distracted by bars and discos. The long and scathing statement said Terek Grozny had never looked so hopeless. His damning assessment of Ruud Gullit followed a poor run of form. This latest defeat, courtesy of a goal in the dying seconds away at Perm, has left the club third from bottom in the Russian Premier League.

The former US ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, has become the latest Republican to say he'll seek the party's presidential nomination. Mr Huntsman, who's also served as the governor of Utah, said he would formally enter the race in a week's time. Correspondents say his economic policies should appeal to the party's conservative supporters, but that elsewhere, he's seen as a moderate.

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