BBC news 2011-07-09 加文本

BBC news 2011-07-09

BBC News with Marion Marshall

The last US space shuttle has blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, bringing an end to the 30-year-old programme. For the first time in half a century, the space agency Nasa has no manned space flights on its agenda. Jonny Dymond witnessed the historic lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center.

"TD CTLS on 212, we're ready to go. All right. Very good."

The orbiter's engines fired, then the slim white solid rocket boosters leapt into life; steam billowed from the launch site; two torrents of yellow fire poured from the shuttle; a deep roar took hold of the sky. For half a minute, spectators stood transfixed, and then the last shuttle slipped through the clouds, powering its way towards the stars.

With a few hours to go before south Sudan becomes an independent state, final preparations are underway in the capital Juba. The government in Khartoum has formally recognised its southern neighbour as a new country, but has also confirmed that southern Sudanese will lose the right and nationality in the north. Our correspondent Will Ross is in Juba.

We're at this roundabout in the middle of Juba. A digital clock is counting down to midnight. South Sudan will start out as one of the poorest nations on the planet, where one in seven children dies before the age of five. That will not change without lasting peace. Thousands of UN peacekeepers will still have to be deployed here, and there are fears of clashes between northern and southern troops along that oil-rich border. The celebrations may be brief. There are so many challenges ahead.

The first arrests have taken place in the scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch's British media empire. Police questioned Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World who later worked as the government communications chief for nine hours, over allegations of corruption and phone hacking by the paper. Mr Coulson has denied any knowledge of the hacking. Another former senior journalist of the paper was arrested in connection with alleged illegal payments to the police.

A group of British aid agencies has launched a joint fundraising appeal to help more than 10 million people affected by the severe drought in the Horn of Africa. The Disasters Emergency Committee says about 1,300 people every day are trekking across Somalia to the Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya, from where Ben Brown reports.

There are well over 380,000 people here now, and some have to wait for days or even weeks before they get regular rations of food. Relief workers are hearing harrowing stories of mothers who had to abandon their weakest child on the long track to get here from Somalia. And even once they are in this camp, some mothers are prepared, say aid workers, to let their most malnourished child die if that means she can save her other children.

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A Congolese airliner has crashed in the eastern city of Kisangani, killing at least 46 people. There are conflicting reports about the number of passengers on board, and the number of those killed could be higher. From Kinshasa, Thomas Hubert reports.

The Boeing 727 was operated by the Congolese airline Hewa Bora, one of the few passenger carriers flying to Kisangani, the third largest city in the DRC. Company and Congolese government sources said that the aircraft was caught in a storm. The transport minister said it crashed 300 metres from the runway. A Kisangani resident said the plane had broken into three pieces.

Libyan rebels say they have made significant gains in the west of the country, advancing up to 8km towards the strategically important town of Zlitan. The frontline near the rebel-held town of Misrata had been stationary for six weeks, and the rebels believe their progress opens the way for a faster assault on the capital Tripoli.

State media in Venezuela say prisoners who took control of a jail near the capital Caracas three weeks ago have released 148 fellow inmates whom they were allegedly holding hostage. Venezuelan officials say a small gang of inmates is terrorising the rest of the prison population. But relatives of the prisoners say the men were resisting a massive police operation aimed at getting rid of the gangs.

The Cuban guitarist Manuel Galban, a member of the world-famous Cuban music collective, the Buena Vista Social Club, has died in Havana. He was 80. The official Granma newspaper called him the "master of the guitar". Manuel Galban was part of the popular fusion group Los Zafiros, which combined Cuban music with doo-wop and rock. Galban's collaboration with the American guitarist Ry Cooder on the album Mambo Sinuendo won him a Grammy award.

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