BBC news 2011-07-11 加文本

BBC news 2011-07-11

BBC News with David Austin

The Obama administration is suspending about a third of its annual aid to the Pakistani military, worth about $800m. The White House chief of staff Bill Daley said Pakistan was an important ally against terrorism but some of its conduct had given Washington reason to act. Rajesh Mirchandani reports.

Relations between the two countries have been increasingly strained since May when US troops went into Pakistan in secret and killed Osama Bin Laden. Pakistani leaders were furious the US did not consult them while US officials wondered out loud who in Pakistan might have known where Bin Laden was hiding. Last week, a senior US official suggested Pakistan was involved in the killing of a journalist. Prior to that, Islamabad expelled US military trainers. Washington may hope holding back aid is persuasive.

The aid agency Oxfam has called on the Kenyan authorities to allow Somali drought victims into a camp inside Kenya but which is empty. Aid workers say the empty camp, known as Ifo Two, is close to another one, Dadaab. Here's Martin Plaut.

Dadaab camp is bursting at the seams, and every day more than 1,000 Somalis stream in. Yet just down the road is another camp, Ifo Two. It's ready and waiting, complete with latrines and water supplies. For the past two years, the United Nations refugee agency says it's tried to get it opened, but the Kenyan authorities have been blocking their attempts. The head of the UNHCR, Antonio Guterres, is due to meet the Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Monday to try to remove the obstacles.

The President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, has said Sudan could take up arms against the newly independent Republic of South Sudan over the disputed region of Abyei. President Bashir insisted Abyei was part of the North and that any attempt to undermine a previously agreed protocol on the region could lead to renewed conflict.

The Nigerian military say they've killed 11 suspected militants in the troubled northeastern city of Maiduguri. They refused to comment on allegations of civilian deaths. Here's our correspondent Jonah Fisher.

The statement from the military task force says that at 7:30 on Saturday night, a patrol was targeted by an explosion and gunshots from a stationary bus. The attack was successfully repelled, and it's claimed that 11 members of the militant group Boko Haram were killed, and two soldiers injured. Twice in the short statement mention was made of local residents allowing their homes and shops to be used by the Islamists, and a warning made of the implications of collaboration.

The government of Congo says seven people have been killed in a stampede at a music festival in the capital Brazzaville. Thirty others were injured. The Congolese culture minister said security forces had failed to control the stampede.

World News from the BBC

France and the United States have protested to Syria about demonstrations outside their embassies on Saturday. The French government summoned the Syrian ambassador to issue what it called a "vigorous protest" about damage to its embassy and a consulate in Syria. The United States accused the Syrian authorities of organising a protest, at which its embassy was pelted with eggs and tomatoes. The demonstrations followed Syrian complaints about visits made by the French and American ambassadors last week to the town of Hama, where the authorities have been trying to crush anti-government protests.

The American Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has arrived in Iraq on an unannounced visit. The visit comes amid uncertainty over the remaining US troops in Iraq, who are scheduled to pull out by the end of this year. Mr Panetta said he would be encouraging Iraq to decide whether it wants to retain American forces beyond the deadline.

A pleasure boat carrying more than 180 people has sunk in the Volga River in Russia. The Russian authorities say that 84 people were rescued and that one passenger has died. More than 90 people are still unaccounted for, and the search for the missing continues. It's not yet clear why the boat sank. Russia's transport ministry has set up a commission to investigate the accident.

Seventeen prisoners are on the run in southwestern Colombia after a mass jailbreak in the city of Tumaco. Police said 20 prisoners escaped after an explosion at the prison. Three were recaptured. Vanessa Buschschluter has this report.

The explosions happened in the middle of the night, causing enough of the distraction for 20 prisoners to flee. Explosives experts are trying to defuse a second device, which the fugitives placed on one of the main roads leading out of the city. Police Colonel William Montezuma warned the local population about the fugitives, who he said were highly dangerous and included members of Colombia's largest left-wing rebel group, the Farc.

And that's the BBC News.