BBC news 2011-08-02 加文本

BBC news 2011-08-02

BBC News with Marion Marshall

Reports from the Syrian city of Hama say government tanks have been shelling residential neighbourhoods indiscriminately. They said the shelling intensified just as residents were breaking the dawn-to-dusk fast on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Activists said at least four people had been killed. On Sunday, scores of people were reported killed when security forces targeted opposition protesters. The UN Security Council is due to hold closed-door consultations on Syria in New York shortly. Lina Sinjab reports from Damascus on the fear in Hama that's preventing some families from burying their dead as they wish.

The shelling resumed today on parts of Hama, leaving several people dead, according to residents of the city. Heavy artillery and machine guns were also used in this morning's attack. Some families buried their dead in parks and even in the gardens of their own homes.

The United States Senate and House of Representatives are due to vote on a bill to raise the limit on US borrowing ahead of a deadline to avert an uNPRecedented debt default. Democratic and Republican party leaders in Washington reached agreement late on Sunday on a proposal to raise the $14.3tn limit. Global financial markets have been nervous over the prospect that the US might not have enough money to meet its financial obligations. Paul Adams reports from Washington.

The business of selling Sunday's deal has begun, but politicians are holding their noses even as they urge colleagues to support it. In the Senate, the Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was not proud of the rancorous process that led to it, but he held it up as an example of American democracy at work.

"No one got what they wanted. Everyone had to give something up. People on the right are upset; people on the left are upset; people in the middle are upset. It was a compromise."

There is, as Mr Reid says, plenty for everyone to dislike. The president has not been able to get Republicans to agree to tax increases. The Republicans have had to agree to a longer extension of the debt ceiling than they wanted. And both sides know that if they fail to agree on a spending plan by the end of November, then domestic social programmes and defence will face automatic cuts worth $1.2tn.

The Turkish foreign minister has joined mourners in Norway to pay tribute to Gizem Dogan, a young girl of Turkish origin who was one of those killed in Norway's twin attacks. At the funeral in Trondheim, Ahmet Davutoglu pledged to work for more democracy, tolerance and openness. His sentiments echoed those expressed earlier at a special session of the Norwegian parliament in Oslo. The Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said the Norwegian people would find their way through the darkness. The only suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, has admitted to carrying out the attacks, which he says were necessary in order to wake up the country to the threat he claims posed by increased immigration.

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The United Nations humanitarian affairs coordinator Valerie Amos has warned that the food crisis in the Horn of Africa is intensifying with over 12 million people in dire need of help. Baroness Amos said she feared that famine could spread to five or six more regions of war-torn Somalia unless there was a massive increase in aid.

"A little less than two weeks ago, we declared a famine in two regions in Somalia. Today, we are warning that unless we see a massive increase in the response, the famine will spread to five or six more regions. Tens of thousands of Somalis have already died, and hundreds of thousands face starvation with consequences for the entire region."

The authorities in Italy say they've found the bodies of 25 people in the hold of a boat on the Italian island of Lampedusa. The officials say that the victims, all young men, were believed to be from sub-Saharan Africa. According to survivors, the 15-metre boat was carrying nearly 300 people and had set sail from Libya two days ago.

Egyptian troops have moved into Tahrir Square in the capital Cairo to remove protesters. Several hundred people have been camped out in the capital's main square for over three weeks, complaining about the speed of reforms following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in February. But a retired general, Sameh Saif el-Yazal, told the BBC it was impossible to meet the protesters' every demand.

"All the big heads are in jail now, but Mubarak will be in the court the day after tomorrow; the constitution has been frozen completely; a new constitution is coming on the way; [the] cabinet has been shuffled four times since the revolution. The idea of having a new lift every day for more than 140 political groups and religious group[s] is nonsense. How can you deal with that?"

Former President Mubarak is due to stand trial on Wednesday on charges of corruption and ordering the killing of protesters.

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