BBC news 2011-08-11 加文本

BBC news 2011-08-11

BBC News with Gaenor Howells

Police are out in force again in London and other cities across England to try to prevent any repeat of the violence and looting of the last four nights. The Prime Minister David Cameron has promised that the police will get all the resources they need, including water cannon if necessary. Rob Watson reports.

Mr Cameron said the government would not allow a culture of fear on Britain's streets and that whatever resources the police needed they would get. He said contingency plans were in place for the use of water cannon and other measures had not been ruled out. Mr Cameron insisted a fightback was now underway, but that there were parts of British society that were sick and suffered from a complete lack of responsibility.

More than 800 suspects have been arrested in London, and hundreds more elsewhere. People charged with taking part in the disorder have begun appearing in court. Some courts sat through the night on Tuesday and are scheduled to do so again on Wednesday. Most of the offences relate to looting. Some of those appearing are as young as 11 years old. The majority of defendants have been pleading guilty. Many have been committed for sentence to higher courts, which can impose longer jail sentences.

Opposition activists in Syria say 18 people have been shot dead by government forces in the city of Homs. There are reports of security forces carrying out a huge operation there. Jim Muir reports from neighbouring Lebanon.

Activists report renewed violence with loud explosions shaking the area of Baba Amr and intensive machine gun fire reported there and in other quarters. Tanks were said to be involved in the bombardments, implying that Syrian army units were involved. But in other areas, the authorities seem to be eager to demonstrate that the military are being stood down. A number of foreign journalists were taken to the city of Hama, further north, where they saw columns of tanks and armoured personnel carriers as well as truckloads of troops being driven out of the area.

Share prices in the United States have fallen sharply. The Dow Jones index in New York ended the day 4% down, wiping out the recovery it made from falls earlier in the week. Here's our business reporter Duncan Bartlett.

Share price values have been swinging violently in recent days, but the primary direction is downward. Traders don't seem convinced that the US government or the central bank have anything left that they can do to turn the economy round. On Tuesday, the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, promised it would keep interest rates at near zero for two years. That led to a rally, but the gains were largely wiped out on Wednesday.

Earlier in Europe, stock markets also fell sharply with bank shares taking the most severe battering. Shares in French banks fell the furthest as rumours circulated that France could lose its AAA credit rating. This was later contradicted by the French government and major credit rating agencies.

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Twelve allies of the former President of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, have been charged with armed insurrection and plotting against the state. They include the head of the former ruling party and the former president's son. They were arrested in April after months of turmoil following Mr Gbagbo's refusal to accept the outcome of November's elections, which were won by President Alassane Ouattara. Around 3,000 people were killed in the brutal conflict.

A campaign to vaccinate refugee children from Somalia against measles is beginning in southeastern Ethiopia, where many have fled to escape drought and conflict. Forty thousand measles vaccinations have been airlifted into the town of Dollo Ado, near the Kobe refugee camp. Here's our world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge.

Officials of the UN refugee agency say the situation is alarming. The refugee influx into Ethiopia mirrors that into Kenya - many of the children are acutely malnourished and weak. Vaccination of all children between six months and 15 years in the Kobe camp is due to begin today. Children will also be vaccinated in other camps in the area that are for now seeing fewer cases and in the surrounding communities in the hope of containing the measles threat.

Police in Colombia have arrested a woman they say laundered money for the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico. The woman, Dolly Cifuentes Villa, was detained in a wealthy neighbourhood of Medellin. Police say she took over the money laundering business from her late brother Francisco, the personal pilot of the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

A jury in the United States has recommended the death sentence be imposed on a 51-year-old man found guilty of killing 11 women. Anthony Sowell hid their remains at his home in Cleveland. The judge will have the final say on his sentence. Prosecutors accuse Sowell of luring drug-addicted women into his home with alcohol or narcotics.

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