BBC news 2011-08-15 加文本

BBC news 2011-08-15

BBC News with Fiona MacDonald

A resident in the Syrian port of Latakia has given an eyewitness account of the day-long land and sea attack by government forces against democracy activists there. The resident known as Fouad told the BBC what happened.

"At 6:00am this morning, heavy and intensive firing began from various light and heavy weapons. We heard very loud explosions in the al-Ramleh and Masbah al-Shaab neighbourhoods, where the army was attempting to storm the area from three different directions. That was this morning. Now the army has taken the area. I witnessed this with my own eyes from the rooftop of a building."

He also said they had been shelled by tanks and navy gunboats. The United Nations said it was gravely concerned at the shelling of a Palestinian refugee camp in Latakia.

At least 20 people have been killed in an attack in central Afghanistan. Armed men launched an assault on a compound used by the governor of Parwan province. He escaped unscathed. From Kabul, Quentin Sommerville.

Six suicide bombers made it inside and an unknown number of gunmen. There were at least two large explosions, and gunfire could be heard; smoke was seen rising from the area. The attack lasted several hours. Most of the dead are thought to be civilians. Police and soldiers have closed surrounding streets. The Taliban say they carried out the attack. In what some see as a change in tactics, the insurgents have launched a number of large-scale assaults against political leaders across the country. Parwan is usually a relatively peaceful area. Security there is largely in the hands of the Afghan police and army.

Community groups have held a peace rally in the English city of Birmingham following the rioting there last week when three young men were killed while protecting shops from looters. Three suspects have been charged with their murders. Our reporter Bob Walker was at the rally.

The rally began with music, prayers and speeches from a range of groups across Birmingham. The deaths of the three men in the Winson Green area of the city led to increased community tensions and fears of reprisals. Haroon Jahan, and brothers Shazad Ali and Abdul Musavir died after being hit by a car in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The three had been part of a group of local men out on the streets guarding homes and businesses. Today's rally was aimed at reinforcing previous calls for calm made by Haroon's father Tariq.

Jordanian youth activists say proposed changes to the constitution don't meet the public's political aspirations. King Abdullah, who retained most of his absolute powers, is expected to approve the draft constitutional amendments after they are presented to him today. The activists want the king to surrender his right to appoint the prime minister and cabinet. They also want a stronger role for parliament and economic reforms.

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Six people have been killed by stabbing on the island of Jersey in the English Channel. A 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder in the island's main city St Helier after he himself underwent surgery in hospital. Details are still unclear, but reports say the victims - two men, two women and two young children - are of the same family. The incident shocked Jersey, one of the British Channel islands, where crime rates are normally extremely low.

Large crowds of people welcomed the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on her first political trip outside Rangoon since her release from house arrest last November. She called for national unity in an address to crowds in the Bago region, some 50km north of the city. Rachel Harvey reports.

This was a trip the authorities had earlier warned Aung San Suu Kyi not to make, but things are perhaps changing, the government in its new civilian guise apparently having a change of heart, though these words might give them pause - "I know what you want," Aung San Suu Kyi told her long-suffering supporters. "And I'll do my best to achieve it," she said, "but it's impossible to do without the support of the people." - that she clearly still has in abundance, and the government knows it.

More than 30 people have been wounded in a suicide attack on a police station in Algeria. Security officials said a man drove a vehicle packed with explosives into the building. About half of those injured were policemen. The attack took place in the capital of the eastern Kabylie region, which is a stronghold of the Islamist group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika, has accused European governments of plotting with the opposition to overthrow his government. In an address to the nation, Mr Mutharika said foreign elements had funded the opposition to force unconstitutional change, but he gave no details to back up his allegations.

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