BBC news 2011-09-18 加文本

BBC news 2011-09-18

BBC News with David Austin

The American ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, says there's evidence linking one of the main militant groups in Afghanistan, the Haqqani network, to the Pakistani government and that those links have to stop. He said the US believed the Haqqani group was behind a 20-hour gun battle in central Kabul last week. Here's Shahzeb Jillani.

Washington has been pressing Pakistan to target the Haqqani network in its North Waziristan region for some time now. The US blames the group for some of the major attacks targeting Nato-led forces in Afghanistan, and the Pakistani military says it is already overstretched and would have to think hard before opening up another war front. But increasingly it seems Washington is losing patience, complicating an already difficult relationship with Islamabad. Last Wednesday, the US warned it would have to take unilateral action inside Pakistan if the authorities there failed to act against the group.

Opposition forces in Libya have mounted a new assault on Sirte, Colonel Gaddafi's home city. Columns of smoke were seen as fighters tried to force their way through densely populated areas in the face of fierce resistance. Alastair Leithead reports.

The front lines around Sirte are moving forward. Tanks had to be jump-started today to keep up with the pace of the assault on Colonel Gaddafi's birthplace. After a week dug into their positions on the eastern coast road, a heavy barrage of rockets, artillery shells and Nato bombs has again pushed pro-Gaddafi troops back. To the south, the civilians who became soldiers are still firing from their pick-up trucks, and in the west too, loosely surrounding the city and moving forward every day.

A conference of veteran opposition figures in Syria has ended with a call for the formation of a national coalition to include all parties opposed to the current President Bashar al-Assad. The authorities did not prevent the meeting taking place, but kept a close watch on those who attended. From Damascus, Lina Sinjab reports.

The meeting included around 200 opposition figures representing different parties and had the support of the protesters. Their demands were read out, but they didn't attend for fear of arrest. The opposition asked for no international intervention, no sectarianism and no violence. Although the meeting was held in support of the street protest, most of those attending were from the old traditional opposition who spent years of their lives in prison. The object of this meeting is to create a coalition uniting all the opposition elements, including the protesters.

European Union finance ministers have ended a two-day meeting in Poland with many issues affecting the eurozone's debt crisis still unresolved. The ministers agreed on tougher budget rules for EU members, but no decisions were taken on giving more money to Greece to prevent it defaulting on its debts or on how to strengthen the eurozone's rescue fund.

World News from the BBC

Madagascar's political leaders have signed a deal in the capital Antananarivo, paving the way for elections to be held within a year and to re-establish democracy. The road map also includes allowing the return to the country of the ousted leader Marc Ravalomanana, who was overthrown by the current President Andry Rajoelina with military help two years ago.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani has promised help for millions of flood victims, saying they can stay in government-run camps for as long as they need. Mr Gillani has been visiting the southern province of Sindh, where monsoon rains have submerged hundreds of thousands of homes for the second year in a row and left hundreds of people dead. From Sindh, Aleem Maqbool.

Prime Minister Gillani has been fiercely criticised by opposition figures in Pakistan. The perception is that for the second year running his government has failed hundreds of thousands of flood victims. On a visit to the badly hit towns of Nawabshah and Sanghar, he announced that anyone affected by the floods could live in government relief camps as long as they wanted and that they would be provided food and shelter. But they are hollow words for so many people living on the roads of rural Sindh, who say there are either no camps in their areas or that they have been turned away from places that are full.

Officials in Mexico say they are investigating more than 100 police officers in the northern city of Monterrey suspected of having links with organised crime. The regional government says it wants to purge the police which it says has been infiltrated.

A wildlife campaigner in Indonesia has accused the country's zoos of doing nothing to stop orangutangs from smoking cigarettes. Hardi Baktiantoro told the BBC's Indonesian service that there was no adequate system to protect the animals from visitors who he said saw smoking orangutangs as entertainment. Several days ago, officials in Malaysia put a chain-smoking orangutang into quarantine to force her to kick the habit.

And that's the BBC News.