BBC news 2011-10-08 加文本

BBC news 2011-10-08

BBC News with Sue Montgomery

A day of heavy fighting has left forces loyal to the interim authorities in Libya in control of most of the city of Sirte, the last significant stronghold of Colonel Gaddafi's supporters. The BBC's Jonathan Head is in the city. He sent this report on the day's events.

It began with an intense rocket and artillery barrage blasting the buildings around Sirte held by Gaddafi loyalists. Then after days of delay, the fighters moved in, but they were pinned down by well-positioned snipers. They directed their heavy machine guns at the snipers and were able to move forward, capturing most of the town by midday, but they have sustained casualties. The commander we were travelling with was hit in the chest and died. Ambulances have been racing back and forth all day from the front line. No one knows how many civilians have been killed or injured. Now the fighters are moving from house to house, clearing out the last of the gunmen.

An international agency has downgraded the sovereign credit ratings of Italy and Spain, putting new pressure on two of the eurozone's biggest economies. Both countries have been relegated from AA- to A+ by the credit ratings agency Fitch. It said Europe's debt crisis posed a significant risk to Italy and the government's initially hesitant response had eroded market confidence. Fitch said Spain was threatened by slow growth and high regional debt.

Kurdish opposition activists in Syria say one of their leaders, Mishaal Tammo, has been killed by masked gunmen who broke into his house in the north of the country. It's not known who was behind the attack. Jim Muir reports.

Mishaal Tammo was spokesman of a Kurdish group called the Future movement. He was tipped to be included in the secretariat of the recently announced Syrian National Council. He's being hailed as a martyr by opposition factions. Their assumption will be that he was killed by agents of the embattled regime in Damascus, but that's by no means a foregone conclusion. So far despite all the violence, targeted killings of specific opposition leadership figures have not been a feature of the regime's response to the uprising, though another activist Saifuddin Rahmi was reported to have been shot dead in cold blood on Thursday.

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been jointly awarded to three women for their work in women's rights. One is a democracy activist from Yemen, Tawakul Karman; the other two come from Liberia, the president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and a peace campaigner, Leymah Gbowee. She said she hadn't carried out her work expecting such recognition.

"I am a symbol of hope in my community on the continent, in a place where there is little to be hopeful for. If you are a symbol of hope, you don't do it because you are expecting a reward; you do it because you are expected to do so, and people are relying and depending on you in your community."

World News from the BBC

The European Commission has approved plans by the American technology giant Microsoft to buy the Internet voice and video service Skype. Officials said the deal, worth $8.5bn, would not significantly impede competition. A BBC correspondent says Microsoft reckons Skype's popularity will provide new commercial opportunities, even though most of its services are free.

Two former monks at a Tibetan monastery are reported to have set themselves on fire in a protest against the authorities in southwestern China. A campaign group said one of the teenagers had died from his injuries after they set themselves alight near the restive Kirti monastery in Sichuan province.

Police in the Midwestern United States say there's been a spate of unusual attacks among members of the deeply traditional Amish community. The victims have included a 13-year-old girl and a 74-year-old man. From Washington, here's Paul Adams.

Over the past three weeks, at least half a dozen men and women have been attacked, losing their beards or, in the case of the women, clumps of their hair. One man was dragged from his home by the beard before his attackers tried to cut it off. These attacks appear to target cherished symbols of Amish identity. What makes them so baffling is that the attacks have been carried out by fellow Amish, apparently members of a particular clan from the town of Bergholz in rural eastern Ohio. The incidents may spring from some doctrinal dispute or merely represent a series of malicious pranks.

The British Ministry of Defence has opened an inquiry into allegations that its top politician gave a personal friend unauthorised access to the department. In a statement, the ministry said the investigation, which the Defence Secretary Liam Fox ordered himself, would examine his friend's visits to its headquarters building, what information he'd been given and whether there was any breach of security.

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