BBC news 2011-12-30 加文本

BBC news 2011-12-30

BBC News with David Austin

Activist groups in Syria say government forces have killed up to 40 people in new violence on Thursday. They say security forces shot into the crowds gathering in neighbourhoods that were expecting visits by observers from the Arab League. Jim Muir reports from Beirut.

The body of 40-year-old Mario Khutan lies in a darkened room in Hama, his young son mourning over him. Activists say he was one of many killed by security forces since the Arab observers began their mission on Tuesday. Wherever they've gone, the observers have drawn huge crowds of anti-regime protesters - all desperate to vent their grievances. They are chanting "the people want you to hang Bashar". This was in Idlib in the northwest, near the Turkish border, and they were referring to President Bashar al-Assad.

Security forces in Egypt have raided the offices of a number of pro-democracy and human rights groups. Computers and papers are said to have been seized. Among the offices raided are two US-based organisations: the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute. The United States said it's deeply concerned over the raids. A spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, described them as inappropriate.

"We call on the Egyptian government to immediately end the harassment of (NGOs,) NGO staff, return all property and resolve this issue immediately."

Egypt recently blamed foreign intervention for the resurgence of anti-government protests.

Bahrain is to put five police officers on trial over allegations that they were involved in torturing to death two detainees linked to the mass anti-government protests earlier this year. Bahrain's top prosecutor said two of the policemen are accused of beating the men to death, and the others of failing to report what happened.

The governing AK party in Turkey has admitted that Turkish warplanes which attacked northern Iraq overnight, killing 35 people, probably hit the wrong targets. Turkey's pro-Kurdish party described the killings as a massacre of civilians. Janet Barrie reports.

A spokesman for the governing AK party said the raids were saddening, and he promised there'd be no cover-up of any mistakes. He said the victims were not Kurdish separatist guerrillas but smugglers bringing cigarettes into Turkey from Iraq. Local people say smugglers often use the remote mountain passes to cross the border, but so too do Kurdish rebels from the separatist group, the PKK. The Turkish authorities say they are now investigating possible failures in intelligence reports.

Janet Barrie reporting

A Russian nuclear submarine has caught fire at a shipyard in the northern region of Murmansk while undergoing repairs. Officials said there had been no radiation leak. They said the craft's reactors had been switched off, no missiles were on board at the time and that no one was injured.

This is the World News from the BBC.

The Indian government's controversial anti-corruption bill is facing an uncertain future after it failed to pass through parliament. The law was approved by the lower house but stalled in the upper, which adjourned at midnight after scenes of shouting and general chaos. The main measure proposed was the post of an ombudsman with the power to investigate public officials for corruption, but campaigners said this did not go far enough.

British police investigating the killing of an Indian student in Salford near Manchester say they are treating it as a hate crime. The student, Anuj Bidve, was shot dead at close range as he walked with a group of Indian friends early on Monday during a short holiday break in the city. From Salford, Fiona Trott reports.

In the pouring rain, passers-by have been stopping to read a message at the place where Anuj Bidve was killed in front of his friends. "We hope you don't blame us all," it says. It's been written by local residents, who say they are mortified that it happened on their doorstep. They also believe it may have been racially motivated. Forensic officers have been on their hands and knees, scraping out the contents of drains, but still no murder weapon has been found.

The Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says there are still difficult times ahead despite a drop in Italy's borrowing costs for two days in a row. Italy borrowed $9bn on the financial markets at slightly lower interest rates, but it was only a whisker below the danger threshold of 7%. Mr Monti said he was encouraged by the results, but that market turbulence was not over.

Reports from Somalia say an employee of the aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres has shot two of the group's international aid workers, killing one of them and injuring the other. A security official said a Somali man wielding a gun attacked the aid workers inside MSF's compound in the capital Mogadishu. He said the gunman had been taken into custody.

That's the BBC News.