BBC news 2012-01-01 加文本 讲解翻译

BBC news 2012-01-01

BBC News with Sue Montgomery

The Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in some parts of the country following a series of bomb attacks on Christmas Day. The Islamist group Boko Haram said it carried them out. President Jonathan has described the group as a "cancerous" growth attempting to destroy Nigeria. Tomi Oladipo reports from Lagos.

In a live address to the nation, President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in some areas in the north of the country, which have become scenes of violence. The president also announced that the borders of these states would be closed to prevent what he described as terrorist elements from getting in. A special military unit will also be set up under the chief of defence staff to overcome the security challenges. President Jonathan has been under increasing pressure to address the violence that has plagued many parts of northern Nigeria, and this announcement reveals his toughest stance so far.

The army in South Sudan says 6,000 warriors from the Lou Nuer tribe have attacked the town of Pibor - home to the rival Murle tribe. On Friday, the United Nations deployed more troops to Pibor, but there are reported to be only 800 soldiers defending the town. Thousands of people had already fled Pibor. Here's our East Africa correspondent Will Ross.

South Sudan's army spokesman Colonel Philip Aguer told the BBC that thousands of armed men from the Lou Nuer tribe entered Pibor town and set fire to the grass-thatched homes and a hospital. He said the army and the UN peacekeepers were in defensive positions protecting the town's administrative centre. But being totally outnumbered by about 6,000 attackers, they were unable to prevent the homes being burnt to the ground. Almost all residents of Pibor are from the Murle tribe, and they had already fled.

There have been more clashes in Syria between anti-government protesters and security forces. The violence comes on the fifth day of the Arab League observer mission. As foreign journalists are restricted from reporting inside Syria, Jon Donnison sent this account from neighbouring Lebanon.

Video posted on the Internet from Idlib, in the north of the country, appeared to show water cannon being used on protesters. There was also the sound of gunfire. Meanwhile, Arab League observers continued their mission. In more online video, a man who appeared to be a monitor in the southern town of Deraa acknowledged he'd seen government snipers firing from rooftops. But the head of the observer mission, Mustafa Dabi, has since told the BBC his colleague was mistaken. This will add to demonstrators' claims that Mr Dabi is biased towards the Syrian government.

The American space agency Nasa is about to put two new satellites into orbit around the Moon to map its gravity. Scientists expect the data to reveal what exactly lies beneath the Moon's surface, shedding new light on how the lunar body formed and how it's changed through time. This is the first mission to focus specifically on the Moon's gravity.

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Protesters have clashed with police in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey. Demonstrators are said to have chanted slogans and thrown stones at the police, who responded with water cannon. The violence follows a police raid during which two suspected Kurdish rebels died.

A 15-year-old Afghan child bride has spoken of her torture at the hands of her husband's family. Sahar Gul, an orphan, was sold into marriage by her brother for $5,000. Sahar says she was locked up and brutally beaten. She's now recovering in hospital. Caroline Wyatt reports from Kabul.

Lying in her hospital bed, Sahar's young face still bears the evidence of her six-month ordeal: one eye half shut and swollen, her skin a spider's web of scars. She's only 15, but she was married off at 14 to a man twice her age. He and his family locked her in a basement and starved and tortured her. The police rescued Sahar after her family raised the alarm. She told them that it was her mother-in-law who'd pulled out her hair and her nails. The police say she was also burnt with cigarettes. No one is sure why the abuse was so violent although some believe that Sahar's in-laws were trying to force her into prostitution.

Two people have been killed and 17 injured in an attack on a police station in southern Colombia. Officials said an explosive device was thrown into the police station in Orito, killing the wife and eight-month-old baby of the local commander. Police said the country's largest left-wing guerrilla group, the Farc, was behind the attack.

Officials in Chile say they have detained an Israeli tourist they suspect of having caused a forest fire in a nature reserve in the south of the country. More than 100 sq km of pristine forest has already burnt in the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia. Hundreds of firefighters continue to fight the blaze.

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