BBC news 2012-01-02 加文本 讲解翻译

BBC news 2012-01-02

BBC News with Iain Purdon

The United Nations mission in South Sudan says government troops have retaken control of the centre of the town of Pibor, which was captured by tribesmen on Saturday. But a spokeswoman for the mission, Liz Grande, told the BBC the situation was still fluid. She said thousands of Lou Nuer tribesmen were still on the periphery of the town, where they were endangering civilians who'd fled the fighting. Here's our East Africa correspondent Will Ross.

The next few days will show to what extent the government of South Sudan is in control of this fledgling nation. President Salva Kiir has called on the 6,000 armed men from the Lou Nuer tribe to halt their attacks on the rival Murle people. But they appear determined to take revenge for past cattle raids and to rescue dozens of abducted children. The United Nations peacekeeping force has a robust mandate, but it's not clear whether it has the capacity to stop the violence, which is now on an alarming scale.

The Nigerian authorities have announced the scrapping of fuel subsidies with immediate effect. The subsidies, which cost the country $8bn a year, keep the price of fuel low, and their removal will cause a sharp rise in prices. Plans to lift the subsidies have been strongly resisted by Nigeria's trade unions, which have warned of strikes and protests against the move. Many people see the low cost of fuel as the only benefit they receive from the country's oil wealth.

Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo say nine people were killed and nearly 50 others injured during an attempted prison escape in the east of the country. The casualties occurred at the Bukavu central prison when a grenade exploded. Jonny Hogg takes up the story.

According to the police, two men - one a jailed army colonel, another a civilian prisoner - were behind the plot to blow open the gates in an attempt to escape. The provincial head of police said that the civilian had pulled the pin of the grenade but failed to throw it, killing at least nine and injuring nearly 50 more, some seriously. The deaths come a day after three other prisoners, all jailed in relation to the murder of a human rights activist, had successfully escaped from the same jail.

Iran says its naval forces have carried out a missile test, shooting down an aerial target with a medium-range rocket. The launch came during a large military exercise near the Strait of Hormuz. James Reynolds reports.

Iran's naval commander Mahmoud Mousavi says that the armed forces have successfully tested a new medium-range ground-to-air missile. Iran has tried and failed to buy this kind of weapon from abroad, so now it's designed its own as a way of defending itself against an attack. Separately, the country's nuclear agency has announced that its scientists have produced the nation's first nuclear fuel rod. That's potentially a step towards building a nuclear programme without any help from abroad.

World News from the BBC

An advisory body to the Arab League has called for the withdrawal of the organisation's observer mission from Syria, saying it provides cover for continuing repression. The speaker of the Arab Parliament said the presence of the monitors had allowed the Syrian government to continue what he described as its "inhumane actions".

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have agreed to hold their first meeting in more than a year in an effort to restart peace talks. Jordan said it would host the gathering on Tuesday as part of what it called serious efforts to resume direct peace negotiations. Sean Fanning reports.

After a brief resumption in late 2010, talks collapsed over continued Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Officials are stressing that Tuesday's meeting does not amount to renewed talks but is about exploring how to resume direct negotiations. The Jordanian foreign minister will host meetings with the Israeli prime minister's chief envoy Yitzhak Molcho and the main Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. Diplomats from the United Nations, the European Union and the United States and Russia will also be involved.

European leaders are warning of a tough year ahead as they grapple with the eurozone debt crisis. Ten years after euro coins and banknotes went into circulation, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the single currency had made her country's economy stronger, but she said 2012 would be more difficult than 2011. The French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the crisis wasn't over yet.

Pope Benedict has appointed an American married priest who converted from Anglicanism to oversee the passage of converts to Roman Catholicism in the United States. The Reverend Jeffrey Steenson, formerly an Episcopalian bishop from Texas, will lead a structure created by the Pope to allow Anglicans to join the Catholic Church in groups while maintaining certain Anglican traditions.

More on those stories online, that's the BBC News.