BBC news 2012-01-09 加文本 讲解翻译

BBC news 2012-01-09

BBC News with Gaenor Howells

President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria says the Islamist group Boko Haram now has supporters and members within the government. More than 80 people have been killed in the last few weeks in attacks apparently carried out by the Islamist group. On Saturday, the head of the Christian Association of Pastors warned that the country was slipping towards civil war. Mark Lobel reports from Lagos.

President Goodluck Jonathan was attending a Remembrance Day church service when he delivered his comments on the country's worsening security situation. For the first time, he conceded there were members and supporters of Boko Haram - which is fighting for Sharia law across Nigeria - in his government, the military, police and security services. The president added that the battle with militant Islamists is more complicated than the civil war 46 years ago when more than a million people died.

Nigerian members of parliament have called on the government to think again over the removal of the petrol subsidy, which has seen fuel prices double since the start of the year. Trade unions have appealed for strikes on Monday to demonstrate mass opposition to the measure.

Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo say the league's observer mission to Syria will continue its work despite criticism that it has failed to halt the continued killing of Syrian civilians by the government. Here's our correspondent in Cairo Jon Leyne.

The Arab ministers heard a detailed report from the head of the monitoring mission in Syria, looking at maps, diagrams and photos of what the observers have seen. The ministers examined criticism that the mission has done little to end the violence against civilians in Syria. But so far the decision has been to continue. The Arab League secretary general insisted that the number of people killed had been reduced by the presence of observers, though the statement from the league afterwards called on the Syrian government to do more to protect civilians.

The President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, has addressed African leaders and tens of thousands of party supporters on the centenary of the African National Congress. At a rally in the ANC's birthplace, Bloemfontein, President Zuma paid tribute to the people and organisations who helped end apartheid. Frail health prevented the former President Nelson Mandela from attending.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has begun treating patients in the South Sudanese town of Pibor, the scene of recent tribal violence which left hundreds of people dead. Martin Plaut has more.

This is the beginning of what will be a long process to restore services in the region around Pibor after fighters of the Lou Nuer rampaged through the town. The head of MSF in South Sudan told the BBC that his staff at first had to clean and re-equip its clinic and compound which had been ransacked in the violence. He said the local Murle population was drifting back to the town from which they had fled. MSF has now contacted all but 47 of its staff who'd run into the bush to escape the conflict.

World News from the BBC

The former President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, has said he is ending his self-imposed exile to return to Pakistan despite the threat of arrest on arrival. Addressing a public rally in Karachi from Dubai via a video link, General Musharraf said he'd arrive in Karachi at the end of the month and asked his supporters to prepare for elections. Mr Musharraf is wanted in Pakistan in connection with the murder of the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He denies any involvement.

The American government has ordered the expulsion from the United States of the Venezuelan consul general in Miami. The American government hasn't given a reason for the action, but a television documentary recently accused Mr Acosta of participating in an alleged Iranian plot to hack into American national security facilities.

The world-famous British scientist Stephen Hawking has been forced by illness to miss a symposium organised to mark his 70th birthday. Some of the most eminent physicists in the world had gathered to honour him. Our science correspondent David Shukman reports from Cambridge.

When he was wished a very happy birthday, the room erupted with loud applause. The talk that he planned to give in person had been pre-recorded and was played without him. He described his journey of scientific discovery, saying he didn't think humanity would survive another thousand years without escaping beyond our planet. But he urged everyone to remain optimistic. "However difficult life may seem," he said, "there's always something you can succeed at. It matters that you don't just give up."

A detailed study of the effects of climate change on the mountain regions of Europe has warned that many alpine meadows could disappear within the next few decades. Researchers from 13 European countries said that some plants were literally running out of mountain as warmer conditions forced them even higher to seek familiar colder habitats.

BBC News