BBC news 2012-01-10 加文本 讲解翻译

BBC news 2012-01-10

BBC News with Marion Marshall

With months to go before the US presidential election, the White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley is stepping down. The post will be given to Jack Lew, currently in charge of the budget. From Washington, Marcus George reports.

In a brief announcement, the president said Bill Daley had accomplished extraordinary work in an extraordinary year. He recited a list of critical moments in which the former banker played a crucial role. Behind the scenes, Mr Daley's resignation is said to have come as a surprise. He'd been in the job for just one year and had been expected to stay until the presidential election in November. Stepping into his shoes is Jack Lew, the current budget director. He has considerable experience in fiscal management and also served under President Clinton.

Muslims and Christians in Nigeria are on the move after recent attacks on each other's places of worship. A crowd in southern Nigeria has burnt a mosque today. There's heightened religious tension across Nigeria after Islamist militants attacked churches on Christmas Day and killed at least 35 people. Mark Lobel reports.

Thousands of Muslims living in southern Nigeria are reported to be fleeing north following growing tensions after recent sectarian attacks. Many Christians are reported to be heading in the opposite direction. Last week, dozens of Christians were killed by the militant Islamist Boko Haram as gunmen from the group shot at random in churches, at a community centre and a beauty salon. On Monday, a mosque was reportedly attacked in Edo state in the south, injuring 10 people - apparently in response to last week's fatal shootings of Christians. The president of the Nigerian Christian Association, speaking before the mosque attack, expressed his fears that Nigeria may be on the brink of a civil war.

Two bombs have exploded in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing at least 14 people. The authorities say one bomb targeted Shia pilgrims while the other went off near a police vehicle in a Shia neighbourhood. The attacks coincide with raised tensions between Iraq's Shia-led government and the main Sunni-backed political group.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron says uncertainty over Scotland's future within the United Kingdom is damaging its economy. The British government is expected to publish proposals for a referendum on independence in Scotland, which might require a simple choice of yes or no. But Mr Cameron has denied trying to dictate terms to the Scottish government.

"All the time business is asking 'Is Scotland going to be part of the United Kingdom? Are they going to stay together? Should I invest?' We're beginning to see companies asking those questions, so I think it's at least rational to put to the Scottish people 'Would it be better to have a more fair and decisive question put earlier?' But we're not going to dictate this."

The United States has called on Iran to release an American of Iranian descent who's been sentenced to death in Tehran. The man, Amir Mirza Hekmati, was convicted of spying for the CIA and of trying to implicate Iran in terrorism. He has 20 days in which to appeal.

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Police in Mexico say they have found 13 bodies piled up at a petrol station in the western state of Michoacan. They said the bodies of 10 adults and three youths had signs of torture and bullet wounds to the head. Officials said threatening messages had been left next to the bodies, indicating that the killing may be related to the settling of scores between rival drug gangs. Michoacan is at the centre of a violent battle between the Familia Michoacana cartel and an offshoot of the same gang, which calls itself the Knights Templar.

The Swiss National Bank has announced that its chairman Philipp Hildebrand is resigning with immediate effect following allegations that he was involved in insider trading. With more details, here's our economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

In August last year, Mr Hildebrand's wife converted Swiss francs into dollars. The trade has become so controversial because the central bank subsequently announced that it would cap the value of the Swiss franc. That made the dollars more valuable in local currency. There had been allegations that Mr Hildebrand authorised the August trade himself. He denied that, and says he did not even know about the trade until after it had been executed. But he says he cannot provide conclusive evidence of that and has, therefore, decided to resign.

An 18-month-old boy has been found dead in a sewage treatment plant after plunging through a hole in a pavement in western Russia. The child had been travelling in a pushchair on Sunday afternoon when the pavement in the city of Bryansk suddenly buckled, and mother and baby fell through a large hole. The boy's mother was pulled to safety, but the baby disappeared.

The Argentine footballer Lionel Messi has again won the award for the world's best player - the Ballon d'Or. In 2011, the 24-year-old Barcelona forward scored 59 goals in 70 matches, helping the team to win the Spanish league, the European Champions League and the Club World Cup.

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