朱莉·坎德勒為你播報BBC新聞。
華盛頓中部美國海軍總部大樓發生槍擊案，包括嫌疑持槍歹徒在內的13人死亡。警方稱嫌犯是一名34歲的德克薩斯人，另一名歹徒仍然逍遙法外。當第一陣槍聲響起時，有的工作人員剛來上班，他們稱現場一片慌亂，人們從大樓跑出。在剛才舉行的新聞發佈會上，華盛頓市長文森特·格雷稱該市從未經歷過這類事件。
“這是可怕的慘劇，當然是近來最嚴重的事件，想不起來華盛頓曾發生過這樣的案件。我們知道美國其他城市發生過這種事，但哥倫比亞區卻從未發生過。”
警方稱沒有理由認為這是恐怖主義襲擊，凱蒂·沃森在華盛頓報導。
用總統奧巴馬的話來說，美國正為另一場大規模槍擊案哀悼。案件發生在9小時前的華盛頓海軍大院，這裡是美國最重要的海軍控制中心。聯邦調查局稱一名槍手死亡，此人名叫亞倫·亞曆克西斯，34歲。槍擊案發生後，國會山加強了安全措施。參議院關了門，警方繼續進行追捕。官方稱這場襲擊不存在動機，但人們質疑像這樣安保重重的大樓居然能發生這樣的槍擊案。
經過敘利亞化武使用調查獨立專家的首次官方確認，聯合國檢查員得出結論，上月首都大馬士革附近的襲擊中使用了相當大規模的化學武器。聯合國秘書長潘基文稱這份報告提供了化武襲擊的有力證據，外交記者詹姆斯·羅賓斯報導。
檢查員在報告中稱，“我們收集的環境化學和醫學樣本清楚且有力地表明，8月21日的襲擊中使用了含有神經毒素沙林的地對地火箭。”報告得出結論：在敘利亞持續的衝突中，化學武器一直被相當大規模地使用。聯合國秘書長潘基文說，國際社會有責任追究犯罪者的責任，他說敘利亞承認擁有化學武器太晚了，聯合國秘書長似乎已經明確指出了罪責人。
土耳其擊落一架敘利亞武裝直升機，土耳其副總理稱這架直升機越境兩公里飛到土耳其領空，在多次得到警告後被導彈擊落。敘利亞稱這架直升機只是越過土耳其領空很短的距離，敘利亞軍隊的聲明稱，土耳其的倉促應對表明其真實目的是使邊界緊張局勢升級。
BBC新聞報導。
義大利努力扶正傾翻郵輪歌詩達協和號的工作繼續到夜晚，這艘船在吉廖島觸礁20個月後，工程師成功將這艘豪華郵輪從石塊處移開。但觀看打撈工作的BBC記者艾倫·約翰斯頓說，這項任務花費的時間比料想的長。
下午晚些時候，因為很難將繩索綁到郵輪上，整個打撈工作推遲了一個多小時，導致任務已經遲於原計劃。原本希望在日落前將郵輪浮起來，但這個目標沒有實現。現在工程師們正商量晚上加班加點，等任務完成最早要到黎明了。
因為處於金融危機最嚴重時期，英國政府即將出售該國最重要銀行之一的部分股份。2008年該國曾用納稅人的錢來拯救勞埃德銀行，如今計畫出售39%控股權中的6%。這可能將籌資50億美元，這意味著英國政府將收回為這些股份付出的成本。
就在英格麗颶風抵達墨西哥灣岸區數小時後，東部韋拉克魯斯州發生泥石流，導致至少12人喪生。自週六以來，西太平洋海岸一直遭受熱帶風暴曼努埃爾的襲擊，導致另外22人喪生。阿卡普爾科風景區周圍的地區也是受損最嚴重的地區之一。
馬來西亞前共產黨領袖陳平在流亡泰國期間去世，終年88歲。陳平在馬來西亞叢林帶領遊擊隊作戰數十年，二戰中打過日本、英國殖民當局，並在獨立後與馬來西亞政府作戰。該共產黨于1989年簽署和平協定，但陳平從未被允許結束流放回國。
BBC新聞。
BBC News with Julie Candler
Thirteen people including a suspected gunman have been killed during a shooting rampage inside a US navy complex in central Washington. Police said the suspect was a 34-year-old Texan, and another gunman might still be at large. Staff who were arriving for work when the first shots were fired have described a chaotic scramble to flee the building. At a news conference within the past hour, Washington’s mayor, Vincent Gray, said the city had experienced nothing like it before.
“This is a horrific tragedy, certainly one of the worst in recent memory and certainly I don’t know we can ever remember anything quite like this here in the city. We know these kinds of things have happened in other places, in other cities in America, but nothing like this here in the District of Columbia.”
The police said there was no reason to believe it was a terrorist attack. From Washington, here’s Katy Watson.
In President Obama’s words, America is mourning yet another mass shooting. It started nine hours ago at the Washington Navy Yard—one of the country’s most important naval-command centres. According to the FBI, one gunman was killed. He’s been identified as 34-year-old Aaron Alexis. The shooting led to tightened security on Capitol Hill. The Senate was closed down while police continued the hunt. Officers say there’s no motive for the attacks, but questions have already been raised about how in a building with heavy security something like this could have happened.
United Nations inspectors have concluded that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in an attack near the Syrian capital Damascus last month in the first official confirmation by independent experts of chemical weapons’ use in Syria. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said their report provided overwhelming evidence of a chemical attack. Here’s our diplomatic correspondent James Robbins.
The inspectors say in their report “the environmental chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used on August 21st”. The conclusion of their report is that chemical weapons have been used in the on-going conflict on a relatively large scale. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the international community had a responsibility to hold the perpetrators accountable. When he went on to add that Syria had belatedly acknowledged it possessed chemical weapons, the UN secretary general seemed to point the finger of blame pretty clearly.
Turkey has shot down a Syrian military helicopter. The Turkish deputy prime minister said the helicopter had strayed two kilometres into Turkish airspace and was hit with a missile after repeated warnings. Syria said the helicopter had strayed only a short distance into Turkish airspace. A statement by Syria’s armed forces said Turkey’s hasty reaction showed its true intention was to escalate the situation on the border.
World News from the BBC
An attempt to raise the capsized cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, is continuing into the night in Italy. Engineers have succeeded in lifting the luxury liner off the rocks 20 months after it ran aground off the island of Giglio. But the BBC’s Alan Johnston who’s watching the salvage effort says the operation has taken longer than expected.
Late in the afternoon, a difficulty with a cable attached to the wreck led to more than an hour suspension of the entire operation and the programme is well behind schedule now. There is originally talk of having the ship up on her keel by sunset, but that target was badly missed. They are talking about working all through the night and that it’ll be dawn at the earliest before this thing ends.
The British government is to sell off part of the stake in one of the country’s leading banks that it required at the height of the financial crisis. It used tax payers’ money to rescue Lloyds bank in 2008 and now plans to sell 6% of its 39% shareholding. This is likely to raise more than $5bn, meaning the British government will get back more or less the price it paid for these shares.
A mudslide in Mexico’s eastern state of Veracruz has killed at least 12 people hours after Hurricane Ingrid made landfall on the country’s gulf coast. Another 22 people have died since Saturday on the western Pacific coast which had been battered by Tropical Storm Manuel. The area around the resort of Acapulco has been one of the most-affected.
The former Malaysian communist party leader Chin Peng has died in exile in Thailand. He was 88. For decades Chin Peng led a guerrilla campaign in the jungles of Malaysia. He fought the Japanese in the Second World War, then British colonial authorities and finally the Malaysian government after independence. The communist party signed a peace treaty in 1989, but Chin Peng was never allowed to return from exile.
BBC News
