BBC news 2008-11-29 加文本

BBC News with Nick Kelly.

Further explosions and gunfire have been heard from inside the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai as Indian forces continue operations against militants who stormed the hotel on Wednesday. In all, more than 140 people are now known to have been killed in Wednesday's multiple attacks across Mumbai. Karishma Vaswani is in the city.

The Indian police have been telling us that their search and rescue operation at this hotel is still underway. They are going room-to-room, door-to-door, trying to flush out any of the remaining hostages or the attackers inside. This is their most difficult and their last targeted building. This is the, really the last building that's been left for them to clear out and  to continue with their rescue operations, because, of course, the Jewish center we've, that appears to be, the situation there, appears to be resolved as well as the Oberoi, but here at the Taj the standoff continues.

A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed in the Nigerian city of Jos after clashes between rival political parties left at least 20 people dead and 300 wounded, thousands are reported to have fled their homes following a disputed local election. Alex Last has more.

The election had been played out along old ethnic and sectarian divisions, the violence soon followed that pattern. Groups of young men from both sides took to the streets armed with machetes. Reports say several homes, churches and mosques were burned. Jos in the middle of Nigeria has seen clashes like this before, in broad terms on one side, there are ethnic Hausa who are largely Muslim and regarded as settlers, and on the other are several ethnic groups who tend to be Christian who consider themselves to be indigenous to the area.

The European Union has condemned China's execution of a medical scientist for spying, on the very day EU officials met their Chinese counterparts to appeal for clemency. The Austrian foreign minister said that executing the scientist Wo Weihan was an affront to the entire European Union. Mr. Wo lived in Austria for several years. He was found guilty last year of passing military secrets to Taiwan. But his family says he was tortured into making a false confession.

A former British army interpreter who worked for a senior NATO commander in Afghanistan has been sentenced to ten years in prison for spying for Iran. Daniel James, who was born in Iran, was found guilty at a previous hearing of sending coded email messages to the Iranian embassy in Kabul. Robert Brumby reports.

Daniel James was sent to Afghanistan in May 2006 and was arrested in December of that year after making email contact with Colonel Mohammed Hossein Heydari, an Iranian military assistant based at Tehran's embassy in Kabul. Prosecutors said it was the height of betrayal. Sentencing today, Judge Roderick Evans said the gravest part of the crime was that he'd done it whilst actually severing in a war zone. The judge said he was a ripe target because of his disenchantment with the army and what he called his "narcissistic" personality. (WWw.hxen.net)

World News from the BBC

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have fired several mortar bombs across the border into a military base in southern Israel. Israelis say six soldiers were wounded. A small Palestinian group, allied to the Hamas Movement, the Popular Resistance Committees, said it carried out the attack to revenge the killing of some of its members.

More than 600 illegal migrants have landed on the Italian Mediterranean island of Lampedusa in one day. They made the crossing crammed into two boats in treacherous sea conditions. Duncan Kennedy reports from Rome.

The 600 migrants were on board two vessels, making them some of the biggest single landings on Lampedusa in recent months. The crossings were made in what's described as treacherous sea conditions. The migrants have now been taken to the island's identification center. More than 300 vessels have arrived on Lampedusa this year, bringing around 30,000 migrants. Many arrived in rickety boats, often without having had food or water for days. About a third of those arriving are from war zones or areas affected by drought in the Horn of Africa.

The Thai prime minister has promised to use peaceful means to end the sieges that have paralyzed Bangkok's airports for several days. In a television address, Somchai Wongsawat said the standoff with anti-government demonstrators will be resolved by negotiation but didn't say when that might be. The founder of the protest movement rejected the idea of talks, saying there was no way he would negotiate. Meanwhile, more protestors have been arriving at the airports.

A shop worker in the United States has been knocked to the ground and killed by frantic bargain hunters who broke down the doors of a superstore as it opened early in the morning. At least four shoppers were also trampled at the Wal-Mart store in the suburbs of New York. Customers around the US queued before dawn for shops to open on the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season.