BBC news 2009-02-02 加文本

BBC 2009-02-02


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BBC News with Neil Nunes.

An operation is under way in Colombia to release four hostages held by the left-wing FARC movement. Helicopters with Red Cross representatives on board flew to a prearranged spot in the jungle to collect the hostages. The rebels say they intend to free three police officers and a soldier who were captured last year. A journalist travelling with the relief mission said the military had delayed the handover, an accusation strongly rejected by a Columbian official. Inirida Guarnizo, the mother of the hostage Walter Jose Lozano, said she had faith in her son's release.

"I heard the voice of God, that's why I told everybody, my friends, the media. Yes, I know it is him, and they would ask 'how do you know?', and I just knew my son was coming back. The Lord told me."

Israeli planes have bombed a Hamas target in the central part of the Gaza Strip hours after the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the army to prepare a severe response to continued Palestinian rocket fire. Reports described the target as an empty security headquarters, and said there were no casualties. Israeli planes are also reported to have bombed tunnel networks in southern Gaza. Bethany Bell reports from Jerusalem.

Israeli airstrikes are continuing over Gaza, as we speak. We understand from Palestinian sources that one of them hit a Gaza police station, the Gaza police station was empty, and we also understand that the Israelis have hit targets in Rafah in the south. And we understand that those targets include a number of tunnels, which, the Israelis say, were used to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Gaza. Now what we understand from Palestinian sources is that there've been no casualties that people have moved away from these parts of Gaza, Rafah in particular, and also from the police station because they did fear that such strikes might happen.

The President of the Palestinian authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has ruled out reconciliation talks with Hamas, unless it recognizes the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. Mr. Abbas accused Hamas of putting the lives and aspirations of Palestinians at risk. Last week, the exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal dismissed the PLO, which is dominated by Mr. Abbas's faction, Fatah, as absolute calling for a new national authority. From Cairo, Yolande Knell reports.

President Abbas made his angry comments at a hospital in Cairo, after meeting patients injured in the conflict in Gaza. He accused Hamas of putting the lives of Palestinians and their aspirations for an independent Palestinian state at risk. There has been a rift between Fatah and Hamas, the two main Palestinian factions since Hamas took control of Gaza by force in mid 2007. A recent proposal from the Hamas leadership to replace the Palestine Liberation Organization dominated by Mr. Abbas and the groups loyal to him has deepened the divide.

World News from the BBC.

Iceland's newly appointed coalition government has set out its plan to rescue the country from financial ruin. The Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said her priority would be to replace the central bank board which fails to prevent the collapse of the country's banking system. She said she'd asked a parliamentary committee to look into joining the European Union.

The Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has welcomed the enthronement of a new leader of the country's Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill. Mr. Medvedev, who attended the ceremony along with the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said he hoped it would create new conditions for dialogue between church and state. Patriarch Kirill said his priority was to promote the church to young people.

African leaders meeting in Addis Ababa for the African Union Summit have discussed whether to call officially for the lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe, as President Robert Mugabe prepares to share power with his opposition rivals in a unity government. The leaders said the measure would help to ease the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe. The Malawian President, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, told the BBC that sanctions were no longer needed.

"There would be no point in continuing with the sanctions if indeed an agreement has been reached to go forward. The reason behind it no longer exists. And one hopes that the international community will move quickly to prepare a package for Zimbabwe, so that, you know, we can then see progress in that part of the world."

As fighting continues between the army and Tamil Tiger rebels in northern Sri Lanka, there are reports that a hospital has been hit by shellfire. The International Committee of the Red Cross says two people were killed when shells landed in the compound of the hospital. It lies in an enclave where rebel fighters are holding out in the midst of many tens of thousands of civilians. (WWw.hXen.com)

That's the latest BBC News.