BBC news 2010-11-01 加文本

BBC news 2010-11-01

BBC News with David Austin

The authorities in Yemen have freed a student, Hanan al-Samawi, who'd been held on suspicion of sending the parcel bombs found on cargo planes in Britain and Dubai last week. Jon Leyne has the details.

The woman suspected of posting the packages, Hanan al-Samawi, has now been released after being questioned for around 24 hours. Her lawyer had been protesting her innocence, saying that she had no connection with radical, political or religious groups. He pointed out that whoever posted the packages left her phone number, a photocopy of her identity card and a return address when they posted the items. According to a Yemeni official, the shipping agent was asked if he recognised her as the person who did deliver the parcels. When he said she was not that person, the police concluded that it was a case of stolen identity and released her on bail.

Iraqi forces backed up by the Americans have stormed one of Baghdad's biggest churches to free several dozen hostages being held by gunmen inside. A number of people were killed or injured in the confrontation, but exact details are not yet known. The shoot-out at the church ended a day of violence in the city, which began when the gunmen tried to storm the nearby stock exchange. Jim Muir is in Baghdad.

Security forces surrounded the church and sealed off the area with helicopters hovering overhead. Then they stormed the building. Witnesses nearby said they heard two explosions from inside the church and more shooting. There are different figures from different sources for the number of attackers involved and how many of them were killed or captured. More than 50 worshippers taking part in Sunday evening Mass are believed to have been taken hostage. Some of them were reported among the dead and injured.

The final polling stations have just closed in Brazil's presidential election where voters have been choosing a successor to the hugely popular Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Opinion polls predict a strong victory for Dilma Rousseff, Lula's preferred candidate over the opposition challenger Jose Serra. If she wins, Ms Rousseff will be Brazil's first woman president. She's promised to continue policies that have fostered years of strong economic growth and lifted millions out of poverty.

The people of Ivory Coast have been voting in their thousands in the first presidential elections in 10 years aimed at bringing an end to a crisis which has split the country in two for much of their time. The poll follows a period of uneasy truce. John James is in Abidjan.

This vote is seen as a major breakthrough in a country split into a rebel and government zone after an attempted coup d'etat in 2002. A power-sharing government over the last 3.5 years has made considerable progress in restoring peace and stability, though militia groups and some rebel soldiers still haven't been disarmed. Most analysts think none of the 14 candidates will win the election outright in the first round, triggering a second round in about three weeks, almost certainly between two of the main three candidates - Laurent Gbagbo, Alassane Ouattara and Henri Konan Bedie.

World News from the BBC

The South African President Jacob Zuma has named 10 new ministers in a major cabinet reshuffle. He said the changes, amounting to nearly a third of all ministers, would help the government work faster to improve the lives of South Africa's poor.

Polls have closed in Tanzania's general election seen as the liveliest contest since the introduction of multiparty democracy in the 1990s. Casting his vote, the incumbent President Jakaya Kikwete said that he expected to repeat his landslide victory of 2005. He's faced a strong challenge from a former priest, Willibrod Slaa, who's campaigned against corruption.

A group of people who say they've been abused by Roman Catholic priests in the past have gathered in Rome to hold a candle-lit vigil at the edge of St Peter's Square. They say they'll leave personal messages to the Pope, calling for more determined action against abuses. The organisers have predicted that hundreds of abuse victims and their relatives would attend, but the actual turnout so far has been much smaller.

The reign of the American Tiger Woods as the world's No.1 golfer has come to an end after more than five years. The new champion is Lee Westwood. Here is Marcus George.

Under what is a complex ranking system, the sporting legend has been displaced by the Englishman Lee Westwood, one of the heroes of the European team's victory in the Ryder Cup earlier this month. He's the first European to gain the position since Nick Faldo in 1994, and he's surged in form over the last couple of years. But the rankings have also been affected by Tiger Woods' five-month break from the sport after confessing to extramarital affairs, which ultimately led to his divorce.

Marcus George reporting.

One of the late President John Kennedy's closest aides, Theodore Ted Sorensen, has died at the age of 82. He was a key associate of Kennedy, working closely with the late president when he made some of his most iconic speeches to the extent that some scholars raised the question of who wrote what.

And those are the latest stories from BBC News.