BBC news 2011-03-07 加文本

BBC news 2011-03-07

BBC News with David Austin

An armed British team thought to include members of the special forces has left Libya by warship after being detained by opposition forces. Witnesses said most of the eight-man group arrived by helicopter on Friday near the eastern city of Benghazi, from where Jon Leyne reports.

Witnesses told us that the men denied to Libyan guards that they had weapons. But when their bags were searched, they were found to contain guns, explosives, maps and passports from at least four different nationalities. Since then, there’ve been tense negotiations between the opposition leadership here in Benghazi and the British authorities - negotiations which continued on board the British warship HMS Cumberland when it arrived unexpectedly in Benghazi today. The Foreign Office in London has now confirmed that a deal was agreed and the men were allowed to leave on board the ship when it sailed shortly before sunset. 

It’s been a day of intensified fighting in Libya with forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi mounting strong counter-attacks against opposition-controlled areas. In the east, artillery, missiles and helicopter gunships were used in the coastal town of Bin Jawad, forcing back the rebels who’d captured the area on Saturday. John Simpson reports on the latest fighting.

We were driving close to Bin Jawad, where the fighting is concentrated, when two big mortar-bombs landed quite nearby. The rebels don’t seem so enthusiastic and excitable anymore. Their mood is grimmer and more determined now. Colonel Gaddafi’s television service in Tripoli has been claiming that his troops have recaptured Ras Lanuf, the strategic oil terminal but for now at any rate, it’s still firmly in the hands of the rebels. But there is a great deal of nervousness among the defenders at present.

Reports from Egypt say democracy activists have been attacked by men in plain clothes armed with knives outside the offices of the interior ministry in Cairo. It’s the first time since the toppling of President Mubarak last month that the protesters appeared to have come under such an attack. Over the weekend, activists stormed several offices of the secret police.

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Damian Grammaticas

World News from the BBC

Allies of the man internationally recognised as the president of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, say their homes in the city of Abidjan have been ransacked by supporters of his rival, Laurent Gbagbo. Gangs of youths backed by police are reported to have loaded trucks with the belongings of senior members of Mr Ouattara’s administration.

Officials in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan say at least 12 civilians, including five children, were killed on Sunday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb. The provincial governor accused the Taliban of planting the device. Jill McGivering reports.

Roadside bombs are commonly used by insurgents. They are intended for members of the security forces and officials, but often kill local people instead. Earlier, in the capital Kabul, hundreds of people took to the streets, protesting about the deaths of nine boys a few days ago in Kunar province. The children were gathering firewood when they were killed in an attack by Nato-led forces. The demonstrators called on American troops to leave Afghanistan.

Jill McGivering reporting

With nearly all the votes counted in the Estonian general election, it appears that the centre-right coalition led by Andrus Ansip has been returned to power. The count shows the Reform Party and its allies have 82 seats in the 101-seat parliament. Previously, it had been a minority administration.

The British Foreign Secretary William Hague says he has full confidence in the Queen’s son Prince Andrew in his role as special representative for international trade. In recent days, the prince has been criticised for his judgment in befriending a financier who is a convicted American sex offender. But Mr Hague said in a BBC interview that in visits to countries across the world, he’d seen the many benefits which Prince Andrew had brought to the role.

And that’s the BBC News.