BBC news 2011-04-28 加文本

BBC news 2011-04-28

BBC News with David Legge

The rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas have reached an initial agreement, clearing the way for an interim unity government and a general election. The announcement was made in Egypt, which has been trying to reconcile the two sides for several years. Fighting between the groups broke out four years ago, leaving Fatah in control of the West Bank and Hamas running Gaza. Jonathan Head reports from Cairo.

This was an unexpected breakthrough. The two negotiators gave few details of what they'd agreed, but they said the leaders of Hamas and Fatah would be back in Cairo next week to sign a reconciliation document. After that, they said an interim government of technocrats would be formed to prepare for a new election in the Palestinian territories in a year's time. It isn't clear yet how they'll address hotly disputed issues like control of the security forces. But the Hamas negotiator insisted that they had solved everything and that there were no more sticking points.

A United Nations team visiting Libya to investigate human rights violations during the current conflict says it's already found evidence that they have occurred, but the UN says it's drawn no conclusions about who's responsible. From Tripoli, Ian Pannell.

The job of the three-man committee is to work out who was and is responsible. The government in Tripoli has said it will cooperate, but it's insisting all parties to the conflict, including Nato, be investigated. But as the investigators get to work, the fighting and Nato air strikes continue. Reports from the western city of Misrata suggest government forces have continued their bombardment of the port today, despite official denials.

Reports from Syria say that more than 200 members of the governing Baath party have resigned in protest at recent government action against demonstrators. A BBC correspondent in the region says the reports look credible, but says it's unlikely that they will be high-ranking officials.

The chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has called on the country's politicians to take action to cut the deficit in the government's finances. Our economics correspondent Andrew Walker reports.

Mr Bernanke described the government finances as the most important long-term economic problem that the United States faces. He said the deficit is unsustainable, and if not addressed, it would have significant consequences for economic growth, financial stability and the American standard of living. A leading credit rating agency recently expressed concerns about the deficit and warned that the US government could be downgraded from its AAA rating. Mr Bernanke said that if it "goads" a response from political leaders, that warning was a constructive action.

US defence officials say that eight American troops and an American contractor were killed when an Afghan military pilot opened fire after an argument at Kabul airport. It's the latest in a string of deadly incidents to take place inside military or government installations, a favourite target of Taliban.

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The authorities in Argentina say they've detained a Colombian man they accuse of being the mastermind behind submarines used to smuggle drugs to the United States. The man, Ignacio Alvarez Meyendorff, is suspected of working for the powerful Colombian Norte del Valle drug cartel.

Britain has ordered the acting high commissioner of Malawi to leave the UK following the expulsion of her British counterpart in Malawi. The British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the expulsion of Fergus Cochrane-Dyet was totally unacceptable. Malawian newspaper published a diplomatic cable, in which Mr Cochrane-Dyet described President Bingu wa Mutharika as "autocratic and intolerant of criticism".

A team of researchers in Italy has started searching for the remains of the woman long thought to be the model for Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, the Mona Lisa. The identity of the subject of the Mona Lisa remains one of the great mysteries of the art world. From Rome, here's Duncan Kennedy.

For five centuries, nobody has really known who she is. But now a team of researchers is hoping to identify the woman, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting. It's begun looking for the remains of Lisa Gherardini, who's long thought to have been the model who posed for the picture. For the next three days, the team will use a ground-penetrating radar at the St Orsola convent in Florence after a recently discovered death certificate suggested she was buried there. They hope to carbon-date the skull to confirm her age, and then rebuild her face to compare with the painting.

The Australian state-owned broadcaster ABC has been stopped from broadcasting an alternative version of Friday's royal wedding in Britain. ABC had intended to show the wedding with commentary from a team of comedians. But the programme was cancelled because a contract between the royal family and broadcasters forbids using footage of the wedding for comedy or satire. A spokesman for the royal family said the rules were standard practice.

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