BBC news 2011-10-19 加文本

BBC news 2011-10-19

BBC News with Sue Montgomery

The Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held captive in Gaza for more than five years, is now back at home after being reunited with his family in Israel. Crowds of people in his hometown Mitzpe Hila gathered along the road leading to his house. Outside the building is the BBC's Richard Galpin.

They've been dancing; they've been singing. At the moment, I can see them waving the Israeli flags. And after the helicopter landed just outside the village, they brought Gilad Shalit in through the streets of this village, which were lined by the people who live here. They were showering the vehicles with flowers; they had champagne bottles which they were opening and spraying the vehicles with champagne.

Sergeant Shalit has been released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the deal reached with Hamas as a very difficult decision. On the Palestinian side, more than 100,000 people gathered in the main square in Gaza City to celebrate the release of almost 500 prisoners freed in exchange for Gilad Shalit. The BBC's Jon Donnison is there.

You've got a mass Hamas rally. Well over 100,000 people packed into Katiba Square in the centre of Gaza City, waving the Hamas green Palestinian flags, and on the stage behind them, you do have some of those Palestinian prisoners who are being given really a huge welcoming rally.

Speaking in Cairo, the Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said the group had scored a strategic victory over Israel. Our Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen reflects on the day's events.

Mr Netanyahu needed to close a running sore for Israelis; Hamas needed a victory for its people and to score points over its rival, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who's often asked Israel to release prisoners without success. The prisoner deal does not touch the big issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians. This was a transaction between Israel and Hamas. It doesn't bring a wider peace deal closer.

An official investigation into the conduct of the former British Defence Minister Liam Fox, who resigned at the weekend, has concluded that he broke the ministerial code. The report by the head of the civil service said there was a clear conflict of interest in his relationship with his close friend Adam Werritty. Doctor Fox stepped down after days of controversy over his ties to Mr Werritty, who has no official role but attended defence ministry meetings.

Police in the US city of Philadelphia say they have arrested three people who imprisoned three men and a woman with mental disabilities in a small and squalid basement room, and collected their social security cheques. The four victims were found malnourished and suffering from bedsores. At least one man was chained to a radiator.

World News from the BBC

The BBC has learnt that the president of Fifa, Sepp Blatter, is to call for the release of court documents which could reveal that senior officials at football's world governing body were paid bribes in return for granting television and sponsorship rights during the 1990s. The documents relate to a criminal investigation into the collapse of Fifa's former marketing partner, International Sport and Leisure.

Trials of a new malaria vaccine in Africa have raised hope of finding the world's first successful immunisation against the disease. Infants given the vaccine were half as likely to get the disease. More than 15,000 children under 18 months took part in the study, which has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Here's our health correspondent Fergus Walsh.

An effective vaccine would transform the life chances of millions. Nine-month-old Pamela from Kenya is one of those to receive the experimental jab being trialled in several African countries. Bed nets and insecticide will remain vital in the fight against malaria. The vaccine is no magic bullet, but even the jab that was 50% effective could save huge numbers of lives in the years to come.

The US investment bank Goldman Sachs has posted a quarterly loss for the first time since the start of the world economic crisis in 2008. The bank said it lost more than $400m in the third quarter of this year. Its biggest hit was a $1bn loss in its investment in a leading Chinese bank.

Russia is considering building a Moon colony in what satellite images suggest are lunar caves. Sergei Krikalyov, head of Russia's cosmonaut training centre, said a Japanese spacecraft in 2008 photographed a hole in the Moon's surface, which could lead to tunnels forged by lava from ancient volcanoes.

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