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BBC news 2012-11-20

BBC News with Nick Kelly.

The Israeli Cabinet has been meeting to discuss the future of the military operation in the Gaza Strip following six days of violence. The Israeli public radio said the ministers gathered at the Defence Ministry were considering a ceasefire plan put forward by Egypt. President Obama has spoken to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mursi of Egypt. Israel and Hamas have both set up their conditions for a truce. The Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil who is leading mediation efforts said that could soon be an agreement.

I think we are close at the nature of this kind of negotiation, you know, it's very difficult to predict but... and we're very eager to stop this yesterday or even should have not started.

A leader of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad has been killed in a second Israeli air attack on a building used by media organizations in Gaza. Israel said four senior members of Islamic Jihad were hiding there.

The Colombia rebel group, the FARC, has declared a unilateral ceasefire as it begins the first face-to-face peace talks with the government in a decade. The two sides are meeting in Cuba to try to find a solution to almost 50 years of conflict. From Havana, here's Sarah Rainsford.

The chief negotiator for the FARC made his announcement that his delegation arrived for the peace talks. Ivan Marquez said all fighters had been ordered to stop all offensive military operation and acts of sabotage from midnight on Monday. The unilateral ceasefire with no apparent conditions attached will last two months, and it's the first of its kind in a decade. The Colombian government delegation entered without comments.

Rwanda has accused the army in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo of deliberately firing into Rwandan territory. The accusation was made as Congolese forces battled M23 rebels outside the city of Goma in eastern Congo. The rebels have given the Congolese government 24 hours to open peace talks. Gabriel Gatehouse is in Goma.

A Rwandan official told the BBC that it was fired upon from inside Congolese territory. Around the middle of the afternoon, the streets of Goma echoed to the sounds of artillery or mortar fire apparently coming from the centre of the city. There are also fresh clashes between rebel soldiers and Congolese forces just north of the airport. A senior rebel commander told the BBC early on Monday that he had not yet received orders to advance further, but added that his men were capable of taking the city if they decided to.

The United Nations has announced that it is withdrawing all non-essential staff from Goma.

Soldiers in Kenya have carried out beatings and set fire to homes in the town of Garissa after three of their colleagues were shot dead. The main market was also set ablaze. Garissa is an important base for the Kenyan military operation in neighbouring Somalia. Previous attacks against troops in the town have been blamed on the Somali Islamist group, al-Shabab.

World News from the BBC.

There has been a call for an international ban on the development of fully autonomous weapon systems or killer robots which could hunt down their targets without the need for a human operator. A report by Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Law School says military robots of this kind could become reality within 30 years. Stewart Hughes reports.

Semi-autonomous weapons such as unmanned drones already allow pilots to fire missiles from thousands of miles away. But the report argues that’s just the start of efforts to distance military personnel from their targets. It says within the 20-30 years, fully-autonomous weapon systems could be developed, capable of delivering lethal force with no human input at all. Human Rights Watch says such weapons, which it terms “killer robots”, would be unable to apply human judgment and will be incapable of complying with  humanitarian law. It wants them banned before they become a reality.

Stock markets in Europe and in the United States have risen strongly buoyed up by economic news from Greece and America. Investors were encouraged by signs that President Obama and congressional leaders will reach a deal to avert a budget crisis and news that European finance ministers are closer to agreeing further rescue payments to Greece.

The Scandinavian Airlines, SAS, has announced a deal with unions which it hopes will avert bankruptcy. The Danish Pilots Union was the last to approve the restructuring, which cuts wages and increases working hours. Under the plan, SAS will reduce its workforce by more than a third. It has lost business to low-cost competitors.

And ancient rock carvings created by native Americans have been hacked away by thieves using power saws  At least four petroglyphs were stolen from a secret site in the mountains of California. Pictures of hunters and animals were carved into the lava cliffs more than 3,500 years ago.

BBC News.