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BBC News with Fiona McDonald.
President Barack Obama said he is confident that progress can be made in the stalled Middle East peace process. The President was speaking in Washington after talks with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The meeting-- the latest in a series involving American, Arabian and Israeli leaders comes ahead of President Obama's visit to Egypt next week. Kim Ghattas has been following developments in Washington.
They have just come out of their meeting which took longer than expected. So what they have been discussing at the moment is mostly the chances of restarting those peace talks and topping Mr. Abbas's agenda was the freeze of all Israeli settlement expansion on the West Bank and he got a very sympathetic ear from the President because Mr. Obama's reiterated that Israel had the obligation of stopping settlements. It's one of the most vocal, most explicit and forceful call by a US Administration on Israel, an ally of the US, to stop Israeli settlement expansion on the West Bank.
The Hamas movement has accused forces loyal to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of involvement in the killing of one of its senior commanders near Hebron in the West Bank. It said Mr. Abbas's forces have kept the commander's house under surveillance overnight before Israeli troops carried out the attack in which he was killed.
There has been an explosion in a mosque in the southeast Iranian city of Zahedan. The official news agency IRNA said that at least 15 people were killed and 50 others injured in the blast. John Lion reports from Tehran.
There are few details yet on exactly what caused this explosion, but according to an official quoted by the Iranian news agency, part of a mosque was destroyed and bodies of the dead and injured were being removed from the rubble. Zahedan is the capital of the troubled province of Sistan-Baluchistan which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan. That makes it a key route for the drugs trade. Despite Iran's best efforts, a huge proportion of the world's opiates such as heroin and morphine are smuggled by heavily armed drugs gangs often in large convoys. There are also a number of militant groups in the area, many of them with links to the drugs gangs. Clashes with the security forces are common.
At least nine people have been killed in a series of bomb attacks in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. It's not known who carried them out. Earlier the Pakistani Taliban said it had planned the attack in Lahore on Wednesday in which at least 24 people died. Barbara Plett reports.
Explosives planted on two motorbikes went off in a busy market. Commando units rushing to the scene engaged in a gun fight with suspected militants in the area. Meanwhile, a suicide car bomb rammed into a police checkpoint at the edge of the city. Peshawar has long been a front line in the battle between the Pakistani state and Islamist militants. But the apparent coordination of the attacks coming so soon after Lahore and the Taliban warning could herald a new wave of violence in Pakistani cities.
World News from the BBC.
The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has begun a special four-day-long edition of his weekly radio and television programme "Hello President" to commemorate his 10th anniversary. Mr. Chavez has regularly used the programme to launch government initiatives and criticize political opponents such as the former American President George Bush.
The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has promised to resign if he is found to have lied about his links to a young woman Noemi Letizia. Mr. Berlusconi recently attended her 18th birthday party in Naples and his wife filed for divorce soon afterwards. He denies having an intimate relationship with Ms. Letizia.
If someone asks me, have you ever had a relationship, let's say steamy or more than steamy with an underage girl, the answer would be absolutely not. I have sworn it on the life of my children and I said that I am aware that, if this were perjury I would have to resign a minute later.
He's faced growing calls for him to explain his links to Ms. Letizia and the BBC Rome correspondent says the opposition is making Mr. Berlusconi's character part of the campaign for next week's European elections in Italy.
The Canadian Governor General Michelle Jean has strongly defended her decision to eat raw seal heart earlier this week during a visit to an Inuit community in the far north of the country. Animal rights groups have sharply criticized the move and have accused the governor of backing a cruel practice. Governor Jean said she ate the seal heart in a show of support to the country's seal hunters.
One of Britain's best known private schools Eton is closing for a week because of swine flu. A spokesman said a 13-year-old pupil had tested positive for swine flu and the decision to close had been taken on the advice of the health authorities. Boys who were due to sit examinations will be allowed to return under what were termed “controlled conditions”.
BBC News.
