BBC news 2011-08-25
BBC News with Nick Kelly
Colonel Gaddafi's forces are still putting up fierce resistance at his compound in Tripoli 24 hours after rebels first stormed it. Heavily-armed rebels have been pushing deeper into the sprawling complex. [The] situation is still precarious, and well-trained Gaddafi loyalists are prepared to fight until the bitter end. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes was caught up in some of the crossfire.
So the rebels were driven back out of the centre of the compound here this morning, back out to the outer wall. They've just stormed back in. They are now firing rockets into the middle of the compound. You can hear one going in now.
Libya's rebels have offered an amnesty to anyone who captures or kills Colonel Gaddafi. A senior rebel leader said a Libyan businessman was also offering more than $1m for his capture. Jon Leyne reports from the rebel stronghold, Benghazi.
Despite the dramatic developments in Tripoli over the last few days, the leadership of the Libyan opposition are sounding surprisingly cautious. A plan to move straight to Tripoli to take complete charge of the whole country has been postponed till next week at the earliest. And for the first time, the opposition leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil has offered Colonel Gaddafi safe passage out of Libya if he renounces the leadership of the country. The opposition leader also offered an amnesty to anyone killing or capturing Colonel Gaddafi - a clear attempt to sow division and suspicion in the remaining circle of loyalists.
President Nicolas Sarkozy says France will next week host an international conference on helping Libya. He also promised that military operations under the UN mandate would continue as long as the Libyan rebels needed it. He was speaking after talks with Mahmoud Jibril, a senior leader of the rebel National Transitional Council. President Sarkozy said it was important for Libya to rebuild in a spirit of reconciliation.
"It's the team of the national council, which rebuild Libya. We have been attached by the message of reconciliation, unity. And there should be a sorting out of account and revenge, and we shouldn't answer to violence by violence. We cannot fight dictatorship by using the means of a dictator."
The foreign ministry in Rome says four Italian journalists have been abducted in Libya. The four, all from major Italian newspapers, are reported to have been captured by Gaddafi loyalists as they were on their way from Zawiya to Tripoli. Their driver is said to have been killed in the incident.
This is the World News from the BBC.
Britain and Switzerland have reached an agreement on ending tax evasion in the alpine state, known for its banking secrecy. Under the treaty, which still needs to be formally approved in both countries, existing accounts in Switzerland will be subject to a one-off deduction of up to 34%. This retroactive levy could yield as much as $8bn to Britain.
In the first incident of the kind in more than 30 years, a Russian cargo spacecraft carrying supplies has failed to reach the International Space Station. Reports suggest the unmanned craft called Progress crashed in Siberia after blasting off. Pallab Ghosh reports.
The Progress spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this afternoon. Five minutes and 20 seconds into the flight, it seems that the Soyuz rocket's third and final propulsion stage shut down early, and the spacecraft fell back to Earth, landing in Russia's Altai region on the border with Mongolia and China. The cargo ship was carrying several tonnes of food, water and oxygen to the International Space Station. There are no immediate concerns for the six astronauts on board. They have supplies to last them for several months.
Hurricane Irene has strengthened into a Category 3 storm as it approaches the Bahamas. It's expected to pass over the islands later on Wednesday. Forecasters said Irene, which could become a Category 4 hurricane, was heading towards the east coast of the United States. It's expected to make landfall over the weekend.
And the Turkish football champions Fenerbahce have been barred from the European Champions League, one of the world's top tournaments, over match-fixing allegations. The order follows an emergency meeting of Turkey's Football Federation and comes a day before the draw of the group stage of the Champions League. Fenerbahce, from Istanbul, is the richest club in Turkey and has been at the centre of an ongoing investigation into whether games were fixed. The crisis has already led to the country's football season being delayed by a month.
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