BBC News with Nick Kelly
Israel has released the Palestinian prisoners they’d agreed to free as part of the resumption of the Middle East peace talk this week. There are protests from some
Israelis responses took the first 26 detainees from the Ayalon prison complex. From Ramallah on the West Bank, Yolande Knell reports.
Celebrations have begun here in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip to welcome home the prisoners, most have been in jail for some 20 years. On the Palestinian side,
the men are viewed as heroes of the nationalist course but many were convicted of murder, a most Israelis view them as terrorists. Israel prison service arranged this
handover later night to make it less of a spectacle. Israelis and Palestinians are due to launch talks in Jerusalem in a matter of hours following a preparatory around
two weeks ago in Washington.
The Pakistani interior ministry has submitted the draft of a wide-ranging new counter-terrorism policy designed to contain and dismantle the militant networks
operating in the country. The proposals include setting up a national counter-terrorism authority and the deployment of a well-equipped, rapid response force. The
proposals now need the approval of the prime minister Nawaz Sharif and cross party support.
The US government says it wants to try and block a merger that would create the world’s biggest airline. The justice department warned that the proposed 11 billion
dollar tie-up between the parent groups of American Airlines and US Airways would reduce competition and increase fares. But US Airways has rejected this and says it
will fight the justice department when the case goes to court. The BBC’s Michelle Fleury is at the New York stock exchange.
All this is about is how much control of the American airline market this combined group will have. They certainly concern about the number of routes they’ll have but
also specific airports. If you look at Rogan Airport in Washington, they will control about 67% of all the takeoffs and landing there. Now it has been caused that some
concern. Now the airline has said hang on a second, in total, we look at the whole area around Washington, we only control about 25%.
Public prosecutors in Brazil have begun legal action against the South Korean electronic giant Samsung alleging that it’s been violating labor laws at its huge
factory in the Amazon region. Julie Cornell reports.
Public prosecutors in Brazil say the South Korean multinational Samsung is making its employees work exhausting shifts and jeopardizing their health. In the legal
action they list labor violations found in the company’s factory in the Amazon region and say that last year alone a third of its employees had to go on medical leave
for a work related problem like backaches or appetitive strain injuries. The BBC has contacted Samsung but the company has not yet issued a response.
World News from the BBC
Police have fired teargas to end clashes between supporters of the ousted Egyptian president and local residents in central Cairo. A number of people are reported to
have been injured. The violence began as demonstrators backing Mohammed Morsi were protesting outside government buildings and tried to enter them. The two sides began
throwing stones and bottles at each other.
The authorities in Afghanistan say Taliban fighters have kidnapped a female member of parliament as she traveled with her children through a rural area south of Kabul.
Her children were later released in an operation involving joint Nato and Afghan forces but Fariba Ahmadi Kakar is still being held in a separate location. Karen Allen
reports from Kabul.
Mrs. Kakar is the first female MP to be kidnapped in Afghanistan. Just days before she was snatched, another female member of parliament escaped an assassination in
the same part of the country. Her daughter was killed in the incident. As Nato troops prepared to leave the country at the end of next year, there are very view
concerns that limit freedoms one for Afghan women are starting to unravel.
The charity save the children is warning that more than 100,000 children in the Central African Republic are facing sexual abuse and recruitment into armed groups. The
charity says the children have been forced to flee following the overthrow of the government by rebels in March this year. It says many of them are suffering from
malnutrition and malaria.
And Canadian transport authorities have suspended the operating license for the rail company at the center of the Quebec train fire which killed 47 people. The
transportation agency says the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic railway based in the US did not have sufficient insurance to deal with the many of the claims made against
it since the disaster on July the 6th. On the night, a runaway train with 72 tankers of crude oil derailed and then exploded.