The Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says he plans to resign. He's told President Giorgio Napolitano he no longer feels he has the confidence of parliament after Silvio Berlusconi’s Freedom People Party withdrew its support from his government earlier this week. Mr. Monti has been heading a non-partisan and technocratic government for a year.
The Egyptian military has warned of disastrous consequences if the rival political forces there fail to resolve their differences through dialogue. Military sources later stressed that this did not mean that the army would intervene to take power.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have given a rapturous reception to the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, at a celebratory rally in Gaza to mark its 25th anniversary. Yoland Knell was there.
Khaled Meshaal has just appeared on the stage in front, is accompanied by the Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh and other members of the senior leadership. It's an unprecedented sight in the Gaza Strip, almost a who's who of Hamas.
And the speeches to mark the 25th anniversary of Hamas were an uncompromising restatement of its founding goals, a denial of Israel's right to exist and a commitment to armed struggle. But Mr. Meshaal also called for an end to the damaging division between Hamas and its political rivals in the Fatah faction headed by the moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
That is the BBC.
The Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has called a Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai a remarkable girl and a credit to his country. He's speaking during a visit to a hospital in Britain where she's been receiving specialist medical care since October. Malala Yousufzai was shot in the head by the Taliban in an attempt to silence her campaign to promote women's education in northwest Pakistan.