"We expect a substantial majority for the second reading of the bill. That is a moment hasn't happened in last hundreds years of debating the House of Lords reform. That isn't itself a big step forward. It will be quite wrong to withdraw a bill that has such support."
An
indigenous
leader in southwestern Colombia has urged the security forces, the members of the Columbia's largest rebel group the Farc, to take their fight elsewhere. Ten people have been killed and hundreds of trenches destroyed over the past a couple of days as well rebels shelled the town in an attempt to take its police station. Vanessa Buschschluter reports.
Members of the Nasa, Guambiano and Paez tribes said that the latest attack was the
last straw
. They demanded that both the Colombian security forces and the rebels leave their
ancestral
lands and take the fight to areas where civilians wouldn't get hurt. An indigenous commission marched to the rebel camps and gave them a two-week deadline. Another delegation removed the sand bags protecting the police station and threw them into the river. The tribes told Colombian officials they wanted to assume control of the area themselves.
World news from the BBC.
Islamist militants have destroyed two more ancient tombs in the Malian city of Timbuktu. About a dozen militants arrived in the truck at 14th century Djingareyber mosque fired in the air to keep people away and started smashing the tombs. Militants from the Ansar Dine movement linked to al-Qaeda say they will destroy all mausoleums that don't comply with Sharia law.