BBC News, I'm Marian Marshall.
Gaza City is in darkness after Palestinian officials closed down Gaza's only power plant. They blamed the shutdown on Israel's decision to block fuel and oil supplies from entering the territory, although Israel says it's still supplying Gaza electricity from its own national grid. A spokesman for the United Nations Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees, Chris Gunness, said he had been hearing from the power plant authorities about the effects of the fuel blockade.
"They said this was going to affect many hospitals, sewage treatments and waters, and of course, domestic consumers. What it means is that the situation in Gaza where between 12 and 14 hours of blackout is now going on a revolving door system throughout the different governors of Gaza, that's going to get worse. "
Israel says it wants to force the militant Hamas movement to stop rockets being fired from Gaza at Israeli towns.
There's to be a second round of elections in Serbia to decide who'll be the president for the next four years. Election officials have estimated that the nationalist leader Tomislav Nikolic won about 39% of the votes cast in Sunday's first ballot, 4% more than the incumbent, Boris Tadic. Nick Hawton reports from Belgrade.
"The election monitors the Center for Free Elections and Democracy said the initial results gave Tomislav Nikolic of the hard-line Serbian radical party 39% the vote, and the current pro-western president Boris Tadic 34%. Seven other candidates divided the remaining votes. But in order to become president, the winner must receive more than 50%, so there'll be a second round of voting between Mr. Nikolic and Mr. Tadic in two weeks' time. There's an extremely high turn-out of more than 60%, suggesting how important Serbs regard the election. "
The people of Cuba have been voting in parliamentary elections to choose the members of the new national assembly. One of the first acts of the new assembly will be to approve Cuba's president. Interests will focus on whether the ailing Fidel Castro will resume the role after his serious medical problems or use this opportunity to retire from front line politics in favor of his brother Raul who is already acting president.
The Sudanese authorities have given a senior government position to a man accused of coordinating Arab militias in Darfur. The Sudanese Minister for Federal Affairs said the clan leader Musa Hilal had been named as his advisor. Mary Harper reports.
"The appointment of Musa Hilal to a position in the Sudanese government indicates that the authorities in Khartoum are not prepared to make compromises in the face of strong international pressure. Mr. Hilal has been accused by Washington and Human Rights Groups of coordinating the Janjaweed and Arab militia that's believed to carry out atrocities with the support of the Sudanese government. "
This is the latest World News from the BBC World Service in London.
Ghanaians are celebrating the success of their football team in the opening match of the Africa Cup of Nations. The two-one victory over Guinea was assured by a last-minute winner from Sulley Muntari, his goal being greeted by deafening applause round the stadium and throughout the capital Accra. Alex Capstick sent this report after the final whistle.
"A thrilling finale to what had already been an uplifting day for Ghana, Sulley Muntari's brilliant strike from a long way out late in the game sealed Ghana's victory, a result that looked to be alluding them. Ghana can look forward to the rest of the campaign with genuine optimism. It was the end to a perfect day. Ghana's president John Kufuor took his seat in the stadium to a deafening roar from 40, 000 spectators, some of whom arrived six hours before kick-off. They witnessed a spectacular opening ceremony, a mix of drummers, dancers and acrobats. And then the teams emerged onto the pitch and produced the performance the fans had wanted. "
A senior Democratic party figure says a package to revive the United States economy could be ready by the beginning of March. Senator Charles Schumer, the Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee said there was a rarely bipartisan agreement that such a package should be built around tax cuts as President Bush proposed on Friday.
Access to the popular Youtube video-sharing website has been blocked in Turkey, apparently, because of material that insulted the founder of the modern Turkey state, Kemal Ataturk. Internet users in Turkey found on-line notices saying access to Youtube was cut off because of a Turkish court order.
The Turkmen president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow, has reversed a ban on opera and circuses imposed on by his predecessor. Mr. Berdimuhammedow told cultural leaders in capital Ashkhabad that Turkmenistan should not remain separate from the rest of the world. He said the national opera should be revived and the national circus should present equestrian and other spectacles once more. He said he also wanted to see a revival of Turkmen cinemas.
BBC News.