Middle East:Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has said he has evidence a BBC reporter abducted in Gaza a month ago is alive and well, the British Broadcasting Corporation's director-general said yesterday.
The journalist, Alan Johnston, has been held longer than any other foreign journalist seized in the Gaza Strip.
"Yesterday, I met with President Abbas. He told me that he had credible evidence that Alan was safe and well," BBC director-general Mark Thompson told a news conference in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
"He assured me Palestinian authorities are fully engaged with Alan's case and are working to resolve it as soon as possible."
Mr Johnston's parents held a news conference in London to mark the passing of a month since their son's abduction. They called for his immediate release.
Last week, a British diplomat met Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza to discuss the journalist.
It was the first time an EU country diplomat had met a leader of Hamas, a group the EU terms "a terrorist organisation".
- (Reuters)