Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "A Divided and Dangerous City"
Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 9:04 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran State TV footage of scene of this morning's double explosion in Syrian capital Damascus (see 0655 GMT)
2130 GMT: Palestine. An official with Palestinian prisoners' rights group Addameer has said that Israel's prison service has offered to ease restrictions on Palestinian prisoners in a bid to end a mass hunger strike.
About 1,600 Palestinian prisoners are fasting to protest administrative detention, under which Israel can hold people indefinitely without charge. They are also challenging solitary confinement, detention without charge and restrictions on family visits, education, and other privileges.
Two of those protesting, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla, are on th 72nd day of hunger strikes.
The Addameer official said, after a meeting on Wednesday night in Nafha Prison between the Prison Service and leaders of the hunger strike, "There might be a positive response in the next few days." She said the Prison Service "agreed to allow visits for families from Gaza" and to revoke a range of restrictions on prisoners, including a ban on education and other privileges. She added that an agreement on moving prisoners out of solitary confinement was also on the table.
Prison Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman confirmed the Nafha meeting, saying it was part of an ongoing process of consultations between detainees and a committee examining prison conditions.