Nine Palestinians Walk Away From Church of the Nativity
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are going to go from focusing on the U.S. now and turn our attention to the Middle East. There are new developments in that more than three-week-long standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. With the latest, let's bring in our John Vause, who has been covering the story. John, what do you have?</s>JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn. Nine Palestinians, all of them under 18, have walked from the church. They did it a couple hours ago now, then taken away about Israeli soldiers. And now, this is all part of an agreement which was struck here last night between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Under that agreement, as many as 15 children would be allowed to leave the church. But according to an Israeli report out last week, there could still be as many as many as 50 children inside the church. Also today, two dead bodies were taken out and carried out by monks on stretchers and then left in the middle of Manger Square, and those bodies were then collected by a Palestinian ambulance. All of this seen as a very positive sign as these negotiations continue to try to end this siege which has now lasted for more than three weeks. And the negotiators from both the Israelis and the Palestinians are now meeting for their third day to try and reach a compromise to try and end this standoff here in Bethlehem -- Daryn.</s>KAGAN: John Vause in Bethlehem -- thank you so much. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com