BBC news 2008-06-24 加文本

BBC News with Ian Perdon.

The Dutch government says the Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has taken refuge in its embassy in the capital Harare hours after he pulled out of the presidential run-off. But the head of Zimbabwe's police said Mr. Tsvangirai was not under threat and appealed for him to return home. Earlier, the opposition said Zimbabwean police had raided the headquarters of Mr. Tsvangirai's party and taken away more than sixty people. From Harare, John Simpson reports.

Robert Mugabe has now achieved a remarkable turn-around in this election. Only three months ago, he was humiliated by coming second in the first round of the presidential vote and losing the parliamentary election outright. Now he is going to fight his run-off effectively unopposed. The electoral commission which has been showing a reasonable degree of independence says that Mr. Tsvangirai has failed to keep to the rules in withdrawing his candidacy, so it regards him as being still in the race, that suits Mr. Mugabe very well since he'll be able to defeat his opponent utterly.(Www.hxen.net)

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has described the crisis in Zimbabwe has represented a single challenge to the security of Southern Africa. Mr. Ban urged the Zimbabwean authorities to postpone the presidential run-off due on Friday. Richard Bilton reports.

Ban Ki-moon is known for his quiet diplomacy; today he was loud and clear. The Secretary General said he was distressed by events in Zimbabwe and the violence must stop. His comments came as the Security Council here was gathering to discuss the growing crisis. The British, French and Americans are keen for the council to produce a statement, condemning both the violence and the actions of the Zimbabwean government. Some, like the South Africans, are likely to want to see any statement watered down. But it is significant that those who in the past have defended Zimbabwe are now prepared to criticize Mr. Mugabe's government.

An emergency meeting of the Southern African regional group, the SADC, is underway in Angola, and one of those attending Botswana's foreign ministers said the organization had to decide whether Zimbabwe now had a president.

The Serbia's Socialist Party once led by Slobodan Milosevic has agreed to join the ... The deal comes weeks after parliamentary elections in which the party of President Boris Tadic won most seats but not an overall majority. Helen Fawkes reports.

The coalition of the president's allies along with its former political opponents, the Socialists, is likely to mean that Serbia will push hard towards EU membership. For some time, it had looked like the Socialists were going to join forces with the hard-line nationalists, the radical party, who had threaten to hold Serbia's European integration, because most EU states have recognized Kosovo as an independent country.

World News from the BBC.

A United States court has for the first time rejected the classification of a prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay as an enemy combatant. Huzaifa Parhat, a Chinese Muslim, was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. The judge has ruled that the Pentagon must either free Mr. Parhat, transfer him or hold a fresh military tribunal. James Coomarasamy reports from Washington.

Huzaifa Parhat has spent six years at Guantanamo Bay. Now a federal appeals court has ruled he should never have been there. In the first decision of its kind, the judge has found that the Chinese Muslim should not have been classified as an enemy combatant, the basis on which he and the other inmates of the controversial military prison are being detained. One of several ethnic Uighurs to pass through Guantanamo is being accused of belonging to a group with links to al-Qaeda. But his lawyers argued that the Uighurs who want a greater autonomy from Beijing saw China not the United States as their enemy.

The former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif has suffered a major political setback after a court ruled that he is not eligible to run in upcoming by-elections. Mr. Sharif, whose party is allied to the new government, was originally barred from elections because of a conviction in 1999. Recently, the election commission had appeared to clear him to run in this week's poll. Mr. Sharif's party has dismissed Monday's ruling as politically motivated.

Rescue workers in the Philippines have suspended efforts to find hundreds of people missing after a ferry capsized in a typhoon. A plan to cut the ferry open in the hope of finding passengers still alive in air pockets was called off because of heavy seas. A new attempt will be made on Tuesday.

And finally back to our top story with some news just in. Western diplomats at the United Nations Security Council say a draft statement condemns the violence in Zimbabwe and declares that the scheduled presidential election run-off is not viable.

BBC News.