BBC news 2009-07-02 加文本

BBC 2009-07-02


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BBC News with Jerry Schmitt.

The newly installed government in Honduras has rejected international calls to reinstate the deposed President Manuel Zelaya who says he will return home at the weekend after being rejected from the country in a coup last Sunday. It said Mr. Zelaya would be arrested for treason despite a warning that Honduras will be expelled from the Organization of American States. James Coomarasamy reports from Washington.

Manuel Zelaya's decision to postpone his return home was taken after a series of late-night meetings in Washington. They resulted in an ultimatum from the Organization of American States to the Honduran interim authorities: restore the elected president power or face expulsion from the organization. The Obama administration, which has condemned Mr. Zelaya's removal, says the ousted leader has taken a wise decision. A senior official said it was important that a diplomatic solution was explored before he returned to Honduras.

The defeated presidential candidate in Iran says he considers the new government of President Mahamoud Ahamadenajad to be illegitimate. Mir-Hossein Mousavi broke his silence about the situation in Iran in a statement on his website having said nothing for a week. Jenny Norton reports.

In his most defiant statement so far, Mir-Hossein Mousavi has made it clear that he is not giving up the fight. In fact, he appears to be taking it to a new level. Dismissing the election as rigged, Mr. Mousavi said Iran now had a government which had lost the trust of its own people and was dependent on military force alone. He called on the authorities to release all those detained in the post-election protests and said all restrictions on freedom of speech in the media must be lifted. It was time, he said, for Iran to go back to its roots, to remember the constitution and to respect the law.

The British government says it's checking reports that the Iranian authorities have released another Iranian member staff of the British embassy in Teheran who is being held for alleged involvements in the post-election violence. Two were freed earlier on Wednesday. Five others and the original non-arrested were released early this week.

Michael Jackson's family have issued a statement scotching the widespread rumors about the pop star's funeral. And in another move, Michael Jackson's will has been filed in a Los Angles court showing that he nominated his mother Catherin Jackson as legal guardian to his children in the event of his death. Peter Bowes reports from Los Angeles.

The Jackson family's statement says contrary to previous news reports, there will be no public or private viewing in Neverland. Instead, the statement says plans are under way regarding a public memorial service for Michael Jackson. The family says details will be released shortly. The last few days has seen more rumor and speculation regarding the singer's final resting place than hard facts. The family says it's now hired a public relations company to speak on its behalf. That was Peter Bowes.

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French officials have gone back on an announcement that a flight recorder from the Airbus that crashed off Comoros in the Indian Ocean had been recovered. The French government which is being involved in the research said the signals detected in fact came from distress beacons from the Yemeni plane which came down earlier on Tuesday.

The best-known member of the British gang that forces a zeal years ago carried out what became known as the Great Train Robbery has been refused parole. The Justice Secretary Jack Straw said Ronnie Biggs who spent decades in Brazil while on a run from prison was wholly unrepentant and must stay in jail. Biggs is 79 and seriously ill and a parole board had recommended his release. His son Michael condemned the decision.

"The hospital has now confirmed to me that due to his poor health, he runs a risk of dying if his body does not react quickly to the current treatments. My father has now served eight years in prison and has done the same time inside as the other train robbers. He has done a great deal more years than many murderers, pedophiles and psychopaths. "

A senior Palestinian Muslim cleric has called on Muslims to go to Jerusalem reversing his previous ban on such visits. Sheikh Tayseer al-Timimi said Muslims should make pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest city. He said it reboots the Palestinian economy. Until now, Palestinian religious leaders have issued edicts banning Muslims from Jerusalem on the ground that will earn support to Israel's control of the city.

One of the America's best-known character actors Karl Malden has died in California. He was 97. Malden who first made his name in the theater won an Oscar in 1952 for his performance in A Streetcar Named Desire. He was also nominated for an academy award for On The Waterfront. Later he gained prominence playing a veteran policeman in a television series "The Streets of San Francisco".

BBC News.