BBC news 2009-07-05 加文本

BBC 2009-07-05


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BBC News with Julie Candler

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Honduras has called on the ousted President Manuel Zelaya not to return from exile to avoid provoking what he called a "bloodbath". Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez said nobody had been killed since Mr. Zelaya lost power in a military coup last weekend and he appealed to the former president to think again. From Honduras, Stephen Gibbs reports.

Thousands of supporters of President Zelaya are heading for the capital's airport, awaiting the ousted leader's return. Mr. Zelaya has sent a recorded message to a regional television station, indicating that he will be back in the country on Sunday. The Honduran government says that arrest warrants have been dispatched to all frontiers. The Catholic Church in Honduras, which is seen as supportive of the government, which deposed the president has issued a statement, asking him to reconsider his plans before it's too late.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo says the African Union decision to refuse to cooperate in the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will have no effect on the court's work. Speaking to the BBC, Mr. Ocampo said that President Bashir was still a wanted man and that it was up to each African state to decide on his fate.

"The Security Council and African Union both have a similar mandate to achieve peace and security in Darfur and African Union is considering whether to postpone the indictment. It says discussion between them with fact they are not challenging the evidence, they are not challenging the demon crime, so it’s obvious, if that discussion with the court”

The head of the Irish charity which has had two aid workers kidnapped to the Sudanese region of Darfur on Friday has appealed for their release. John O'Shea, the chief executive of the charity Goal, said there had been no contact with the kidnappers and it wasn't clear why the two women had been taken.

The Vice President of the United States Joe Biden has urged Iraqi leaders to do more to encourage political reconciliation in their country. He was speaking on an American Independence Day visit to Baghdad. From there, Gabriel Gatehouse reports.

Joe Biden used the occasion to attend a ceremony in Baghdad conferring US citizenship on 237 men and women who have worked alongside the Americans in Iraq, but the visit was also aimed at fostering reconciliation between the various ethnic and religious groups here. And there was perhaps some symbolism to be found in the fact that a dust storm prevented a planned trip by the vice president to the autonomous Kurdish region in the north of the country, just as the Americans are reducing their visibility on the streets of Iraq's towns and cities. It’s here that tensions have spilled over into the worst violence in recent months.

For the first time since the September 11th attacks on New York nearly 8 years ago, members of the public have been allowed to climb up to the crown of Statue of Liberty. 30 people an hour will now be allowed to scale a narrow spiral staircase

World News from the BBC

The former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has acknowledged that the turmoil following last month’s presidential election has caused bitterness in Iran. However, Mr. Rafsanjani, who remains an influential figure, denied that there was a power struggle in the country. President Ahmadinejad has been accused by defeated candidates of widespread electoral fraud. Mr. Rafsanjani has been a vocal opponent of the president.

Also in Iran the authorities have executed 20 people for drug trafficking. Local media say they were hanged at a prison west of capital Tehran. The men have been arrested over the past 5 years; more than 700kg of heroin, cocaine and opium were seized. The human rights group Amnesty International says Iran executed more than 340 prisoners last year.

The Pope has appealed to the leaders of G8 group of nations to reform the international financial system. In the run-up to their summit in Italy next week, Pope Benedict said the richer nations had to defend the world’s poor from the worst of the global economic downturn. David Willis sent this report from Rome.

The Pope’s written a letter to the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who will be chairing the meeting of world leaders, appealing to them to rewrite global financial rules and to pay particular attention to the needs of poor countries in Africa. He asked the G8 countries to maintain and boost development aid, not in spite of the global economic crisis but because of it. He argues this is the only way to solve the crisis. Italy, for example, has slashed its overseas aid budget by a massive 56% in the past year.

The American tennis player Serena Williams has won the women’s singles at Wimbledon for the third time. As in her other Wimbledon win, she defeated her sister Venus, the defending champion in straight-sets 7-6, 6-2. The Williams sisters also won the women's doubles final.

BBC News.