BBC news 2010-07-14 加文本

2010-07-14 BBC

BBC News with Michael Powles.

The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amari, who turned up at the Iranian Interests Section of the Pakistani embassy in Washington, is and always has been free to go home.

"Mr Amiri has been in the United States of his own free will, and he is free to go. In fact, he was scheduled to travel to Iran yesterday, but was unable to make all of the necessary arrangements to reach Iran through transit countries."

Iran says the scientist was abducted by the CIA while on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, an allegation dismissed by the Americans. Mr Amiri is now saying he wants to return to Iran. Adding to the uncertainty, videotapes showing a man purporting to be Mr Amiri have been circulating, offering conflicting (of counts,口误) accounts of what happened to him.

The French parliament has voted to adopt laws to ban women from wearing the full-face veil in public. The legislation will now go before the upper house for approval in September. If the ban becomes law, women who wear it could be fined about 190 dollars. Punishments for male family members found to be enforcing the wearing of the veil include spending a year in prison. From Paris, Gavin Hewitt reports.

French MPs say the aim of this law is to assert that those who live (in?) or travel to France must embrace French values. They would argue that hiding a woman’s face violates the ideals of equality and secularism so important in France. What drives some of this is a fear that some new arrivals and some ethnic groups are clinging to customs that set them apart with the risk of separate, parallel communities developing.

European Union finance ministers have been discussing what to do if the European banking system fails a test of its resilience. The EU says such failure is unlikely, but that national governments or even EU funds could act as a safety net if needed. Our economics correspondent Andrew Walker has more.

There are fears in the financial markets that some banks could be in serious danger of failure if they face heavy losses on debts sold by stressed European governments and property buyers. So European regulators were examining over 90 of them to see whether they would survive. But some analysts believe the test may not be tough enough and that weaknesses might be hidden. European officials say that won’t happen and they believe most banks are in reasonable health. The results of the test will be published next week.

New figures from the United Nations show the prevalence of HIV among young people has fallen in 16 of the world’s worst-affected countries, many of them in Africa. The UN figures suggest that young people are changing their sexual behavior in response to AIDS prevention campaigns. But the UN accepts that AIDS is on the rise in Uganda because of what it describes as "increasing complacency". And in Eastern Europe, the UN says, infection rates are on the increase.

World News from the BBC.

The Pentagon says a Yemeni man held at Guantanamo Bay for eight years has been sent home. A US court ordered the release of the man, Mohammed Odainiin, in May, saying he had no connection to al-Qaeda and had been wrongly detained. However, the Pentagon said it was maintaining its overall ban on transferring other Yemenis back home because of the security situation in the country.

A group of Cuban political prisoners who’ve arrived in Spain say their release could be the start of change in Cuba. The men said they hoped the dozens of political prisoners who remain in Cuba will be freed soon. From Madrid, Sarah Rainsford.

The seven Cuban dissidents flew to Madrid with their families, following what one described as the tensest moments of his life. It was the Catholic Church that struck the deal with the Cuban government, securing their release. So that’s who the men thanked in a statement at Madrid airport. The men have been given immigrant status here, allowing them to live and work where they choose. But first they’ll be taken to a refugee centre, where they’ll get medical, legal and financial help as they make their plans for the future.

The French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt has withdrawn her demand for compensation from the government in Bogota for the six years she spent as a hostage of left-wing rebels. Ms Betancourt had submitted a lawsuit for nearly seven million dollars for emotional distress and loss of earnings. The demand received widespread criticism in Colombia, including from the Defence Ministry. Ms Betancourt said that the compensation was to help other former hostages.

An appeals court in the US has struck down a government policy which bans the broadcasting of expressions considered indecent. The policy was drawn up in 2004 by the Federal Communications Commission which ruled that profanity referring to sex or excrement was always indecent, and the broadcasters could be fined if they allow the use of such words in their programmes. The court said the policy was "unconstitutionally vague".

BBC News.