BBC news 2010-09-11 加文本

BBC news 2010-09-11

BBC News with Fiona MacDonald

The former military ruler of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, says he is forming a new political party for an attempted comeback in the next general election due in 2013. He was speaking to Owen Bennett Jones who has this report.

Pervez Musharraf, who now lives in London, has for some months been talking about the possibility of returning to Pakistan, but now his plans are firming up. He said he will be standing for a seat in the next parliament, and from there he hopes to become either prime minister or president. Asked whether he'd already had his chance and that it was time to give others an opportunity to lead, he said last time he lacked legitimacy internationally because he was in uniform. "I can't be sure of becoming president again," he said, "but I believe there is a good chance of my winning."

President Obama has called on Americans to maintain respect for other religious faiths as protests continue in the Muslim world over a threat by a fringe American church to burn copies of the Koran. The pastor behind the threat, Terry Jones, now says he's been persuaded to suspend his plan. Mr Obama said burning religious texts was contrary to the values on which the United States was founded.

"I think it is absolutely important now for the overwhelming majority of the American people to hang on to that thing that is best in us, a belief in religious tolerance, clarity about who our enemies are. Our enemies are al-Qaeda and their allies who are trying to kill us but have killed more Muslims than just about anybody on Earth."

In other comments at his news conference, President Obama admitted the progress had been slow in pulling the US economy out of recession. However, he said the country was beginning to turn the corner and every initiative by his administration was aimed at stimulating growth. Mr Obama also acknowledged that he'd fallen short on his promise to shut the Guantanamo Bay detention camp within his first year in office, but he insisted that closure remained his goal.

A senior Iranian official has said the release of an American woman detained near the border with Iraq more than a year ago will not now go ahead on Saturday as announced. The Iranian authorities had suggested the woman, Sarah Shourd, would be freed. In July last year, she was arrested along with two American men near the Iraq border and accused of spying. Jon Leyne reports.

This news will come as a huge disappointment for the family of Sarah Shourd. She's believed to be suffering from a precancerous condition, and the Iranian authorities had said she would be released as a goodwill gesture for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. But now the Tehran prosecutor has been quoted on a semi-official news agency as saying that the release was cancelled because the legal procedures were not completed. That sounds ominously as if her case has fallen victim to the increasingly bitter internal wrangling amongst those who rule Iran.

World News from the BBC

An official enquiry in Belgium has concluded that child abuse by Roman Catholic priests took place in nearly every diocese over several decades. The commission, which heard evidence from hundreds of victims, said it was shocked by the testimonies. However, the Church is cleared of a systematic cover-up. Jonty Bloom reports.

This commission's findings make grim reading. Hundreds of victims came forward to give details of horrific abuse by priests, Catholic school teachers and youth workers that sometimes went on for decades. The levels of abuse were at their worst in the 1960s. Two thirds of the victims were underage boys; one victim was only two when first attacked; over 100 girls were also raped and abused, and that abuse often continued into adulthood. As a result, the commission says, 13 people have committed suicide and another six have tried to kill themselves.

China has postponed a planned session of diplomatic talks with Japan in protest at Tokyo's failure to free a Chinese trawler captain detained near disputed islands in the East China Sea on Tuesday. The Chinese foreign ministry expressed strong discontent at what it called Japan's ridiculous and illegal actions which, it said, violated international common sense.

Officials in California say they have completely contained a fire which was caused by a gas explosion near San Francisco's International Airport. At least four people were killed and dozens were injured after a gas pipeline exploded in a residential area in the town of San Bruno.

A clay cylinder dating from the time of one of Persia's greatest rulers, Cyrus the Great, has been returned on loan to Iran following a prolonged dispute with the British Museum in London. The cylinder describes how Cyrus conquered Babylon 2,500 years ago. In February, Iran threatened to cut ties with the British Museum in protest at what it called "politically motivated" delays in returning the cylinder. The cylinder has been put on temporary display in a museum in Tehran.

BBC News