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BBC news 2012-06-22

BBC News with Sue Montgomery

Jordan has granted political asylum to a Syrian pilot who landed his MiG-21 fighter plane at a military airbase in the north of the country. It's the first such defection since protests began against President Assad more than a year ago. Jim Muir reports.

Having initially announced that the MiG-21 had gone missing, the Syrian authorities were clearly angered when it turned out that the pilot, Colonel Hassan al-Hammadeh, had in fact landed across the border at a Jordanian airbase and that he'd been granted political asylum there. The Syrian defence ministry branded him a deserter and a traitor to his homeland. It said it was contacting the Jordanian authorities to arrange to get the MiG back. It's the first time a pilot defected like this - a considerable embarrassment to the regime given that the air force is one of its major pillars from which the late President Hafez al-Assad came.

Syrian activist groups say that about 90 people were killed by government forces on Thursday. They say most of the deaths were in parts of Damascus, Homs and Deraa that have come under heavy shelling. A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, the ICRC, told the BBC that aid workers hoping to evacuate civilians from Homs had turned back.

An Indonesian court has given a 20-year prison sentence to the man accused of being the chief bomb maker for the Bali bombings in 2002. A panel of judges found Umar Patek guilty of murder and bomb making in connection with the attacks in Bali nightclubs. More than 200 people died. Karishma Vaswani was at the court in Jakarta.

It's taken almost a decade to bring Umar Patek to justice. The judges delivered their verdict in a keenly watched trial, sentencing him to 20 years in jail and finding him guilty on all six charges. After the verdict was announced, Mr Patek appeared calm and composed, shaking the hands with the judges. He could have faced the death penalty, but prosecutors said he had shown remorse during the proceedings and so they only asked for a term of life in prison. It's still not clear whether Mr Patek's lawyers will lodge an appeal.

The Mexican armed forces say they've arrested Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, the son of the country's most wanted drug lord Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman. His father, who's been in hiding since he escaped from prison in 2001, is the boss of the powerful Sinaloa cartel. Here's Will Grant.

The capture of Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman's son is significant for a number of reasons: first because it suggests the net is tightening around the drug baron himself. In recent months, he has seen a number of important lieutenants arrested or killed by the authorities. Secondly it seems there's been a renewed focus on hurting him by targeting his family. Experts say a similar approach was used by the authorities in Colombia to close the net on the most notorious drug lord of the 20th century, Pablo Escobar.

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The South American regional body Unasur says it's sending a delegation of foreign ministers to Paraguay after the lower house of parliament voted to begin impeachment proceedings on Friday against President Fernando Lugo. The Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said the mission's aim was to ensure full respect of the democratic order in Paraguay. The Paraguayan opposition voted to impeach President Lugo over the death of 17 people last week in a police operation to evict landless farmers.

Police in Malawi say nearly 50 illegal migrants died when their boat capsized on Lake Malawi in the remote north. The United Nations refugee agency, which has visited the scene, said they were Ethiopians. A police spokesman said three Malawians had been arrested. A BBC correspondent in Blantyre says many illegal migrants from the Horn of Africa travel through Malawi on their way to South Africa.

The Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has addressed both houses of the British parliament in a rare honour normally accorded only to heads of state. She appealed for help in establishing democracy in Burma.

"This is the moment of our greatest need, and so I would ask that our friends both here in Britain and beyond participate and support Burma's efforts towards the establishment of a truly democratic and just society. My country has not yet entered the ranks of truly democratic societies, but I'm confident that we will get there before too long."

Portugal have become the first team to reach the semi-finals of the Euro 2012 football championships. They beat the Czech Republic 1-0 in a quarter-final clash in Poland. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winning goal with a diving header in the second half. Portugal will now face either Spain or France in the next round of the competition.

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