BBC News with Julie Candler.
The head of the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has made a rare appearance at a huge protest in Beirut against the amateur video made in the US mocking the Prophet Muhammad. Jim Muir was at the demonstration.
Hassan Nasrallah interacting with the huge crowd, cramming the streets where the protest was staged. They were clearly thrilled . It was highly unusual for him to appear in public. He normally addresses them by video link. It was a classic Hezbollah rally.The movement certainly knows how to mobilize the masses at a short notice .But there was not a hint of the violence that's mocked angry demonstrations by militant Sunni groups in Lebanon and elsewhere around the region.
Pakistan has blocked access to the international video-sharing website YouTube after it refused to remove excerpts of the amateur film. Pakistan's prime minister apparently ordered the site to be blocked because of YouTube's refusal. Two years ago, the government banned both Facebook and YouTube after the sites carried drawings of the prophet Muhammad, which were considered by many Muslims to be blasphemous .
The British royal family has begun court action in France over the publication of topless pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge on the day that an Italian magazine printed new ones taken during holiday with her husband Prince William. Here's Christian Fraser.
The lawyer representing the couple, Aurelien Hamelle, arrived in (at) the civil court with a request for an interim injunction . In his opening statement, he said the balcony where the couple(s) were relaxing was not visible with a naked eye, but only on a long-lens. He asked the three magistrates to put themselves in the position of the Duchess and her parents. 'She is a young woman', he said, 'not an object'. He's not requesting the magazines already on the shelves be withdrawn, but for the printing of last Friday's edition to stop now, together with a ban on the further syndication of the photos by the Mondadori group here in France. Delphine Pando, the lawyer representing Closer magazine denied their try to make money from selling the images, and she questioned what the outcry was all about.
The military in Nigeria says it's killed a senior member of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. The joint military task force in the northern city of Kano said it stopped a car carrying suspected militants at a checkpoint. Will Ross reports from Lagos.
A military source said a car approached a roadblock in Kano and refused to stop. Shots were fired at the vehicle, and there are unconfirmed reports that Boko Haram's spokesman Abu Qaqa was killed. Earlier this year, it was announced that the spokesman for the militants had been arrested, but this proved to be untrue, as Abu Qaqa continued to be the only link between Boko Haram and the media. Although it's not been officially announced by the military, there are also reports that two members of the Islamist group were captured at the same roadblock .
World News from the BBC
A former Chinese police chief at the center of a major political scandal has gone on trial for defection and abuse of power in the southwestern city of Chengdu. A defense lawyer said the trial of Wang Lijun began in closed session a day earlier than expected because it involved state secrets.Mr Wang surrendered to the authorities in March after seeking refuge at the American consulate in Chengdu.He made allegations that led to the dismiss of his boss a Politburo member, Bo Xilai. Mr Bo's wife Gu Kailai was later convicted of murdering a British businessman.
The United Nations says production in Bolivia of coca leaves, the raw ingredient for cocaine, has dropped significantly over the last year. Bolivia is one of the biggest producers of cocaine, but the area use for cultivation of coca is now down by 12%. Mattia Cabitza reports.
The much awaited annual report is good news for the government of Bolivia. The United Nations said that last year, the area under coca cultivation in the Andean country was around 27,000 hectares – down from 31,000 in 2010. It's a first drop in coca production, some of which is legal in Bolivia unlike cocaine since Evo Morales came to power in 2006. Despite the drop in coca fields, critics say that the Bolivian government is not doing enough to end cocaine production and trafficking .
The military in South Sudan now says almost 40 soldiers died in a friendly fire incident last week. Earlier, it said at least ten were killed in the incident when the security forces mistakenly sank one of their own vessels on the River Nile.
Burma has released more than 500 prisoners, including a number of the country's remaining political prisoners. The government has not released the list of the names, but opposition groups say at least 58 political detainees were freed.
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