BBC News with Iain Purdon
After another day of mass protest in the Egyptian capital, there’s growing international pressure on the country’s interim leaders to free the deposed President Mohammed Morsi. With both supporters and opponents of Mr Morsi taking to the streets of Cairo, the United States has now weighed into the diplomatic clamour, as Kim Ghattas reports.
Washington has so far avoided calling in public for the release of President Mohammed Morsi, only urging the Egyptian army to stop arbitrary arrests without specifically referring to the deposed president. But after Germany said that Mr Morsi should be freed from house arrest, the US was put on the spot. The state department spokesperson Jen Psaki was asked whether the US agreed with Germany. Her answer: we do agree.
The president of France, Francois Hollande, has visited the site of a train crash in which at least six people have died. He promised an investigation to establish the causes of the derailment at Bretigny-sur-Orge, south of Paris. Dozens of people were injured in the crash, nine critically. Here’s the French president himself.
"We will of course find out what caused this. But first of all, let’s think of the victims. Let’s think of the families. Let’s think of the wounded. Let's applaud the personnel, I mean the doctors, nurses and firemen—it was the local firemen from Bretigny who got here first and found an appalling, atrocious scene. They coped with it and managed to save lives.”
The White House has criticised Russia for giving the fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden what it called a platform for propaganda and for agreeing to consider an asylum request. Earlier Mr Snowden told human rights organisations that he wanted political asylum in Russia until he can travel to Latin America. Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow.
The fugitive intelligence analyst had already withdrawn a previous application for refuge in Russia after President Putin had laid down a condition-- the American would have to stop spilling secrets which damage the United States. So will Edward Snowden agree to that? The Russian MP Vyacheslav Nikonov asked him.
"His answer was positive. He has no intention to hurt the United States as he is a patriot of his country.”
I asked the MV what kind of a mood Edward Snowden was in. “He came across as a little nervous”, he said. “And he didn’t look very well-fed. He was a little slim. But his mood was positive.”
Police and medical officials in Iraq say at least 18 people have died in a bomb attack on a cafe in Kirkuk in the north of the country. More than 26 others were wounded. One report suggested that the explosion happened as the patriots were marking the end of the day-long fast of Ramadan. Iraq is experiencing a surging violence. More than 2,500 people have been killed this year.
World News from the BBC
The Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban last year, Malala Yousafzai, has celebrated her 16th birthday by addressing a specially convened assembly at the United Nations. Malala spoke about the right to education for every child.
"Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are the most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.”
The Vatican has frozen funds in the bank account of a senior cleric who’s suspected of money laundering. It’s part of a wider investigation into cases of possible money laundering at the Vatican Bank. Here’s David Willey.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was suspended last month from his duties. He’s a former senior accountant who worked in the department that controls the Vatican’s extensive real estate and shareholdings. The Italian cleric is at present in jail in Rome, where he’s been questioned after being arrested by Italian tax police on suspicion of involvement in a 20m-euro money smuggling operation. For the first time Vatican and Italian investigators, by order of Pope Francis, are exchanging information about suspected money laundering operations.
Officials in Senegal say rebels in neighbouring Guinea-Bissau have freed nine land-mine clearance workers who were hostage in May. They’ve said the employees will be handed over to the Senegalese authorities on Saturday.
One of British television’s best-known figures, the veteran broadcaster Alan Whicker, has died. He was 87 and had been suffering from bronchial pneumonia. Alan Whicker travelled the world to report on the unusual and bizarre for his Whicker’s World series, interviewing high-profile people of all kinds from the beautiful people to dictators.