BBC News with Nick Kelly.
President Obama has appealed for calm reflection a day after a neighborhood watch volunteer was cleared of murdering an unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida. Mr.Obama said the US was a country of laws and jury had a spoken. David Willis reports from Florida.
“In his statement, President Obama said the death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy not just for his family but for the whole of America. Acknowledging the passions the trial had generated, he urged people to respect the call for calm reflection on the part of Trayvon Martin's parents. A President statement follows protests in several US cities in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman who claimed he shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense after becoming convinced the teenager was a part of a gang that had been targeting the local neighbourhood.”
The public prosecutor in Egypt has frozen the assets of 14 senior Islamists including the head of the Muslim Brotherhood as part of an investigation into the incitement of violence of protests. The announcement came as a senior US envoy William Burns was arriving in Cairo. The US has been urging the authorities to release the ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. There is still considerable anger among Mr. Morsi's supporters especially over the appointment of Mohamed el-Baradei as Interim Vice President.
“El-Baradei has been sworn in before an authority that's not chosen by the people, and the authority does not recognized by the constitution, the people and the entire world.” “Both the constitution and the referendum of the Egyptian people have been demolished and dissolved.”
The President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir has arrived in Nigeria and been met with a full guard of honor despite human rights activists demand that he’d been arrested for war crimes. Nigeria is a member of the International Criminal Court which has indicted Mr. Bashir for war crimes in Darfur. A human rights group, the Nigerian Coalition for the International Criminal Court has threatened to seek a judicial order to ensure his arrest. Chino Obiagwu is a spokesman for the group.
“It sends a very wrong signal to all African countries that the international sanctions of court could be ignored. It's a strong signal that African nations don’t need to cooperate with ICC. And if that impression continues, then we're going to have a serious problem dealing with impunity in Africa.”
Two British soldiers have died during a training exercise in Wales, it's not known how the men died, but a BBC's correspondent says the weapons were not thought been involved. The exercise took place in the Brecon Beacons' mountain range.
Two of the fastest sprinters in the world, Tyson Gay from the United States and Jamaica athlete Asafa Powell, have tested positive for banned substances. Gay, who's the second fastest man in the world over 100 meters, says he's pulling out the Athletics World Championships in Moscow next month.
This is the World News from the BBC.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for a tougher European data protection rules following revelations about the United States online surveillance programs. The comments follow leaks suggesting that the US eavesdropped on EU officials as part of a widespread electronic spy operation. Stephen Evans reports from Berlin.
“Within an election two months away, Chancellor Merkel is under some pressure to disclose how much her government knew about the activities of the American national security agency. In her Sunday evening interview, she said that in future, the United States must abide by German law, an assertion that some in Germany hold as attested mission that the NSA broke German law by spying on German citizens. Chancellor Merkel sent her interior minister to Washington last week to find out how much spying there had been and on whom. The opposition in Berlin has accused her government of failing to get answers.”
The authorities in Iraq said at least 15 people have died in a new wave of bomb attacks south of the capital Baghdad. Iraqi police said the blasts struck cities, including Karbala, Nasiriyah, Kut and Basra. The blasts happened shortly before the evening meal that ends the day-long fast during the holy month of Ramadan. Earlier in the day, attacks in northern Iraq left at least six people dead.
And Police in Bangladesh have clashed with several hundreds of supporters of the country's largest Islamic party ahead of the verdict in the trial of an Islamic leader charged with war crimes. Ghulam Azam is accused of committing crimes during the country's 1971 war of independence. Prosecutors at a special tribunal say Mr. Azam, who is 90, should receive the death penalty for his role in setting up violent militia groups that killed thousands of people. His supporters say the charges are politically motivated. Early verdict against Islamist leaders triggered nationwide protests.