BBC News with Marion Marshall
Italian police have raided the hotel where two of the world’s leading sprinters are staying as doping scandals threaten to engulf the sport-- the Jamaican runners Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson, both tested positive for a banned substance on Sunday. In a separate development, the American sprinter Tyson Gay, who’s also tested positive for doping, has temporarily lost his sponsorship deal with Adidas as Alex Capstick reports.
The German sportswear firm said it was shocked at revelations of Tyson Gay’s positive test. It said any of its athletes found guilty of doping would have their contracts terminated. The American, one of the fastest men in history, insisted he had never knowingly cheated. Asafa Powell, another high-profile sprinter, gave a similar explanation following his failed test. He’s been training with a group of Jamaicans in Italy. Police have seized several substances in the hotel where he’s been staying.
A senior American envoy William Burns has said Egypt has been given a second chance by the army’s ousting of the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. He was speaking after meeting interim leaders in Cairo.
"Despite our concerns about the developments of the past two weeks, we believe the ongoing transition is another opportunity following the January 25th revolution to create a democratic state that protects human rights and the rule of law and enables the economic prosperity of its citizens. We hope it will be a chance to learn some of the lessons and correct some of the mistakes of the past two years.”
Reports say Egyptian security forces have again fired tear gas in central Cairo during scuffles between supporters of the ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and local people as a Muslim Brotherhood demonstration got underway outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo.
The former treasurer of the Spanish governing party, Luis Barcenas, has repeated in court allegations of secret payment from a slush fund to the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Mr Barcenas said that Mr Rajoy and other top politicians of the Popular Party received tens of thousands of euros as recently as 2010.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of trapping the former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden in Moscow by scaring other countries into refusing him entry. Here’s our Moscow correspondent Daniel Sandford.
President Vladimir Putin was speaking on a visit to Gogland island in the Baltic Sea where he was filmed diving in a mini-submarine to see a tsarist-era shipwreck. Meeting a group of students afterwards, he said that he saw signs that Edward Snowden was moving towards ending his political activity against the United States and he said that he hoped he would leave Russia when he gets the chance. He said the former intelligence contractor is currently trapped in Russia because America had scared other countries into denying Snowden entry. “It’s a kind of present for us”, he said. “For Christmas.”
BBC News
Nigerian human rights activists have gone to court demanding the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir be arrested and handed over to the International Criminal Court. President Bashir arrived in Nigeria on Sunday to attend an African Union summit. He’s been indicted by the ICC for war crimes in Darfur. The Nigerian Coalition on the International Criminal Court said the judiciary had a duty to implement the country’s international legal obligations.
Israel has criticised as totally unacceptable Poland’s decision to ban the ritual slaughter of animals according to Jewish and Muslim law. Israel’s foreign ministry said the ban was at odds with Poland’s claims to be an open and modern society. And Poland’s chief rabbi Michael Schudrich said he would resign unless a solution were found. On Friday the Polish parliament voted to maintain the country’s ban on ritual slaughter which requires animals to be killed without prior stunning.
A row has broken out in France over the revelation of the image on a new postage stamp is modelled on the leader of the feminist movement Femen, which specialises in topless protests. The artist who designed the stamp said he was inspired to use the Ukrainian activist Inna Shevchenko as the latest incarnation of the stamp depicting the mythical French revolutionary icon Marianne. Hugh Schofield reports.
The artist Oliver Ciappa said that he chose Ms Shevchenko because the original Marianne, had she really existed, would certainly have been a member of Femen, demonstrating topless for the revolution. The model herself, who recently was granted political asylum in France, told Twitter followers that she was delighted. Now all homophobes and fascists would be forced to lick her derriere, she said, using a more vulgar term, whenever they send a letter. But conservatives say that they are astonished that the person they see as an angry, Ukrainian provocateur should become the official symbol of France.