BBC News with Jerry Smit.
A leading human rights lawyer in Iran is among a number of political prisoners who’ve been released just days before the new President Hassan Rouhani travels to New York to address the UN General Assembly. Nasrin Sotoudeh, who represented the Noble Prize winner Shirin Ebadi had been convicted of endangering national security. She told the BBC she was delighted to be free.
I finally got my wish personally ringing my doorbell myself because of I gain a leave in prison. I went to my door, and pressed the doorbell myself. I could see the children could see me from the intercom downstairs. They were very happy and I was very happy to see them.
Seven other women and three men are also reported to have been freed. President Rouhani was elected on promises of a more moderate and open approach.
Russia says it will represent new evidence to t
he UN Security Council that Syrian rebels carried out last month’s chemical weapons attack outside Damascus. The United States has said there’s no doubt that Syrian government forces were responsible for gassing hundreds of civilians. When speaking in Damascus, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the Syrian government wants to prove that’s not true.
We have indeed received additional evidence collected, analyzed and concluded upon by the Syrian authorities on what they believe it’s prove for use of chemical weapons by insurgents, so-called insurgents.
Stock markets in the United States have hit record highs after the surprised decision of the world’s most powerful central bank the Federal Reserve to leave its economic stimulate measures in place. The bank said it wanted to wait for more evidence of a sustained economic recovery before cutting back its program of plumping $85b a month into the markets. Here’s our economic correspondent Andrew Walker.
The Fed’s intentions which have be the main focus in financial markets of more than three months. There’s no weird doubt that it will some states face out the policy known as Quantitative easing. But many in the market thought it would start that process now, instead the US central bank decides to wait for more evidence that the economy including the employment situation is getting stronger. Although the recovery from the financial crisis has been more rapid in America than in many European countries, it’s still not regarded as particularly strong.
The government of Mexico has declared a state of emergency in 77 areas of the country as heavy rain and floods brought by twin storms lasperes the east and west coast line. Around 45,000 tourists and Mexican nationals remain stranded in the coastal resort of Acapulco. Rescue efforts have been hampered as both roads linking it to Mexico City are blocked by landslides.
News from the BBC.
Britain Supreme, I bet your pardon, Brazilian Supreme Court has now voted in favor of reopening the country’s biggest corruption trial. In a final vote to break an earlier deadlock, the Supreme Court agreed appeals by 12 leading politicians,bankers and businessmen should be heard. They’ve been convicted of involvement in paying opposition politicians to support the government and parliament. The scandal has erupted in 2005 under the previous President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
There have been clashes across Greek said demonstrations sparked by the killing of a left wing musician by a suspected member of a Neo-Nazi party. Mark Lowen is in Athens.
Thousands gathered at the spot where 35-year-old Pavlos Fyssas was stabbed. As darkness fell the violence began with protesters attacking a bank and the a police station. Riot police used teargas and x to push them back. There was fury that the stabbing overnight of the left wing musician by a member of a Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party. The assailant has been arrested and confessed to the attack. Although Golden Dawn has denied links with the crime, police were reported to have found party leaflets and the membership card at his home.
Police in the United States have said the six bodies found in the lake in Oklahoma may be those people who went missing decades ago. Police divers testing new sonar equipment found two cars in the lake. One contained three bodies thought to be those teenagers who went missing in 1970s. Three bodies discovered in the other car are believed to be people who disappeared in the 1950s.
Britain’s most prestigious literature prize the Man Booker is changing its rule to allow all authors who write fictions in English to enter from next year. The chairman of the Booker Prize foundation said it was abandoning the constraint of geographic and national boundaries. At present, the $80,000 prize only considers works by writers from the Commonwealth, Ireland or Zimbabwe.