The BBC reports the Mexican Navy says it has seized more than a tonne of cocaine hidden inside the carcasses of frozen sharks. Armed officers found slabs of cocaine inside more than 20 sharks aboard a freight ship in the Gulf coast port of Progreso in Yucatan state. Correspondents say cartels are coming up with increasingly creative ways of smuggling drugs into the US. Shipments of cocaine have also been discovered hidden inside sealed beer cans, religious statues and furniture. "We are talking about more than a tonne of cocaine that was inside the ship," said Mexican Navy Commander Eduardo Villa. He said X-ray machines and sniffer dogs had helped to uncover the haul. "Those in charge of the shipment said it was a conserving agent but after checks we confirmed it was cocaine," he said.  Meanwhile, Reuters say drug gangs are coming up with increasingly creative ways of getting drugs into the United States -- in sealed beer cans, religious statues and furniture -- as Mexico's military cracks down on the cartels moving South American narcotics north. President Felipe Calderon has sent 45,000 troops and federal police across Mexico to try to crush powerful smuggling cartels. But traffickers armed with a huge arsenal of grenades and automatic weapons are far from defeated, worrying Washington as violence spills over into U.S. states like Arizona. Some 2,750 people have died in drug violence in Mexico this year, a pace similar to that of 2008, when 6,300 were killed.

Reuters report former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said on Tuesday that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are being "treated more like animals than human beings". On a visit to the enclave, he condemned Israel's January bombardment of Gaza and its continuing trade blockade, which he said forbids even children's toys. "I understand that even paper and crayons are treated as a security hazard," he told Gazans at a local United Nations office. "I sought an explanation of this when I met with Israeli officials and I received none, because there is no explanation." Carter, 84, has spent far more years as a human rights activist than he did in the White House from 1977 to 1981. He is easily the most outspoken former U.S. president on the Middle East conflict, and seen by many Israelis as a harsh critic. He ignored a U.S. government ban on dealings with Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas and had talks with its leaders. AP say  Carter's one-day Gaza visit came at the end of a swing though Lebanon, Syria and Israel, during which he encouraged officials in all countries to move toward a negotiated end to the Middle East conflict. Carter — a former U.S. president who helped broker the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt — serves a unique, though unofficial, role in peacemaking efforts in the region. Although traveling as a "private citizen" and not a representative of the U.S. government, Carter said he would report to Obama administration officials after returning to the United States. Carter has advocated talking to all parties in the conflict, even Hamas, which the United States, the European Union and Israel consider a terrorist organization and do not deal with directly. Meanwhile, Haaretz says Mr. Carter told Noam Shalit, the father of IDF abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, that he "got the impression that Gilad Shalit is alive and well". Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Gaza militants in a cross border raid in 2006, and his parents have received no sign of life from him in over a year.

Reuters say supporters of Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi aim to keep pressure up with new protests Wednesday over a disputed poll which has led to the biggest upheaval since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Despite the authorities' readiness for a partial recount, they plan a fifth day of demonstrations since Friday's poll in which hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was officially declared to have won a resounding victory. The BBC says supporters of Mr. Mousavi are planning a new demonstration in Tehran in protest at what they see as a fraudulent presidential poll in Iran. The planned rally comes after a night in which security forces reportedly raided university dormitories in several Iranian cities. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has sought to calm tensions and called for an end to rioting. The AP reports on media crackdown in the country by the authorities.

LA Times: Autopsies have revealed fractures in the legs, hips and arms of Air France crash victims, injuries that, along with the large pieces of wreckage pulled from the Atlantic, strongly suggest the plane broke up in the air, experts said Wednesday. With more than 400 bits of debris recovered from the ocean's surface, the top French investigator expressed hope that investigators would learn what brought down Flight 447, but he also called the conditions "one of the worst situations ever known in an accident investigation." French investigators are beginning to form "an image that is progressively less fuzzy," Paul-Louis Arslanian, who runs the French air accident investigation agency BEA, said at a news conference outside Paris. A spokesman for Brazilian medical examiners said fractures were found through autopsies on an undisclosed number of the 50 bodies recovered. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of department rules. The pattern of fractures was first reported Wednesday by Brazil's O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, which cited unnamed investigators. The paper also reported that some victims were found with little or no clothing and bore no sign of burns.

Reuters: Suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles at militant targets in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border on Thursday, killing at least five people, intelligence officials said. The United States, alarmed by worsening security in Afghanistan, has been using pilotless drone aircraft to attack Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in northwestern Pakistani enclaves, from where the militants mount attacks into Afghanistan. At the same time, nuclear-armed Pakistan is struggling to push back a growing Taliban insurgency of its own. Its security forces have been fighting the Islamist militants in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, for more than a month. At least two of the pilotless aircraft used in Thursday's strikes hit two separate areas in the Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold of South Waziristan, the intelligence officials said. The Pakistan military has been softening up targets in the area and is expected to expand its Swat offensive against the Taliban into South Waziristan soon. "Three missiles struck a training camp run by a local militant commander, Malang Wazir," said an intelligence official, who asked not to be identified, referring to an attack in a village west of the region's main town of Wana...

BBC (follow link): At least 10 people have been killed and 20 others injured by a mortar bomb blast at a mosque in Mogadishu. The tragedy came as a UN official said the recent spate of bloodletting in the Somali capital was the "worst ever" in nearly two decades of chaos. It was unclear who fired the mortar but it came as pro-government forces continued to fight Islamist guerrillas. More people died when shells fired by government forces and peacekeepers hit Mogadishu's main Bakara market. The ongoing battles have killed more than 250 people - civilians and combatants - since it erupted last month. Neither side is thought to have achieved any territorial gain in the latest confrontation. On Wednesday, Mogadishu's police commander was killed during an attack on insurgent bases. BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says the death of Colonel Ali Said will be a significant setback for the pro-government forces, as he had often been on the frontline encouraging his colleagues to defend their positions. Dadir Ali Jes, who witnessed Wednesday night's mosque attack, said he believed at least 13 people had died. Another resident, Halima Gedi, said: "It was a horrific scene, human flesh scattered everywhere and the blood stained the nearby walls. One of the victims had their head cut off by the mortar." There was further bloodshed when government forces and peacekeepers shelled Mogadishu's Holwadag district and some of the explosives hit the main Bakara market. "At least five people were killed and 10 others injured, including a 10-year-old child," said Abdi Haji, a shop-keeper at the market. The shelling came after the insurgents briefly attacked the strategic Makka-al-Mukarama road in the south of Mogadishu, a route used by government officials and the peacekeepers. More than 100 wounded people have been transported to hospital since Wednesday morning, said Ali Muse, of the city ambulance service...

United Press: Protesters in Iran donned dark clothing for their marches Thursday as a sign of mourning for the people who died protesting the presidential elections. Mosques across the Iranian capital of Tehran were the starting points for the rallies, which were to converge in a city square for protesters of Friday's disputed election in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner over second-place finisher Mir Hossein Mousavi, CNN reported. Mousavi indicated he would attend Thursday's "ceremony of mourning." On his Web site, he asked supporters to dress in black to show respect for people who died or were wounded "as a result of illegal and violent clashes."

AFP say Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has marked a grim 64th birthday in prison, as activists took to the Internet and planned worldwide protests to press the ruling military junta to free her. Famous names including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, footballer David Beckham and US actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts all offered support on a website while the United States and EU led political calls for her release on Friday. The Nobel Laureate has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention and is now being held in Yangon's notorious Insein Prison during her trial for a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her home. Members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) held events at their Yangon headquarters to kick off the global celebrations, a spokesman said he had gone to the prison to take her a rice dish, birthday cake and flowers. "She ordered the food so that she could donate it to those around her in prison, and there are no other prisoners near her. She will hold a small ceremony there," Nyan Win said, adding that he was not allowed to see her. Security was tight at the party's base, with plainclothes police officers videotaping people entering the building and five police trucks patrolling nearby. Around 300 supporters at the building offered food to Buddhist monks at dawn, and later released doves and balloons into the air in a symbol of freedom before sharing a birthday cake, witnesses said. Dressed in yellow T-shirts, the activists prayed for her release and then clapped and shouted: "May Daw Aung San Suu Kyi be free soon." The ruling generals refused to recognise the NLD's landslide victory in 1990 elections, and critics say the latest charges against her are trumped up to keep her behind bars for polls promised by the generals in 2010. Her trial, which could see her jailed for up to five more years, has provoked international outrage and was denounced by US President Barack Obama as a "show trial." Meanwhile, AP report Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 64th birthday locked in prison Friday as global condemnation over her trial and demands for her freedom erupted across Twitter, Facebook and other Web sites and at rallies worldwide. Hollywood stars like Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, celebrities Madonna and David Beckham, Nobel laureates and world leaders joined voices to call for the military government to release Suu Kyi, who has now spent 14 birthdays in detention. Many posted online messages on social networking sites and videos on YouTube in what human rights groups called an unprecedented and enormously powerful tool to harness support for Suu Kyi and highlight her struggle. Suu Kyi planned to mark the day by sharing food with her prison guards. Reuters note having been confined for nearly 14 of the past 20 years, Suu Kyi's birthday has become an annual ritual inside and outside Myanmar for campaigners seeking an end to decades of military rule that has left the country an impoverished international pariah. But the day has taken on added significance this year amid international outrage at her trial, which is widely expected to end with a guilty verdict.

The BBC says Somalia's Security Minister Omar Hashi Aden has been killed in a suicide car bomb attack north of the capital Mogadishu, witnesses and officials say. Somali diplomats were also reportedly among at least 10 people killed in the blast at a hotel in Beledweyne. Somalia's president blamed al-Shabab - accused of links to al-Qaeda - which later claimed the attack. Al-Shabab is among militants who have been trying to topple the fragile UN-backed government for three years. On Wednesday, at least 10 people died when a mortar hit a Mogadishu mosque. The city's police chief was killed in a separate attack. Meanwhile, Abdurrahman Warsameh reports for Xinhua the international community has condemned the killing. In a joint statement the UN, the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU), the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the League of Arab States (LAS) condemned this week's upsurge in violence in Mogadishu, where another suicide bomb or shelling is reported to have killed at least ten people attending a mosque. They called on the transitional federal government of Somalia not to be deterred in its pursuit for peace by the actions of a small minority. "This deplorable attack once again demonstrates that the extremists will stop at nothing in their desperate attempt to seize power from the legitimate Government of Somalia by force," the organizations said in a joint statement received here Friday. "These extremists, both Somali and foreigners, failed in their recent coup d'état but are continuing their indiscriminate violence. They are a threat not only to the country, but to the IGAD region and the international community," the statement said.

The European Commission is due to send a recommendation to the European Parliament and the EU Council for lifting of the visa regime for those countries who have met the criteria, Serbia's high-ranking official said, cited by Macedonian agency Makfax. Macedonia is one of the countries, who shows good results in the criteria for joining EU and NATO. According to the agency, serbian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Euro-Integration, Bozidar Gjelic, met yesterday with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Jacques Barrot, Fonet agency reported. "Barrot reassured me that the European Commission will send the recommendation for visa-free regime by the end of the next month," Gjelic said, cited by Makfax. After this news Macedonia have hopes that the visa regime will fall soon, otherwise Macedonians still have to travel with visa, even when they visit their neighbor countries. For now the official date of visa liberalization and visa-free regime will start at 1 January, 2010

The BBC says indigenous groups in Peru have called off protests after two land laws which led to deadly fighting were revoked. Hailing victory, Amazonian Indian groups said it was an "historic day". At least 34 people died during weeks of strikes against the legislation, which allowed foreign companies to exploit resources in the Amazon forest.  The violence provoked tension with Peru's neighbour, Bolivia, where President Evo Morales backed the Peruvian Indians' tribal rights. "This is a historic day for indigenous people because it shows that our demands and our battles were just," said Daysi Zapata, vice president of the Amazon Indian confederation that led the protests. She urged fellow activists to end their action by lifting blockades of jungle rivers and roads set up since April across six provinces in the Peruvian Amazon. The controversial laws, passed to implement a free trade agreement with the US, were revoked by Peru's Congress by a margin of 82-12 after a five-hour debate. Earlier, the New York Times reported Peru’s Congress on Thursday overturned two decrees by President Alan García that were aimed at opening large areas of the Peruvian Amazon to logging, dams and oil drilling but set off protests by indigenous groups this month in which dozens died.The move appeared to ease tensions with the indigenous groups, which had continued with their protests and road blockades in parts of Peru despite Congress’s decision to suspend the decrees last month. After the vote on Thursday, however, some indigenous leaders said they would lift the scattered blockades and halt the protests. “Today is a historic day for all indigenous people and for the nation of Peru,” said Daysi Zapata, a leader of the Peruvian Jungle Inter-Ethnic Development Association, a group representing more than 300,000 people from Peru’s indigenous groups. The apparent end to the impasse came after at least 24 police officers and 10 civilians were killed in clashes and acts of retaliation in northern Bagua Province, some of Peru’s bloodiest political violence since a two-decade war ended in 2000. The decrees, issued by Mr. García as part of a regulatory overhaul for a trade deal with the United States, were intended to open parts of jungle to investment and allow companies to bypass indigenous communities to attain permits for petroleum, biofuels and hydroelectric projects. Other disputed decrees by Mr. García remain in effect, raising the prospect of new protests. Still, Mr. García acknowledged in a speech late Wednesday that his government had made a crucial mistake by not including native groups in discussions over the decrees before he issued them. The repeal of the decrees and the apology by Mr. García open a new phase of uncertainty in Peru, where economic growth is sharply declining amid a decline in commodities prices.

EuroNews reports Air France says it will compensate families of victims aboard flight 447 which was lost over the Atlantic on June 1st. The airline says it still does not know exactly what caused the tragedy, but its investigators are now getting closer to understanding why the Paris-bound jet fell out of the sky. Air France’s CEO, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, says ultimately its insurers will pay up to 100,000 euros per victim. “We are very much focussed on paying an advance of 17,500 euros as an interim payment,” he said. “Lawyers for the insurers are talking to the victims’ families to set up this payment.” Until the plane’s flight recorders are found there is no way of knowing for sure why the plane broke up in mid-air. Passengers from 32 nationalities died, among them 61 French people and 58 Brazilians. Meanwhile, the New York Times says Three ships and a nuclear-powered submarine are engaged in the most extensive marine search for black boxes from an airline accident in modern aviation history, air safety experts said Friday.Search teams, with crew and equipment from the French and American navies, continued to scour the deep Atlantic waters on Friday, straining to hear an acoustic ping emitted from the flight data and cockpit recorders of Air France Flight 447, which crashed some 620 miles off the coast of northern Brazil in the early morning hours of June 1. Veteran investigators said they could not recall a similar effort to locate a plane’s recorders; these could contain information that is critical to solving the mystery of the downed Airbus A330. “I can’t think of any one event where there’s been more than one military naval organization out there hunting for them,” said Greg Feith, a former investigator at the National Transportation Safety Board. The boats hunting for pings around the clock make up just part of the armada of sea and air craft involved in the search and recovery effort, which includes at least 11 ships, 10 planes and 2 helicopters from four countries. The Brazilian military has more than 1,000 personnel members devoted to the search. It seems daunting and improbable to find tiny boxes in a huge ocean, especially with the precise crash site still uncertain, but searchers almost always recover them, air safety experts said. 

According to Reuters a protest rally against a disputed presidential election will go ahead on Saturday, an aide of defeated candidate Mehdi Karoubi said, a day after Iran's top authority demanded an end to such demonstrations. "The demonstration plan has not been canceled and accordingly it must be held this afternoon," said the Karoubi aide, who declined to be named. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a strong warning on Friday to leaders of street protests since the June 12 vote that they would be responsible for any bloodshed. His words appeared to hint at a future crackdown by authorities on rallies after the election, which Khamenei said was fairly won by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and not rigged, as defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi alleges.Earlier, CNN described how Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader for two decades, took the stage during Friday prayers at Tehran University with a few notes on small pieces of paper in his left hand. He leaned on the lectern with his right arm, crippled in an 1981 assassination attempt. He was ready to put an end to a week of unrest. First, a sermon about the dangers of division and disunity, using the language of Islam. Then came secular sentences, decidedly direct. He praised the huge turnout at the polls as a victory for Iran but criticized post-election turmoil as the work of Iran's enemies - the United States, Israel and Britain. "The enemies want to destroy our confidence. They want to create doubt about the election," Khamenei said. A full hour passed before he delivered a verdict that supporters of opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi did not want to hear. "Eleven million votes difference?" he asked. "Sometimes there's a margin of one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand, or one million, maximum. Then one can doubt, be concerned that there has been some rigging or manipulation. To be clear, he reminded the crowd of the victor at the polls. It was the man sitting in the front row: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was the "the absolute victor," Khamenei said. "If political elites want to ignore or break the law and willy-nilly take wrong measures which are harmful, they will be held accountable for all violence and blood and rioting. "Few in the crowd were disappointed with the cleric's words. "Death to America!" the people chanted repeatedly, interrupting Khamenei's speech. "Death to Israel."

AP says North Korea has criticized the U.S. for reaffirming its nuclear protection of South Korea during a recent summit, saying it exposed a U.S. plot to launch atomic war. The accusation comes as Washington and regional powers consider a new South Korean proposal to meet soon to find a way to resolve the global standoff over the North's nuclear programs. In North Korea's first response to last week's meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Washington, its government-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said Obama's commitment to South Korea's security, including through U.S. nuclear protection, only revealed a U.S. plot to attack the North with nuclear weapons. "It's not a coincidence at all for the U.S. to have brought numerous nuclear weapons into South Korea and other adjacent sites, staging various massive war drills opposing North Korea every day and watching for a chance for an invasion," said the commentary published Saturday. The weekly also said the North will also "surely judge" the Lee government for participating in a U.S.-led international campaign to "stifle" the North. Tension on the Korean peninsula has spiked since the North defiantly conducted its second nuclear test on May 25. The North later declared it would bolster its atomic bomb-making program and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions for its test. North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the U.S., which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its communist regime. Washington, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention and has no nuclear weapons deployed there. In what would be the first test case for the new U.N. sanctions, U.S. officials said Thursday the U.S. military had begun tracking a North Korean-flagged ship which may be carrying illegal weapons. The officials said the ship left a North Korean port Wednesday. On Sunday, South Korean television network YTN quoted an unidentified South Korean intelligence source as saying the ship is believed to sailing toward Myanmar. Seoul's Defense Ministry and Unification Ministry said they could not confirm the report. On Saturday, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said Seoul has proposed five-way talks with the U.S., China, Russia and Japan to find a solution to the North's threats. The U.S. and Japan have agreed to participate, while China and Russia have yet to respond, the official told The Associated Press, requesting anonymity because he was discussing a plan still in the works. Earlier, the Independent On Sunday (view link) reported the United States military was reinforcing the defences of Hawaii in response to increasing concern that North Korea, stung by new United Nations sanctions against it, may be preparing to launch a long-range ballistic missile in the direction of the Pacific archipelago. The Pentagon was also monitoring a North Korean freighter, the Kang Nam, which in the past has been suspected of carrying cargo related to the country's nuclear industry. The UN resolution authorises international inspection of ships if there are "reasonable grounds" to think they are carrying such materials. US officials said they were confident that they would have all the necessary defences in place around Hawaii. They were responding in part to reports in the Japanese media that North Korea was planning to fire a long-range Taepodong-2 missile towards the islands on or around the 4 July holiday. "I would just say I think we are in a good position should it become necessary to protect American territory," Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defence, said. He conceded: "We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile ... in the direction of Hawaii."

Xinhua say a truck bomb explosion on Saturday killed up to 70 people, including many women and children, and injured more than 180 others in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, a local police source said on Sunday. "The latest reports of yesterday's truck bombing said that 70 people were killed and more than 180 others were injured," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The attack took place after midday near al-Rasool mosque and a busy popular market in the old and impoverished Turkmen Shiite neighborhood of Taza in southwestern Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad. The booby-trapped truck detonated while worshippers were leaving the mosque after observing the Muslim noon prayer, the source said. The powerful explosion destroyed some 50 surrounding clay houses and buildings, burying many families under debris, the police said. The police said they were investigating the incident to find how a truck packed with explosives could enter the neighborhood, while the surrounding checkpoints had orders to prevent trucks from entering the protected slum. In Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned the attack in a statement, saying "the ugly terrorist crime against our Turkmen brothers is only an attempt to destabilize the security and to show the Iraqi security force's incapability of taking control after the U.S. troops' withdrawal by the end of the month." Also on Saturday, Maliki told leaders of ethnic Turkmen minority during a meeting in Baghdad that the U.S. troops' withdrawal from Iraqi cities and towns by the end of this month will be a "great victory" for Iraqis. AP show the devastation in Kirkuk, following the carnage.

The Times: The president of the troubled North Caucasus region of Ingushetia was critically wounded when his convoy was hit by an explosion Monday, Russian officials said. It was unclear whether Yunus Bek Yevkurov's car convoy was hit by a car bomb or a landmine or whether he was the target of the explosion. At least three other people were wounded in the attack, and there were reports that three of Mr Yevkurov's bodyguards were killed. Yevkurov is the third top official to be wounded or killed in Ingushetia in the past three weeks and the fourth in the North Caucasus this month.

BBC(follow link):  The president of the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia has been wounded in an assassination attempt. Yunus-Bek Yevkurov has been taken to hospital and his condition is unclear. One bodyguard was killed and several others are reported wounded. An explosion hit their convoy near the city of Nazran, officials say. No group has said it carried out the attack. Ingushetia, which neighbours Chechnya, has seen an increase in violence in recent years. "A car bomb was set off at about 0820 (0420 GMT) when a motorcade of the Ingush president was going by the highway," said an interior ministry officer. Federal investigators said a car that was parked on the side of the road detonated just as Mr Yevkurov's car passed, AP news agency reported.

The Guardian: Speculation over the condition of the three Britons still being held hostage in Iraq intensified yesterday as the Foreign Office revealed that formal identifications had been made of two bodies retrieved by British officials late on Friday. The two bodies handed over to the British embassy were identified as Jason Creswell, from Glasgow, and Jason Swindlehurst, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire. Both had worked for the Canadian security firm GardaWorld in Baghdad as guards for IT consultant Peter Moore, who remains captive, along with two more of his guards known only as Alan, from Scotland, and Alec, from South Wales. The Foreign Office announced the identifications "with very deep regret" and said they had been made on "very strong indications". It is understood that the bodies showed signs of partial decomposition, suggesting that the two Britons had not been killed in recent weeks. Gordon Brown last night sent his condolences to the families of the two men. He said there was "no justification" for kidnapping and called for the release of the other hostages immediately. The Telegraph reports after the executions of the two hostages, the families were praying the remaining hostages had not also been killed. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said the “appalling news” was proof of the “grave danger” the hostages face.

The BBC (follow link): MPs are due to vote for a new Commons Speaker amid claims that Labour whips are trying to influence the contest. Ex-foreign secretary Margaret Beckett remains bookmakers' favourite, but at least one Labour MP has accused the government of trying to install her. Stephen Pound said government whips were "touting Margaret Beckett" and said that they should "stop doing it". Ten candidates are in the running to replace Michael Martin, who was forced out following the expenses scandal. Mr Pound, Labour MP for Ealing North, said he thought Mrs Beckett would win the secret ballot of MPs on Monday, because of the whips' involvement. "There is a lot of skulduggery going on... it is a depressing example of MPs looking inwards to their own advantage when we really should be looking outwards," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. But Harriet Harman, the leader of the Commons, denied the government were attempting to sway the contest. "There is no skullduggery, nor should there be," she said. "Not only is it the most free of free votes, it is a secret ballot. There is no government line and therefore there is no whipping." Mr Martin became the first Speaker to be forced from office in 300 years following widespread public revulsion at the number of MPs who were seen to take advantage of the Commons' expenses rules.

Daily Telegraph: Iran's leadership have sought to seize back the initiative by moving against challengers of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Six members of the family of a former president were arrested. Riot police flooded the streets of Tehran, although there were reports of sporadic protests and gunshots 10 days after the disputed election. The capital was quieter a day after state-sponsored militias and riot police used lethal fire against crowds calling for the result of the election to be overturned. At least 10 people were killed and more than 100 injured. Demonstrators had shouted "death to Khamenei" after the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared the protests illegal.

The Guardian: At least nine people died and 70 were injured, some seriously, when a Washington DC metro train crashed into the rear of another at the height of the city's evening rush hour yesterday. One of the trains had stopped and was waiting for another train ahead to move out of a station when the second train crashed into it from behind. The front end of the second train jack-knifed into the air and fell on top of the first. The woman driver of the rear train died, along with five passengers. A Washington fire department spokesman, Alan Etter, said crews had to cut some people out of what he described as a "mass casualty event". Rescue workers used steel ladders to reach the upper train carriages and help survivors climb to safety. Seats from the smashed carriages were spilled over the track. "Obviously something went terribly wrong for two trains to be on the same track," a Metro spokeswoman said, Barack Obama sent his condolences to the victims of the crash. "Michelle and I were saddened by the terrible accident in north-east Washington, DC, today," the president said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends affected by this tragedy."Obama thanked rescue personnel who helped to save lives...

BBC (follow link): Iran's legislative body, the Guardian Council, has said there were no major polling irregularities in the 12 June election and ruled out an annulment.Opposition supporters called for the vote to be set aside and the elections re-run amid claims of vote tampering. But Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhoda'i was quoted on state television as saying there was "no major fraud or breach in the election". UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier called for an end to violence. Mr Ban urged the authorities in Iran to respect fundamental civil rights, "especially the freedom of assembly and expression", and end arrests. His comments came as there were further clashes in the capital Tehran. English-language Press TV reported the Guardian Council's rejecting an annulment on Tuesday. On Monday, it had conceded there had been voting irregularities in 50 districts, including local vote counts that exceeded the number of eligible voters. However, it said they were not enough to affect the overall result and incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had indeed won by a landslide. The council's spokesman said most of the irregularities happened before the election, not during or after voting. One of the beaten candidates, pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi, had called for the council to annul the election. "Instead of wasting time on recounting some ballot boxes... cancel the vote," he said in a letter to the council. On Monday, some 1,000 people gathered in Haft-e Tir Square in Tehran despite a warning from Iran's Revolutionary Guards against holding unapproved rallies. A spokesman for Mr Ban said he had been following the situation in Iran with "growing concern" and was dismayed by the post-election violence, particularly the use of force against civilians. A statement said: "He calls on the authorities to respect fundamental civil and political rights, especially the freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of information"...

AFP: North Korea has banned ships from a wide area off its east coast, Japan's Coast Guard said, raising speculation of more missile launches amid a tense nuclear standoff. The hardline communist state, angrily rejecting what it calls US-inspired sanctions imposed for its May 25 nuclear test, promised Tuesday to retaliate against them. In Beijing, US and Chinese defence officials were to hold talks later in the day with the Americans expected to seek support for the UN sanctions.In the first move to enforce the measures, a US destroyer was tracking a North Korean ship with a suspected weapons cargo. A US defence official said it was believed headed for military-ruled Myanmar. Japan's Coast Guard said the North had warned that military drills would be carried out off its eastern port of Wonsan between Thursday and July 10. The alert was seen as signalling possible short-range or medium-range missile tests. The North is also thought to be preparing a long-range missile launch from another location into the Pacific, short of Hawaii. Washington has said it is prepared for the possibility that North Korea could fire a missile towards Hawaii, perhaps on the July 4 US Independence Day -- a scenario reportedly outlined in a Japanese defence ministry paper. Pyongyang's April 5 rocket launch sparked off the latest standoff. Angry at UN condemnation of the exercise, it quit international nuclear disarmament talks and staged its second atomic test -- attracting further sanctions. In the days after the test the North fired a series of short-range missiles off its east coast and renounced the truce in force on the peninsula, prompting South Korea to reinforce its military on the tense border. Pyongyang's cabinet newspaper Minju Joson Tuesday accused Washington of a naval and air buildup around the Korean peninsula to try to browbeat it. The paper said sanctions and US pressure would never work on the North, which would "resolutely counter the US 'sanctions' with retaliation and 'confrontation' with all-out confrontation." The new UN sanctions approved June 12 ban arms shipments -- including missile-related cargo -- to and from the North. But the resolution rules out military force to enforce the measures. A US defence official told AFP the Kang Nam 1, which is now being tracked, appeared headed for Myanmar with which the North has friendly ties.US officials have yet to indicate if or when they might ask to search the vessel...

Macedonia and Greece are ready to find a solution for the dispute on the name, the UN mediator Matthew Nimetz told a press conference on Monday, according to Macedonian agency Makfax. According to Macedonian television A1, the UN mediator said its time to seek more intensively the solution, which will make the situation between Macedonia and Greece clear. For now the problem with the name of Macedonia stays. Nimetz will also visit Athens, where he will speak for formulation of the name, which Greece have to approve. One of the variants for the name of republic Macedonia, which Greece offers is North Macedonia. This solution wasn’t well welcomed in Macedonia. The UN mediator Mattew Nimetz will seek help for the problem from representatives of EU and Sweden, the next holder of the presidency over the Union. According to Nimetz, the problem between Macedonia and Greece have to be solved as soon as this is possible, so to make assurance of the security in the Balkans and to increase the eventually membership of Macedonia in NATO and the European Union.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has denied allegations he paid prostitutes who attended parties at his official residencies, the BBC says. In an interview with Italian gossip magazine Chi, the 72-year-old leader insisted he had never paid for sex. He alleged a prostitute at the centre of the scandal had been paid to make false accusations against him. Mr Berlusconi's personal life has been under close public scrutiny since his wife filed for divorce last month. This is the first time Mr Berlusconi has spoken at length about some of the most serious accusations involving his private life. An Italian model, Patrizia D'Addario, said last week she had been paid more than $1,000 (£609, 720 euros) to attend a party in his residence in Rome, in the company of other women.

Former Kosovo prime minister Agim Ceku, who is wanted in Serbia on war crimes charges, was arrested Tuesday in Bulgaria, the interior ministry said. "Agim Ceku was arrested Tuesday at Geshevo when he entered Bulgaria following an Interpol red notice," or an international arrest warrant, spokeswoman Diana Yankulova told AFP. Ceku is wanted for war crimes allegedly committed during the 1998-1999 war in the then Serbian-ruled Kosovo when he was military chief of the Kosovo Liberation Army, made up of ethnic Albanian Kosovo guerrillas. He last month criticised Serbia for allegedly misusing its membership of Interpol, after he was expelled from Colombia. "I think time has come for Interpol to seriously consider this issue and tell Serbia it is enough," he told journalists in the Kosovo capital of Pristina Colombia expelled the politician after authorities there received Belgrade's arrest warrant sent through Interpol. Kosovo's Interior Minister Zenun Pajaziti earlier sent a letter to Interpol and its member states, asking them not to allow such cases to be repeated in the future.