BBC News with Joe Macintosh.
The military authorities in Burma are bracing themselves for a ninth consecutive day of mass protests as a curfew they imposed last night passed. The ban is in force on assemblies of more than five people, but some of the Buddhist monks who have been leading the marches told the BBC they intended to defy the ban. Overnight, a popular Burmese film comedian, Zaganar, was arrested after giving an interview to the BBC in which he urged his colleagues to support the monks, and as the diplomatic pressure increases on Burma, our world affairs correspondent, Mike Wooldridge, reports on the factors influencing events in Burma itself.
Buddhist monks in their maroon robes may represent timelessness, but the protests they are leading are taking place in a world that has changed greatly in the 19 years since the last pro-democracy demonstrations of this kind in Burma. With each passing day, modern communications are challenging the secretive nature of the Burmese authorities and enabling the images of protest to be seen around the globe.
In a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has defended his country's nuclear program and launched a scathing attack on what he termed "the monopolistic powers that dominate the international system". Our diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus reports from the United Nations in New York.
In a long and rambling speech, there was part history lesson, part political attack and part religious homily, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a full-scale attack on the post Second War World order. The victors of that war, he said, drew the roadmap for global domination. As a consequence, international bodies had been rendered ineffective, especially, he said, the Security Council of the UN. This was a prelude to a robust defense of Iran's nuclear program. Opponents, he claimed, are really trying to halt Iran's scientific progress. He declared that, as he put it, the nuclear issue of Iran was now closed.
The organization that coordinates the global fight against AIDS says it will fail to achieve its goal of universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment by 2010, unless it receives significant additional funding over the next three years. The joint United Nations program on HIV/AIDS says it needs new funds of up to 42 billion dollars to provide HIV/AIDS treatment to 14 million people by 2010. The UN body also says the critical lack of funding puts the risk the millennium development goal of turning around the HIV epidemic by 2015.
The leader of a polygamous to Mormon sect in the United States, Warren Jeffs, has been found guilty of rape over the forced marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her cousin. Mr. Jeffs led an estimated 7,000 followers in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the state of Utah, a splinter group of the Mormon Church. He faces a sentence of up to life in prison. Matt Miss, a BBC correspondent says many of his followers believe Mr. Jeffs is a prophet who communicates directly with God.
World News from the BBC.
Leaders of the Anglican Church in the United States have agreed to halt the ordination of gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex relationships in an attempt to keep their churches inside the Anglican Communion. Many African churches threatened to leave the communion after the ordination of the first openly gay bishop four years ago. Here is our religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigert.
Bishops of the Episcopal Church spent tense six days in New Orleans in a meeting attended in part by the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Their agreement not to repeat their ordination of the gay bishop and to end the blessing in churches of same-sex relationships reflects a resolution by the Episcopal Church's ruling convention. However, there is no word yes on the further demand for a parallel church for traditionalists in America.
A judge in Argentina has approved the country's first sex change operation for a miner in the case of a 17-year-old boy who's battled for 3 years to be legally recognized as female. Daniel Schweimler reports.
Nati knew from an early age that she had been born with the wrong body. The decision by the court in the central province of Cordoba, the first of its kind in Argentina, means that that can now be put right. Nati, after the operation, will also be able to officially change her name and apply for new documentation. I'm very happy, she said, that my real identity has been recognized.
The former Defense Minister of Georgia has accused the country's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, of ordering him to assassinate a leading businessman and other influential figures. The former minister, Irakly Okruashvili, also accused the president of corruption. A colleague of the president described the allegation as nonsense. Mr. Okruashvili was once a close ally of the president, but launched his own opposition party last week.
And that's the latest BBC News.