President Bush and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel have said they would continue to seek a diplomatic solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program. After talks at Mr. Bush’s ranch in Texas, Mrs. Merkel said further sanctions might be required to persuade Teheran to stop enriching uranium. Our BBC correspondent in Washington says Germany is reluctant to impose unilateral sanctions on Iranian banks. Mrs. Merkel, however, said she would work with German businesses to reduce trade with Iran. “Germany needs to look closer at its existing business ties with Iran. There are certain companies that do business with Iran. We need to have a closer look at that as the situation unfolds. I will talk with the German business community again about possible further reductions of those commercial ties. ” Germany is one of Tehran’s main trading partners with a surplus last year of more than $5 billion.
The Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has held a series of meetings as she tries to increase pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to abandon an emergency rule and hold elections. She said Pakistan must be given the choice of democracy. Her talks included meetings with members of Parliament, but she was stopped from seeing the deposed Chief Justice. Addressing MPs at a hotel in Islamabad, Ms. Bhutto said the promised elections had to go ahead. “The choice of Pakistan must not be a choice between the military or the militants. The choice in Pakistan and the people of Pakistan must have this third choice. And that choice must be the choice for democracy.”
A vote for a new Lebanese president has been postponed for a third time. The speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri said more time was needed to find a compromise candidate acceptable to both the western-backed government and the opposition group supported by Syria. The assembly will now meet on November 21. President Emile Lahoud is due to step down later this month.
One of the dominant figures of American cultural life of the past half century Norman Miller has died at the age of 84. Twice a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, he was among the greatest of the 20th century authors. Norman Miller was also active in politics and in the 1960's he campaigned against the Vietnam War. S D reports.
Norman Mailer died reportedly of kidney failure in the early hours of Saturday in hospital in New York. He’d been a major figure in the American writing for almost six decades. In 1948, he published “The naked and the dead” based on his experiences in the Pacific in the Second World War. Some critics thought the novel put him immediately on a par with Hemingwei. In the following decades, writing fiction and nonfiction, he was identified increasingly with America’s growing Counter-Culture. For many years, the press followed eagerly developments in his private life. He was married a total of six times.
World news from the BBC.
Palestinian security forces say they have seized dozens of home-made bombs from a militant stronghold in the West Bank city of Nablus. It’s the first time in years that the Palestinian police have raided the militant neighbourhood. And correspondents say that the move underlines the determination of President Mahmoud Abbas to impose control in the West Bank.
The Sri Lanka military says 25 people have been killed in violence in the past 48 hours. It says most of the dead were Tamil Tiger rebels killed in a series of clashes with the security forces in the northern districts of Vavuniya and Mannar. One soldier also died in the fighting. A roadside bomb, which went off in a wildlife park in the south of the country, killed one civilian.
In Sudan, 10 men from Darfur have been sentenced to death by firing squad for the beheading of a journalist Mohammed Taha. Their defence team say the verdict is illegal because it is normally only applied to the military. Amber Henshaw reports from Khartoum.
Mohammed Taha was kidnapped in his home last year by armed men. His decapitated body was found the next morning, lying on the streets in the south of the capital Khartoum. The crime came as a huge shock in Sudan. Many believed that it echoed images of the brutal killings by al-Qaeda militants in Iraq. Mr. Taha, an Islamist himself, had angered some by reprinting an article questioning the roots of the Prophet Mohammed. Authorities said he’d also upset Darfuris by writing articles questioning the morals of Darfuri women.
In a remarkable break from protocol on the Ibero-American summit in Chile, Spain’s King Juan Carlos has told the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to “shut up”. The king showed his exasperation after Mr. Chavez called the former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar a "fascist". Mr. Chavez had repeatedly interrupted attempts by Mr. Aznar’s successor to challenge the remark.