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Parliamentarians in France have backed plans by President Nicolas Sarkozy to rewrite the country's constitution - by the slimmest of margins.



The reform bill was backed by 539 votes to 357 - exactly the 60% majority of the combined Assembly and Senate required to pass the reforms.

Mr Sarkozy says the reforms will strengthen France's parliament, which is often seen as weak.

But Mr Sarkozy's critics say they will turn the country into a "monocracy".

Socialist senator and former justice minister Robert Badinter said the reforms would be the equivalent of crowning Mr Sarkozy king.

"It's 'monocracy' - the power of a single man," he said last week.

Touch-and-go

Mr Sarkozy, while on a trip to Dublin to discuss the future of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, hailed news that his reforms had passed as "a victory for French democracy".

Members of the National Assembly and the Senate teamed up for the vote at a special session at the Chateau of Versailles.

The reform bill represents the biggest shake-up in the way France is run since the constitution was introduced by Charles de Gaulle in 1958, observers say.

The most contentious part of the bill has been a plan to allow the president to address parliament, opening up the possibility of a US State of the Union-style address.

That has not been permitted since 1875, in an attempt to keep the executive and legislative branches separate.

Late concessions

Mr Sarkozy, however, says the measures will actually strengthen parliament and make the president more accountable.

The bill sets a two-term limit for presidents, gives parliament a veto over some presidential appointments, ends government control over parliament's committee system, allows parliament to set its own agenda, and ends the president's right of collective pardon, the AFP news agency reports.

The bill was dependent on cross-party support, leaving the outcome unclear right up to the vote.

Mr Sarkozy spent the weekend on a break with his wife Carla Bruni in Morocco, but was reported to have been calling France frequently to try to consolidate support for the moves.

Last-minute concessions failed to win the support of the opposition Socialists, the Greens and the Communists, who all said they would vote against. Nevertheless, the bill achieved the 538 votes needed, with one to spare.

BBC News

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A former driver of Osama Bin Laden has pleaded not guilty at the first war crimes trial to be held in the US prison in Guantanamo Bay.



Yemeni national Salim Hamdan, 37, is accused of conspiracy and supporting terrorism, and faces life in prison if he is convicted.

The right of the military tribunal to try him was earlier unsuccessfully challenged by his lawyers.

About 270 suspects remain in detention in Guantanamo Bay.

The US considers the prisoners to be enemy combatants, not entitled to the legal protection given to soldiers and civilians.

America's attorney general has appealed to Congress to help find a way of allowing Guantanamo detainees a civilian court appeal against their detention.

Mr Hamdan, who was captured in Afghanistan in 2001, is the first prisoner to be tried by the US for war crimes since World War II.

Despite the seriousness of the charges he faces, his three-week trial may be little more than a curtain-raiser for the military tribunal system at Guantanamo, the BBC's Jack Izzard reports from Washington.

Among the dozens of other inmates due to be tried there in the coming months are men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks.

Human rights campaigners have accused the court of operating in a legal black hole and they and the other accused will be watching the proceedings closely, our correspondent notes.

Jury of officers

Mr Hamdan appeared in court in a khaki prison jumpsuit.

The trial judge, Navy Captain Keith Allred, began proceedings by ruling that some of the evidence obtained by interrogators while Mr Hamdan was still in Afghanistan would not be allowed during the trial.

"This military commission is assembled," he said after the jury pool was sworn in.

"You must make your determination whether or not he is guilty based solely on the evidence presented here in court and the instructions I will give you."

The trial jury is being selected from a pool of 13 US military officers and must comprise at least five members.

The verdict will require a two-thirds majority.

'Coercive techniques'

Mr Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in Afghanistan during the US-led invasion in 2001, two months after the 9/11 attacks on America.

Prosecutors say he belonged to Osama Bin Laden's inner circle, and was heading for a battle zone when he was arrested, allegedly with two surface-to-air missiles inside his car.

Mr Hamdan has acknowledged working for Bin Laden in Afghanistan from 1997 to 2001 for $200 (£99) a month, but denies being part of al-Qaeda or taking part in any attacks.

Mr Hamdan's defence lawyers have argued that the statements were tainted by what have been called "coercive techniques", and he was not advised of his right against self-incrimination.

His lawyers have tried to halt the trial on grounds of legality.

In June, the US Supreme Court ruled that detainees had to be able to challenge their detention in civilian courts.

But a judge ruled last week that the military tribunal could begin as scheduled on Monday without contradicting the Supreme Court.

In a speech on Monday, US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the Supreme Court had "left many significant questions open" in its ruling.

Although the court did rule that detainees had the right to appeal in civilian courts against their detention without trial by the military, Mr Mukasey said, it "stopped well short of detailing how the habeas corpus proceedings must be conducted".

BBC News

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A Palestinian in a mechanical digger has rammed traffic in west Jerusalem, injuring at least 10 people before being shot dead, Israeli police say.

A bus and a number of cars were hit during the incident. Some cars were crushed and one was turned on its roof.

Witnesses say an armed civilian first shot at the driver, before he was killed by border police.

Three weeks ago a Palestinian man went on a deadly rampage in a heavy vehicle in Jerusalem, killing three Israelis.

A BBC correspondent says it is thought the 2 July attacker was simply a disturbed man without political motivation - but Israelis will worry Tuesday's incident was a copycat attack and that this could now be a new tactic.

Police identified the perpetrator as 22-year-old East Jerusalem resident Ghassan Abu Tir. It is not known if he was connected to any militant group.

Gunshots

The latest attack took place in a busy part of central West Jerusalem, close to the King David Hotel where US presidential candidate Barack Obama will be arriving within hours.

As the incident was unfolding, Israeli President Shimon Peres was for the first time receiving Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at his official residence in Jerusalem, which is also nearby.

"I was going home when I saw the tractor going into a bus four or five times. All the windows of the bus exploded," said a 16-year-old Israeli at the scene.

"Then I saw the tractor going down the street pushing cars. I saw more people running and after two minutes I heard two or three gunshots," Yohanan Levine added.

A driver interviewed by Israeli TV said his car was rammed twice by the front shovel of the digger and he only just managed to swerve to avoid a third charge aimed at his head.

Photographs of the immediate aftermath show the driver's body slumped in the cab and at least eight bullet holes in the glass next to him.

Official visit

Israeli police called it a "terror attack", although there was no immediate claim of responsibility by any Palestinian militant organisation.

Police said the driver was from a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank which Israel has designated part of the enlarged Jerusalem municipality.

Mr Abbas told reporters he "condemned and rejected" the attack and said such incidents "hurt our reputation and peace in general".

It was the first time a Palestinian Authority president had visited the Israeli presidential residence, known as Beit Hanasi.

Mr Abbas was welcomed in a formal ceremony with Palestinian flags flying at the reception point. Such trappings are normally absent when Mr Abbas meets Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at his official residence.

In his remarks, Mr Peres said: "Israelis have a burning desire to reach peace with the Palestinians."

Mr Abbas has been meeting Israeli leaders regularly since attempts were made to give the peace process fresh impetus at an international conference in the United States last November.

BBC News

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Nepal's former Maoist rebels have abandoned efforts to form the country's next government, party officials say.



Their decision follows their failure on Monday to get the candidate they were supporting elected as first president of the new republic.

The Maoists were expected to lead the new government as they won most seats in April's elections to a new constituent assembly.

But they say they are being blocked by an alliance of rival parties.

Differing ideologies

"Now we'll not go (in)to the government," the Maoists' 53-year-old leader, Prachanda, was quoted as saying after meeting party leaders.

Correspondents say that the decision by the Maoists, who won one third of the assembly seats, to go into opposition will plunge Nepal into yet more political instability.

The BBC's Sushil Sharma in Kathmandu says that there is now concern that the country may be governed by a shaky alliance of parties with differing ideologies while the Maoists - with their capacity to bring supporters onto the streets - will be watching form the outside.

On Monday, the Maoists' presidential candidate, Ramraja Prasad Singh, lost a run-off in the constituent assembly to Nepali Congress party candidate Ram Baran Yadav by 282 votes to 308.

The vote to decide the presidency was the first major decision by the assembly since lawmakers decided to abolish the 239-year-old monarchy and declare a republic, part of a peace process that ended a decade-long civil war with Maoist insurgents.

The increasingly unpopular monarchy was abolished in May, after a vote in the Maoist-led assembly.

Before then King Gyanendra had appointed a series of prime ministers before sacking the government and assuming complete control in February 2005.

Weeks of demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of people secured the end of direct palace rule in April 2006.

In the same year the Maoists, who had been fighting for a communist republic, declared an end to their insurgency.

Thousands of people from the government and rebel sides died during the decade-long conflict.

By December 2006, seven parties, including the former Maoist rebels and the government party, agreed to abolish the monarchy.

BBC News

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The former partner of Shannon Matthews' mother has appeared in court accused of possessing an indecent image of a young girl on his mobile phone.

Craig Meehan, 22, denied the new charge during an hour-long hearing at Dewsbury Magistrates' Court.

The photograph is said to be of a partially naked girl, approximately 15 years of age.

Fishmonger Meehan is already accused of possessing 140 indecent images of children which were allegedly found on a computer at the home he shared with Karen Matthews.

He has denied the accusations and a five-day trial is listed to start on September 8.

It is alleged Meehan possessed indecent images of children aged between four and 16, graded at levels one to four - on a scale where one is the least serious and five is the most serious.

They were allegedly found on one of two computers at the family home in Dewsbury where he lived with Matthews, 32, for around five years.

Shannon went missing on February 19 and was discovered hidden in the base of a bed in a flat one mile from her home after a 24-day search by police.

Meehan was remanded in custody and will next appear at Dewsbury Magistrates' Court on August 13 for a pre-trial review.


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