it is 7:00 a.m. in washington, midday in london and 3:30 p.m. in tehran, where the opposition is staging a fresh act of defiance against the iranian authorities. expected to visit graves in the

next hour of those killed in recent anti-government protests over the election result. among those buried is neda. centre death, her name and face has taken on iconic -- for the cause. the cemetery could be major flash point appeared in the past few minutes we heard police are being deployed there. >> she has become a symbol of the iranian opposition from after video of her death last around the world on the internet. now the 40th day after the death of neda sultan, the ceremony could be the spark of new protests. bob vision believes she was shot by a member of the government militia. according to her family, neda was not even taking part but just watching from the sidelines when she was killed. a mother spoke to the bbc.

>> it was all about being young and feeling passionate about freedom. she wasn't political. she didn't belong to any party or group. she didn't support any faction. every other young iranian was there and she was one of them. >> among them have after the disputed election, the death toll of opposition members is increasing almost daily as the government finally releases the bodies to their families. human rights groups believe at least 100 opposition supporters or protesters have died. many more of the twin -- then a 20 admitted by the government. some were killed in the demonstrations themselves, some in prison afterward. the opposition says many more of opposition members election after -- arrested after the election have been badly treated and many emerged battered and bruised. their treatment has outraged even supporters of the government. president ahmadinejad has now been forced to release many of the detainees but the government

is threatening to charge to bring to court at least 20, a sign that the crackdown was not over yet. bbc news. >> john is with us now. one of the big questions is whether this is illegal gathering or not in a cemetery because originally it was going to be a process that was banned. >> it is not entirely clear. they asked to hold a ceremony in the big mosque in the center, they were fused permission, -- were refused permission. i guess opposition would say, well, we don't need permission for this, it is just a religious ceremony but it is clearly political. >> it could be a flash point. >> no doubt opposition supporters will come out. who knows what numbers. they are kind of being led by their leaders -- mousavi and another said they will go to the grave site, they have been

invited. >> about six weeks ago sent you watch the election unfold as a correspondent. how are ordinary people doing this because it is certainly unfolding at a slow pace? >> it was interesting listening to neda's mother -- limit woman was not very political. they want to support their government and they are being told by the government are a bunch of rioters and troublemakers and the of very confused. they see that she was shot dead four reasons the government really hasn't given a good reason of who did it or why it was done. they have seen in the abuse that has really gone on in prison. that has even been criticized by conservative members of parliament. people saying, what is going on? what is my government up to in my name? there are many people who cannot see bbc, so all they see is the iranian tv what the official version and they say, i am really confused. is the government really in my interest? >> john, thank you very much.

and, of course, bbc.com is where you can find the story as it unfolds. let us take a look at the rest of the main news. a brutal fight leaving hundreds dead -- nigeria's armed forces say they finally destroyed the headquarters of a radical islamist sect blame for deadly violence. they believe nigeria was corrupted by western ideas. >> nigerian security forces have been increasing pressure in the pressure on the islamist sect. the government says they dealt a crushing blow. although the leaders and many followers are said to have escaped. the army has captured many militiamen and it is reported to have found by making factories being used by the sect which started attacking police stations and churches on sunday. there are reports that hundreds of people have been killed in five days of violence. the nigerian government has been concentrating its action in borno state and its capital,

maiduguri, where a mosque was sold overnight. but there has been unrest in other states in the north of the country. there is a long history of trouble in nigeria did a year ago islamists attacked government property and unrest feeds on appalling poverty, mao magician and resentment in the predominantly islamic north. nigeria should be a rich country. it has huge reserves of oil in the niger delta. but this wealth has not been dispersed around the country and it simply adds to the rumbling discontent which sparked the current violence. bbc news. >> lead to join our correspondent now who is in lagos. it may be nearing a close -- but certainly has been a bloody events, hasn't it? >> it certainly has. just the last hour or so we have been speaking to the colonel in charge of military operations.

he has been greeting the bbc the route the entire military operation. -- raising the bbc. he said there were 1000 men hold up inside the compound. we said, do you still believe there are 1000 in there? a lot seem to have disappeared. melt away into residents of the strips around. . he said there were sure there were 1000 at the beginning and said that many young men were dead and surely they will start sending teams to look on the rooftops of the rubble and search through the building to try to start picking up corpses and figure out how many died. i said, how many you think dodd, and his words were, my god, i don't think back and talk to you about this. >> authorities to think maybe they put an end to the threat or perhaps maybe an optimistic reading from their point of view? >> it is very difficult to say. i put some of these questions to the colonel.

i said, you know, there are rumors flying around maiduguri that the leadership was dealt a severe blow. we had rumors he was on the run and other rumors that a deputy was killed. i said, is it true they killed the deputy he said, we simply don't know, you could show me a body or face and i would not know who the deputy leader is because so few people in this group or even known to the authorities. as a your question, " they regroup and move outside of maiduguri and build themselves up, the authorities simply don't know. what is clear there are large settlements and cans and religious schools scattered around northern nigeria and this group boko haram has established a presence of many towns. >> it is controversial even before it started, along with a british inquiry into the iraq war has been launched today. it will cover an eight-year period of the lead up to the current handover.

the chairman wants to make as much public of possible and also wants to begin by listening to families who have been believed by the conflict. joining us from our studio is professor michael clark, a royal united services institute. what do you think that this inquiry will achieve that previous haven't? >> if anything, this inquiry will achieve sort of a political closure. most of us in the analysis business don't think there is much more to be discovered about the run-up to the war. but in fact, this will give it some political authority. i think the government has been under tremendous pressure in recent years to live a full, complete and great and -- we will do it, we will not report until after the next election which is constitutionally not unreasonable but it puts a full stop to a process of spececulation. i think it is very unlikely that other than certain details anything new would emerge from the inquiries but it is a political inquiry that will draw a line under a very controversial episode in british

defense policy. >> i think that is one of the points, nothing new mail merge. unlikely -- when former prime minister tony blair -- unlikely he will say, yes, i did mislead you into the run up which many will likely say, at his critics. >> i think he will say we acted on the best information we had at the time and we did the best we could. in fact, most of the circumstances in the run-up to award are fairly well known but have not been abuzz official did one of the grid ironies is there have been at least five reports, three parliamentary reports from the intelligence committee, foreign affairs, defense committee and the two independent reports and everyone of those reports gave the government a clean bill of health. but the public just doesn't believe it appeared the public basically believed they were misled. and this inquiry is probably not going to change that but it will authoritatively say that this is the best judgment that we come a group of five independent analyst, can make. and it has been made with the

political authority in the government and the post general election next year. >> i was listening to the chairman of this the few minutes ago and he said obviously he wanted to hold as much as public in possible. but it has ever, though, some of the evidence? some people may not feel they can be candid in public. >> i don't think so. the way it will work -- first, they will a lot of reading and and it will have public hearings. that is important because people want their day in front of the inquiry. there are a lot of issues to address and then it will get down to dealing with the documents that they really need to see and people that want to talk about. i don't think this secrecy will be important because people have got to speak honestly. but he is right when he says, we will have as much in public as possible because they want credibility for the final product. but if you want to get to the truth on some of the detail, you have to give people the benefit of a private hearing where they can say things that may be

politically very damaging to our national security but they have to say that never the less. >> professor michael clark, thank you. zimbabwe remains a tense place. the unity government is still an uncomfortable coalition between president moqtada's party and the opposition led by morgan sendai right. -- president mugabe and opposition leader mordant seminar right. the government told the bbc there is no ban on as operations and it can resume reporting legally and openly. are there really signs life will be getting better for the people of zimbabwe? i put this to andrew harding a little earlier. >> a lot of -- is going wrong here, still beard are these frictions in the unity government. still huge party. but i would say on balance, more is going right. this is a country that is struggling to fix itself. the economy has stabilized.

the unity government, despite some many challenges, in power here after five months. a lot longer than many thought when it got going. and promise. morgan bodman gerrein -- tsvingirai -- that commitment has not yet filtered down to the grass roots but commitments of that leadership is important. >> the taliban called on people and afghanistan to boycott next month's presidential election bid present budget preparations are underway for the poll on august 20. on the website they said instead of voting peebles and attack enemy positions and blocked roads. in the united states, police found a missing baby who was apparently cut from her dead mother's womb. police not rest of the woman who apparently knew the mother. she was with the newborn baby girl. the child is reportedly in fairly good health and is in the hospital. a funeral taking breeze in

britain for one of the last survival of the first world war. he died in his sleep at the age of 113 earlier this month. he served in the royal air force on the western front, the great naval battle with germany in 1916. now jimmy robertson is here with the business. interesting company results. >> we will look at a lot more in detail and about 25 minutes. probably the most important one is the shell results we have had. it is indicative, fall off and profits of about 60%, which we have seen here, is very much due to the fall in oil prices. they realized they had a lot more stock of oil and used sitting in the u.s. that brought the oil price down. that is where a lot of the company's -- >> is this telling us anything about the state of the economy? >> i think it is. one of the forecasts show made

is the recovery is going to be very slow. and no one will see oil prices going much beyond $70 a barrel and it is at $63 at the moment and possibly going down to $50. people think in the short to medium term. and i think that indicates the slowness of the recovery because people simply are not meeting that amount to oil. they are choosing not to use it. the driving period, in the summer, and the states, very slow. >> always on the roads in the state's last weekend, md. see you in about 25 minutes. let me just bring you some breaking news this hour that we are getting out of iran beard remember our lead story, the gathering due to take place. we are hearing on the reuters news agency that hundreds of opposition reporters gathered in the tehrani cemetery to commemorate victims of the unrest. a large police presence as well. this is "world news today." a lot more on that story still

to come. if french rapper is in the heart of a political storm after censorship after 10 concerts' were canceled because of sexually explicit and violent lyrics. a former presidential candidate help to get the rapper dropped. the party of president sarkozy said it was intolerable to sensor the artist and branded the actions of attack on freedom. let us get a report from our correspondent in paris. ♪ >> a rapper from normandy sometimes called the french eminem. women's groups say his lyrics are sexist, homophobic and violent. presidential candidate royal and other politicians got him dropped from music festivals this summer. they were outraged over a song -- roughly translated as dirty bitch, about a man who wants to

be up his unfaithful girlfriend. but the rapper says it was never meant to be taken literally. it >> this song is a song about a man, that his girlfriend is cheating and comes back home, drinks, and writes her an e-mail in which he insults her. but, i mean, it is a fiction. it is nothing real. i did not write it on my ex- girlfriend or anything. >> it is young people like these who are his fans. they think politicians in have a different universe from theirs. rappers were predicting riots in the french suburbs years before they happened. some of the lyrics may be disturbing or even reprehensible, but they are expressing feeling shared by other -- many young people.

bbc news, paris. >> this is "world news today" from bbc world news. our main stories of our this hour, in defiance of authority is iran possible opposition leaders visiting the grave of those killed in post-election protests. let us stay with that story. a senior research consultant at the center for arab and iranian studies in london joins us in the studios now. obviously a major point. several weeks after the elections and still but the finance goes on. >> i think this shows the protests and the protesters are very much alive and all the issues have not gone off the radar screen. >> the authorities clearly aren't going to let arrest, either. >> the authorities have done their utmost and they are trying very much to avoid their major conservation of people.

but nevertheless, people have not lost heart, and that is a part of a factor. of course, mr. mousavi and mr. -- have also remained defiant to the extent they can and they reminded people that this is not what the revolution was about and the rights that people were striving to achieve is a good opportunity to exhibit and this is what they are doing. >> what is happening is interesting, but what is rather more importance what is going on behind the scenes and whether former presidents like ross and john are still maneuvering. >> i think they are maneuvering. i think they more or less made some kind of a deal in which neither mr. mousavi or mr. kharobi, since mr. rafsanjani made his talked said a few weeks ago talking about annuling the election of holding fresh elections.

that issue is gone -- double what is the other side of the deal? putting pressure on mr. ahmadinejad? >> it is putting pressure on mr. ahmadinejad and trying to force mr. ahmadinejad out in a different way. it there are constitutional issues regarding his next cabinet, whether he is able to master the right kind of support and essentially putting the supreme leader in it a dead alumna on what to do with him. but in the place of mr. mousavi and kharobi not protesting the election anymore, which was the initial issue, they are sort of being re-validated in the constituencies. in other words, they have been allowed to come back into the fold after having crossed the red line. and all the friends and colleagues that were arrested will of mentally be released and they will have another chance to exhibit differences in a different way in trying to

promote the agenda. >> thank you very much indeed for joining us. the unrest in afghanistan may have spilled over into another one of its neighbors. shootouts between militants and police in tajikistan are leading to concerns of the conflict may have spread said that central asian nation. the government says it has been fighting taliban dazzling militants close to the border. the president of pakistan, afghanistan >> padgett is gone and russia are meeting today to discuss security and energy. our central asian correspondent has sent a special report from a remote valley in southern tajikistan. >> tajikistan, a country of endless mountains and green valleys. its border with afghanistan stretches for more than 1,000 kilometers. this is government floated in the east mallee. it was the stronghold of islamist of position during the tajikistan's of the war in the 1990's.

now violence has returned an area has been sealed off. since may, the government claims it has been a conducting an annual antidrug campaign here. but after attacks by armed men on local police station in july, authorities claimed for the first time that they were fighting militants. it is alleged the group is part of the islamic movement of whose pakistan, a militant organization with links to the taliban. we're driving through this valley where we are trying to get to this area -- one particular village whether recent shootout incident between the government forces and militants took place. half way through to area we have been stopped at the checkpoint guided by numerous police officers and men taken to the local police station did they asked us lots of questions, check their equipment, and they said it is too dangerous to go any further some now we are heading back to the capital.

details of identities of the group's members have begun to emerge, but it has not been possible to verify the government's claims. >> in a recent operation, five criminals, all citizens of russia, have been killed. >> and a mysterious death of a prominent general while in police custody have raised more questions about what is going on. formerly a top military commander of the opposition and later government minister was, according to authorities, was arrested for associating with the militants and killed and a subsequent shootout. >> people like concerned about what is happening in the east reminds them of the civil war and they don't want those events to be repeated. we will pray for these kind of events to stop. >> while instability in the rally continues, people get on with their lives. a few dared to discuss what another conflict would mean to them.

what remains unclear is whether this is an internal clash between opposition members of the government or early signs of a bigger conflict spreading from afghanistan. bbc news, tajikistan. >> american football is back in the spotlight. >> not the right kind of spotlight because plaxico bure ss as in testifying in front of a grand jury in new york, a charge of the public -- possession of a gun after accidentally shooting himself in the leg while in a manhattan nightclub a few months ago. he pleaded not guilty. he is the man who caught the winning touchdown pass to win the super bowl in 2008. if he is found guilty he faces up to three and a half years in jail. major-league baseball, top of the national league central beat western -- st. louis cardinals were at home and beat l.a. dodgers 3-2. a great highlights from a 1-0 1/7 innings, some wanted men on base and then a ball hit the

ball left field. a good catch for manny ramirez. but at the bottom of the night with two outs, the dodgers were facing defeat but he broke his back and still had a signal and then his teammates got to home base and the winning run did not come until the 15th inning. of it or playing until almost five hours. -- they were planning of almost five hours. that's it. >> thank you there much, indeed. a quick bit of breaking news out of iran, we hear on the witness news agencies that police arrested mourners gathered at the taryn cemetery to commemorate victims of the unrest after the disputed presidential elections. >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles. funding for this presentation was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, the newman's own foundation, and the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, and union bank.

>> union bank has put its financial strength to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations, what can we do for you? >> "bbc world