BBC News with Iain Purdon

The fate of George Papandreou's crisis-stricken government will be decided in the next few hours with a confidence debate underway in the Greek parliament. The Socialists barely command a majority after defections from their own ranks following the prime minister's controversial proposal for a referendum on the latest bailout and austerity deal. Mark Lowen reports.

It now appears that what originally caused this week's political crisis in Greece has been scrapped. The prime minister concocted the proposal for a referendum on the latest bailout package for the country. But now it's his finance minister who's officially killed the plan, indicating once again a rift at the very top of the Greek government. With the threat of a referendum removed, George Papandreou hopes he will secure the backing of his own MPs in the confidence vote on Friday night. But even if he scrapes through this test, speculation is mounting that he will soon call for a new government of national unity and may stand aside in the coming weeks, hoping for a dignified exit.

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy has closed the summit of G20 leaders in Cannes with a pledge to defend the euro. The leaders agreed to boost the resources of the International Monetary Fund, but there were no firm figures. The discussions focused on the financial and political crises in Italy and Greece. James Robbins has the details.

This summit did not ride to the rescue of the euro and the eurozone. In the midst of crises in Greece and Italy. President Obama barely concealed his exasperation with European decision-making, saying he'd learnt a lot in the past two days about how laborious it was. This summit also pushed Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi into accepting that the IMF should monitor his government's debt reduction programme to reduce the risk of financial catastrophe in one of the eurozone's largest economies. Italy insists it volunteered, but this amounts to a public audit every quarter by the IMF.

The Liberian opposition presidential candidate Winston Tubman has said he will boycott next week's run-off election against the incumbent, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Thomas Fessy reports.

Winston Tubman told the BBC the current conditions were not acceptable for him and left him with no choice but to pull out of the vote. Opposition parties accuse the electoral commission of siding with the ruling party during the counting process of the first round. The head of the electoral body resigned earlier this week. But this wasn't enough for Mr Tubman and his running mate George Weah. They accuse the incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of trying to bring back a one-party state system in Liberia.

The head of Liberia's election commission has said that the run-off vote will go ahead as planned.

Israel says its navy has boarded two boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists trying to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Officials say the seizure of the vessels took place peacefully.

World News from the BBC

There's been more violence in Syria in spite of a promise by the government to withdraw its tanks. Opposition activists say armed forces killed at least 13 people in protests after Friday prayers. Earlier, the Syrian authorities said people should hand in their weapons in exchange for an amnesty. Meanwhile, an officer representing defectors from the Syrian army told the BBC that they would stop attacking government forces in line with an Arab League initiative earlier this week.

"If there is any attack against a demonstration or a neighbourhood, or any other type of civilian life being attacked by the Syrian army, we will never stand by and do nothing. But if the regime withdraws its mercenaries and its army from inside the cities, then we will fully stop all our activities, so our job will just be to retaliate against any breach of the Arab League agreement."

The jury in the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor has begun considering its verdict. Prosecutors say Doctor Conrad Murray gave the singer an overdose of a powerful sedative, propofol, and then abandoned him, leading to his death two years ago. Doctor Murray denies the charge of involuntary manslaughter. He faces up to four years in jail if convicted.

Police in Spain say they've dismantled a drug ring which smuggled cocaine disguised as designer shoes into the country. The officers said they had detained a Colombian couple who molded cocaine into the shape of women's shoes which they dubbed Manolos after the Spanish shoe designer Manolo Blahnik. The cocaine shoes were worth almost $70,000 a pair.

Six men who've been locked up in total isolation for over 500 days to simulate a mission to Mars have emerged smiling from their capsule in the Russian capital Moscow. The Russian, European and Chinese crew have been living inside steel tubes in a warehouse meant to mirror the confinement and stress that a real voyage to Mars would entail.

BBC News

乔治·帕潘德里欧政府危机重重，命运如何，将于未来几小时内见分晓，因为希腊议会正展开一场信任辩论。总理提出就最新的救市和紧缩方案进行公投，引起争议纷纷，社会党内也出现脱党现象，自此该党很难得到多数人支持。Mark Lowen报道。

目前看来，最初引发希腊本周政治危机的问题已经消除了。总理策划对最新帮助本国的救市方案进行公投，他的财政部长正式拒绝了该计划，这就再次表明， 希腊政府高层间存在意见分歧。目前对公投的威胁已经消除，乔治·帕潘德里欧希望在周五晚上的信任投票中，争取到本党议员的支持。不过，即使他能通过这些考 验，人们还是愈加怀疑他会要求成立全民团结的新政府，并在未来几周内不管事，希望有尊严地辞职。

在戛纳G20峰会闭幕式上，法国总统尼古拉·萨科齐誓言要捍卫欧元。各国领导人同意增加国际货币基金组织的资源，但没有确定具体的数字。讨论重点是意大利和希腊的金融与政治危机。James Robbins报道。

这次峰会并没有提出拯救欧元和欧元区的办法。尽管希腊和意大利身处危机中，总统奥巴马毫不掩饰他对欧洲决策的愤怒，声称在过去两年中，明白作出决策 多么费劲。这次峰会使得意大利总理西尔维奥·贝卢斯科尼同意允许IMF监管本国政府的债务削减计划，减少意大利这个欧元区最大经济体之一陷入财政灾难的风 险。意大利表示将自主削减债务，但这需要IMF每季度进行公开审计。

利比里亚反对派总统候选人温斯顿·塔布曼声称，他抵制下周与现任总统爱伦·约翰森·希尔丽夫进行决胜选举。Thomas Fessy报道。

温斯顿·塔布曼告诉BBC，他无法接受现状，别无选择，只得退出选举。反对派指责选举委员会，声称其在首轮点票中偏向执政党。本周早些时候，选举机 构主席辞职，但这对塔布曼和他的竞选伙伴乔治·维阿来说还不够。他们指控现任总统爱伦·约翰森·希尔丽夫试图在利比里亚恢复一党制。

利比里亚选举委员会主席称，决胜选举将如期举行。

以色列称，其海军登上两艘载有亲巴勒斯坦分子的船只，这些船只试图越过以色列在加沙地带的封锁。官方称和平缴获这些船只。

尽管叙利亚政府承诺撤回坦克，暴力活动有增无减。反对派分子称，周五祈祷后的抗议中，武装部队杀死至少13人。早些时候，叙利亚当局表示，人们应该上缴武器，换得赦免。同时，一名军官代表叙利亚军队叛变者告诉BBC，本周早些时候，他们依照阿盟提议，停止对政府军的进攻。

“如果叙利亚部队还对游行者或附近地区发动袭击，或是任何平民被袭击，我们绝不袖手旁观，无所作为。但如果当局从这些城市撤回雇佣军和部队，我们会完全停止行动，所以我们的任务只是报复任何违反阿盟协议的行为。”

审判迈克尔·杰克逊医生的陪审团已经开始对裁决下定论了，检察官说，莫里医生给这位歌手注射了过量高强度的镇定剂丙泊酚，然后置之不管，导致他两年前死亡。莫里医生否认犯有过失杀人罪，如果罪名成立，他将面临四年监禁。

西班牙警方称粉碎一毒品团伙，他们将走私的可可因伪装成名牌鞋子运到本国。官方称已拘留一对哥伦比亚夫妇，他们将可可因铸造成女鞋的样子，以西班牙鞋子设计师莫罗·伯拉尼克的名字给鞋子取名“莫罗斯”。这些可可因鞋子每双价值约7万美元。

在俄罗斯首都莫斯科，被完全隔离500天模拟登火星计划的六名男子微笑着走出密封舱。来自俄罗斯、欧洲和中国的工作人员在一间仓库的金属管里生活，模拟真实登陆火星时所受的限制和压力。

重点讲解

1. defection  n.脱党，变节

eg：His defection from the party dim his political career.他的叛党使得他政治前途黯淡。

2. rift  n.裂缝；分裂

eg：A deep rift had started in their family life. 他们的家庭生活出现了深深的裂痕。

3. boost  vt.提高；推动

eg：The company boosted its sales this year. 这家公司使今年的销售量增加了。

4. exasperation  n.激怒

eg：His voice had the ring of exasperation.他的声音带有着恼怒。

5. audit  vt.审计，检查(帐目)

eg：At least one independent director from the audit committee shall be an accounting professional . 审计委员会中至少应有一名独立董事是会计专业人士。

6. seizure  n.没收；占有；抵押

eg：To subject to seizure as a forfeit.没收作为惩罚而没收

7. retaliate  vi.报复

eg：He sought every opportunity to retaliate on his persecutors.他寻求每一个机会向迫害他的人们复仇。

8. dismantle  vt.拆开，拆卸；废除，取消

eg：Congress may now start to dismantle the embargo . 现在国会也许开始废除贸易禁运了。