[June 29, 2009] Xinhua world news summary at 0830 GMT, June 29 Tweet Jun 29, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- TEHRAN -- Five out of the nine detained Iranian staff at the British embassy in Tehran have been released, Iran's English-language satellite channel Press TV reported Monday morning. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said that British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki by phone on Sunday evening and assured him that Britain does not intend to interfere in Iran's internal affairs. (Iran-Britain-Detainees) - - - - MOSCOW -- Russia kicks off the "Caucasus-2009" massive strategic military exercise in the North Caucasus area on Monday, local media reported. The exercise, commanded by Gen. Nikolai Makarov, will be held until July 6 under the training plan of the Russian Armed Forces, said Itar-Tass news agency. The two-stage exercise involves several branches of servicemen such as air force and air defense force, and covers a large area of the North Caucasus region including North Ossetia, Chechnya and Daghestan. (Russia-North Caucasus-Drill) - - - - TEHRAN -- Iran started a partial recount of the June 12 presidential election votes on Monday, Iran's state-owned satellite TV al-Alam News reported. Iran's Guardian Council, the top legislative body, had agreed to recount a random 10 percent of the votes after the disputed election caused large scale demonstrations in the country. The recount is expected to be completed by Monday afternoon and the result will be declared within 24 hours, the Arabic-language al-Alam television said. (Iran-Election) - - - - TEGUCIGALPA -- Newly-appointed acting Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said he has imposed a curfew of two nights starting from late Sunday after the country's soldiers ousted Manuel Zelaya before a national referendum. The curfew will run from 9 p.m. (0300 GMT) to 6 a.m. (1200 GMT) on both nights. The curfew came after soldiers seized President Manuel Zelaya at his home in Honduras capital and forced him to board a plane to Costa Rica. (Honduras-Coup) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]