BBC News with Iain Purdon

The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has strongly condemned the new

conviction

of one of Russia's best-known business tycoons, the former oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Already in prison for tax evasion, Mr Khodorkovsky was found guilty of stealing about $27bn worth of oil and laundering the proceeds. Mrs Clinton said the case raised serious questions about selective prosecution and the rule of law. An opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov, said the decision was politically motivated.

"What is happening here has no relation

whatsoever

to law, humanity or justice. The judge is the person who will make public the political decisions primarily of one citizen, Vladimir Putin, who is suffering from an acute form of Khodorkovsky phobia. He needs to get treatment."

But the head of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian Duma, Konstantin Kosachev, rejected the suggestion that the verdict had been politically motivated.

"The only way of making the justice is to let it

go through

the court, and the process is really very much politicised from all sides, but the only option is to accept the decision made by the court as it is the case in any legal state."

The African Union has asked the Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga to lead its efforts to resolve the political

stalemate

in Ivory Coast. The crisis was sparked by the refusal of the incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo to