A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Iran warns it will respond to any attack
TEHRAN - Iran and its Revolutionary Guards would respond swiftly if Israel attacked the Islamic state over its disputed nuclear programme, an official said yesterday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini also said Iran was pressing ahead with an expansion of its uranium enrichment work and planned to install 3,000 centrifuges by March 2007, despite UN demands to halt the endeavour.
The West fears Iran is trying to develop atomic weapons. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, says its programme is designed to meet energy needs. - (Reuters)
Singer recovers from TV car crash
LONDON - Award-winning singer Ms Dynamite was recovering last night after a terrifying 100mph car crash while filming the finale for a Sky One TV programme, The Race.
Fellow celebrity contestant Brian Johnson - lead singer of rock group AC/DC - clipped the back of her race car at Silverstone circuit in England, sending it spinning out of control.
A Sky One spokesman said the collision sent Ms Dynamite's car spinning down the track for about 50 meters before it came to a halt. Paramedics were quickly on the scene and the singer - who was described as conscious and talking - was treated at the track's medical centre. - (PA)
Bangladesh calls in troops
DHAKA - Bangladeshi authorities said yesterday they would use troops to help keep order after protesters demanding the removal of election commissioners paralysed much of the country with a violent transport blockade.
A man was killed and 50 others were injured during the first day of the blockade, which cut off the capital, Dhaka, from the rest of the country, shut ports and paralysed the main cities, police and witnesses said. - (Reuters)
Schools hit by series of suicides
TOKYO - A Japanese elementary school principal was found hanged in a forest yesterday in an apparent suicide, and a junior high school girl jumped to her death the same day, Kyodo news agency said.
The principal was the second to take his own life in as many weeks. He had been criticised after a pupil was extorted out of 100,000 yen (€660).
Japan's education ministry last week received seven letters apparently written by students threatening suicide in response to harassment by bullying classmates.
A series of suicides by students caused by bullying has seized public attention in Japan at a time when debate is heating up on education reform. - (Reuters)
Sailor sentenced over seven deaths
JERUSALEM - An Israeli court sentenced a ship's navigator to six months of community service yesterday for letting his freighter strike a Japanese trawler last year, capsizing the boat and killing seven fishermen.
Pilastro Zdravko, a Montenegrin who worked for the Israeli shipping giant Zim, was found guilty of negligence for causing the deaths while he was in charge of navigating the 48,850 tonne Zim Asia off the Japanese coast on September 28th, 2005. - (Reuters)
Mick Jagger's father dies
LOS ANGELES - The 93-year-old father of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, has died of pneumonia in England, a spokesman said.
Basil Joe Jagger, a physical education teacher who helped popularise basketball in Britain, died at a hospital in Kingston, Surrey, about a week after he was injured during a fall at his home. His wife of 59 years, Eva, died of heart failure in 2000. - (Reuters)