Today's other news in brief
More British ministers questioned
LONDON - Police investigating cash-for- honours allegations have already questioned at least two government ministers.
Former Labour Party chairman Ian McCartney, now trade minister, and science minister Lord Sainsbury have both been questioned by detectives from Scotland Yard.
They are among 48 people who have so far been interviewed in the Metropolitan Police inquiry into whether financial support for political parties was rewarded with peerages. - (PA)
Farc rebels kill 10 and kidnap 170
BOGOTA - Leftist Colombian rebels killed 10 civilians and took 170 people hostage in a show of force before conservative President Alvaro Uribe starts his second term next month.
In its biggest kidnapping operation in years, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, moved late on Thursday against the town of Riosucio in the northern province of Choco, near Panama. - (Reuters)
Polish president's brother sworn in
WARSAW - Jaroslaw Kaczynski was sworn in as Poland's prime minister by his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, in a ceremony yesterday solidifying the Kaczynski family's grip on power in the EU's biggest new member. - (Reuters)
Seven-year plan to cut EU jobs
BRUSSELS - EU states want to slash staffing levels severely at the EU's executive arm and other institutions over the next seven years, a confidential note showed yesterday.
The European Commission's note said the 25 member states planned to axe about 1,700 posts, about 8.5 per cent of Commission staff, in 2007-2013 as part of a "productivity plan". - (Reuters)
Chief Tshwane statue vandalised
PRETORIA - A controversial new monument in South Africa's capital city has been vandalised just a week after its unveiling, writes Joe Humphreys.
The statue of Chief Tshwane, who is due to bequeath his name to Pretoria under a local government plan, was painted in the colours of the old South African flag - in what appeared to be a protest against the city's proposed name change.
Princes condemn photo of mother
LONDON - Princes William and Harry have condemned the publication of a shocking photograph of their mother taken moments after the car crash that killed her.
The image, which appeared in an Italian magazine, showed Diana, Princess of Wales, being given oxygen as she lay dying in a crumpled Mercedes following the 1997 accident. - (PA)
Pakistani Shia cleric killed
KARACHI - A suicide bomber killed a leading Pakistani Muslim Shia cleric, Allama Hassan Turabi, in an attack yesterday in the volatile southern city of Karachi.
"Allama Turabi is dead," Salahuddin Haider, a spokesman for the Sindh government, said from the hospital ward where the mortally wounded cleric had been rushed. - (Reuters)
US immigration overhaul in doubt
WASHINGTON - US senate majority leader Bill Frist has given less-than-even odds that congress will pass an immigration law overhaul before the November congressional elections.
The Tennessee Republican said that election year politics and lack of movement by the House of Representatives complicate negotiations for final legislation and that odds for a bill this year were "less than 50-50, realistically". - (Reuters)