A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Kagame must face UN court, says judge
PARIS - A top French judge has called for Rwandan president Paul Kagame to be brought before a UN court over a 1994 aircraft crash that killed the country's president and sparked a genocide, a judicial source said yesterday.
Anti-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere is also seeking international arrest warrants for nine Kagame associates, including the military's chief of staff, according to an official document.
Rwanda's foreign minister dismissed the arrest warrants as an attempt to cover up what Rwanda says was France's role in training soldiers who carried out the genocide. - (Reuters)
Berlusconi will not 'go back'
MILAN - Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who went on trial yesterday charged with fraud, was quoted as saying he would not lead Italy's government again if his centre-right coalition returned to power.
"We will certainly return to power but I can already tell you something: whatever happens, I will not go back to Palazzo Chigi [the prime minister's office]," Berlusconi was quoted by Libero newspaper as telling a group of friends. - (Reuters)
Pope to publish first part of book
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict has finished the first volume of a book on the life of Jesus Christ and has decided to publish what he has written so far because he doesn't know how much time and strength "he has left".
The Vatican said yesterday the first volume, Jesus of Nazareth, a historical-theological analysis of Jesus, would be published in the spring. - (Reuters)
Turkish support for Sharia law slips
ISTANBUL - The number of Turkish women wearing the Muslim headscarf has fallen to just over 60 per cent from nearly 75 per cent over the last seven years, and fewer Turks generally support a state based on Islamic Sharia law than a few years ago, according to a study by an independent think tank.
Turkey, a candidate for European Union membership, is overwhelmingly Muslim but has a secular political system that includes a ban on the wearing of the headscarf in universities and public offices. Many respondents in the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation survey said they wanted the ban lifted.
The number of Turks opposed to an Islamic state increased to 76 per cent from 58 per cent a decade ago. - (Reuters)
Car thieves threaten boy (8)
LONDON - A gang of car thieves who put a gun to the head of an eight-year-old boy as they stole his mother's BMW in Cheadle, Cheshire were being hunted by police yesterday.
The youngster was sitting in the vehicle at a petrol station as his mother went to pay for fuel when at least three men rushed to the car, threatened him and then threw him onto the forecourt.
The gang, of at least three men, then sped off from the BP garage in the expensive X5 car shortly before crashing into a car and bus. - (Reuters)
Fugitive caught dating online
LITTLE ROCK - A fugitive wanted for a double homicide in Arkansas was arrested on the weekend in Wisconsin after he posted his name, picture and address on an online dating website, police said on Monday.
Calvin A Bennett (26) has been charged with two counts of murder in the killings of Pierce Odell (79) and his wife, Mary (78), who were found shot to death on October 30th outside their home in Nashville, Arkansas, about 200km southwest of the state capital Little Rock. - (Reuters)