Today's other stories in brief
Chirac fiercely attacks Iraq invasion
PARIS - French president Jacques Chirac yesterday renewed a call for an international conference to help restore Middle East stability in an address which included a fierce attack on the US-led invasion of Iraq.
"As France feared and warned, the war in Iraq set off upheavals whose effects have not yet been fully played out," he said in a speech to diplomats in Paris.
"This adventure exacerbated the divisions between communities and shook the very integrity of Iraq," he added. "It weakened the stability of the whole region, where every country is now worried about its security." - (Reuters)
Spanish police find more arms
MADRID - Police have found two more stashes of explosives in the Basque Country as rescue workers tried to recover the body of a second man killed by a huge Eta car bomb at Madrid airport last Saturday.
The bombing shattered a nine-month Basque peace process and the discovery of more explosives has Spain worried that Eta could strike again. - (Reuters)
Ban names woman for deputy role
NEW YORK - New UN secretary-general Ban Ki- moon will appoint Tanzanian foreign minister Asha-Rose Migiro as his deputy, fulfilling a pledge to name a woman to the post, UN officials have said. - (Reuters)
Muslim convicted over bombing call
LONDON - A British Muslim has been convicted of soliciting murder by calling at a London demonstration for the United States and Denmark to be bombed.
Umran Javed (27) was also convicted at a London court of inciting racial hatred during the protest last February against the publication of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad. He faces imprisonment and will be sentenced later. - (Reuters)
Campaign against death penalty
ROME - Rome will light up the Colosseum today to support Italy's campaign for a United Nations moratorium on the death penalty, launched in the wake of Saddam Hussein's hanging, according to the city's mayor.
Italy, which has just taken up a temporary Security Council seat, said this week it would take its campaign to the countries which had already signed a non- binding declaration against the death penalty last year. - (Reuters)
Prison death cannibalism fear
PARIS - A French prisoner who killed his cellmate "very probably" ate some of the victim's body parts, a prosecutor in the northern town of Rouen has said.
The victim's body was discovered in a prison cell on Wednesday, with a large wound to the chest. - (Reuters)
Tropical diseases increase in Italy
ROME - Italy is on the front line of climate change and is witnessing a rise in tropical diseases such as malaria and tick-borne encephalitis, a new report says.
Sandwiched between temperate Europe and African heat, Italy was declared free of malaria in 1970, but it is making a comeback, said the Italian environmental organisation Legambiente. Tick-borne encephalitis, a virus which attacks the nerve system, is also on the way back. - (Guardian service)
Venezuela licence refusal criticised
CARACAS - Venezuela's refusal to renew the licence of an opposition-linked television station threatens free expression, the Organisation of American States has said.
OAS secretary general Jose Miguel Insulza described the move as intimidation and urged the government to reconsider its decision. - ( Reuters)