A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Livingstone in trouble over 'crook' remark
LONDON - London's rambunctious mayor has landed in fresh hot water for likening the US ambassador to a "chiselling little crook".
Ken Livingstone has been quarrelling with the US embassy since last year, when it announced it would not pay the "congestion charge" fee imposed on cars entering the city centre.
The embassy says the charge is a tax and that diplomats are immune under treaty. Mr Livingstone says the charge, one of his flagship policies, is a road toll which diplomats have to pay.
"It would actually be quite nice if the American ambassador in Britain could pay the charge like everybody else and not skive out of it like some chiselling little crook," he told a TV reporter. - (Reuters)
Taliban attack on military base
KABUL - The Taliban attacked a military base in Afghanistan yesterday, killing a US and a Canadian soldier and losing 32 of their own men, and declared a spring offensive had begun.
- (Reuters)
Ukraine election results issued
KIEV - The Central Election Commission has issued the results for Ukraine's parliamentary election with 97.86 per cent of the vote counted: Regions Party, led by Viktor Yanukovich, 31.86 per cent; Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc, 22.34 per cent; Our Ukraine (backs President Viktor Yushchenko), 14.10 per cent; Socialist Party, 5.75 per cent; Communist Party, 3.65 per cent. - (Reuters)
10 dead, 21 injured in Iran road crash
TEHRAN - A bus collided with a car and then plunged into a valley, killing 10 people and injuring 21 west of Iran's capital yesterday. Seven people were killed at the scene and three others died in hospital, police said.
Iran has one of the highest road death tolls in the world. More than 26,000 people were killed on Iran's roads in the year to March 2005. - (Reuters)
Doctor jailed over tests for gender
NEW DELHI - An Indian court has sentenced a doctor to two years in prison for using ultrasound tests to determine the gender of foetuses - information the mothers could use to abort baby girls, an official said yesterday.
Anil Sabsani, a radiologist who officials say told an undercover investigator she was carrying a female foetus but that her pregnancy could be "taken care of", is reportedly the first doctor convicted under a law designed to prevent gender- selective abortions - a widespread problem in India, where many regard daughters as a liability. - (PA)
Opposition leader faces jail sentence
MINSK - Alexander Kozulin, a Belarussian opposition leader detained after street protests over a flawed presidential poll, is to be charged with hooliganism and faces up to six years in jail, prosecutors said yesterday. - (Reuters)
Army recruits 'not bullied to death'
LONDON - An independent inquiry into the deaths of four young army recruits at the Deepcut army barracks has uncovered a "disturbing catalogue of allegations of misconduct", armed forces minister Adam Ingram said yesterday.
Mr Ingram told MPs in a Commons statement the review by human rights lawyer Nicholas Blake had found no evidence that any of the trainees had been "bullied to death".
However he said some trainees at the base had suffered "harassment, discrimination and oppressive behaviour".
The army authorities will now examine the report's findings to see if any action should be taken for "professional misconduct or negligence", he said. - (PA)