A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Labour losing core support, poll shows
LONDON - Labour's support among its core voters has slumped in recent weeks, with the party dropping eight points in the space of a single month, a new poll indicates.
The dip has given the Conservatives a five-point lead in the survey for tomorrow's Independent, which puts David Cameron's party on 34 per cent (down two points compared to a similar poll last month) and Labour on just 29 per cent.
But the main beneficiary of the exodus of Labour voters appears to be Sir Menzies Campbell's Liberal Democrats, who soared seven points to 21 per cent. - (PA)
Scientists pressed to 'tailor' findings
WASHINGTON - US scientists felt pressured to tailor their writings on global warming to fit the Bush administration's scepticism, in some cases at the behest of an ex-oil industry lobbyist, a congressional committee heard yesterday.
"Our investigations found high-quality science struggling to get out," Francesca Grifo of the watchdog group Union of Concerned Scientists told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
A survey by the group found that 150 climate scientists personally experienced political interference in the past five years, in at least 435 incidents. - (Reuters)
Aids spreading to South Africa's rich
JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's Aids epidemic, often regarded by health workers as a disease of the poor, is in fact spreading quickly among the country's richest and best-educated people, researchers said.
A study by the Markinor polling firm and the University of South Africa showed a rapid increase in HIV infections in professionals and those in full-time employment.
"The high-risk group is growing, it is getting older and it is getting richer," said Carel van Aardt, director of the university's bureau of market research. - (Reuters)
Police warned of Dink murder plot
ISTANBUL- Turkish police were warned a year ago about a plot to kill Turkish- Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, media said yesterday, in the latest suggestion that authorities could have prevented a murder that has shocked the nation.
A 17-year-old unemployed youth shot Dink dead in broad daylight in Istanbul on January 19th. Some 100,000 mourners poured onto the streets for his funeral to protest at the militant nationalism that apparently motivated his killer. - (Reuters)
Mansion returned to Nazi victim
VIENNA - An Austrian restitution body has awarded a mansion in Vienna to the 90-year-old heir of a Jewish magnate who owned the property before fleeing Nazi-ruled Austria in the late 1930s, local media said.
The ruling benefits Maria Altmann, now a resident of California. Last year an arbitration court decision forced Vienna's National Gallery to return to Altmann five Gustav Klimt paintings seized by the Nazis after her family's flight. - (Reuters)
Hugo relative fails to ban sequel
PARIS - The great-great- grandson of Victor Hugo said yesterday he was bitterly disappointed after his six-year battle to ban a modern sequel to Les Misérables was ended by France's highest appeal court.
Pierre Hugo (59) wanted to have banned Cosette ou le Temps des Illusions (Cosette or the Time of Illusions), written by journalist François Ceresa.
He had demanded £450,000 (€680,000) damages, claiming the publishers had betrayed the spirit of his ancestor's work to make money. - (Guardian service)