A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Extremist 'festival' is cancelled
ATHENS - The organisers of Hatewave 2005, a far-right festival, cancelled the event yesterday, the day it was due to start, blaming the authorities for threatening to ban it.
The Greek extreme-right group Golden Dawn, organisers of the weekend gathering of neo-Nazis and white supremacists, had vowed it would go ahead despite growing protests which had forced them to change the planned venue several times. - (Reuters)
Eight feared dead off Russian coast
MOSCOW - As many as eight people may have died yesterday after an over-loaded cargo ship sank in the icy waters off Russia's Siberian coast, officials said.
Rescue officials said the ship was carrying 15 people and around 80 tonnes of goods, although it was designed to carry less than half as much. - (Reuters)
3,000 die yearly on Kenya's roads
NAIROBI - Accidents on Kenya's potholed and cluttered roads kill 3,000 people a year - more than eight a day - in a "nightmare" that is one of the world's worst traffic death rates, a motor official said yesterday.
"This ratio is 30-40 times higher than Great Britain or Germany," David Njoroge, director general of Automobile Association of Kenya, said in a speech. - (Reuters)
Australia visa notices 'defective'
CANBERRA - About 8,000 foreign students whose visas were cancelled by Australia for breaching rules have been cleared to re-enter the country in another embar- rassing immigration blunder for the government.
The Federal Magistrates' Court ruled in June that a notice sent to students between May 2001 and August 2005 for breaking their visa requirements was "defective". - (Reuters)
US peace activist expelled and fined
CANBERRA - A US peace activist has been expelled from Australia over security concerns and handed an 11,700 Australian dollar ($9,000) bill to cover his detention and deportation costs.
Scott Parkin, who arrived in Australia in June, was sent back to the United States on the advice of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said yesterday. - (Reuters)
Province's coal mines to be closed
BEIJING - China's booming southern province of Guangdong will close down all its coal mines, the official China Daily said yesterday, following two accidents this year that killed 139 miners.
The provincial government has already shut down 112 mines which lacked production or work safety licences and would close the remaining 141 soon, the newspaper said, quoting government officials. - (Reuters)
Zellweger lists 'fraud' in break-up
LOS ANGELES - Actress Renee Zellweger and country music star Kenny Chesney will have their four-month marriage annulled, according to publicists for both.
Both Chesney's and Zellweger's publicists confirmed the split yesterday. In court papers filed on Wednesday, Zellweger listed "fraud" as the reason for the break-up but did not elaborate. - (AP)
Woman reports hitman she hired
TOKYO - A Japanese woman (32) called in the police after a hitman she paid to kill her lover's wife failed to carry out the job.
The woman was arrested on Wednesday for incitement to murder, the Daily Yomiuri newspaper said yesterday. She had paid the private detective, contacted through a website, one million yen ($9,000) in cash. - (Reuters)