Today's other stories in brief
Bush aims to assure Africa on US bases
ACCRA - President George Bush has tried to reassure Africa that the United States is not planning to build new military bases there.
Mr Bush played down the risk of rivalry with China for influence on the continent.
In Ghana on the fourth leg of a five-nation African tour, Mr Bush said the US military command for Africa (Africom) created last year was intended to help African leaders solve the continent's crises, not boost the US military presence there. - (Reuters)
Shia cleric al-Sadr may end ceasefire
BAGHDAD - Radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has threatened to end a six- month ceasefire, credited with helping to reduce violence in Iraq, by the end of the week, according to a spokesman.
Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr in Najaf, said that if he failed to issue a statement by Saturday extending the ceasefire, "then that means the freeze is over".
Al-Sadr's Mahdi army is among the most powerful militias in Iraq. - (Reuters)
Rights workers flee Chad violence
N'DJAMENA - A security crackdown since a bloody rebel attack on Chad's capital this month has forced half a dozen leading human rights campaigners and members of the country's Gorane tribe into hiding or exile, activists say.
They say a crackdown by President Idriss Déby's government has included the abduction of several prominent opposition politicians. - (Reuters)
Islamic scholars to visit Vatican
VATICAN CITY - Islamic scholars are to meet Vatican officials for the first time since warning the pope that world survival was at stake if Muslims and Christians could not make peace with each other.
The delegation, comprising four academics and theologians, will arrive in Rome on March 3rd.
- (Reuters)
Luxembourg to allow euthanasia
BRUSSELS - Luxembourg parliament has decided to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide, adding the Grand Duchy to a small group of countries that allow the terminally ill to end their lives. - (Reuters)