A roundup of today's other world news in brief:
Afghan death rate at worst since 2001
KABUL- Violence in Afghanistan has reached its worst level since 2001 with more than 260 civilians killed in July alone, a group of 100 aid agencies said yesterday, calling on all sides to do more to protect the lives of non-combatants.
The number of insurgent attacks in Afghanistan was greater in both May and June than in any month since US-led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, said the Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief, an umbrella group of non-governmental organisations in Afghanistan.
- (Reuters)
Thirteen killed in fire on train
HYDERABAD- At least 13 people were killed when a fire believed to have been sparked by a short circuit spread through an Indian train early yesterday while many passengers slept.
Five coaches of the Gautami Express, which was travelling from Hyderabad to Kakinada on the coast, were gutted in the massive fire.
Railway officials have ruled out sabotage and said the fire was apparently caused by a short circuit.
- (Reuters)
Fire threatens ancient site
ISTANBUL- Turkish firefighters backed by aircraft are trying to contain fires that may destroy as much as 4,000 hectares (9,885 acres) of woodland in the coastal tourism province of Antalya.
The flames were approaching the ancient Greek amphitheatre in Aspendos, 37km (23 miles) from the Mediterranean resort of Side, Antalya Forest Directorate spokesman Aydogan Turedi said.
Antalya has some of the richest remains of Greek civilisation in Turkey.
- (Reuters)
Oil chief guilty of ordering murders
MOSCOW- A top manager of the now defunct Yukos business empire was found guilty by a Russian court of ordering several high-profile murders, a decision he dismissed as part of a Kremlin show trial.
The Moscow city court found Leonid Nevzlin, one of Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky's closest advisers, guilty of organising murders including the killing of a local mayor where the oil firm's biggest production unit was based.
"The court has ascertained that Nevzlin organised a whole host of extremely serious crimes," Judge Valery Invoker said.
- (Reuters)
Civilian deaths in Iraq decline 75%
BAGHDAD- The number of civilians killed in Iraq last month fell to less than a quarter of the toll in July 2007, government figures showed, underscoring a dramatic improvement in security.
- (Reuters)
Russia tests nuclear missile
MOSCOW- Russia test fired a ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea yesterday, a navy spokesman said.
The missile was launched from the Ryazan nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea and hit a designated area on the Kamchatka Peninsula on Russia's Pacific coast.
- (Reuters)
Man has arms transplanted
MUNICH- German doctors have succeeded in transplanting two complete arms onto a 54-year-old man in what their hospital said was the world's first operation of this kind.
During 15 hours of surgery, a team of 40 medics attached the arms to a farmer who lost both his arms in an accident six years ago.
"We had to describe to him that he would have to deal with the fact he'd have somebody else's hands," said Edgar Bulmer from the hospital in the southern city of Munich.
- (Reuters)