A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Fishing boat collides with ship at Haifa
JERUSALEM -A fishing boat sank off the Israeli coast after colliding with a passenger ship yesterday, and two crew members were missing at sea. An Israeli ambulance service said 12 other people who had been on the fishing boat were rescued in the incident near Haifa port.
An Israeli military spokesman said helicopters had been scrambled to help in the search and the navy was on standby.
Israel Radio said the collision appeared to have been an accident. - (Reuters)
Tower evacuated in bomb scare
MEXICO CITY -Police evacuated Mexico City's Torre Mayor officer tower, the tallest building in Latin America, and found what might be explosives in a car parked there after a bomb threat yesterday.
Some 10,000 office workers filed out of the 740-foot (225m) tower of 55-storeys around mid-morning as police forensic scientists searched the building.
Police said they removed a suspect device, consisting of tubes attached to a mobile phone inside a car, in the underground car park. - (Reuters)
Lethal chemical found near UN
UNITED NATIONS -The United Nations found potentially lethal vials of a chemical warfare agent, removed from Iraq a decade ago, in offices near its New York headquarters but officials said yesterday there was no danger. The FBI and New York police were called in to remove the substances and were on the site across the street from UN headquarters yesterday.
The materials included phosgene, an older- generation chemical warfare agent, which could have been lethal if it had evaporated, the officials said. - (Reuters)
Ecuador defence minister resigns
QUITO -Ecuador's defence minister resigned yesterday under mounting criticism of her reform proposals and her investigation into the helicopter crash that killed her predecessor.
Lorena Escudero, a former university professor, took over the post in January after Guadalupe Larriva, her daughter and five officers were killed in a mid-air collision of two helicopters. - (Reuters)
Deadlock at climate talks
VIENNA -Industrial nations were deadlocked yesterday about whether to set stringent 2020 goals for cutting greenhouse gases at a first UN session about long-term climate targets.
A draft text at the Vienna meeting said rich countries should recognise a need for cuts of between 25 and 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avert the worst effects of climate change.
Russia, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland objected that such goals would be too demanding after a first period of the UN Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. The EU was among those in favour of the non-binding range to guide future work by governments. - (Reuters)