A roundup of today's other world stories in brief:
Blair arrives for Mid East peace tour
KUWAIT- Tony Blair arrived yesterday at the start of a two-week tour of the Middle East to push ahead with efforts to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict festering at the heart of the region for 60 years. Mr Blair will take the findings of his visit - his second to the region as Middle East envoy for the international Quartet - to the group's next meeting in New York on September 23rd.
"During the trip Mr Blair will have detailed discussions with Israelis and Palestinians on a range of economic and security issues," the former British prime minister's spokesman said. "He will then use the New York discussions at the end of the month to set out his initial thinking."
- (Reuters)
Fresh appeals at vigil for Rhys
LONDON- Hundreds of people attended a vigil yesterday in memory of Rhys Jones, the 11-year-old Liverpool schoolboy gunned down on his way home from playing football.
His parents, Stephen and Melanie, and his older brother lit a candle in the pouring rain at the service at Croxteth Country Park.
Dignitaries, religious figures and the police repeated appeals for anyone with information to come forward.
- (Reuters)
Tube strike to cause travel chaos
LONDON- Millions of tube passengers face three days of travel chaos after unions said yesterday a strike over job security and pensions will go ahead.
The 72 hours of disruption will begin at 6pm today, with repeat action planned for the following week.
The strike comes as many Londoners return to work after their summer holiday.
It follows the collapse of Metronet, responsible for maintenance on nine of the London Underground lines.
Transport for London had hoped that letters of reassurance about jobs, transfers and pensions sent out to union members would be enough to stave off the strikes.
But a spokesman for the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union, which has 2,300 Metronet members, said: "My understanding is that we have not received the cast-iron guarantees that were sought. The strike is going ahead on Monday."
- (Reuters)
Five of six rare babies doing well
MIAMI- A Florida mother has given birth to rare sextuplets and five of the six were doing well, the father said yesterday.
Ben Byler said his wife Karoline was in "excellent" condition after giving birth to six babies, five boys and one girl, at around 9pm on Saturday at St Petersburg on Florida's Gulf of Mexico coast.
"Five of the six are doing really great," Byler said. "There's one that's having difficulty breathing."
Byler and his wife had not settled on the last three names for the sextuplets until yesterday morning. He said he would take the challenge of looking after six babies at the same time "day by day". "I'm sure it's going to be overwhelming," he said.
- (Reuters)
Man killed by troops on border
MOSCOW- One man was shot dead as a result of security operations yesterday in the troubled Russian region of Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya, but the local interior ministry denied reports a gun battle with militants occurred.
"There was an operation and one man was killed," said a spokesman for the local interior ministry in the mostly Muslim region in the North Caucasus.
A local witness said he heard the sound of gunfire and saw about 40 troops from the local interior ministry forces on the streets in the town centre.
The incident comes two days after three members of an ethnic Russian family were killed by insurgents in the same region.
- (Reuters)