A round-up of other stories in brief
Yushchenko may back rival as premier
KIEV -Ukraine's former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, said yesterday that president Viktor Yushchenko had agreed to back her for the post of prime minister.
On Monday, her bloc and the pro-presidential Our Ukraine party initialled a coalition agreement that would push out prime minister Viktor Yanukovich's government.
The agreement followed the announcement of official results from last month's parliamentary election, in which two "orange" parties won a slim majority. - (Reuters)
Gore has 'no plans' to run as president
OSLO -Former US vice president Al Gore says he has no plans to join the presidential race, despite encouragement from thousands of supporters since he won the Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning against climate change.
Mr Gore, narrowly beaten by George W. Bush in the 2000 election, said that it was a "great honour" to win the award. He will share the $1.5 million (€1 million) prize with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. - (Reuters)
Sarkozys confirm they will separate
PARIS -French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia have informed a judge they are separating, it was reported yesterday.
The website of French news magazine Le Nouvel Observateursaid the 52-year-old president and his 49-year-old wife "went before a judge together at the end of the day on Monday to materialise the separation procedure of the couple". - (AP)
BBC plan to cut jobs approved
LONDON -The BBC Trust yesterday unanimously approved plans to cut thousands of jobs within the corporation, sell off its west London headquarters and reduce the number of programmes it makes by one-tenth.
The overhaul sparked a furious backlash from staff likely to strike within weeks, with feelings running high in the news and factual divisions, where job losses will run into four figures. - (Guardian service)
Seven suspected guerrillas killed
LIMA -Seven suspected guerrillas were killed by Peru's army in a remote area of the Andes where remnants of the Shining Path insurgency guard the coca plantations of drugs bosses, officials said yesterday.
The shootout on Tuesday near Ayacucho, the birthplace of the Shining Path about 360 miles (580 km) southeast of Lima, occurred two months after Peruvian police captured 20 alleged holdouts of the Maoist group in regions that produce coca, which can be refined into cocaine. - (Reuters)
Man shoots wife in Italian court
ROME -An Albanian man shot his wife in the head at an Italian court during a separation hearing on Wednesday and killed her brother before police gunned him down.
Police said the woman, who is also Albanian, was in a critical condition. The couple were attending a separation hearing in the northern city of Reggio Emilia. - (Reuters)
Treasure vessel's captain released
GIBRALTAR -Spanish police released the captain of a US treasure hunting vessel yesterday after arresting him when he refused to let police board his ship, US crew said.
Spain suspects gold and silver worth an estimated $500 million (€352 million ) discovered by a US treasure hunting team in May came from a sunken Spanish galleon and the treasure trove has become the subject of a legal dispute. - (Reuters)