A roundup of today's other world stories in brief:
Chavez' clash with Spanish king escalates
CARACAS- President Hugo Chavez yesterday said he will closely review Venezuela's ties with Spain, escalating a spat with the former colonial power sparked by the Spanish king telling him to "shut up".
The leftist Chavez has demanded King Juan Carlos apologise for telling him to shut up at a weekend summit of leaders from Latin America and Iberia and warned Spanish investments, especially in the banking sector, could suffer.
"I am conducting a detailed review of the political, diplomatic and economic ties with Spain," Chavez said in an interview with state television. -
(Reuters)
Soldiers charged over shootings
WARSAW- Prosecutors said yesterday they had charged seven Polish soldiers over the shooting to death of six Afghan civilians.
Prosecutor Karol Frankowski said the killings, which took place in August, were not accidental and did not happen in response to any life-endangering situation.
Previously authorities had reported that the civilians were killed in an exchange of fire with Taliban insurgents but the prosecutor said the shooting in an Afghan village was not a response to any attack.
- (Reuters)
China elevator plunge kills six
BEIJING- An elevator in a tower block under construction in eastern China plunged more than 20 storeys to the ground yesterday, killing six workers and severely injuring 10, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The accident, the latest in a string of industrial accidents across the country, happened at a nearly completed block of flats in Wuxi City in coastal Jiangsu province, when 17 construction workers entered the elevator around noon. Four men died immediately and doctors were unable to save another two, the report said.
- (Reuters)
Cyclone warning in Bangladesh
DHAKA- Thousands of people fled their homes along Bangladesh's southern coast as volunteers with loudspeakers went from village to village warning that a severe cyclone was approaching from the Bay of Bengal.
Bangladesh and eastern India went on cyclone alert yesterday and ships were turned back to port with the storm expected to make landfall in the next two days.
- (Reuters)