A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Four children tested for avian flu
ANKARA - Four children in eastern Turkey are being tested for possible avian influenza, it was reported yesterday.
The children, aged between 11 and 15 and from the same family, are being treated in a hospital in the city of Van after exhibiting flu symptoms and failing to respond to antibiotics.
Turkey, which lies on the path of migratory birds believed to spread the virus, has had two outbreaks of the highly contagious disease in the past three months.
No humans are known to have contracted the disease there. - (Reuters)
Sharon to have heart operation
JERUSALEM - Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon will undergo a heart operation on Thursday.
Mr Sharon (77) is already back at work after a minor stroke on December 18th, but must undergo the operation to repair a tiny hole in his heart thought to have contributed to the stroke. - (Reuters)
Churchill wanted to execute Hitler
LONDON - British wartime leader Winston Churchill wanted Adolf Hitler to be summarily executed like a common gangster in a US-supplied electric chair, according to secret documents released yesterday. He believed that putting Hitler and other Nazi leaders on trial after the second World War would be a farce; they should instead be treated as outlaws and promptly executed.
The fresh glimpse into history was revealed in newly declassified records from British war cabinet meetings. Churchill said in December 1942: "If Hitler falls into our hands we shall certainly put him to death. This man is the mainspring of evil." - (Reuters)
US forces arrest Al Jazeera team
DUBAI - US forces in Afghanistan have arrested the Kabul correspondent of the Arab television station Al Jazeera along with his driver and cameraman. Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, quoted US forces as saying that Waliyullah Shaheen and his team had been handed over to Afghan police.
The US statement said the team had been filming locations of a "security nature". - (Reuters)
Man arrested after market bombing
PALU - Indonesian police have detained a man and tightened roadblocks around the city of Palu in a hunt for those responsible for killing seven people in a nail-bomb attack on a Christian market on New Year's Eve.
The blast in a Christian market selling pork came after warnings of violence during the Christmas and New Year season in the world's most populous Muslim nation. - (Reuters)
Australian fires destroy homes
SYDNEY - Raging bushfires destroyed several homes and threatened others north of Sydney yesterday as scorching temperatures and dry winds fanned fires across southeastern Australia.
Temperatures reached up to 44 degrees in some areas, and firefighters were battling scores of blazes, although authorities said cooler weather and rain had brought relief to South Australia and Victoria.
In New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, residents were evacuated from two small communities near Gosford, north of Sydney, where three homes and some vehicles were destroyed by flames. - (Reuters)
Iranian soldiers kidnapped
TEHRAN - Iran confirmed yesterday that nine of its soldiers were "missing" after a little-known Sunni Muslim rebel group said it had kidnapped them.
On Saturday the group said it wanted Tehran to release 16 of its jailed members in exchange for the soldiers.- (Reuters)