A round-up of today's other stories in brief
4 Nato troops among 19 killed in Afghanistan
KANDAHAR - A suicide bomber on a bicycle killed four Canadian Nato soldiers in Afghanistan yesterday as they were trying to reassure villagers about safety, while 15 Afghans were killed in two other blasts.
The Taliban, who have unleashed a wave of attacks on government and foreign troops this year, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Canadians in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, a day after Nato declared the area free of Taliban.
Later, a blast killed 11 people including four policemen outside a mosque in the generally peaceful western city of Herat, the province's governor said. Police said the blast was caused by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle. The province's deputy police chief was among 18 wounded.
A suicide car-bomber killed four policemen and wounded 10 passers-by in the capital, Kabul, the interior ministry said. - (Reuters)
Algerian Islamist in appeal to rebels
ALGIERS - A senior Algerian Islamist newly returned after 14 years in exile has urged the few rebels still fighting the state to disarm, saying the reason for their struggle no longer existed.
Rabah Kebir, a leader of the banned Islamic Salvation Front, added at a news conference yesterday that he would work with young people to create a democracy in which those seeking an Islamist government enjoyed "new ways to have political activity". - (Reuters)
French executives blocked in Africa
ABIDJAN - Two French executives from a Dutch- based commodities trader that chartered a ship at the centre of Ivory Coast's toxic waste scandal have been prevented from leaving the country, an official said yesterday.
The two, who had been helping Ivorian authorities in their investigations, were stopped from boarding a flight to Paris at the weekend and their passports were confiscated, the government official said.
Seven people have died and thousands became ill after inhaling toxic fumes from slops unloaded at Abidjan port last month by the Probo Koala, a tanker chartered by leading international commodities trader Trafigura Beheer BV. - (Reuters)
Nun who helped save Jews beatified
BUDAPEST - A Hungarian nun killed by fascists after saving dozens of Jews during the second World War has been beatified, writes Dan McLaughlin.
Sara Salkahazi was the first person to be beatified in Hungary since the country's first king, St Stephen, his son, St Imre, and St Gellert - an Italian bishop who helped convert Hungarians to Christianity - in 1083.
Changes introduced by Pope Benedict now allow beatification rites to be held around the world, instead of just in the Vatican.
Show host Tarrant to split from wife
LONDON - Chris Tarrant and his wife Ingrid are to part, the TV presenter has announced. Tarrant (59) said yesterday he had only himself to blame for the collapse of his 15-year marriage.
The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host and wife Ingrid (51) are now expected to divorce. - (PA)
Forger conned TV antiques expert
LONDON - A master forger who conned an Antiques Roadshow expert into buying one of his 19th- century fakes has been jailed for two years.
Painter Robert Thwaites (54) duped respected gallery owner and TV art specialist Rupert Maas into parting with €29,600 (£20,000) for a worthless painting - titled The Miser - which he claimed was by fairyland painter John Anster Fitzgerald (1823-1906). - (PA)