Today's other stories in brief
WASHINGTON - Republican 2008 presidential hopeful John McCain sang the words "Bomb Iran" to a Beach Boys tune in a joking response to a question about any possible US attack over Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons programme.
"That old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran . . . bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb," the Vietnam War veteran sang softly to the band's Barbara Ann when he was asked when the United States would send an "airmail message" to Iran.
The singing performance during a campaign stop on Wednesday in South Carolina drew chuckles from the audience and has already been viewed almost 11,000 times on the internet video-sharing site YouTube. - ( Reuters)
Walesa decries 'score-settling'
ROME - Former Polish president Lech Walesa said yesterday that plans to put his former political enemy, Wojciech Jaruzelski, on trial smacked of a "vendetta" which threatened national reconciliation.
Gen Jaruzelski imposed martial law in 1981 to crush the Solidarity trade union, imprisoning its leader Walesa and thousands of activists.
"I fought for a democratic state, a state that can come to terms with its past but is not bent on score-settling," Walesa said in an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. - (Reuters)
Foster mother jailed for 'torture'
LONDON - A foster mother who forced three children in her care to eat their own excrement and vomit was jailed for 14 years in Britain yesterday.
Eunice Spry (62) rammed sticks down the children's throats, rubbed their skin with sandpaper and would lock them naked in a room for a month.
Sentencing her at Bristol Crown Court, Judge Darwall Smith said Spry had carried out "sadistic torture" and "despicable acts of violence". - (Reuters)
10 held over murders in Turkey
ISTANBUL - Turkish police have detained 10 people in connection with the killing of three people, including a German, at a Bible publishing house in the mainly Muslim country, authorities said yesterday.
The three were found on Wednesday with their throats slit at the Zirve publishing house in Malatya, a city in the southeast of the country. - (Reuters)
Norway sets zero emissions target
OSLO - Norway wants to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 in the world's toughest national plan for fighting global warming, prime minister Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday.
"Norway would be the first country in the world to take on such a concrete commitment," Mr Stoltenberg said in a proposal to his Labour Party that was met with a standing ovation. - (Reuters)
Seven hostages decapitated
JOLO, Philippines - Muslim extremists decapitated seven men they were holding hostage on the southern Philippine island of Jolo and sent the heads in sacks to two army detachments, the military said yesterday.
"This is a terrorist act that should be condemned by all," said Maj-Gen Ruben Rafael, commander of military forces on Jolo. - (Reuters)
Same-sex unions to get go-ahead
BOSTON - New Hampshire governor John Lynch will sign legislation that would make the state the fourth in the country to allow same- sex civil unions, his spokesman said yesterday.
New Hampshire's Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly this month to give gay couples nearly the same rights as married couples. - (Reuters)