A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Al-Jazeera airs video of US hostage
BAGHDAD - An Arab television channel last night aired a silent 20-second videotape of American hostage Jill Carroll and said an accompanying message gave the US 72 hours to free women prisoners in Iraq or she would be killed.
Al-Jazeera would not say from whom it received the tape, but issued a statement itself calling for Ms Carroll's release. A network producer said the tape was received yesterday.
The tape showed Ms Carroll (28) sitting in front of a white background and speaking, but her voice could not be heard.
The freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor has not been heard from since she was grabbed on January 7th in Baghdad. - (AP)
Foreign terrorists 'killed in US strike'
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani provincial authorities say four or five foreign terrorists were killed in last week's US missile strike in the border village of Damadola.
Pakistan's prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, said that despite the importance of ties with the US, attacks inside Pakistan "cannot be condoned". Eighteen local people, including women and children, were also killed in the missile attack. - (AP)
Britain to relax laws on brothels
LONDON - Britain has rejected plans to set up so-called "tolerance zones" for prostitution, saying a worldwide study had shown there was no evidence they offered greater protection for women. Instead, the government has announced plans to relax laws on brothels so that prostitutes could work together in the same premises. - (Reuters)
Lennon lyrics 'could fetch $2m'
NEW YORK - John Lennon's handwritten lyrics to the Beatles song A Day in the Life are up for sale and auctioneers Bonhams say they could fetch in the region of $2 million (€1.65 million). That could make the lyrics "the most valuable musical manuscript composed in the 20th century to be offered at auction", Martin Gammon of Bonhams said. - (Reuters)
California executes oldest prisoner (76)
SAN QUENTIN - California executed Clarence Ray Allen, its oldest condemned prisoner, by lethal injection early yesterday at San Quentin State Prison after last-ditch court appeals for a stay of execution failed.
Allen, who turned 76 on Monday and who was legally blind, used a wheelchair and suffered from diabetes and chronic heart disease, had been sentenced to death for ordering the killings of three people in 1980 while serving a life sentence for murder in California's Folsom Prison. - (Reuters)
Gerald Ford 'doing well'
LOS ANGELES - Former US president Gerald Ford (92), who has been treated for pneumonia at a California hospital, was "doing well" and would likely be released later this week, his spokeswoman said yesterday. - (Reuters)
Nine Iraqis seized in Iranian waters
BAGHDAD - Iraq's foreign minister met the Iranian ambassador in Baghdad yesterday to seek the return of nine Iraqi coastguards seized by Iran along their tidal waterway frontier on Saturday.
Foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari was raising the issue in a scheduled meeting with the Iranian ambassador. Officials in Tehran declined to comment. - (Reuters)
Zhao mourning stopped by police
BEIJING - Chinese police stopped about 30 petitioners yesterday from marking the first anniversary of the death of Zhao Ziyang, purged as Communist Party chief in 1989 for opposing an army crackdown on the Tiananmen protests. - (Reuters)