A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Italy seeks murder trial for 1944 Nazis
BOLOGNA - An Italian prosecutor has asked a judge to put 17 former members of the Nazi SS on trial for their alleged role in the worst second World War-era civilian massacre in Italy - the 1944 slaughter of more than 700 people near Bologna, court officials said.
Prosecutor Marco De Paolis asked that an officer and 16 enlisted personnel of the 16th SS Division stand trial for murder in the northern port of La Spezia. The defendants were all in their 80s and lived in Germany, Mr De Paolis said. - (AP)
Two die as Israeli forces fire on car
GAZA CITY - Israeli forces fired a missile at a car in the northern Gaza Strip after nightfall yesterday, killing two Palestinians. Paramedics and witnesses said the missile destroyed the car and incinerated two men inside. Three bystanders were injured in the blast. - (AP)
Serbia accused of not co-operating
BELGRADE - Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte says Serbia is not co-operating enough with the Hague-based tribunal and she has asked for concrete steps towards the arrest of six remaining fugitives.
She was speaking after meeting defence minister Zoran Stankovic, who briefed her on a military report which said fugitive Ratko Mladic hid in army premises in Serbia until 2002 and was later believed to be protected by army veterans. - (Reuters)
Red Cross head on fraud charges
SOFIA - The head of Bulgaria's largest aid organisation, the Bulgarian Red Cross, has been charged with diverting millions of euro in donations from the EU and United States for the poor and disadvantaged.
Special police forces arrested Hristo Grigorov on Friday after investigators said he was involved in a fraud scheme in which clothes and medicine donated to the organisation were sold in pharmacies and shops for profit. - (Reuters)
Search goes on for Katrina missing
NEW ORLEANS - Five months after Hurricane Katrina, in which about 1,300 people died, about 2,500 people remain missing and the trail is going cold.
In the rush by 750,000 families to evacuate when Katrina struck the Gulf coast last August, relatives split up and scattered across the United States, often then moving several more times, posing unprecedented challenges for government and volunteer search organisations. - (Reuters)
Brazil's president to tour Africa
BRASILIA - The president of Brazil will seek political support to advance the Doha round of trade talks as well as his country's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council during a tour of four African countries which starts tomorrow.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's tour of Algeria, Benin, Botswana and South Africa, his fifth visit to the continent since he took office in January 2003, is part of Brazil's effort to forge a common front of developing countries to push for fairer global trade and more representation in the United Nations. - (Reuters)
Swan dies of bird flu in Bulgaria
SOFIA - Bulgaria has shut off wetland areas and is investigating the deaths of scores of birds after announcing its first case of H5 avian flu in a dead swan last week.
Veterinarians also prepared to send samples from the infected swan - found partially paralysed in the Danube river - to Britain to test whether it had the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. - (Reuters)
Minority coalition party quits
BRATISLAVA - Slovakia's Christian Democrats have quit the minority government, weakening the coalition of the prime minister Mikulas Dzurinda eight months before elections are due. - (Reuters)