Today's other stories in brief
Merkel gives Turkey EU reassurance
ISTANBUL - German chancellor Angela Merkel has reassured Turkish leaders that her government will not obstruct Turkey's EU membership bid, despite her party's reservations on the issue.
Addressing a forum of business leaders in Istanbul yesterday, which was also attended by Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan, Ms Merkel stressed economic ties, urging German companies to invest more in Turkey, a fast- growing market of more than 70 million people.
"As leader of the Christian Democrats, we are primarily close to the idea of a privileged partnership for Turkey [ instead of full EU membership], but we respect agreements and will honour all our commitments," she said. - (Reuters)
Grave may contain Nazi child victims
MENDEN - Authorities in Germany suspect some of the human remains found in a second World War-era mass grave are from child victims of Adolf Hitler's euthanasia programme that killed people whom the Nazis considered worthless.
Prosecutors acting on a tip from an ageing witness have opened a murder investigation, despite the difficulty of finding conclusive evidence more than 60 years after the end of the war and the likelihood that most or all of those responsible are dead.
Forensic experts have spent the past few days exhuming the remains from a Roman Catholic cemetery in Menden's Arnsberg district. The remains of 51 people have been discovered so far. - (AP)
Canada to protest at US detention
OTTAWA - Canada will formally protest to the United States over the case of a Canadian man deported to Syria by US agents, prime minister Stephen Harper told US president George Bush yesterday.
Software engineer Maher Arar was arrested in New York in September 2002 and was sent to Syria, where he says he was repeatedly tortured. He was released a year later.
An official inquiry put much of the blame on Canadian police, who wrongly told US border agents that Mr Arar was an Islamic extremist. But inquiry head Dennis O'Connor also urged Ottawa to formally protest to both Syria and the United States over the way they had treated Mr Arar. - (Reuters)
Freed journalist under house arrest
MADRID - An al-Jazeera journalist jailed in Spain on terrorism charges related to the September 11th attacks has been released and put under house arrest due to his ill health, the prisoner's wife said yesterday.
Tayseer Alouni (51), known for interviewing Osama bin Laden shortly after the attacks, returned home to Granada due to heart problem. "We are pleased his health is being taken into consideration, but we will be even happier when he is proven innocent," said his wife, Fatima Zohra Hamed Layesi. - (Reuters)