A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Chechnya's separatists appoint leader
GROZNY - Chechnya's beleaguered separatist movement has appointed an experienced militant commander, Doka Umarov, as its new president following the assassination of his predecessor whose bloodied corpse was put on display in his underpants by pro-Russian forces during the weekend.
Mr Umarov has strong links to the Beslan mastermind and Russia's "terrorist number one" Shamil Basayev. - (Guardian service)
Six die in collision on England's A6
LONDON- Two cars collided on a main road in northwestern England yesterday, killing six people, police said. All five people in one of the cars - a 19-year-old man, a 21-year-old woman, two teenage girls and a baby - were killed in the crash on the A6 road north of Penrith.
An elderly man driving the other car died. An elderly woman who was also in that car was taken to hospital - her condition was reported as being very poor. - (Reuters)
Turkish forces kill Kurdish rebels
TUNCELI - Turkish forces killed three Kurdistan Workers Party guerrillas in eastern Turkey yesterday, while in the same region a bomb on a rail track wrecked a cargo train, military officials said.
Soldiers, supported from the air, attacked a group of 13 Kurdish guerrillas in Tunceli and killed three, an army official said. - (Reuters)
Sudanese faction to oversee deal
KHARTOUM - Darfur rebels arrived in Khartoum yesterday for the first time since a peace agreement was signed last month amid tight security as they begin to implement the deal, rejected by many in Sudan.
The African Union- mediated May 5th deal was signed by only one of the three negotiating factions despite intense global pressure. The advance team of the Sudan Liberation Army faction, led by Minni Arcua Minnawi who did sign, will form a transitional authority for Darfur to oversee implementation of the deal. - (Reuters)
Eleven killed in China landslide
BEIJING - A landslide in a village in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan has killed 11 people and injured six others, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
The landslide happened in the early hours in a remote region near the Tibetan border. The village of Shiji was hit by almost 100 cubic metres of rocks which destroyed 12 houses and damaged 40 others, cutting off power, water and road links. - (Reuters)
US journalist held in Nigeria
LAGOS - The Nigerian navy has detained an American journalist for taking photographs of an oil facility operated by the local unit of Italy's Agip, a rights group said yesterday.
Ed Kashi, of the National Geographic, was photographing a gas flare at the Obama flow station in Bayelsa state when he was arrested on Friday along with a Nigerian assistant, Dimieari Von Kemedi.
"They said he did not obtain permission to take pictures of the facility and that the area is volatile and he could have been kidnapped," Kemedi said. - (Reuters)
Prisoners killed in breakout attempt
PHNOM PENH - Nine inmates and their prison guard hostage were killed yesterday during a failed jail break in northwest Cambodia, police said.
The inmates seized a security guard armed with a gun and hand grenade and barricaded themselves inside a jail cell in Battambang. After negotiations failed, police fired tear gas into the cell and rushed the hostage takers. - (Reuters)