Other stories from around the world in brief
Earthquake measuring 5.2 hits Turkey
An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale hit northwestern Turkey yesterday and was felt in Istanbul, just days after another quake of the same size in the area, said Turkey's earthquake monitoring centre. Officials said the earthquake had caused no deaths or damage and they had no reports of injuries. - (Reuters)
Envoy seeks move for war criminal
STOCKHOLM - Bosnia's UN ambassador has asked Sweden to move convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Biljana Plavsic from a Swedish jail to a better prison or release her.
The plea cited Plavsic's age - 76 - and the fact that she is in bad health as reasons why she should be moved. It also called on the Swedish government to release her on humanitarian grounds. - (Reuters)
Two women to be EU commissioners
STRASBOURG - Romania and Bulgaria have chosen women as their European commissioners when they join the EU next year, a commission source said yesterday.
The names of Romanian justice minister Monica Macovei and Bulgarian European integration minister Meglena Kuneva have been submitted to commission president José Manuel Barroso, the source said. - (Reuters)
Prince resists fiscal disclosure
LONDON - Prince Charles last night rebuffed a request for wider disclosure of his finances after questions were asked as to why his estate was exempt from corporation and capital gains tax. Clarence House, his official residence, won support from the UK treasury in resisting calls from Edward Leigh, chairman of the House of Commons public accounts committee, for a "fuller explanation" about the duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster, the Prince of Wales's main sources of income. - (Guardian service)
Conductor on trial over cult killings
PARIS - A Swiss orchestra conductor went on trial for the second time yesterday for his alleged role in a doomsday cult which lost dozens of members in ritual killings in Canada and Europe.
Michel Tabachnik (61), a composer who has led major orchestras in Canada, Portugal and France, is accused of criminal association and contributing to the deaths of members of the Order of the Solar Temple - 14 of whom were found burnt and lying in a star formation in a clearing in the French Alps in 1995. - (Guardian service)
Call for fining of rude legislators
OTTAWA - The Canadian parliament should suspend or fine rude legislators who shout racist, sexist or homophobic insults across the chamber, the left- leaning opposition, New Democratic Party, said yesterday.
Foreign minister Peter MacKay is under heavy pressure to apologise to his former girlfriend and fellow member of parliament, Belinda Stronach, after he allegedly referred to her as a dog last week. - (Reuters)
Anti-smoking message for DVDs
BOSTON - Film industry veterans Bob and Harvey Weinstein will put anti-smoking video messages on DVDs of movies in which people smoke - a move sought by US states to combat teen smoking. - (Reuters)
80-year-old guilty of killing daughter
ROUEN - A court in northern France convicted an 80-year-old woman today of killing her disabled and bedridden daughter, but it spared her serving any prison time. Leonie Crevel was the sole caregiver for Florence (42), who was partly paralysed and blind.