A roundup of today's other world stories in brief:
Tributes paid to former Turkish PM
ANKARA - Turkish leaders have paid tribute to former prime minister Bulent Ecevit, who died aged 81 after a political career that included sending troops into Cyprus in 1974 and winning EU candidate status for his country.
Mr Ecevit suffered a stroke on May 18th and had been in a coma since. He died on Sunday.
The softly-spoken Ecevit, a left-wing nationalist and poetry lover, was widely respected in Turkey for his old world courtesy and his personal integrity and modesty in a political culture plagued by corruption.
- (Reuters)
Kyrgyzstan minister sacked
BISHKEK - Kyrgyzstan's president Kurmanbek Bakiyev has sacked his interior minister in an attempt to appease protesters massing outside his government headquarters, facing the deepest crisis of his troubled 16 months in office.
Mr Bakiyev's fragile rule has been marked by a long power struggle with opponents. The standoff appeared to come to a head yesterday when police pulled back to let about 4,000 protesters move up to the gates of the White House government offices.
- (Reuters)
Iran says it will share missiles
TEHRAN - Iran is ready to share its missile systems with friends and neighbours, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards said, after he showed off missiles including some he said had cluster warheads.
Guards commander-in- chief Yahya Rahim Safavi also told Iran's Al-Alam TV late on Sunday that the Guards had thousands of troops trained for suicide missions in case Iran was threatened, although he said any US attack was unlikely.
- (Reuters)
ICRC 'appalled' at Gaza deaths
GENEVA - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it is "appalled" at the deaths last Friday of two Palestinian paramedics killed in the Gaza Strip during an Israeli military operation.
Both paramedics and the vehicle they were travelling in were clearly identified with a distinctive emblem showing them to be medical personnel, said the Swiss- based humanitarian organisation.
- (Reuters)
Borat film tops US box office
LOS ANGELES - Sacha Baron Cohen's latest incarnation Borat became the biggest small film released in north America to date, taking $26.4 million at the US box office.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which features Baron Cohen's cod Kazakh TV journalist travelling across the US in search of cultural enlightenment, and Pamela Anderson, also topped the UK box office for the weekend.
- (Guardian service)
French rail workers to strike
PARIS - A planned strike by rail workers is due to reduce traffic across France's train network from today to Thursday but international links will be largely unaffected, according to state rail firm SNCF.
Six of the eight rail workers' unions called for the strike, which is due to start this evening, to demand the reopening of pay negotiations with management.
- (Reuters)
Nomination for Czech PM
PRAGUE - Czech president Vaclav Klaus has said he will again nominate right-wing Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolanek as prime minister after his proposal for a rainbow coalition failed.
Mr Klaus named Mr Topolanek as prime minister after an inconclusive June election, but with the lower house split evenly between left and right, the government failed to win a majority vote in October.
- (Reuters)