A round-up of today's other stories in brief
US ex-soldier charged over Iraqi deaths
WASHINGTON - A former US soldier was arrested and charged with killing four Iraqi civilians and raping one of the female victims, US officials said yesterday. Steven Green (21), who was stationed in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division, appeared in court in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is expected to be sent to Kentucky where he has been charged with the attacks that took place in March 2006 near Mahmudiya, Iraq. Mr Green, who faces a possible death penalty if convicted, is charged with going to a house near Mahmudiya with three other people to rape a woman living in the house, according a statement by the US attorney in Kentucky. - (Reuters)
Rebels killed in Afghan ambush
KABUL - Twenty insurgents were killed in southern Afghanistan after they ambushed US-led forces, the latest battle in the bloodiest phase of violence since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
Two coalition personnel were wounded in the clash in the Sangin district of Helmand province on Sunday, the force said in a statement. At least four other people were killed in incidents in different parts of the country yesterday. - (Reuters)
Asteroid narrowly misses Earth
The Earth had a near miss early yesterday when a giant asteroid hurtled past almost as close as the Moon.
The space rock, named 2004 XP14, was travelling at 17 kilometres per second as it made its nearest approach to the planet at about 5.30am.
At that moment it was about 431,304 kilometres away, or just 1.1 times the Moon's average distance from the Earth. - (PA)
Death of former Reuters chief
LONDON - Former Reuters chief Glen Renfrew (77), who helped change the firm from being just a news agency to also being a supplier of information and trading systems to world financial markets, has died, his family said yesterday. - (Reuters)
Verdonk could benefit from row
AMSTERDAM - Dutch immigration minister Rita Verdonk, at the centre of the row which caused the Dutch government to collapse last week, could gain 15 per cent of the vote if she formed her own political party, according to a poll.
Ms Verdonk, who came under heavy criticism over her threat to strip Somali-born Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali of Dutch citizenship, would most likely attract votes from supporters of her current VVD liberal party or smaller anti-immigration parties, the survey found. - (Reuters)
Natural disaster killed dodos
PORT LOUIS - Scientists who unearthed a mass dodo grave in Mauritius say they have found evidence showing the birds were killed by a natural disaster long before humans arrived on the Indian Ocean island.
Most theories about how the dodo became extinct blame early settlers who found the plump flightless bird on the Indian Ocean island in the 16th century and hunted it relentlessly. - (Reuters)
President pardons journalists
ALGIERS - Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika has issued pardons to journalists convicted of insulting or defaming the government, in the second move of its kind this year, his office said in a statement yesterday.
The measures, timed to coincide with the 44th anniversary of Algeria's independence tomorrow, included reporters convicted of "outrage to state officials, institutions and the constitutional body, defamation and insult". - (Reuters