A round-up of today's other stories in brief:
Berlusconi walks out of TV interview
ROME - Italy's prime minister Silvio Berlusconi stormed off the set of a state TV show yesterday, branding the journalist interviewing him as a leftist.
"I'm getting up and leaving if you don't let me answer. Is that clear?" the prime minister and media magnate said curtly when the programme's host, Lucia Annunziata, insisted he answer her questions.
Annunziata, a long-time Berlusconi antagonist, resigned in 2004 as the head of state broadcaster RAI, alleging that forces loyal to his government were trying to control it.
- (AP)
Algeria frees Ilsmaic leader
ALGIERS - Algeria has freed Abdelhak Layada, the jailed founder of the Islamic Armed Group (GIA), one of the most significant releases yet under a government amnesty aimed at ending more than a decade of civil war.
- (Reuters)
Hostage mother and baby freed
ESCHWEILER - German police yesterday overpowered a man (32) who had taken a mother and her newborn baby hostage. Described as the woman's partner, he had released the baby but held her in a hospital room until officers overcame him.
- (Reuters)
Severe weather in northern Britain
LONDON - The Met Office issued a severe weather warning yesterday after heavy snow and strong winds caused dangerous driving conditions in Scotland and northern England. Blizzards on Saturday night closed the airports in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
- (Reuters)