More news in brief
Manhattan building collapses
NEW YORK - A four-storey building collapsed in Manhattan yesterday and injured 15 people after an apparent gas explosion that may have resulted from a failed suicide attempt.
Witnesses reported a deafening explosion before the apartment building - on 62nd Street on the Upper East Side - came crashing down, shattering windows across the street. Smoke billowed from the debris throughout a frantic rescue operation and continued to emerge for hours after the morning blast.
Ten firefighters and five civilians were injured.
The gas leak may have been the result of a suicide attempt by the building's owner, New York fire commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said.
The man was taken from the rubble on a stretcher and hospitalised with severe burns. - (Reuters)
More troops sent to Afghanistan
BRITAIN - Britain is to send nearly 900 more troops to southern Afghanistan, increasing the size of its deployment in lawless Helmand province by more than a quarter to 4,400.
Some 150 infantry of the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers will fly to Afghanistan from Cyprus within the next few days, and the remaining reinforcements will be in place by October.
The announcement by defence secretary Des Browne came in the wake of the deaths of six British personnel in a series of firefights with Taliban forces and tribal militia as the UK took up leadership of the Nato mission in Helmand. - (PA)
UN chief favours woman successor
BERLIN - United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan said yesterday he would like to see a woman replace him as the head of the organisation.
"I must confess that I would personally be very pleased if after 60 years of existence of the UN a woman were to become the secretary general," he was quoted as saying in an interview with German daily General Anzeiger.
"We have had many remarkable women in management positions in this organisation who have served extremely well."
Mr Annan has no formal influence over the selection process. To date four names are in the running for the job. All are men. - (Reuters)
Poland condemns 'potato' remark
WARSAW - Incoming Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski urged the German government to take action against a German paper that called his twin brother Lech, the Polish president, a potato.
The term, seen in Polish culture as rather like calling the president a peasant, was used by the left-wing German daily Die Tageszeitung in June.
Mr Kaczynski, speaking days before he is expected to take office, said relations between Poland and Germany would remain strained until the German government acted against the paper. He did not specify what kind of action he expected. - (Reuters)
'Da Vinci Code' ruling appeal
LONDON - Two historians who lost a plagiarism case against the British publishers of Dan Brown's bestseller The Da Vinci Code plan to appeal the verdict.
Court officials said the appeal could take place later this year, but no date has been set. - (Reuters)
Dylan lyrics for Broadway musical
NEW YORK - Choreographer Twyla Tharp, who brought the music of Billy Joel to the theatre with her hit show Movin' Out, now will bring the songs of Bob Dylan to Broadway. The Times They Are A-Changin', a musical conceived, directed and choreographed by the Tony Award-winning Tharp, opens this autumn. - (Reuters)