A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
UN adopts new treaty to help disabled
NEW YORK -The UN's general assembly yesterday adopted a landmark treaty to promote and protect the rights of the world's 650 million disabled people. Officials from the Irish Human Rights Commission played a key role in the negotiations, writes Carl O'Brien.
The convention will come into force 30 days after its ratification by 20 nations, a milestone likely to be reached in 2008 or 2009. It will require ratifying nations to adopt laws prohibiting discrimination over any form of disability, from blindness to mental illness.
US envoy to Sudan optimistic
KHARTOUM -The US special envoy to Sudan said next week may see progress in the troubled west and south of the African country after he had what he called a productive meeting with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir yesterday
Envoy Andrew Natsios said that during the two-hour meeting with Mr Bashir "we agreed to disagree on history, but we have agreed that there are some steps that we can take in the next week that may make some progress". - (Reuters)
Milinkevich turns down cash prize
MINSK -Belarussian opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich has turned down a cash prize linked to a human rights award and asked the European Union to use the money to help his compatriots resist President Alexander Lukashenko.
Mr Milinkevich, second to Mr Lukashenko in a March election denounced in the West as rigged, was presented on Tuesday with the EU's Sakharov prize worth €50,000 . - (Reuters)
'Progress' on deal in Lebanon
BEIRUT -Arab League chief Amr Moussa said yesterday he was making significant progress towards a deal to end Lebanon's political crisis. "In my estimation, there is a great hope that we will reach something [ an agreement] on the various issues," Mr Moussa told reporters after talks with prime minister Fouad Siniora. "When I speak of progress, it is progress in the whole package," he said. - (Reuters)
Guantánamo prisoner loses case
WASHINGTON -A Guantánamo prisoner who won a landmark US supreme court ruling in June lost a legal challenge of his detention yesterday when a federal judge dismissed the case, citing an anti- terrorism law recently signed by President George Bush.
US district judge James Robertson ruled that the law removed federal court jurisdiction over the case involving Salim Ahmed Hamdan. - (Reuters)
Army to punish Pinochet's relative
SANTIAGO -The Chilean army will punish Augusto Pinochet's grandson for criticising the judiciary at his grandfather's funeral, the army said in a statement yesterday.
Pinochet's grandson, also called Augusto, praised Pinochet for overthrowing the socialist government of Salvador Allende in 1973. - (Reuters)