A round-up of today's other news stories in brief:
'Brothers' Castro and Chavez meet
HAVANA - Cuba's ailing Fidel Castro got a bedside visit from his main ally, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the Communist party newspaper Granma said yesterday as it published pictures of the two leftist leaders.
The daily said President Castro, who temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul on July 31st due to surgery for intestinal bleeding, spent more than three hours with Mr Chavez on Sunday in what it head- lined "An Unforgettable Afternoon Among Brothers". - (Reuters)
Five killed by Baghdad car bomb
BAGHDAD - At least five people were killed by a car bomb in southern Baghdad yesterday, a police source and Iraqi state television said. The attack was on a bridge over the Diyala river. - (Reuters)
Man held over daughter's murder
ROME - Italian police have arrested a Pakistani immigrant for the murder of his 20-year-old daughter, whom investigators believe was killed because her family disapproved of her relationship with an Italian man.
Police found the body of Hina Saleem on Saturday, buried in the vegetable garden at the back of her family house near the northern city of Brescia. Her throat had been slit and her relatives appeared to have left in a hurry. -(Reuters)
Czechs close to new government
PRAGUE - Czech deputies have elected Social Democrat Miloslav Vlcek as lower house speaker in a small step toward the formation of a new government two months after an inconclusive general election.
In its seventh attempt to elect a speaker since the June election, 174 of the lower house's 200 deputies yesterday voted for Mr Vlcek, paving the way for the outgoing cabinet of Social Democrat prime minister Jiri Paroubek to resign. - (Reuters)
Sharon's health deteriorates
JERUSALEM - Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon has contracted double pneumonia and his condition has deteriorated, the hospital treating him said yesterday.
A statement said doctors had "reported a deterioration in Sharon's condition" and were treating him with antibiotics and steroids. - (Reuters)
Poland hurt by Grass's confession
GDANSK - Poland's ruling party yesterday called on German author Günter Grass to give up his honorary citizenship of the port city of Gdansk after his belated confession that he was once a member of Hitler's Waffen SS.
The admission from the 78-year-old, famous for his 1957 novel The Tin Drum, came in a newspaper interview on Saturday before the release in September of his autobiography Peeling Onions, in which he explains why he joined at the age of 17. - (Reuters)
23 killed in Guatemalan crash
PALIN - A bus crashed off a road in Guatemala late on Sunday, killing 10 children and 13 adults on their way home from a church meeting, emergency workers said yesterday. - (Reuters)
Blair needs some of Harry's magic
NEW YORK - According to a poll on pop culture released yesterday, three-quarters of Americans can correctly identify two of Snow White's seven dwarfs, while only a quarter can name two Supreme Court justices.
According to the poll, 57 per cent of Americans could identify JK Rowling's fictional boy wizard as Harry Potter, while only 50 per cent could name British prime minister Tony Blair. - (Reuters)