A roundup of today's other stories in brief.
UN questions US treatment of prisoners
GENEVA - The United Nations committee against torture has demanded that the United States provide more information about its treatment of prisoners at home and foreign terrorism suspects held in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
In questions submitted to Washington, the panel also sought information about secret detention facilities, specifically whether the US assumed responsibility for alleged acts of torture in them. - (Reuters)
Higher Chernobyl death toll reported
LONDON - Environmental group Greenpeace said the eventual death toll from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster could be far higher than official estimates, with up to 93,000 cancer deaths attributable to the accident.
Based on research by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the group's report said that of the two billion people globally affected by the Chernobyl fallout, 270,000 would develop cancers as a result, of which 93,000 would prove fatal. - (Reuters)
Solitary cell for Russian tycoon
MOSCOW - Jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky will be moved to a solitary cell to ensure his safety after an alleged knife attack by another prisoner, the head of Russia's prison service was quoted as saying yesterday.
His lawyers condemned the move, saying it was was an attempt to isolate Khodorkovsky, who says he was imprisoned as punishment for using his vast wealth to oppose the Kremlin. They blamed the prison for orchestrating the attack on their client. - (Reuters)
2,300 jobs to go at English car plant
PARIS/LONDON - French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroën plans to close its plant in central England and eliminate 2,300 jobs, it said yesterday, dealing another blow to Britain's fading glory as a carmaking centre.
The world's sixth-largest carmaker, which has been battling with sluggish sales at its main markets in western Europe, said high costs meant it could no longer afford to carry on investing in the Ryton plant near Coventry. - (Reuters)
Cannibal's victim 'asked to be eaten'
FRANKFURT - A sex expert at the retrial of a German cannibal jailed for killing a man and feeding on his flesh said the defendant had not been motivated by a desire to kill, but by his victim's wish to be eaten.
Armin Meiwes, who was jailed two years ago for killing a computer engineer who had begged to be eaten, is standing trial for the second time after Germany's top criminal court ruled that his eight-year sentence for manslaughter was too lenient. - (Reuters)
Nurse guilty of patients' murder
LONDON - An attention-seeking nurse who poisoned patients at an Oxfordshire hospital was found guilty of two of their murders yesterday.
Benjamin Geen (25) secretly administered toxic doses of drugs to patients, causing them to suffer severe breathing difficulties and needing resuscitation.
A jury at Oxford Crown Court also found Geen guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to 15 other mainly elderly patients who recovered after stopping breathing. - (Reuters)
Mugabe warns opponents
HARARE - Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe issued a stark new warning yesterday to opponents he said were planning "to topple the government through organising violent demonstrations".
"I want to warn them that they are playing with fire," he said in a speech marking his country's 26 years of independence, all of it under his rule. - (Reuters)