Other stories from around the world in brief
EU pledges €42m in aid for Lebanon
BRUSSELS - The European Commission pledged an initial €42 million to help kick-start post-war reconstruction in Lebanon, external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said yesterday.
The cash will be offered at a donors' conference in Stockholm today which Lebanon hopes will raise €390 million for short-term recovery work such as clearing unexploded cluster bombs, rebuilding shattered homes and restoring roads. - (Reuters)
17 dead, 12 injured in Morocco crash
RABAT - A coach overturned in Morocco early yesterday, leaving 17 people dead and 12 seriously injured. The crash happened in the province of Settat, south of Casablanca.
Morocco launched a road safety campaign two years ago after it was estimated that about 10 people died every day in road crashes. - (Reuters)
Turkey to buy 30 fighter jets by 2011
ANKARA - Nato-member Turkey will purchase 30 F16 fighter jets as part of a plan to modernise its military, the chief of the airforce said yesterday.
"We will purchase 30 F16s by 2011. We are still trying to find the funds but I don't think that will be a problem," airforce chief Gen Faruk Comert said during a Victory Day celebration, marking Turkey's war of independence. - (Reuters)
Crete detains Briton until trial
ATHENS - A Briton charged with the murder and attempted murder of his two children after plunging from a hotel balcony will remain in prison until his trial some time next year, a Greek prosecutor ruled yesterday.
John Hogan, who sobbed throughout his testimony, told the prosecutor on the island of Crete that suicide ran in his family, his lawyer said.
"We have asked the prosecutor not to send him to jail but to transfer him to Athens' Korydallos prison mental ward . . . in order to protect him from himself as well," lawyer Dimitris Xyritakis said.
Hogan has been charged with murder over the death of his son Liam (6) and attempted murder over injuries to his younger daughter Mia. - (Reuters)
Pakistanis look for body of rebel chief
TARTANI, Pakistan - Scores of Pakistani soldiers worked yesterday to begin clearing rubble from a cave in Baluchistan province where a nationalist rebel chief was killed in fighting at the weekend.
Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti (79) was killed on Saturday in a government assault on his cave hideout in the remote hills of Baluchistan, Pakistan's biggest but poorest province.
The government says he and an unknown number of his men were killed when the cave they were in collapsed after a huge explosion. - (Reuters)