Today's other stories in brief
Release of ETA hunger striker sparks protest
MADRID - Spain's Socialist government yesterday sparked controversy by allowing Inaki de Juana Chaos, a hunger-striking prisoner from the armed Basque separatist group Eta, to go home.
An emaciated De Juana, who was responsible for 25 killings in the 1980s, was sent back to his native Basque country after serving less than half of a three-year sentence for terrorist threats.
He had been on hunger strike for 114 days and, reduced to a skeletal wreck, was being force-fed by doctors after being strapped to a hospital bed in Madrid.- (Guardian service)
Iranian student protesters expelled
TEHRAN - Iranian students involved in an angry protest against the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been expelled and earmarked for compulsory military service in an apparent act of official retribution.
Authorities at Tehran's Amir Kabir university, a traditional hotbed of student protest, have ended the studies of 54 students, ostensibly for repeatedly failing their exams.
However, most of the students singled out are political activists who took part in the December demonstration at the university at which President Ahmadinejad was greeted with chants of "death to the dictator". - ( Guardian service)
Squatters' eviction leads to clashes
COPENHAGEN - Danish police arrested at least 100 people in Copenhagen yesterday in violent street clashes after authorities evicted left-wing squatters from a youth centre, a police spokesman said.
Authorities took control of the building in the Norrebro area in a raid that saw officers land on the roof in helicopters. - (Reuters)
Charlotte Church is pregnant
LONDON - British singer and TV presenter Charlotte Church (21) is pregnant, she confirmed yesterday. Church said she and her Welsh rugby star boyfriend Gavin Henson were "delighted".
The "Voice of an Angel", who found fame as a child star, announced the news on her own website. - ( PA)
Columbine threats lead to evacuation
DENVER - An unidentified male seeking media attention made several bomb threats yesterday to Columbine high school, scene of the deadliest school shooting in US history, forcing police to evacuate students.
... Bomb squads conducted several sweeps of the school with bomb-sniffing dogs but found no explosives.
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher during a shooting rampage at the Colorado school i1999. They then killed themselves. - ( Reuters)
Panel warning on coastal buildings
NEW YORK - An international panel of scientists has proposed that all countries cease building on coastal land that is less than a metre above high tide, so as to avoid some of the worst impacts of climate change.
... The recommendation was one of many from experts from 11 countries, working for the UN, who have spent two years devising a blueprint to allow countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change in the next century. - ( Guardian service)