A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Militants reject Abbas ceasefire call
GAZA -Militants rejected a call by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas yesterday to stop firing rockets into Israel from Gaza, saying that Israel should first call off military operations there and in the West Bank.
"We cannot surrender to blackmail as planes are overhead. We want a comprehensive calm that covers the Palestinian areas, both south and north," Ibrahim Abu An-Naja, a spokesman for militant factions that met Mr Abbas in Gaza, told reporters after the talks. - (Reuters)
Three terror suspects abscond
LONDON -Three men have absconded from control orders imposed on them under terrorism laws, Scotland Yard said last night. Police were alerted when Lamine Adam (26) and Ibrahim Adam (20) failed to contact a monitoring company on Monday evening.
A third man, Cerie Bullivant (24) has been missing since yesterday morning, when he failed to report to his local police station. - (PA)
Romanian leader rebuked over jibe
BUCHAREST -Romanian president Traian Basescu was criticised yesterday by the country's anti-discrimination watchdog for referring to a television journalist as a "stinking gypsy".
The comments were made by Mr Basescu in a private conversation with his wife and were subsequently broadcast. - (Reuters)
Clinton to stand tall in Kosovo
PODUJEVO -Kosovo Albanians plan to honour their "saviour" Bill Clinton by erecting a statue of the former United States president in the capital of Serbia's breakaway province.
The 3m (10ft) monument is still under construction in Podujevo, 40 km north of Pristina.
"He is our saviour," sculptor Izeir Mustafa told reporters. - (Reuters)
German doubts over Afghan role
BERLIN -Nearly two-thirds of Germans want their troops to withdraw from Afghanistan after three German peacekeeping soldiers were killed over the weekend, a poll by the Forsa agency published yesterday showed. - (Reuters)
UN warns of flu vaccine shortage
GENEVA -A global shortage of pandemic influenza vaccines will last for at least five years, leaving three-quarters of the population unprotected, a senior United Nations official said yesterday.
David Heymann, of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said drugmakers can produce enough flu vaccine for only 1.5 billion of the globe's 6.2 billion people. - (Reuters)