Other world stories in brief:
Kidnapped BBC journalist is 'unharmed'
GAZA:Alan Johnston, the BBC correspondent who was seized more than two months ago in Gaza, is healthy and unharmed and efforts to release him are "continuous", a Hamas member of the Palestinian government said.
Ghazi Hamad, the government spokesman, said he knew the group holding Mr Johnston and added that he was dealing with them personally as part of efforts to secure the correspondent's release.
(Guardian service)
McCann parents hope to meet Pope
LONDON:The parents of a four-year-old British girl snatched from a Portuguese holiday resort three weeks ago hope to meet Pope Benedict later this week, a spokesman for the family said yesterday.
Since Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3rd, her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, both Catholics, have worked hard to raise public awareness of the case.
"We are certainly exploring the possibility of Gerry and Kate McCann visiting Rome to meet the Pope in the near future," Clarence Mitchell, the British foreign office liaison officer for the family, told the BBC. - (Reuters)
Olmert pledges military action
JERUSALEM:A Hamas rocket attack from Gaza killed a man in Israel yesterday. Prime minister Ehud Olmert pledged unlimited military action against the group, saying "no one involved in terror" would be immune.
Olmert told his cabinet Israel should "be prepared for a long confrontation" and that he would not necessarily agree to halt fire if Hamas agreed to a truce deal. - (Reuters)
Ethiopians rebury 'red terror' victims
ADDIS ABABA:Tens of thousands of Ethiopians marched yesterday to rebury victims of the Mengistu regime's "red terror" purge who were dumped in mass graves after being left on street corners as a warning to others.
Church bells tolled and the city observed a minute's silence to remember the victims of a slaughter carried out on the orders of Marxist ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1977-78 in which as many as 100,000 of his potential opponents were murdered. (Reuters)
British soldier dies in Afghanistan
LONDON:The British soldier killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on Saturday has been named as Guardsman Daniel Probyn, the ministry of defence said yesterday. Probyn (22) died early on Saturday during a mission to clear a Taliban compound near Garmsir, in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. (Reuters)
Yemen accepts Guantánamo men
SANAA: The Yemeni government said it had agreed with the US to take most of the Yemeni inmates held at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
"There are continuous talks with the Americans to hand over the Yemenis in Guantánamo to the Yemeni government," a senior official said.
He did not say how many prisoners would be released or when.
Officials said President Ali Abdullah Saleh discussed the issue with US officials in Washington this month. (Reuters)