A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
French relief flown into eastern Chad
N'DJAMENA - French military aircraft have begun airlifting tonnes of relief supplies and food aid to refugee camps in eastern Chad in one of the first overseas humanitarian initiatives ordered by president Nicolas Sarkozy.
The operation followed a visit this month to the camps near the border with Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region by Mr Sarkozy's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning charity Médecins Sans Frontières.
Since October, tens of thousands of civilians in eastern Chad have fled cross- border attacks from Darfur by Arab Janjaweed militia and related ethnic clashes between Arab and non-Arab communities in the volatile region.
- (Reuters)
Fighting recurs in refugee camp
NAHR AL-BARED -Troops from Lebanon and al-Qaeda- inspired militants fought sporadically yesterday at a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon, the scene of often ferocious battles that have entered their fifth week.
Witnesses said the army advanced near the northeastern entrance of the Nahr al-Bared camp yesterday and was trying to control a school complex but was facing resistance by the Fatah al-Islam militants.
- (Reuters)
Child killed in Somali bomb attack
MOGADISHU -A suspected Islamist insurgent yesterday tossed a hand grenade into a government-run bank in Somalia's south central town of Baidoa, killing a child outside.
It was the latest in a wave of violence since a peace conference was postponed this week for a second time, and the second attack in three days on the government's former base.
- (Reuters)
Iran accuses Britain on Rushdie
TEHRAN -Iran has accused Britain of insulting Islamic values by knighting Salman Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses prompted the late Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa death warrant against him.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said Rushdie, awarded the knighthood for services to literature in Queen Elizabeth's birthday honours list published on Saturday, was "one of the most hated figures" in the Islamic world.
- (Reuters)
African illegals found drowned
ROME -Eight illegal immigrants have been found dead in waters south of Sicily after their boat capsized.
An Italian coastguard spokesman said the bodies had been sighted by an aircraft about 108km (67 miles) south of Lampedusa, an Italian island between Sicily and Libya, a common destination for African immigrants.
- (Reuters)
Five die in fire in French town
PARIS -Five people have died when they were trapped in a burning house in the southwestern French town of Moissac.
"The fire broke out on the ground floor and the blaze prevented people on the first floor from escaping," an official from the local prefecture told i-Tele television.
- (Reuters)