Today's other stories in brief
Death toll in British floods reaches six
LONDON - The devastating floods which slowly began to drain from hundreds of wrecked homes across central and northern England yesterday are thought to have claimed two more lives, bringing the total to six.
As helicopters ferried sandbags to shore up riverbanks in Yorkshire and the West Midlands, a body was found in the river Lean at Nottingham and a huge search failed to trace a man near Doncaster.
In Worcestershire, a motorist swept to his death as he tried to cross a flooded ford was yesterday identified as a county court judge, Eric Dickinson (68). He was found dead in his submerged car near Pershore on Tuesday. - (Guardian service)
Grenade attack on Somali hotel
MOGADISHU - A man threw a grenade at a busy hotel in the central Somali town of Baidoa yesterday, almost certainly killing some people there, witnesses said.
"There were so many people at the time outside the hotel drinking tea and coffee. There must some fatalities but I don't know how many," Baidoa resident Shire Mohamed said. - (Reuters)
Alleged Mossad informer dies
CAIRO - The son-in-law of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, named by Israeli officials as a source for the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, died in London yesterday. The Egyptian state news agency quoted reports he had fallen from the balcony of his home.
Ashraf Marwan (62), who was married to Abdel Nasser's daughter Mona, had been living in London for many years.
Israeli media have said that on the eve of the Middle East war of October 1973, Mr Marwan passed to Mossad a warning that Egypt and Syria were about to attack Israel. - (Reuters)
Doctors approve quicker abortions
TORQUAY - British doctors voted in favour yesterday of giving women quicker access to abortions in early pregnancy.
Medics attending the British Medical Association conference voted by 67 per cent to 33 per cent in favour of removing the need for two doctors' signatures to allow an abortion in the first trimester. The move would effectively remove the need for women to meet medical criteria that continuing with the pregnancy poses a risk to their health. - (PA)
German muggers left their photos
BERLIN - Two German teenagers robbed a girl but accidentally left their own pictures behind for police on a discarded mobile phone. After stealing a 15-year-old's shoes, money and mobile phone, the two older girls gave her an old mobile phone, police in Bochum said yesterday.
But they had forgotten the phone had their own photos, striking smiley poses.
The two turned themselves in when the pictures appeared on the news. - (Reuters)