A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Cuba abandons egalitarian wage system
HAVANA -Cuba has abandoned its egalitarian wage system to try to salvage its moribund economy, marking another step away from Fidel Castro's socialist dream.
The government has eliminated caps on salaries and promised to pay productive workers more than lazy or inefficient ones.
Carlos Mateu, the vice-minister of labour and social security, said
many state enterprises, which comprise 90 per
cent of the economy, had already introduced the changes, and the rest would by August. - (Guardian service)
Reporter stages bomb scare
ROME -A German sports reporter who was late for his flight to cover the European Championships staged a bomb scare at Italy's Verona airport to delay the aircraft's take-off.
The reporter (27), who has not been identified, called police saying a bomb had been planted on the Air Dolomiti flight to Vienna on Wednesday, police in Verona said yesterday.
He was arrested and charged with causing an alarm and interrupting a public service. - (Reuters)
Official suspended for losing file
LONDON -The British government said yesterday it had suspended a senior intelligence official who left a top-secret file about Iraq and al-Qaeda on a train, as MPs called for an inquiry.
A passenger found the folder on a London commuter train and handed it over to the BBC, which said it contained documents on Iraq's security forces and the government's latest assessment of al-Qaeda. The papers had been in the possession of an official who worked in the cabinet office. - (Reuters)
Horn of Africa states in clashes
DJIBOUTI/ASMARA -Border clashes between Eritrea and Djibouti killed nine Djiboutian soldiers and wounded 60 in the first fighting in a decade between the Horn of Africa nations, an official said yesterday.
Officials said the fighting stopped late on Wednesday.
Eritrean and Djiboutian troops had exchanged fire since Tuesday along a part of their border overlooking strategic Red Sea shipping lanes. - (Reuters)
Talks resume on Macedonia's name
UNITED NATIONS -Greece and Macedonia resumed UN-mediated negotiations yesterday over the former Yugoslav state's name but made no immediate breakthrough in an issue that has halted Skopje's bid to join Nato.
The dispute dates to 1991, when Yugoslavia disintegrated.
Greece objects to the name Macedonia because it is also the name of its northernmost province. -(Reuters)
Partner of bomb plotter jailed
LONDON -The partner of a man who tried to carry out a suicide bombing in London in July 2005 was jailed for 15 years yesterday after she was convicted of not telling authorities about the plot and helping him escape.
Yeshiemebet Girma (32) was the partner of Hussein Osman, one of four men who unsuccessfully tried to blow up three underground trains and a bus to replicate attacks a fortnight earlier in which suicide bombers killed 52 commuters. - (Reuters)