A roundup of today's other stories in brief
N Korea says hundreds died in floods
TOKYO - North Korea admitted yesterday that hundreds of people are dead or missing after torrential rains swept the country, but international aid agencies say they are struggling to gauge the level of fatalities.
The official Korean Central News Agency reported that floods had also destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of buildings. It was the secretive regime's first public acknowledgement that people had died.
Meanwhile the death toll in China from tropical storm Bilis rose to 482. - (Guardian service, Reuters)
Three held over Mumbai bombs
MUMBAI - India arrested three men in connection with last week's Mumbai bombings that killed more than 180 men, and urged Pakistan yesterday to hand over a top Kashmiri militant as a gesture of its determination to fight terrorism.
The three men, all Indian Muslims, were arrested on suspicion of being involved in the July 11th attacks on packed commuter trains and stations in India's financial hub, a police official said. - (Reuters)
Italy lifts controls on EU workers
ROME - Italy lifted restrictions yesterday on workers from eight new EU member states in eastern Europe, a move the European Commission said brings to 18 the number of EU states with free movement of labour.
Italy's centre-left government said that as well as creating a new quota of 350,000 non-EU workers who would be allowed to legalise their position in Italy, it would end restrictions on eastern Europeans. - (Reuters)
Liberia's ex-leader in Hague court
NETHERLANDS - Former Liberian president Charles Taylor appeared in a Hague courtroom today for a hearing aimed at paving the way for his war crimes trial. Taylor faces 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly overseeing the murder, rape and mutilation of thousands of people during Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war. - (Reuters)
Kurd separatists killed in clashes
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - Five Kurdistan Workers Party members were killed in clashes with Turkish troops yesterday, a day after a soldier was killed when his helicopter came under fire, security officials said. - (Reuters)
Bishops warn over Congo elections
KINSHASA - Congo's influential Catholic Church warned the country's electoral authorities yesterday that all of the necessary conditions did not yet exist to hold free and fair elections later this month.
Bishops issued the warning nine days before Congo was due to hold historic presidential and parliamentary elections, the first free polls in 40 years. - (Reuters)
Landmark lesbian case couple split
BOSTON - The lesbian couple whose landmark lawsuit helped Massachusetts become the only state in the US where same-sex couples can marry legally have split up, a spokeswoman said yesterday. - (Reuters)