A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Fatah gunmen storm Gaza election offices
GAZA - Palestinian gunmen from President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah party stormed election offices and battled police in the Gaza Strip yesterday in a flare-up of violence that could disrupt next month's parliamentary ballot.
The violence prompted the central elections committee to close all its offices in the West Bank and Gaza. Employees would not return to work until the Interior Ministry provided them with security, the Palestinian official news agency reported. - (Reuters)
ElBaradei warns on nuclear spread
UPPSALA - Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei has warned that the world could have up to 30 nuclear weapon states within the next 10 or 20 years if global non- proliferation and disarmament efforts were not improved.
Dr ElBaradei told an audience at Uppsala University yesterday that the world faced "a fundamental choice".
"Either we continue to rely on nuclear weapons, and face the reality that in the next 10-20 years, 20 or 30 countries will have nuclear weapons, or each country must cease its nuclear weapons programme and destroy existing nuclear arsenals." - (AP)
Gerald Ford taken to hospital
SAN FRANCISCO - Former US president Gerald Ford (92) has been taken to hospital for tests, his spokeswoman said in a statement yesterday.
"President Ford was admitted to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California. He is undergoing medical tests and will be released when they have been completed," her statement said.
Mr Ford suffered a mild stroke in August 2000 and was in hospital briefly in 2003 after suffering dizzy spells while playing golf in the desert heat near Palm Springs. - (Reuters)
Jaruzelski may face charges
WARSAW - Polish prosecutors say they are preparing charges against the nation's last communist leader, Gen Wojciech Jaruzelski, for his imposition of martial law, as Poles marked the 24th anniversary of the clampdown.
Prosecutors argue that Gen Jaruzelski violated Poland's constitution when he imposed martial law in 1981, said Ewa Koj, a prosecutor with the National Remembrance Institute, which pursues communist- era crimes. - (AP)
'Borat's' Kazakh website shut down
ALMATY - The authorities in Kazakhstan, angered by a British comedian's satirical portrayal of a boorish, sexist and racist Kazakh television reporter, have pulled the plug on his alter-ego's website.
Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat in his Da Ali G Show and last month he used the character's website www.borat.kz to respond sarcastically to legal threats from the foreign ministry of the central Asian state. - (Reuters)