A roundup of today's other world news in brief
Demand from Taliban for prisoner swap
KABUL– The Taliban demanded yesterday the release of prisoners in exchange for two kidnapped French journalists, and issued a video in which the reporters say their captors will kill them unless the terms are met.
The journalists, Stéphane Taponnier and Hervé Ghesquière from France 3 television, were captured in mainly French-patrolled Kapisa province, northeast of the capital, Kabul, in December along with their Afghan driver and translator.
In a statement on a website, the Taliban said they sent the Afghan government a list of detainees whose release they demanded in exchange for the French prisoners. – (Reuters)
Somali fighting and bombs kill 19
MOGADISHU– At least 13 civilians were killed in fighting between Somali government forces and hardline Islamist militants in Mogadishu yesterday while bomb blasts killed six people, rescue services and the police said.
The insurgents fired mortars at the city’s airport from their stronghold in the crowded Bakara market, triggering return shellfire from African Union peacekeepers.
Somalia’s fragile government controls just a few blocks in the capital and rebels control large swathes of southern and central Somalia. – (Reuters)
Ukraine to get rid of uranium stocks
WASHINGTON– Ukraine will get rid of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 2012, the White House said yesterday in the first tangible result from a 47-nation summit aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Ukraine intended to remove a “substantial part of its stocks” this year and would convert its civil nuclear research facilities to operate with low enriched uranium fuel. The move is designed to make it harder for terrorists to get hold of fissile material that could be used in an atomic bomb. – (Reuters)