Other news from around the world
EU ministers discuss plan to boost defence
DEAUVILLE, France - EU ministers met yesterday to discuss a French drive to boost EU defence that Paris has made a condition for its full reintegration into Nato.
Defence ministers from the 27 EU states were to discuss ways to strengthen EU capabilities and missions in Bosnia and Chad, as well as the deployment of observers in Georgia to monitor Russian troop withdrawals.
France, holder of the rotating EU presidency, aims to focus the Deauville talks on covering shortfalls in helicopters and transport aircraft, and on naval co-operation to enable quick and effective deployments in crises. - (Reuters)
Fire in Osaka video theatre kills 15
TOKYO - A fire at a pornographic video theatre in downtown Osaka, Japan's second-biggest city, killed 15 men and injured 10 people, local police said yesterday.
Police arrested an unemployed man (46) who admitted to arson, a spokesman said, declining to give further details. "I got tired of living, so I set a fire," Kyodo news agency quoted the man as saying. - (Reuters)
Five die in school stairs collapse
MOSCOW - A staircase collapsed in a school in a provincial Russian town yesterday, killing at least five children and injuring at least four others.
"Eleven children have been taken out of the rubble, five of them are dead, four are injured and 800 people were evacuated," an emergency services ministry spokeswoman in the southeastern Urals region of Orenburg said. - (Reuters)
Cardinal Newman to lie in state
BIRMINGHAM - The remains of a Victorian cardinal are to lie in state in preparation for his expected beatification.
Thousands of Catholics are expected to pay their respects to the Ven John Henry Cardinal Newman at his lying in state on October 31st and November 1st.
The event, in the upper cloister hall at Birmingham Oratory, comes after his exhumation from a grave in Worcestershire and will be followed by a reinterment Mass on November 2nd. - (PA)
Bollywood staff go on strike
MUMBAI - More than 100,000 Bollywood and TV workers began an indefinite strike in Mumbai yesterday, protesting irregular pay and the hiring of non-union members, a move that could delay releases for India's festival season. - (Reuters)