A roundup of today's other world news in brief:
Five killed in light aircraft collision
LONDON- Five people were killed when two light aircraft collided in mid-air near Coventry yesterday.
One aircraft came down in Brandon Woods, killing four people at the scene, while a second crashed about a mile away in farmland between Brinklow and Coventry, leaving the single occupant dead.
Coventry Airport was closed following the collision.
- (Reuters)
Suicide attack claims 15 lives
BAGHDAD- A suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck a checkpoint in Baghdad manned by US-backed neighbourhood guards yesterday, killing 15 people and wounding 29.
Among those killed in the attack in the mainly Sunni Arab Adhamiya district of northern Baghdad was a leader of the neighbourhood guards in the area, Faruq Abu Omar.
-(Reuters)
Two explosions in Spanish resort
MADRID- Two small devices exploded near the Spanish resort of Malaga yesterday, but authorities said that nobody was hurt by the blasts after receiving a bomb warning.
Police had to clear a packed beach in Malaga before the first explosion at around 1pm and later had to move what Spanish media said were thousands of people from a marina in the nearby town of Benalmadena before the second blast at 3pm.
A bomb squad later defused a third device found next to a bridge linking Malaga with its international airport.
- (Reuters)
Three die as bridge collapses
JAKARTA- A bridge used by pedestrians on Indonesia's Sumatra island collapsed yesterday, killing three people and injuring more than 50.
Nine of the injured were seriously hurt after the bridge gave way in Jorong Calau in Siljungjung regency in West Sumatra, said Rustam Pakaya, the head of the health ministry's crisis centre.
- (Reuters)
US dismisses Russia threat
WASHINGTON- Pentagon chief Robert Gates dismissed as "empty rhetoric" Russian warnings that Moscow would target Poland for a possible military strike because Warsaw agreed to host part of a US missile shield.
"Russia is not going to launch nuclear missiles at anybody," Mr Gates said. "The Poles know that. We know it." Col-General Anatoliy Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian general staff, said on Friday that Russian military doctrine would allow for a possible nuclear strike, after Warsaw agreed to deploy 10 interceptors at a site in Poland as part of the shield.
Iran rocket puts satellite in orbit
TEHRAN- Iran said it put a dummy satellite into orbit on a home-built rocket for the first time yesterday, a move likely to increase western concerns about its nuclear ambitions.
The ballistic technology used to put satellites into space can also be used for launching weapons, although Iran says it has no plans to do so.
- (Reuters)
Storm Fay moves towards Florida
HAVANA- Tropical Storm Fay churned along Cuba's southeastern coast yesterday with 80km/h winds and was expected to hit land overnight before heading toward Florida as a likely hurricane.
The storm was just off Cuba's lightly populated Cabo Cruz, which juts out into the Caribbean Sea, and moving northwest at 20km/h.
Fay, which killed at least five people when it struck Haiti and the Dominican Republic, was crossing over warm waters and expected to strengthen before going ashore in Cuba.
- (Reuters)