Today's other stories in brief
Villagers flee as Greek fires blaze
As emergency services used planes and helicopters to bring two large fires near Athens under control yesterday, strong winds fanned a new blaze near the village of Markopoulo, some 40km (25 miles) from the city of five million people.
Municipal authorities evacuated about 50 villagers as flames entered the village, while many others left behind their homes and possessions to flee.
Record temperatures last year sparked a 10-day inferno across southern Greece which killed 65 people and triggered a state of emergency in the country.
66% disapproval for Kaczynski
WARSAW - Support for Polish president Lech Kaczynski has hit its lowest level since he took office in 2005, an opinion poll has shown.
Almost two thirds of Poles disapprove of Mr Kaczynski's work - up from 53 per cent last month - and only a quarter are satisfied, said the survey, conducted by pollster CBOS.
Mr Kaczynski, a conservative and Eurosceptic, beat current prime minister Donald Tusk in a 2005 presidential election. The next election is due in 2010.
Mr Tusk's centre-right, pro- EU government has seen its support rise to more than 50 per cent in recent months.
Analysts say Mr Kaczynski is seen by many Poles as more focused on helping his twin brother Jaroslaw's main opposition Law and Justice Party than promoting the country's interests.
Mars 'was covered in lakes, rivers'
WASHINGTON - Minerals in the soil of Mars show it was covered once by lakes, rivers and other bodies of water that could have supported life, US researchers have reported.
Last month the Mars Phoenix Lander found ice on the surface of the planet, but it is frozen hard and covered by red dust. In the journal Nature, a team of scientists wrote that the ice was left over from warmer, wetter times.
John Mustard of Brown University in Rhode Island said: "This is really exciting because we're finding dozens of sites where future missions can land to understand if Mars was ever habitable and if so, to look for signs of past life." - (Reuters)
Entering rehab
LONDON - Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood has entered rehab for a drinking problem, his spokeswoman said yesterday.
"Following Ronnies continued battle with alcohol he has entered a period of rehab," Wood's spokeswoman said.
The announcement followed British newspaper reports that Wood (61), had been spending time at his Irish retreat with a Russian cocktail waitress. - (Reuters)
Italy may fingerprint all citizens
ROME - Italy may demand that all its citizens be fingerprinted in a bid to defuse widespread criticism of government plans to force Roma people and their children to provide fingerprints as a way of tackling criminality.
That policy has been condemned by the European Parliament, by Romania, where many Roma come from, and by religious groups who have compared it to the tagging of Jews by Nazis and fascists in the 1930s. A parliamentary committee agreed yesterday that from 2010 all identity cards, which Italians already have to carry, should include the bearer's fingerprints. The measure still has to pass through parliament.
"It will defuse the Roma question, they [fingerprints] will be taken from everyone," opposition deputy Antonio Misani was quoted as saying.
- (Reuters)