Today's other stories in brief
Miners may be reached in two days
WASHINGTON - The six miners trapped 475 metres (1,500ft) underground in a collapsed mine in Utah should be reached in two days with holes drilled to provide air, mine co-owner Robert Murray said yesterday.
Mr Murray said they were preparing to resume clearing a path to the trapped miners now that it appeared dangerous "seismic activity" reported in the area on Tuesday had stopped. - ( Reuters)
Bush, Sarkozy to meet on Saturday
WASHINGTON - President George Bush will meet French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday at his family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, the White House said yesterday.
Mr Sarkozy has been on vacation in nearby New Hampshire. - (Reuters)
Youth held over Harry Potter book
PARIS - Police arrested a teenager suspected of posting his own translation of the latest Harry Potter novel on the internet weeks before the official French release, the book's publishers said yesterday.
The 16-year-old schoolboy, from the Aix-en-Provence region in southern France, was taken into custody by a police anti-counterfeiting unit and later released, said a spokeswoman for the Gallimard publishing house. - ( Reuters)
Politician urges banning of Koran
AMSTERDAM - Dutch anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders has called for the Koran to be banned in the Netherlands, branding it a "fascist book" in the vein of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf which legitimises violence.
Dutch prosecutors said they would look into whether Mr Wilders's statements were grounds for charges of discrimination and inciting hatred, which could carry a sentence of a year in prison or a fine of up to €6,700.- ( Reuters)
Cuba may pull out of boxing contest
HAVANA - Cuba is considering pulling out of the amateur World Boxing Championships in Chicago in October to avoid new defections by its boxers, Cuban leader Fidel Castro (80) said yesterday.
"Imagine all the sharks of the Mafia wanting fresh meat," Mr Castro wrote in a column published on the front page of the Communist Party newspaper Granma.
"I must tell them: we are not keen on delivering it to their doorstep," he said. - ( Reuters)
East Timor's PM is sworn in
DILI - Independence hero and former president Xanana Gusmao was sworn in as East Timor's prime minister yesterday as simmering violence continued in some districts loyal to the former ruling party, Fretilin. - (Reuters)