Today's other world news in brief.
More than 60 Taliban, onesoldier killed
AFGHANISTAN:A day- long battle near a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan's poppy-growing belt killed more than 60 Taliban fighters and one soldier from the US-led coalition yesterday, military officials said. Several dozen insurgents attacked a joint coalition-Afghan patrol near the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, the US-led coalition said. - (PA)
Suspect militant trainer deported
PRAGUE:The Czech Republic has extradited a Swedish-Lebanese national suspected of running a militant training camp to the United States, the justice ministry said yesterday.
The suspect, Oussama Abdullah Kassir, is wanted by a federal court in New York state for allegedly setting up the camp in Bly, Oregon, and for running websites showing how to assemble bombs. - (Reuters)
Soldiers kill six in Uganda oil row
KINSHASA:Six people were killed when Ugandan soldiers opened fire after stopping a Congolese boat on Lake Albert, a UN spokesman in Democratic Republic of Congo said yesterday, citing witnesses.
Earlier, Uganda's military had reported two soldiers killed on Monday, one from each country, in an incident on the border lake during a dispute over an oil exploration vessel.
The two countries share the lake, which has become an important frontier in the search for oil.
In a sharply conflicting version of the incident, a spokesman for the UN mission in Congo quoted witnesses as saying the shooting occurred when two Congolese soldiers aboard a Congolese civilian boat - not the oil exploration vessel - refused orders from Ugandan troops to hand over weapons. - (Reuters)
Dutch EU treaty will not be ratified
AMSTERDAM:The Dutch Labour party decided against holding a referendum on the new EU treaty yesterday, dashing the hopes of opposition parties seeking enough parliamentary support to force a public vote.
The Dutch government of prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende's Christian Democrats, Labour and Christian Union, decided on Friday it would ratify the proposed EU reform treaty without a referendum as the treaty lacks constitutional elements. - (Reuters)
Japan approves new PM
TOKYO:Yasuo Fukuda was yesterday approved as Japan's prime minister and immediately pledged to improve his party's fortunes amid calls for an early general election.
Mr Fukuda, a former chief cabinet secretary from the moderate wing of the Liberal Democratic party, easily won the vote, held among lower house MPs, to replace Shinzo Abe, who resigned in September. - (Guardian service)
Tyson faces jail over cocaine find
PHOENIX:Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson is facing up to four years in jail after admitting cocaine possession and driving under the influence.
Tyson (41) was arrested when stopped by police after leaving a nightclub in Phoenix, Arizona, in December last year. - (AP)