A round-up of other international stories.
Rescuers still trying to reach trapped miners
SAGO - A mining company executive in the West Virginia town of Sago said officials were "very discouraged" by air quality tests in the mine in which 13 workers remain trapped. However, rescuers were planning to drill a third hole to try to reach the men more than 24 hours after contact was lost with them following an explosion.
Ben Hatfield, chief executive of International Coal Group Inc, said tests had shown carbon monoxide levels of 1,300 parts per million in the mine, far exceeding the 400ppm maximum safe level set by regulators. - (Reuters)
7 die in fighting in North Caucasus
MAKHACHKALA - Russian police said that at least five insurgents and two policemen were killed yesterday in an operation involving helicopter gunships and mortars in the volatile North Caucasus region. "According to preliminary information, two police officers were killed and at least five of the rebels," said an interior ministry spokesman in Dagestan. - (Reuters)
Poland's treasury minister quits
WARSAW - Polish prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz has accepted the resignation of Andrzej Mikosz, his treasury minister, who had charge of state assets and privatisation, the government press office announced yesterday. - (Reuters)
Sweden tries out congestion charge
STOCKHOLM - Day one of a congestion-charging experiment in Sweden's capital succeeded in reducing traffic yesterday, when the number of vehicles entering the city centre dropped by about a sixth.
A maximum charge of 60 crowns a day will be levied on drivers during the trial period, which will last until July. Stockholm residents will vote in September on whether to make congestion-charging permanent. - (Reuters)
Father of slain MP to fight election
BEIRUT - The father of murdered anti-Syrian Lebanese journalist and MP Gibran Tueni said yesterday that he would stand for his son's seat in next month's by-elections, the official National News Agency reported.
Ghassan Tueni, a journalist and former senior diplomat and cabinet minister, said he had decided to run for parliament and wanted to fulfil his son's pledges to voters, he was quoted as saying. The by-elections are set to take place on February 5th. - (Reuters)
Camel farming plan for refugees
OSLO - Camel farming could help to create jobs for some African refugees in chilly Norway, producing everything from milk to skins, a refugee agency official said yesterday.
Wenche Stenseth, head of the refugee section at Loeten in southern Norway, said the local authority had applied for one million crowns from the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration for a feasibility study of a camel farm which might start with 10 to 20 of the animals.
About 100 refugees, including people from Somalia and Sudan, live in Loeten, a village about 120km north of Oslo. - (Reuters)
Chavez, Morales cement alliance
CARACAS - Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and Bolivian president-elect Evo Morales met yesterday to consolidate ties between their two countries and restate their united opposition to Washington.
Mr Morales, a former coca leaf farmer, and Mr Chavez have antagonised the Bush administration by their promotion of left-wing integration as an alternative to US free-market policies in Latin America. - (Reuters)