A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Protesters back leftist candidate
MEXICO CITY - Up to 200,000 protesters poured on to the streets of Mexico's capital yesterday to back leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's claim that he lost the July 2nd presidential election because of fraud.
Chanting "You are not alone," large crowds marched with runner-up Lopez Obrador past hotels and skyscrapers toward the Zocalo square, once center of the Aztec empire and now the heart of modern Mexico. - (Reuters)
Hopes of finding Mumbai bombers
MUMBAI - The Mumbai bombers could be identified within a week, investigating officials said yesterday, after police carried out scores of raids in the western Indian city overnight.
Leaving for St Petersburg for the G8 summit, prime minister Manmohan Singh had a clear agenda: the world community must declare "zero tolerance for terrorism anywhere". - (Reuters )
Talks to end Sudan hostilities
JUBA, Sudan - Ugandan negotiators at talks to end one of Africa's longest wars demanded yesterday that Lord's Resistance Army rebels disarm and hand over all their weapons in order to receive amnesty.
Tentative talks to end the guerrillas' brutal two-decade insurgency began in earnest yesterday, mediated by the government of neighbouring southern Sudan. - (Reuters)
Astronauts prepare for return
HOUSTON - With the last potential snags to landing cleared yesterday, the astronauts on space shuttle Discovery hoped for good weather so they could cap a comeback mission for Nasa with a smooth Florida touchdown.
The shuttle was scheduled to land today at 9:14 a.m. EDT (1314 GMT) at Kennedy Space Center if the weather co- operates. - (Reuters)
97 killed in Chinese floods
BEIJING - Torrential rainstorms and flooding unleashed by Typhoon Bilis killed at least 97 people across southeast China, government media said yesterday.
Hardest hit was the inland province of Hunan, where 78 people died and 110 were missing after the swirling waters swept away more than 30,000 homes, state television reported. - (Reuters)
House explosion victim dies
NEW YORK - A Manhattan doctor suspected of blowing up his townhouse last week in an apparent suicide bid connected to a nasty divorce has died of injuries suffered in the blast, hospital officials said yesterday.
Dr Nicholas Bartha, who was alone in the four-storey townhouse on East 62nd Street when the explosion levelled it on Monday, was rescued from the rubble but had been in hospital with severe burns and had been on a respirator, so he was never questioned by police. - (Reuters)
Sinatra pianist dies aged 91
SAN FRANCISCO - Bill Miller, the pianist who accompanied Frank Sinatra for more than 40 years and played on many of his greatest records, has died at age 91.
Miller had been hospitalised in Montreal, where he had been performing with Frank Sinatra jnr, after breaking a hip and then suffering a heart attack. He died on Tuesday. - (Reuters)
Three killed in airplane crash
ROME - A single-engine plane headed to Germany crashed shortly after take-off from the Italian island of Elba yesterday, killing three people and seriously injuring two others aboard, an airport official said. - (Reuters)