A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Greece denies abduction of immigrants
ATHENS - Greece has strongly denied claims that four Pakistani immigrants were abducted and interrogated by British agents after the July 7th London bombings.
"I want to categorically deny the likelihood of such an event . . . this was a hoax or some kind of provocation," public order minister Giorgos Voulgarakis said yesterday.
Athens lawyer Frangiskos Ragoussis submitted a report to parliament on the alleged mid-July abductions - seven in Athens and 20 near the northern city of Ioannina. - (AP)
Bird flu spreading in Ukraine villages
KIEV- Bird flu, including the H5N1 strain dangerous to humans, has spread to new villages in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, according to officials.
The prime minister, Yuri Yekhanurov, said yesterday he hoped emergency measures invoked to contain the outbreak in the peninsula jutting into the Black Sea could be repealed by the start of the new year. - (Reuters)
Mother sued for taking child's pets
BERLIN - A 19-year-old German woman has sued her mother after she confiscated her two guinea pigs, a dog and a litter of puppies and donated them to an animal home, authorities said yesterday.
The woman had taken to locking the creatures in her room after the recent birth of the puppies angered the mother, but she returned at the weekend to find them gone, according to police in Aachen. - (Reuters)
Serbian judge on corruption charge
BELGRADE - A Serbian prosecutor has formally charged a Supreme Court judge with corruption, for allegedly taking bribes from a criminal gang.
The prosecutor for organised crime laid formal charges against Judge Ljubomir Vuckovic, deputy special prosecutor Milan Radovanovic and seven more people belonging to or with ties to a leading Serbian criminal gang.
Judge Vuckovic was charged with taking hundreds of thousands of euros in bribe money and with mediating the offering and taking of bribes. - (AP)
German politician new Bosnia envoy
SARAJEVO - A former German cabinet minister, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, has been appointed to replace British diplomat Paddy Ashdown as the peace overseer in Bosnia, an official statement said yesterday. - (Reuters)
UN troops in Eritrea redeployed
NEW YORK - The United Nations has decided pull out North American and European peacekeepers from Eritrea and move them to Ethiopia as the Asmara government demanded, officials and diplomats said yesterday.
The UN security council, in an informal session, agreed with UN officials to redeploy about 180 military observers and civilians from the United States, Canada, western Europe and Russia from the northeast African country. - (Reuters)