A round-up of today's other news in brief
Three die as heavy rains hit Balkans
SARAJEVO – Heavy rain in the Balkans has killed three people, forced the evacuation of around 20,000 from inundated areas and caused more than €340 million in damage, officials said yesterday.
Three family members were killed when a landslide hit their house in the northeastern Bosnian town of Tuzla on Sunday. A total of 4,000 people have been evacuated in Bosnia. Flooding in Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia appears to have caused more damage than high waters in January, straining budgets already under pressure from the economic crisis. However, hydro-electric power plants were producing at top capacity. – (Reuters)
Ivory Coast posts offered to rivals
ABIDJAN – Alassane Quattara, claimant to the Ivory Coast’s presidency, offered government posts yesterday to members of his rival Laurent Gbagbo’s cabinet, if Mr Gbagbo stepped down. It was the latest manoeuvre in a power struggle that has enveloped the West African state since an election that yielded two winners – Mr Ouattara with international backing, and Mr Gbagbo with the support of the nation’s top legal body and the military.
“If Laurent Gbagbo agrees to leave power quietly, the ministers from his party would be welcome in the government we plan to lead,” Guillaume Soro, Ivory Coast’s premier, who has pledged to serve Mr Ouattara, told French radio. – ( Reuters)
Dog bite causes emergency landing
NEW YORK – A small dog jumped out of its cage and bit a passenger and a flight attendant on a Phoenix-bound US Airways plane yesterday, forcing the captain to make an emergency landing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The dog’s owner opened the cage despite being told not to, said Valerie Wunder, a spokeswoman for US Airways.
The captain of Flight 522 from Newark to Phoenix, carrying 122 passengers, decided to divert the plane because he “wanted to make sure everybody was okay,” Ms Wunder said, adding she did not know whether charges would be brought against the owner. – (Reuters)