A round-up of today's other world news stories in brief.
Confusion over fate of missing envoy
NIAMEY - Confusion surrounded the fate of a missing Canadian UN special envoy in Niger yesterday after a dissident Tuareg rebel faction in the west African state first said it was holding him and then denied it.
The contradictory statements about UN envoy Robert Fowler were posted on the website of the Front of Forces for Rectification (FFR), a faction that split from the main Niger Tuareg-led rebel group MNJ (Niger Justice Movement) in May.
UN officials said on Monday that the vehicle in which Mr Fowler, his Canadian aide Louis Guay and a local driver were travelling was found abandoned on Sunday evening 45km (30 miles) northeast of the capital Niamey. The engine of the UN vehicle was still running, they said. - (Reuters)
Greek PM vows end to corruption
ATHENS - Greek prime minister Costas Karamanlis pledged yesterday to tackle corruption after 11 days of violence triggered by the police killing of a teenager and fuelled by public anger at scandals and a slowing economy. - (Reuters)
Workers buried under rubble
MADRID - At least four workers were buried under tonnes of rubble when a hotel on the Spanish island of Mallorca partially collapsed yesterday following torrential rain, local officials said.
Rescue teams sifted through the ruins of what had been the top four floors of Hotel Son Moll - a nine-storey beachside tower in Cala Rajada on the eastern tip of the Mediterranean island popular with German tourists. Reports that one worker had died were not confirmed. - (Reuters)
Explosives found in Paris shop
PARIS - Explosives were found in a central Paris store yesterday following a tip-off from a group demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan, a spokesman at the Paris prosecutors office said.
The group named itself the Afghan Revolutionary Front, which is not known to the police, the spokesman said.
The five sticks of explosives did not have detonators attached and the spokesman said French anti-terrorist police thought the devices may have been placed as a warning. - (Reuters)
First US face transplant
CHICAGO - A team of US doctors have performed the first near-total face transplant in the United States, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio said yesterday.
The reconstructive surgeon in charge of the operation, Dr Maria Siemionow, replaced 80 per cent of a woman's face with that of a dead female donor.
The patient's name and age have not been released. The hospital will hold a news conference today. - (Reuters)
Property seized in bombing case
BUENOS AIRES - An Argentine judge yesterday seized a property belonging to a former Iranian diplomat in Buenos Aires who is sought on charges related to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre.
The judicial order stems from a lawsuit for damages from a survivor of the bombing, prosecutor Alberto Nisman said. - (Reuters)
Birthday surprise proves fatal
TOKYO - A 60-year-old man who was thrown into the air in celebration at his retirement party died after his colleagues failed to catch him and he fell to the floor, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday.
The case came to light after the man's wife filed a police complaint against colleagues who threw the man up into the air, accusing them of gross negligence, the Mainichi paper reported on its website. - (Reuters)