In Short

A round-up of other world news in brief

Nine missing after air crash off California 

SAN DIEGO – Rescue teams searched waters off the southern California coast yesterday for nine people missing after the mid-air crash of a US Coast Guard aircraft and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.

The Coast Guard held out hopes for finding survivors. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the crash had “likely taken the lives” of nine people. – (Reuters)

Turkey's Kurdish initiative praised 

ARBIL – Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani yesterday praised Turkish steps to address a decades-old Kurdish conflict and called for an end to ethnic violence during a visit by Turkey’s foreign minister.

Prime minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party has launched an initiative expected to give greater freedom to the 12 million Kurds in Turkey’s southeast.

Late model's boyfriend for trial 

LOS ANGELES – A judge today ordered Anna Nicole Smith’s boyfriend and two doctors to stand trial on charges of illegally funnelling prescription drugs to the late former Playboy model.

The ruling follows a preliminary hearing to find whether there was enough evidence to try Howard K Stern, Dr Sandeep Kapoor and Dr Khristine Eroshevich.

African states for Zimbabwe summit 

HARARE – Southern African countries are expected to hold an extraordinary summit on the political crisis in Zimbabwe, prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai said yesterday, in a bid to keep the unity government his party has formed with Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF from crumbling.