Other world stories in brief
French unions launch week of strikes
PARIS - France faces a week of disruption from transport and public sector strikes as unions wage a number of separate campaigns against President Nicolas Sarkozy's labour reforms.
Hundreds of domestic and international flights were cancelled for a third day yesterday as Air France pilots pursued a four-day strike, due to end late today.
Travel chaos could spread to the railways tomorrow when train drivers stage the first of two strikes called by separate unions within days of each other over freight sector reforms. On Thursday, demonstrations by teachers over budget cuts threaten school closures and on Saturday, postal workers say they will strike for a day over partial privatisation plans.
- (Reuters)
Jewish settlers ordered to leave
JERUSALEM - Israel's High Court yesterday gave Jewish settlers three days to vacate a building they have been occupying for the past 19 months in the West Bank city of Hebron or face eviction.
Jewish settler leaders called on prime minister Ehud Olmert to meet them and delay implementing the ruling. About 150 settlers, some of them armed, moved into the building, along a seam line with Palestinian neighbourhoods, in March 2007, saying they had purchased it from its Palestinian owner. - (Reuters)
'On The Buses' actor dies
LONDON - Actor Reg Varney, who starred in the 1970s television comedy On The Buses, died yesterday at the age of 92, the BBC reported. Varney's first television appearances were in the BBC comedy show The Rag Trade in 1961. - (Reuters)