Today's other stories in brief.
Palestine referendum set for July
RAMALLAH - Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will hold a referendum on a statehood proposal that implicitly recognises Israel on July 31st, after Hamas rejected the plan, officials said yesterday.
Mr Abbas will issue a decree tomorrow formally announcing the referendum date, the officials said.
After calling the referendum earlier this week, Mr Abbas had given Hamas a few more days to reconsider its position on a manifesto penned by Palestinian prisoners in an Israeli jail. - (Reuters)
Suspected plan to attack aircraft
ZURICH - Seven people of North African origin are being held on suspicion of plotting to attack an Israeli El Al airliner in Switzerland, according to the Swiss attorney general's office.
The office gave no details of what kind of attack was planned or where it was intended to take place. It also said no explosives had been found. - (Reuters)
Belarus bans EU and US officials
MINSK - Belarus said yesterday it had barred entry to EU and US officials in retaliation for a similar ban by western countries over the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Western countries, long critical of Mr Lukashenko's tough line on dissent, dismissed as blatantly rigged his landslide victory in March, giving him a third term in office. - (Reuters)
Oil-rich countries criticised over aid
LONDON - Rich countries, particularly in the Middle East, are shirking their moral duty to contribute enough cash to tackle humanitarian emergencies, the head of the UN World Food Programme has said.
Describing it as "the scandal of our time", James Morris said 350 million children were still hungry in 2006 while the oil-rich countries of the Gulf were contributing only a fraction of what they could give in multilateral aid. - (Reuters)
Warlords advance on Somali capital
MOGADISHU - Warlords driven out of Mogadishu by an Islamist militia are advancing back towards the Somali capital from their last stronghold of Jowhar, residents said yesterday.
They said the Islamists were pulling back towards the town of Balad, which fell on Sunday and is on the road to the capital, and that Jowhar warlords had moved into positions south of the town. - (Reuters)
Bahrain woman to head UN assembly
UNITED NATIONS - The General Assembly has elected as its next president a champion of women's rights in Islamic courts, making Haya Rashed al-Khalifa of Bahrain the third woman to lead the 191-nation body.
Ms al-Khalifa takes up the presidency at the opening of the assembly's 61st session on September 12th. She succeeds Jan Eliasson, the Swedish foreign minister. - (Reuters)
Rare okapi found in Congo park
JOHANNESBURG - Conservationists say they have found conclusive proof of the existence of a rare giraffe-like creature in Congo's Virunga National Park. First discovered in what is now Virunga in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 1901, the shy forest-dwelling okapi had not been found since 1959. - (Reuters)
Israeli anger over wine labelling
STOCKHOLM - Israel's embassy in Stockholm has criticised Sweden's alcohol monopoly for describing wines produced in the Golan Heights as coming from occupied Syrian territory.
On its website and in its literature, Systembolaget labels three kosher wines produced by Israeli settlers as coming from "Israeli- occupied Syrian territory". - (Reuters)