Today's other stories in brief
Arrest ordered of Olmert colleagues
JERUSALEM - An Israeli court ordered the arrests yesterday of prime minister Ehud Olmert's executive secretary and the country's tax commissioner as police investigated suspicions of involvement in payoffs in exchange for tax breaks.
The investigation of more than a dozen prominent Israelis cast a fresh shadow on Mr Olmert's government, already beset by other investigations and wide public dissatisfaction with his handling of a recent war in Lebanon.
Mr Olmert himself was not questioned nor accused of any personal involvement in the inquiry, but it drew new criticism of the functioning of his administration. - (Reuters)
Ethiopia to stay in Somalia for weeks
MOGADISHU - Ethiopia said yesterday its troops will stay for another few weeks in Somalia to help the government pacify the Horn of Africa nation, but the Islamists they ousted in a brief war vowed to "rise from the ashes".
The Islamists, who fled their last stronghold on Monday after a two-week conflict, said they refused a government offer to surrender and reports of a deadly ambush against Ethiopian forces showed that the fighting may be far from over. - (Reuters)
First day for UN head Ban Ki-Moon
UNITED NATIONS - UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon started his first day on the job yesterday by promising immediate attention to the crisis in Darfur, but backing off from the usual UN opposition to capital punishment.
Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister succeeding Kofi Annan of Ghana, was greeted by a UN honour guard and then went to a UN meditation chapel to honour fallen peacekeepers. When asked about his attitude to the execution of Saddam Hussein he said: "The issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide" in conformity with international law.
- (Reuters)
Spanish peace process 'broken'
MADRID - Spain's government said yesterday that a car bombing at Madrid airport blamed on Basque separatists Eta has ended the country's peace process.
Officials, however, believe that a weakened Eta is incapable of a sustained bombing campaign.
"Eta has broken, has liquidated, has finished the process," interior minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said. - ( Reuters)
British tourist lynched in India
NEW DELHI - A British tourist in India was lynched by a mob who believed he was harassing a local woman for sex, Indian police said yesterday. Stephen Bennett (40) was beaten to death by a gang of men led by the woman's husband, a senior police officer said.
The alleged killers then hanged him from a mango tree with a torn piece of sari fabric in an attempt to make the killing look like a suicide, according to Madhukar Talpade, superintendent of police for the district. - ( Guardian service)