In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

Kosovo makes its pitch for independence

VIENNA - Kosovo formally made its pitch for independence face-to-face

with Serbia yesterday at their first top-level talks since Nato bombs drove Serb forces from

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the province in 1999.

The one-day meeting in Vienna placed the Albanian majority's demand for independence on the agenda of a UN-led mediation process that began in February, seven years since the West intervened to halt a wave of ethnic cleansing. - (Reuters)

Fears for stricken cargo ship's crew

ANCHORAGE - The US Coast Guard is trying to rescue a crew of 23 people aboard a cargo ship taking on water and listing severely in the north Pacific Ocean. The Singapore- based Cougar Ace, a container ship carrying cars, called for help late on Sunday night, the US Coast Guard said. - (Reuters)

Gadafy plan for nuclear bomb

TRIPOLI - Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy, whose country abandoned weapons of mass destruction programmes in 2003, said that at one stage Libya had come close to building a nuclear bomb, the Libyan news agency reported yesterday.

It was the first time any Libyan official has confirmed that the north African country of more than five million people had been trying to build a nuclear bomb. - (Reuters)

Court clears al-Qaeda suspect

MADRID - A Spanish man held in Guantánamo Bay and then jailed for six years in Spain for membership of al-Qaeda was cleared by Spain's Supreme Court yesterday on grounds of a lack of evidence.

The court ordered the immediate release of Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmad after he spent two years at the Guantánamo US naval base in Cuba before being handed over to Spain in 2005 and being convicted there. - (Reuters)

No cowboy outfit to spur on Prescott

LONDON - British deputy prime minister John Prescott, under fire over his links with an American billionaire who wants to open a casino in London, turned down a gift of a full cowboy outfit.

Entertainment mogul Philip Anschutz gave Mr Prescott a stetson, boots, spurs, belt, a buckle and a leather-bound notebook, according to a list of ministerial presents published yesterday.

Mr Prescott has said he wore the outfit when visiting Mr Anschutz's ranch last year. - (Reuters)