A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
40 killed in wedding bus inferno
LAHORE - A firecracker set a wedding bus filled with guests on fire in eastern Pakistan yesterday, killing at least 40 people and injuring 12 others, police said.
The firecracker exploded under the vehicle's fuel tank, setting it and a large amount of fireworks inside on fire in central Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, said Amir Zulfikar, a senior police officer.
Forty bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the bus, he said. At least 12 others were injured. More than 70 people were believed to have been on the crowded bus. - (AP)
Earthquake jolts Papua New Guinea
SYDNEY - An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 jolted an area off the coast of Papua New Guinea yesterday, the US Geological Survey said.
The survey's website said the quake was located in the New Britain area of the country, which lies north of Australia and east of Indonesia.
Geophysicist Don Blakeman at the survey's national earthquake information centre in Golden, Colorado, said the earthquake occurred "in the crust of the ocean, not on land".
There were no reports of damage or tsunami warnings. - (Reuters)
Clarke warns new Tory leader
LONDON - Defeated Tory leadership contender Ken Clarke yesterday warned David Cameron risked becoming the most extreme eurosceptic ever to lead the Tories.
The europhile ex-chancellor urged the new Tory leader to drop his "head-banging" plan to cut the party's links with the European Parliament's main centre-right group.
He said "waltzing off" looking for new "ultra-nationalist" allies would be a disastrous way for Mr Cameron to announce himself on the world stage.
Mr Cameron has sparked anger with his plans to withdraw the Tories from the euro-integrationist European People's Party (EPP). - (PA)
Anti-Vietnam War campaigner dies
WASHINGTON - Former US senator Eugene McCarthy, whose 1968 anti-Vietnam War presidential candidacy helped drive President Lyndon Johnson from office, died on Saturday, his son said.
McCarthy (89), a Democrat during his years as a senator from Minnesota, had suffered from Parkinson's disease. He fell ill on Friday night and died from complications on Saturday morning, said his son Michael McCarthy. - (Reuters)