A round-up of today's other stories in brief
12 killed by roadside bombs in Iraq
BAGHDAD - Roadside bombs killed a dozen people in Iraq yesterday, while US-led forces launched the latest phase of an offensive against insurgents near the Syrian border.
In the worst attacks, three people who appeared to be Westerners were killed by a roadside bomb near the heavily fortified "green zone" in central Baghdad. Police said they were Americans, but that could not be independently confirmed.
Six civilians died when a similar device hit two passenger coaches in Ramadi, a violent city west of the Iraqi capital. - (Reuters)
Taliban kill four in Afghanistan
KABUL - Taliban fighters killed a German peacekeeper and three Afghans in two suicide car-bomb attacks while British troops opened fire to repel a threat to their camp in the Afghan capital yesterday, officials and witnesses said.
The explosions came close to an hour apart on the same stretch of road east of Kabul. On each occasion the attackers rammed a car into a vehicle belonging to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force. - (Reuters)
15 found guilty of terrorist plot
TASHKENT - Uzbekistan's highest court yesterday found 15 men guilty of an Islamist terrorist plot in the town of Andizhan, after what a human rights campaigner called a show trial to cover up the massacre of civilians.
The court sentenced the men to between 14 and 20 years in prison for their role in the unrest in May in which, witnesses said, hundreds died. - (Reuters)
Ugandan politician on treason charge
KAMPALA - Prosecutors arrested the man expected to be President Yoweri Museveni's main challenger in Uganda's first multiparty polls in 19 years, charging him yesterday with treason and trying to topple the government.
Kizza Besigye was detained less than three weeks after he returned to Uganda to a tumultuous welcome after four years of exile in South Africa. - (Reuters)
Plan to restrict house purchase
KENSINGTON - Only locals already living in one of the most expensive and exclusive boroughs in the UK should be allowed buy new housing in the area, it was proposed yesterday.
Under the plans, now open to public consultation, the offspring of families living in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London would be able to buy affordable private sector property near their parents.
It would also prevent wealthy international business tycoons and those rich enough to be able to buy a second home from snapping up all the property in the affluent area. - (PA)