A roundup of today's other world news in brief:
US to transfer $150m to Palestinians
RAMALLAH- The United States agreed yesterday to transfer $150 million in budgetary support to the Palestinian Authority as part of past pledges to boost President Mahmoud Abbas' government.
Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said it was "the largest sum of assistance of any kind to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority by any donor in one tranche since the Palestinian Authority's inception [in 1994]."
Meanwhile yesterday, US Republican presidential candidate John McCain visited an Israeli town hit frequently by Palestinian rockets from the Gaza Strip and voiced doubts a peace deal could be reached this year.
"I am not sure whether it will succeed in that period of time," Mr McCain said, referring to a US-brokered peace process which Washington hopes will lead to a Palestinian statehood accord before President George Bush leaves the White House in January.
- (Reuters)
Belgian author Hugo Claus dies
BRUSSELS- Belgian author Hugo Claus, who excelled in prose, poetry, stage and screenwriting and wrote the country's definitive post-war novel, has died aged 78.
He chose euthanasia to end his losing battle with Alzheimer's disease. His wife, Veerle, said he had chosen to die rather than extend his suffering. Claus produced some 200 works since the second World War, but is best known for his classic The Sorrow of Belgium, a scathing attack on bourgeois and religious hypocrisy in his native northern Flanders.
- (Reuters)
Bin Laden threatens EU
WASHINGTON- Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatened the EU with grave punishment yesterday over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
In an audio recording posted on the Internet, bin Laden said the cartoons were part of a "crusade" in which he said the Pope was involved. The cartoons were first published by the Danish daily Jyllands-Postenin September 2005 but a furore erupted only after other papers reprinted them in 2006. At least 50 people were killed in the protests against the publication of the cartoons.
Bin Laden's message was entitled "The Response Will Be What You See, Not What You Hear", according to the password-protected Ekhlaas Web, which carries messages and statements from al Qaeda-affiliated groups around the world.
- (Reuters)
Muslim phone wedding 'invalid'
LONDON- Three senior appeal judges have refused to recognise an "over the telephone" Muslim marriage between an autistic British man and a woman in Bangladesh - even though the union is valid according to sharia law.
The 26-year-old man does not function above the level of a three-year-old and is said to be highly suggestible. His parents, originating from Bangladesh but resident in England for many years, arranged for him to be married by telephone link to a bride chosen by them in Bangladesh with a view to his new wife joining him in the UK. The marriage was valid under sharia law and the law of Bangladesh and, according to sharia law, had taken place in Bangladesh.
- (PA)
Sarkozy drops SMS lawsuit
PARIS- President Nicolas Sarkozy has dropped a legal case against a magazine that said he had sent a text message to his former wife asking her to return to him, the French leader's new wife said yesterday.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who married the president last month, wrote in Le Monde that her husband had decided to withdraw the case against Le Nouvel Observateurafter the journalist wrote to her and apologised.
- (Reuters)