Other world news in brief
Spy Bill passed to protect US phone firms
WASHINGTON- US president George W Bush won final congressional approval yesterday of liability protection for phone companies that took part in the warrantless domestic spying programme he began after the September 11th, 2001, attacks.
The Bill would shield telecoms companies from potentially billions of dollars in damages from privacy lawsuits, and implement the biggest overhaul of US spy laws in three decades. - (Reuters)
PKK kidnaps German tourists
ISTANBUL- Kurdish guerrillas have kidnapped three German tourists on a climbing expedition in eastern Turkey.
The three had established a camp on Mount Ararat in Agri province as part of a 13-member climbing team when they were seized by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants, Anatolian news agency reported. - ( Reuters)
SA workers strike over prices
CAPE TOWN- Thousands of unionised South African workers downed tools yesterday to protest against a sharp jump in food and fuel prices, threatening to slow output at key ports and refineries and rattle jittery investors. The walkout took place in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. - (Reuters)
Israeli Jews 'live longer' than Arabs
JERUSALEM- Jews live longer and enjoy lower infant mortality and poverty rates in Israel than the country's Arab citizens, according to a report published yesterday by a watchdog partly funded by the European Union.
The report said these and other gaps in living standards were in part a result of discriminatory Israeli policies in allocating funds to Jewish and Arab towns. - (Reuters)
JonBenet Ramsey family cleared
COLORADO- Prosecutors yesterday said new DNA tests cleared JonBenet Ramsey's family of involvement in the 1996 killing of the six-year- old beauty queen. Boulder County district attorney Mary Lacy said the tests pointed to an "unexplained third party". - (AP)
Spain set to be biggest winemaker
PARIS- France could permanently lose its status as the world's biggest wine producer to Spain as soon as 2015 because Spanish wine growers are improving their yields while the French are cutting back. - (Reuters)
Wife kills husband with couch
ST PETERSBURG- A Russian woman killed her husband with a folding couch, it was reported yesterday.
Russian media said the man's wife, upset with him for being drunk and refusing to get up, kicked a handle after an argument, activating a mechanism that folds the couch up against a wall. The man died instantly. - (Reuters)