A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Fatah, Hamas agree to halt clashes
GAZA - The Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas group have agreed to halt their clashes even as they headed for a showdown over Mr Abbas's threat to hold a referendum on a statehood proposal.
Violence, however, flared at the Gaza border with Israel where Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian policeman and wounded six, three police and three civilians, medics said.
The Israeli army said troops suspected the men were trying to infiltrate the tense frontier. - (Reuters)
Canada dismisses kidnap reports
OTTAWA - Canada has dismissed a media report that said some of its troops in Afghanistan had been abducted. Al-Jazeera TV earlier quoted Taliban sources as saying the group had seized an unspecified number of Canadian soldiers. Canada has 2,300 troops in Kandahar as part of the Nato force.
"The head count is done, all are accounted for, the stories were false," said Sandra Buckler, chief spokeswoman for prime minister Stephen Harper. - (Reuters)
Brazil arrests after land protests
RIO DE JANEIRO - More than 500 landless protesters were being questioned by police in Brazil's capital yesterday after a violent protest in the country's parliament left at least 23 people injured and one man in intensive care.
Organisers said the protest, which lasted about two hours, was intended to draw attention to the lack of progress in their fight for land reform. Police rounded up about 490 suspects and took them to a stadium for questioning. - (Guardian)
Language problem at Heathrow
LONDON - Air traffic controllers at London's Heathrow airport failed to understand two distress calls from an Italian airliner carrying 104 people because the pilot's English pronunciation was poor.
A report published today will reveal that the Alitalia jet suffered a near complete loss of its navigational equipment in its final approach to London.
The control tower did not understand a Mayday message from the captain and did not initiate usual procedures, which include putting the airport fire service on alert and clearing the runway.
Although the aircraft from Milan landed safely, the incident is likely to prompt concern about the quality of English spoken in cockpits. - (Guardian service)
Injured CBS journalist home
BERLIN - CBS journalist Kimberly Dozier (39), wounded in Iraq last month, has been flown home to the United States from Germany and is in a critical but stable condition, the news organisation said.
Ms Dozier was injured in a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad at the end of May that killed her two British colleagues, cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan. - (Reuters)
Security alert at Westminster
LONDON - Police declared a brief security alert over at the British parliament yesterday after a man threw powder in a public area of the building. "A man has been detained at the scene while inquiries continue," police said in a statement. They said later the white substance was harmless. - (Reuters)
Dwarf dinosaur fossils found
LONDON - Fossils from a new species of a 150-million- year-old dwarf dinosaur have been found in northern Germany, scientists have said. At first they suspected that the remains from more than 11 sauropods were from young dinosaurs, but an analysis of their bones showed they were small adults that probably lived on an island during the late Jurassic period. - (Reuters)