A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Staff warned on scandal-hit politician
ILLINOIS - The Republican leader of the US House of Representatives said yesterday he will dismiss anyone on his staff found to have covered up concerns about ex-Republican Mark Foley's sexually charged approaches to former interns.
Dennis Hastert, the House speaker who sets the body's legislative agenda, said: "If they did cover something up, then they should not continue to have their jobs. But I didn't think anybody at any time in my office did anything wrong," he told a news conference in his home state of Illinois. - (AP)
Thousands attend reporter's funeral
MOSCOW - Thousands of mourners, including western ambassadors, gathered yesterday at the funeral of Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent reporter and critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin whose murder fuelled international condemnation. Politkovskaya (48) was shot dead on Saturday at her apartment block in central Moscow in a killing prosecutors linked to her work. - (Reuters)
Brown agrees with Straw on veil
LONDON - British chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown yesterday agreed it would be "better for Britain" if fewer Muslim women wore veils.
And Prime Minister Tony Blair said that it was "perfectly sensible" for his cabinet colleague Jack Straw to have raised the issue, although he stressed that wearing the veil was a personal choice.
Mr Straw found himself at the centre of controversy after he described the veil as "a visible statement of separation and of difference" between Muslim and non-Muslim communities. - (PA)
Turkish anger at French war stance
ANKARA - Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan yesterday called on France to look to its own colonial past in Africa instead of attacking Turkey over an alleged genocide of Armenians during the first World War.
"France must look at what has happened in Senegal, Tunisia, Djibouti, Guinea, Algeria . . . I don't recall that these fanned anger which history covered with ashes," he said.
Turks are angry over a French Bill, proposed by the Socialist opposition, which would make it a crime to deny the genocide of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks. - (Reuters)
Saddam thrown out of court again
BAGHDAD - The chief judge ejected Saddam Hussein yesterday from the court trying the former president and six co-defendants over the Anfal campaign against ethnic Kurds in the 1980s.
Judge Mohammed al-Ureybi ordered Saddam to leave when he began talking after the first Kurdish witness testified.
It was the fourth time in the last five sessions that Saddam has been ejected since Mr Ureybi took over as chief judge. - (Reuters)