A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Jury acquits relatives of suicide bomber
LONDON - The relatives of a failed British suicide bomber were yesterday cleared in a landmark trial at the Old Bailey of failing to alert authorities about his mission.
Omar Sharif's sister Parveen and brother Zahid, from Hounslow in west London, embraced and hugged each other in the dock as the jury acquitted them. They had always maintained they knew nothing about their younger brother's intention to become Britain's first suicide bomber when he attacked a crowded Israeli bar.
Parveen Sharif was also found not guilty of inciting him to commit a terrorist act. - (PA)
Fatah cancels vote after violence
GAZA - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party cancelled its primaries in the Gaza Strip yesterday after militants stormed some polling centres and shut them down, party officials said.
The violence, by armed men belonging to Fatah, was a blow to Mr Abbas's efforts to exert control over Gaza, territory Israel quit in September and which is widely seen as a testing ground for Palestinian statehood. - (Reuters)
Taskforce to fight child labour
BEIJING - An international meeting on child labour has agreed to form a joint taskforce to combat the problem and promote education.
The meeting's hosts, the International Labour Organisation, together with Unicef, Unesco, the World Bank and the Global March Against Child Labour, would be the initial partners in the taskforce, officials said yesterday, which would start work immediately. - (Reuters)
Officials ordered to visit riot areas
PARIS - French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy has told top local officials he wants them to visit rough areas like those hit by a recent wave of riots to ensure security measures are taking effect.
Mr Sarkozy told French prefects yesterday he wanted them to "reduce the fractures" between the state and society and ensure that violence like the recent three-week wave of riots could not happen again. - (Reuters)
Peres may join Sharon party
JERUSALEM - Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres may leave the Labour Party that ousted him as its leader and join prime minister Ariel Sharon's new centrist grouping, a spokesman for Mr Peres (82) said yesterday.
The defection of the Mr Peres would represent a vote of confidence by the Nobel peace laureate in Mr Sharon's oft-repeated pledge to make "painful concessions" for peace with the Palestinians. - (Reuters)
Court allows 'I stole mail' sentence
WASHINGTON - The US Supreme Court yesterday allowed a California man to be sentenced to spend a day outside a San Francisco post office wearing a signboard stating, "I stole mail. This is my punishment."
The justices rejected an appeal by Shawn Gementera, who argued that this was designed to publicly shame and humiliate him. - (Reuters)
Tight security for oil state protest
YENAGOA - Hundreds of troops armed with rocket launchers and machine guns manned checkpoints in Nigeria's oil-producing Bayelsa state yesterday as protesters staged rival rallies over the impeachment of the state governor.
The two opposing groups - about 1,500 young men calling for the governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha to step down, and about 1,000 women wanting him to stay - remained peaceful under the watch of soldiers deployed to the state capital Yenagoa overnight. - (Reuters)