A round-up of other world news in brief...
Woman, five children found dead in Florida
FLORIDA – Five young children and a woman were found dead inside a Florida apartment, police said yesterday.
Investigators with the Collier County sheriff’s office are looking for the woman’s 33-year-old husband, Mesac Damas, although they have not named him as a suspect.
Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Michelle Batten said police believe Mr Damas boarded a flight to Haiti from Miami airport. – (AP)
Congo hands over genocide suspect
KINSHASA – The Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) a man accused of the massacre of at least 2,000 Rwandan Tutsis during the 1994 genocide.
Grégoire Ndahimana will go on trial at the ICTR, a tribunal set up in Tanzania to tackle the most serious crimes committed during the 1994 genocide, when around 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in 100 days. – (Reuters)
Greek stimulus plan goes to EU
ATHENS – Greek opposition socialist leader George Papandreou said yesterday that he would propose to the EU a plan coupling fiscal consolidation and stimulus to put the ailing economy back on track if elected on October 4th.
Mr Papandreou, whose party leads the outgoing conservative government by over 6 percentage points in opinion polls, said that he would provide Brussels with a credible three-year plan to rein in deficits and debt in the euro zone’s weakest link. – (Reuters)
Israel reassures Russia on Iran
MOSCOW – Israel promised Russia it would not launch an attack on Iran, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview aired yesterday in which he described such an assault as “the worst thing that can be imagined”.
Israel has hinted that it could forcibly deny Iran the means to make an atomic bomb if it refuses to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.
Israel has criticised Russia for agreeing to supply to Tehran S-300 anti-aircraft weapons that could complicate an attack. – (Reuters)
Ferrero-Waldner drops Unesco bid
PARIS – Austrian European commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner yesterday dropped her bid for the post of director general of Unesco. Ms Ferrero-Waldner said that she had decided to withdraw in the “superior interest of the organisation and of European unity”.
Unesco will hold a fourth vote today in the election. Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosni won 25 votes out of 57 in the latest round on Saturday. – (Reuters)