A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Wrongly jailed Algerian pilot seeks damages
LONDON -An Algerian pilot who spent five months in jail wrongly accused of training September 11th hijackers won the right to claim compensation from the British government in a legal ruling yesterday.
Lotfi Raissi (33) was arrested in London 10 days after the September 11th, 2001, attacks and held at the high-security Belmarsh prison in the southeast of the capital.
Even though the allegations against him were proved false, Mr Raissi says he is now blacklisted from all airline jobs and his life has been ruined. - (Reuters)
Bush avoids public talk on China rights
LONDON -US president George Bush said he would go to China for the Olympics but would not talk publicly there about Beijing's policies since he urges its president in private to do more to relieve suffering in Darfur.
Bush said movie director Steven Spielberg's decision to quit his Beijing Olympics role because of China's policies in Sudan was a personal decision.
"It's up to him. I am going to the Olympics - I view the Olympics as a sporting event," Mr Bush told BBC World News America before flying to Africa. - (Reuters)
US to shoot down falling spy satellite
WASHINGTON -The US has announced it is planning to shoot down the out-of-control spy satellite expected to hit the Earth early next month.
Officials said the preferred option would be to fire a missile from a US Navy cruiser and blast the satellite before it enters Earth's atmosphere.
Shooting down a satellite is particularly sensitive because of the controversy surrounding China's anti-satellite test last year, when Beijing shot down one of its defunct weather satellites, drawing immediate criticism from the US and other countries. - (PA)
French airport workers agree deal
PARIS -French air traffic controllers have voted to end a strike that has halved the number of flights at Paris's second-biggest airport after a deal was reached with the government on restructuring, their union said.
The CGT union was protesting against plans to move controllers at that airport, Orly, to the bigger Roissy airport north of Paris before grouping them all on one site near Paris around 2015. Both sites are owned and run by Aeroports de Paris. - (Reuters)
Ahmadinejad plans Iraq visit
BAGHDAD -Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will make a landmark visit to Baghdad on March 2nd for talks with prime minister Nuri al-Maliki and other officials, Iraq said yesterday.
Mr Ahmadinejad's visit will be the first to Iraq by the president of the Islamic Republic, which is at loggerheads with the United States over the causes of violence in Iraq as well as Tehran's nuclear programme. - (Reuters)