Today's other world stories in brief
Mother of girl charged over disappearance
LONDON -The mother of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews has been charged with perverting the course of justice and child neglect, the crown prosecution service said yesterday.
Karen Matthews (32), from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, had spent two nights in police custody since being arrested on Sunday. Her nine-year-old daughter disappeared in February, sparking a massive police hunt. She was found safe in the base of a bed about a mile from her home 24 days later. - (Reuters)
Kosovo needs EU support - Ahtisaari
DUBLIN -The EU will have to support Kosovo for at least five years, former UN envoy to Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari said in Dublin last night, reports Mary Fitzgerald.
He welcomed the establishment in late February of an international steering group to supervise Kosovo independence.
"I hope this process will continue . . . It has to, if we want Europe and the Balkans to remain stable," he said. "Kosovo is a European issue . . . the EU cannot afford to allow a new frozen conflict."
Mr Ahtisaari said it was the only viable option.
Iran tests new equipment
TEHRAN -Iran tested a new machine with greater capacity yesterday as part of its disputed nuclear programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.
He did not specify the equipment but a senior Iranian official told Reuters he was referring to a new generation of centrifuges for enriching uranium, which can be used as fuel in power plants or to make weapons if refined much further.
Diplomats in Vienna last week said Iran was installing advanced enrichment centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment plant, accelerating activity that could give Tehran the means to make atom bombs in the future. - (Reuters)
McCanns to return to Algarve
LONDON -Portuguese police have asked Madeleine McCann's parents to return to the Algarve to stage a reconstruction of the night their daughter went missing, a family spokesman said yesterday.
Kate and Gerry McCann and their lawyers are considering the proposal and have yet to decide whether to go, spokesman Clarence Mitchell told BBC television.
"It is very much under discussion," he said.
"If a Crimewatch style reconstruction . . . is what is being proposed, then of course they will take part." He said such a TV reconstruction was suggested by the McCanns and BBC Crimewatch last year, but was rejected by Portuguese authorities. - (Reuters)
Paper wins six Pulitzer Prizes
WASHINGTON -The Washington Posthas won six Pulitzer Prizes this year, the largest haul in the paper's history, for stories ranging from an exposé of poor care at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre to an examination of vice-president Dick Cheney's behind-the-scenes clout to coverage of the mass shootings at Virginia Tech.
Those subjects, along with an investigation of military contractors in Iraq and the writing of business columnist Steven Pearlstein and magazine columnist Gene Weingarten, enabled the paper to exceed its 2006 record of four Pulitzers. - (LA Times-Washington Post)
EU asks Bulgaria to tackle crime
BRUSSELS -The EU urged newcomer Bulgaria to fight organised crime with more determination after two prominent figures were shot dead in the Balkan country's capital.
An author of books on the Bulgarian mafia was shot dead on Monday, a day after the chief of an energy firm that repairs Bulgaria's nuclear power plant had been killed. - (Reuters)