■ Greece
Explosives ship detained
Greek special forces boarded a cargo ship carrying 680 tonnes of explosive material on Sunday and forced it to port for inspection, authorities said. The Comoros-flagged Baltic Sky was escorted by coast-guard vessels to the tiny port of Platiyali, 235km northwest of Athens, for a "detailed search," said a statement from the Merchant Marine ministry. The statement said the vessel, with a crew of five Ukrainians and two from Azerbaijan, was boarded by special forces from the coast guard in Greek territorial waters following a tip.
■ Belgium
War-crimes law to change
Belgium, apparently bowing to American pressure, said on Sunday that it would change a law that has been used to charge US officials with war crimes. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said the law would be amended to make it harder to abuse the statute, under which the former president George Bush senior and several members of the current White House administration have been charged with crimes. Earlier this month, the US defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, threatened to withhold American financing for a new North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Belgium if the country did not scrap its law.
■ United States
Wildfire moves on
The uncontrolled fire that destroyed more than 250 homes in mountaintop community in Arizona moved on a course that would take it into an area where terrain and lighter vegetation will make it easier to fight, fire officials said. However, crews didn't know how soon they would be able to attack the fire in that area, and the blaze's growth in other forested areas was still creating difficulties. "This fire's going to be here for a while and it's going to be very large," said Jeff Whitney, deputy commander of the team battling the fire. The fire had burned across more than 4,560 hectares in the mountains northeast of Tucson since it began on Tuesday and was only about 5 percent contained on Sunday. Firefighters don't expect to totally control it for a few weeks.
■ Macedonia
Capital struck by bombs
Two powerful bomb blasts ripped through the center of Macedonia's capital Skopje on Sunday slightly injuring one person and damaging more than a dozen shops, police said. The bombs went off simultaneously around 7pm on a quiet Sunday, one near the main square in the capital and the other in a trash can located in shopping mall less than a mile away. "Only one person was slightly injured, but there is greater damage to surrounding shops," said a police spokesperson. She said that no one had so far claimed responsibility for the attack and that anti-terrorist units have sealed off the area of the blasts.
Agencies
RSS