■ Niger
PM denies uranium sale
The prime minister of Niger has denied claims his nation was involved in trying to sell uranium to Iraq and challenged his British counterpart Tony Blair to prove otherwise, a Sunday newspaper reported. "Our conscience is clear. We are innocent," Hama Hamadou told the Sunday Telegraph in an interview in Niamey, capital of the West African nation. "If Britain has evidence to support its claim then it has only to produce it for everybody to see," he added.
■ Iran
Agents detained over murder
Five Iranian security agents have been detained in connection with the death of an Iranian-Canadian journalist who died in police custody, state-run Tehran radio reported on Saturday. The officers were detained on Friday after "comprehensive investigations" into Zahra Kazemi's July 10 death, the radio report said quoting a statement released by Iran's judiciary. Iran's vice president has announced Kazemi died of a beating after a presidential committee investigating her death found she had complained of punishment by guards and died of a "fractured skull, brain hemorrhage and its consequences resulting from a hard object hitting the head or the head hitting a hard object."
■ Russia
Female bomber dies
A female suicide bomber detonated explosives Sunday near a base of a security force in Chechnya, killing herself and injuring a woman who was passing by, the Interfax news agency reported. The attacker blew herself up in the village of Tastsan-Yurt near the base of a division of Moscow-backed Chechnya administration chief Akhmad Kadyrov's security force, Interfax reported, citing unidentified sources in the regional Interior Ministry. The report characterized the bombing as an attack aimed at the commander of the squad, Ramzan Kadyrov. Female suicide bombers have carried out several attacks in Chechnya and Moscow in recent months.
■ France
Teacher wins rooftop protest
A primary school teacher in southern France, who spent 44 days living on the roof of a cathedral to highlight a grievance in relation to his pension entitlements, finally descended yesterday after the authorities yielded to his demands. On June 13, Andre Menras, 58, made himself as comfortable as possible at a height of 57 metres in Beziers Cathedral. This weekend, the administration yielded to his demands and agreed to include a disputed 30 month period in calculating his pension entitlements. He spent some of this time as a political prisoner in Saigon and two years travelling the world to highlight the plight of political prisoners.
Agencies
RSS