■ Switzerland
Rock slide kills two
A rock slide hit several vehicles on a major north-south highway through the Swiss Alps early on Wednesday, killing two people, police said. The highway was blocked on the northern approach to the St. Gotthard tunnel, a major route linking northern Europe with Italy, state police said in a statement. About 60m3 of rock fell on the highway near the town of Gurtnellen, hitting a German-registered car traveling south and two goods trucks which were parked in a rest area on the northbound side, police spokesman Herbert Planzer said. The car's occupants -- a married couple from near Pforzheim in southwest Germany -- were killed. The two truck drivers survived the rock fall, although rocks tipped one of the vehicles over.
■ Ethiopia
AU calls for nuke-free treaty
The Peace and Security Council of the African Union on Wednesday urged member states that did not sign and ratify the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty to do so urgently so that it could enter into force this year, the 10th year of its opening for signature. It also asked the AU Commission chair, Alpha Oumar Konare, to appoint a special envoy and take all necessary steps to speed up the entry into force of the treaty and the signing and ratification by all those concerned of the three protocols appended to the treaty.
RSS