■UNITED KINGDOM
Birth rate highest since 1973
Women are having more children than at any time in the past 35 years, according to figures released on Thursday by the country’s Office of National Statistics (ONS). The birth rate in England and Wales, which reached a low point of 1.63 children per woman in 2001, now appears to be on a sustained upward trend. The latest ONS figures, for last year, show that it has reached 1.95 — the highest fertility level since 1973. Over the past decade the number of births to mothers aged 40 and above has nearly doubled from 13,555 in 1998 to 26,419 last year. The average age of women giving birth remained unchanged, however, at 29.3.
■IRAN
Woman, three men hanged
A woman and three men have been hanged in the southern city of Shiraz, a newspaper reported yesterday. The woman, identified only by her first name Afsaneh, was executed on Wednesday for killing her husband with the help of her lover, the Etemad newspaper said. The other convicts hanged on Wednesday were an Afghan man found guilty of raping a 50-year-old woman, a drug trafficker and a murderer, the report said. The latest hangings bring to at least 116 the number of people executed so far this year, according to a count based on news reports. Last year, the country executed 246 people. The human rights group Amnesty International has said that in 2007 the country applied the death penalty more than any other country apart from China, executing 335 people.
■SERBIA
Angry businessman detained
A judge on Friday ordered a 30-day detention for a man who threatened to blow himself up in the presidential building in downtown Belgrade a day earlier. The man was originally placed under a 48-hour detention pending an investigation, but the investigative judge later ordered the month-long detention “because of the danger that he could again commit a crime.” The bankrupted businessman allegedly entered the presidential building in downtown Belgrade on Thursday carrying two hand grenades and threatening to kill himself.
■LEBANON
Leader calls for killing spies
The leader of the Hezbollah movement, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, urged on Friday that prosecutors seek capital punishment against recently captured Israel-linked espionage ring members. In a televised address commemorating the ninth anniversary of the Israeli withdrawal from the south, Nasrallah said: “I call for capital punishment for all arrested agents and beginning with the Shiite agents first.” Authorities are holding up to 30 suspects in what was described by security sources as a “wide-scale investigation into espionage” by Israel. A woman and a 70-year-old man were arrested in the past 24 hours. At least 18 suspects have already been charged.
■GREECE
Five injured at mosque
Unknown assailants tried to burn down a makeshift mosque in Athens yesterday, injuring five Bangladeshi migrants who suffered burns and respiratory problems in the attack, police said. The attackers broke the windows of a basement flat used as a mosque early yesterday morning and threw gasoline inside before lighting it, a police source said. Four Bangladeshi men suffered respiratory problems and a fifth was burned, police said. All were initially taken to hospital but later discharged.
■UNITED STATES
Ex-astronaut may lead NASA
US President Barack Obama will name black former astronaut Charles Bolden as NASA administrator, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday. Citing three unnamed congressional sources, the newspaper said that if confirmed by the Senate, the retired Marine Corps general would be the first black American to head the agency. The announcement will be timed to the landing of the shuttle Atlantis, which remained in orbit on Friday because of bad weather but was scheduled to return to Earth yesterday or today, the report said.
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