In Brief

BURNING – A rapidly spreading wildfire forced the evacuation of nearly 200 homes in Montana, US, on Tuesday, while nursing home residents in Washington state were evacuated because of smoke from a nearby blaze.

Firefighters also faced new fires in Oregon and Idaho.The fire east of Billings had burned about 12.8 square kilometres of grass and timber, said Don Smurthwaite, a spokesman for the Billings Dispatch Center. CHARGED – A British court Tuesday began arraigning the people who have been arrested and charged in connection with a suspected plot to blow up United States-bound airliners.Eleven of the 23 people arrested were charged; the first four were all ordered held in custody.Prosecutors expect to arraign the rest by the end of the day.At least 8 of the 11 charged were thought to form a hard core of bombers who planned to assemble liquid-based explosives on board airplanes and detonate them.NEED MORE – European Union nations will make a renewed attempt Wednesday to raise troops for a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, but many remain wary of committing soldiers without safeguards to ensure they do not get sucked into the Middle East conflict.Senior foreign and defence ministry officials from the 25 EU nations were gathering to prepare for a meeting of foreign ministers hastily called for Friday in an effort TO overcome delays in securing contributions to the 15 000-troop UN force.MISSING – The Red Cross said yesterday it would send a ferry to help evacuate hundreds of foreign nationals trapped by fighting in northern Sri Lanka, as activists expressed alarm over a Catholic priest who disappeared after witnessing killings at a church.The military, meanwhile, said security forces and the Tamil Tiger rebel group traded fire on two fronts overnight, in eastern Sri Lanka and the northern Jaffna Peninsula, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting between the two sides since a 2002 cease-fire.NO PROGRESS – A year after Hurricane Katrina swept through killing more than 1 300 along the US Gulf Coast and flooding 80 per cent of New Orleans, many in the city blame the federal government – and its slow response to the disaster -most of all for their woesNampa-Reuters-AFP-APCHARGED – A British court Tuesday began arraigning the people who have been arrested and charged in connection with a suspected plot to blow up United States-bound airliners.Eleven of the 23 people arrested were charged; the first four were all ordered held in custody.Prosecutors expect to arraign the rest by the end of the day.At least 8 of the 11 charged were thought to form a hard core of bombers who planned to assemble liquid-based explosives on board airplanes and detonate them.NEED MORE – European Union nations will make a renewed attempt Wednesday to raise troops for a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, but many remain wary of committing soldiers without safeguards to ensure they do not get sucked into the Middle East conflict.Senior foreign and defence ministry officials from the 25 EU nations were gathering to prepare for a meeting of foreign ministers hastily called for Friday in an effort TO overcome delays in securing contributions to the 15 000-troop UN force.MISSING – The Red Cross said yesterday it would send a ferry to help evacuate hundreds of foreign nationals trapped by fighting in northern Sri Lanka, as activists expressed alarm over a Catholic priest who disappeared after witnessing killings at a church.The military, meanwhile, said security forces and the Tamil Tiger rebel group traded fire on two fronts overnight, in eastern Sri Lanka and the northern Jaffna Peninsula, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting between the two sides since a 2002 cease-fire.NO PROGRESS – A year after Hurricane Katrina swept through killing more than 1 300 along the US Gulf Coast and flooding 80 per cent of New Orleans, many in the city blame the federal government – and its slow response to the disaster -most of all for their woes Nampa-Reuters-AFP-AP