England: Firefighters’ strike is first in 25 years

Firefighters walked off their jobs Wednesday in their first nationwide strike in a quarter-century, demanding a 40 percent pay raise to salaries they say are barely enough to live on.

About 50,000 firefighters across the United Kingdom began a 48-hour strike at 6 p.m. They threatened three eight-day strikes in November and December if the government does not meet their terms.

Providing protection in their place will be military personnel operating antiquated “Green Goddess” fire trucks :quot; no substitute for highly trained firefighters using the latest equipment. They are aided in small towns by part-time firefighters who haven’t gone on strike.

“Make no mistake, someone will die :quot; but we will not be to blame, we have been forced into this,” said Jim Jewell, a senior officer at Harlow Fire Station in southeast England.

Iran: President criticizes professor’s sentence

President Mohammad Khatami on Wednesday strongly criticized the death sentence imposed on a university professor, as thousands of students in Tehran demonstrated against the verdict and Iran’s hard-line clerics.

Hashem Aghajari has decided not to appeal the sentence, his lawyer announced Wednesday, a move seen as a challenge to the hard-liners who dominate the judiciary and who are locked in a power struggle with the reformist Khatami.

In his first comments on the case, Khatami said Wednesday the verdict “never should have been issued at all” and urged the case be “settled in a favorable manner to avoid any problems in the country.”

Aghajari, a history professor, was convicted of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. He was charged after a giving a speech in June, saying each new generation should be able to interpret Islam on its own.

Russia: Valuable works stolen from libraries

Thieves posing as scholars stole a first edition of Isaac Newton’s main work and two other valuable books from reading rooms at leading libraries in St. Petersburg, Russian officials said.

A copy of Newton’s “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” published in London in 1687, and a 1913 illustrated edition of poems by Russian futurist Konstantin Bolshakov were stolen from the Russian National Library on Nov. 6, authorities said Tuesday.

On the same day, an 1813 edition of English philosopher Robert Owen’s “New View of Society” was taken from the reading room of the Russian Academy of Sciences Library, also in St. Petersburg.

Bangladesh: Some 200 feared dead after boats lost in storm

Nineteen boats disappeared in a fierce storm off Bangladesh on Wednesday, and officials and witnesses said about 200 fishermen were missing and feared dead.

The bodies of two fishermen washed ashore. Rescue workers were battling high waves to search the seas and offshore islands for the missing men.

At least 10 wooden fishing boats sank off Cox’s Bazar, 185 miles southeast of Dhaka, local official Azimuddin Chowdhury said. Eleven survivors reached shore but 140 were missing, he said.

Eight other fishing boats carrying about 60 fishermen were reported missing from the southern coastal district of Barisal.

In addition, a navy motor boat sank near the offshore island of Kutubdia. Its six crew members swam ashore, a navy spokesman said.