A Dutch gunman killed one person and wounded three others when he opened fire overnight in a packed Rotterdam cafe, police told AFP yesterday.

Officers arrested the suspect, a 44-year-old, at the scene at around midnight, said police spokesman Remco Spaninxs.

The shooting happened after the suspect was asked to leave following an altercation he had had with other customers during a singing contest. "So he left the cafe at the request of those present, but came back armed and opened fire inside," wounding one person, said Spaninxs.

The suspect then went outside, killing a man of 46 and wounding two others who were trying to escape the cafe, before being overpowered, he added.

They held him until police arrived and arrested him.

UK still looking at car scrappage scheme

Britain said yesterday it was still looking into the possibility of introducing a car scrappage scheme to boost the recession-hit vehicle industry, despite a report that the Treasury was blocking the idea.

Under the proposed scheme, cars more than nine years old could be scrapped in return for a £2,000 discount on a new car.

The Times newspaper reported yesterday that there was a deep rift between Business Secretary Peter Mandelson and the finance minister, Alistair Darling, over the proposal.

The unsourced report said Mandelson wanted Darling to make a scrappage scheme the centrepiece of his April 22 budget but said Darling was concerned about the cost and terms of the programme.

"Officials from both departments are continuing to look at the possibilities of such a scheme. However, no decision has yet been taken," a spokesman for Mandelson's department said when asked for comment on the report. (Reuters)

US airliner sparks Israel security scare

Israeli warplanes scrambled yesterday to intercept a US airliner bound for Tel Aviv after the crew failed to follow the correct procedure on approach to Ben Gurion airport, a military spokesman said.

The crew of the Delta Airlines Boeing 777 flight from New York "did not identify the flight according to the regulations" by radio to enable it to land, he said.

An immediate alert was declared and the fighters took off "according to routine procedure," the spokesman said.

The aircraft, with 105 passengers on board, was able to land at Israel's main international airport after a 10-minute delay, army radio reported. It said the crew were later questioned to determine how the incident happened. (AFP)

Student gunman warned of plan

A Greek student who shot three people before killing himself had warned of his plans on his website, police said yesterday.

Armed with two small calibre weapons, Dimitris Patamanidis, 20, shot one of his fellow students at a technical college in Athens in the chest on Friday and then fired on two passers-by before shooting himself in the head.

"I have no reason to continue living," a message on the gunman's recently created website, described as genuine by police experts, said. (AFP)

First conversion certificate issued

Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church has for the first time issued a certificate of conversion to a Muslim-born Christian, his lawyer said, in a country where religious conversion is highly sensitive.

Maher al-Gohari, who is seeking to change his religion on his official documents from Muslim to Christian was asked by a court to provide a conversion certificate from the Egyptian church.

"He handed it in today," Nabil Gabriel told AFP. "It is the first time the church provides this sort of certificate." (AFP)

Bootleg alcohol claims 11 lives

Eleven people have died in Turkey over the past three weeks, including three young Germans, after drinking bootleg spirits, the agriculture ministry said yesterday.

The ministry stressed that it was stepping up controls to address the problem.

Inspections have focused on the northwestern province of Bursa, where most deaths occurred, and the southern Mediterranean province of Antalya, Turkey's holiday hub where three young Germans recently died, the statement said. (AFP)