Todays other stories in brief
Space shuttle lands in Mojave Desert
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - The US space shuttle Atlantis has touched down in California's Mojave Desert after rain and thick clouds prevented it from returning to its home port in Florida.
Safely back from a two- week mission to the International Space Station, the shuttle and seven astronauts landed at the base, its backup landing site, at 19.49 GMT. - (Reuters)
Air strike kills 45 in Afghanistan
KANDAHAR - An air strike by foreign-led forces has killed 25 civilians, including 12 members of a family, and 20 Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan.
Helmand provincial police chief Hussien Andiwal said the raid took place on Thursday night as part of an operation against Taliban fighters by foreign forces and Afghan troops.
Nato - which runs a force under overall US command - said it carried out the air strike after alliance forces came under attack by insurgents. - (Reuters)
Overflowing loos on flight from US
AMSTERDAM - Passengers on a Continental Airlines flight have received an apology for having to put up with the stench and discomfort of overflowing toilets on an aircraft during a two-day flight from Amsterdam to Newark, New Jersey, this month.
Media reports said sewage had flowed into the aisles but flight attendants kept serving meals. "We are apologising to them and compensating them for the poor conditions on the flight as well as the diversion and delay," Continental said in a statement. - (Reuters)
Libyan children offered HIV care
TRIPOLI - EU officials trying to free six medics jailed in Libya for infecting 426 children with HIV have offered medical care for the children but have yet to agree on compensation for their families, a Libyan source has said.
The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death in December for deliberately injecting the children with HIV after a highly politicised trial that has strained Tripoli's relations with the West. - (Reuters)
BBC criticised over 'Top Gear' crash
LONDON - An investigation into a high-speed crash which nearly killed Top Gear's Richard Hammond says the BBC had failed to allow enough time for planning the filmed event.
Hammond (37) suffered serious brain injuries and was in hospital for five weeks after a Vampire drag racer he was driving burst a tyre and spun off the course at 288mph at Elvington airfield near York in September 2006. He has since recovered.
The Health and Safety Executive also criticised the company that provided the jet-powered modified drag racer, Primetime Landspeed Engineering (PTLE).
It said a risk-assessment provided to the BBC made no allowance for training a driver such as Hammond who was unfamiliar with the superpowered vehicle and the BBC had failed to challenge the adequacy of PTLE's risk-assessment.
- (Reuters)