A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Moscow paper offers $1m murder reward
MOSCOW - The newspaper where murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya worked has offered almost $1 million (€790,000) for information leading to her killers, amid widespread international condemnation of the murder.
A gunman shot Politkovskaya (48), one of President Vladimir Putin's strongest critics, four times as she brought her shopping home to her Moscow apartment on Saturday evening. The mother of two died on the spot.
Mr Putin yesterday gave the first official Russian reaction to Politkovskaya's murder, although his comments were confined to an account of a telephone conversation with US president George W Bush.
A Kremlin statement said: "In the course of the conversation, Putin stressed that Russia's law- enforcement bodies will take every step to investigate objectively the tragic death of the journalist Politkovskaya." - (Reuters)
Boy (13) fires shots at school
JOPLIN - A 13-year-old boy armed with an AK-47 threatened students and administrators at his Missouri school yesterday, saying "please don't make me do this", before discharging the gun into the ceiling, writes Denis Staunton.
The school principal persuaded the boy to leave the building and he dropped the rifle when he was confronted by armed police outside. No one was injured and the boy was taken into custody. Police said a note in his backpack said he had planted explosives in the school but an initial search failed to find a bomb.
The boy told police he had been planning the attack for "a long time" but gave no details of his motive and no indication that others were involved.
Bus plunge down ravine kills 42
GUATEMALA CITY - A passenger bus crashed off a winding mountain road in Guatemala, killing 42 people, rescuers said yesterday.
The bus fell down a 100m (300ft) ravine after leaving the western city of Huehuetenango late on Sunday, said Mario Cruz, a spokesman for volunteer fire teams at the scene.
Rescue workers lifted bodies out with cables and five survivors were taken to hospital for treatment. Officials blamed the accident on fog and rain. - (Reuters)
603 carat diamond sells for €9.5m
ANTWERP - The biggest diamond found in 13 years, the "Lesotho Promise", has been sold at auction in Antwerp for more than €9.5 million ($12 million) and is expected to fetch more than €15.8 million ($20 million) once it is cut up.
The 603-carat (120 gram) diamond, named after the tiny African mountain kingdom where it was found, was sold to the South African Diamond Corporation. - (Reuters)
Spanish €5m aid for West Africa
CONAKRY - Spain has offered Guinea €5 million in aid as part of a diplomatic offensive in West Africa aimed at curbing the flow of illegal migrants from the world's poorest continent to Europe.
Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos announced the aid package yesterday after talks with senior government officials in the former French colony. - (Reuters)
Satirical show exposes drug use
ROME - A popular Italian satirical TV show has exposed what appears to be widespread drug use among the country's parliamentarians by secretly testing them for a number of illegal substances.
Of 50 lower house deputies who fell for the trick organised by the programme Le Iene (the Hyenas), almost a third appeared to have taken drugs in the previous 36 hours, 12 of them testing positive for cannabis and four for cocaine, it said. - (Reuters)