Today's other stories in brief
Taliban frees 1,150 prisoners in jail attack
KANDAHAR - Nearly all of an estimated 1,150 prisoners, including some 400 Taliban inmates, fled a prison in Kandahar yesterday after Taliban insurgents blew open the main gate, two officials reported.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Taliban also fired several rockets at various parts of the mud-built prison in the province, a stronghold of the ousted Taliban movement. - (Reuters)
Rail bombs kill two in Algeria
ALGIERS - Two bombs exploded last weekend at a railway station east of Algiers, killing two people and wounding two others, a security source has revealed.
The bombs went off at close intervals in the town of Beni Amrane in Boumerdes province, some 50 km (30 miles) from the capital, Kabul, the source said. - (Reuters)
Body parts thief faces relatives
NEW YORK - A New Jersey dentist behind a scheme to steal body parts from corpses, including that of British journalist Alistair Cooke, faced relatives of the dead in court this week and apologised for the anguish he caused.
Michael Mastromarino (44) admitted in March to leading a $4.6 million operation that stole body parts from funeral homes in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The ring dismembered more than 1,000 cadavers in unsanitary conditions, and sold parts to doctors who transplanted them into patients. - (Reuters)
Bluefin tuna trawling banned
BRUSSELS - EU fisheries regulators have banned trawling for bluefin tuna from next week in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean to stop overfishing of a species that is approaching stock collapse, the EU executive said yesterday.
Bluefin tuna is prized by sushi lovers and its numbers have fallen due to overfishing by countries hunting it in those waters - Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain. - (Reuters)
Kelly cleared on child sex charge
CHICAGO - A jury acquitted rhythm and blues star R Kelly of child pornography charges yesterday, finding he did not make an explicit videotape showing him having sex with an underage girl who called him godfather".
The 41-year-old Kelly, whose given name is Robert, could have faced a sentence of up to 15 years in prison on 14 counts of child pornography. - (Reuters)
Family stoned and buried alive
GUWAHATI - Villagers in India's northeast stoned four members of a family, including two women, and then buried them alive on suspicion of practising witchcraft, police have reported. - (Reuters)