Today's other stories in brief
Suspected crime bosses acquitted
SOFIA – A Bulgarian court yesterday acquitted two suspected organised crime bosses of charges related to a string of killings, at a time when Sofia is under pressure to crack down on mafia crime to avoid losing EU aid.
Brothers Krasimir and Nikolai Marinov were also found innocent of participating in an organised crime gang.
The Sofia court sentenced four other men, who had stood trial together with the Marinov brothers since 2006, to between three and five years in jail for taking part in an armed group that plotted three murders. – (Reuters)
Syrian opposition figures released
DAMASCUS – Syrian authorities have released three prominent opposition figures after they completed jail terms on charges of weakening national morale, their lawyers said yesterday.
The three men were part of a group of 12 who were arrested during 2007 and jailed for two and a half years after they tried to revive the Damascus Declaration, a human rights movement named after a 2005 manifesto. Prison terms for the remaining nine expire over the next two months. – (Reuters)
European press healthier than US
PARIS – A new report has suggested that US newspapers should look to their European counterparts for tips on how to weather the ongoing crisis in print media.
The report, by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, shows that US newspapers are the biggest losers among the papers in the world’s most industrialised countries.
The US market declined 30 per cent between 2007 and 2009, the report said. Yet the newspaper publishing market declined 9 per cent in Germany and just 2 per cent in Austria during the same period. – (AP)