Islamists ambush Ethiopian troops
MOGADISHU Muslim fighters were reported to have clashed with Ethiopian forces near the seat of Somalia’s government yesterday, inflicting large numbers of casualties and destroying armoured vehicles. The Islamists ambushed an Ethiopian convoy in Qasah-Omane, 70 kilometres (45 miles) southwest of Baidoa in the second attack against Ethiopians in three days. The report could not be confirmed. (AFP)
Wing and a prayer
CHICAGO Leaders of the Arizona branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations protested after six imams from Phoenix were allegedly removed in handcuffs at Minnesota from a US Airways flight for trying to pray. The airline denied discrimination and is investigating. (Reuters)
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KATHMANDU Four French mountaineers who went missing in Nepal are believed to have died in an avalanche after crossing illegally into Tibet. They were thought to have set off to climb Mount Paldor, but then crossed into Tibet and tried to climb Ganesh Himal 7 on the Chinese-Tibet border. (AFP)
Market fire kills 15
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GUATEMALA CITY A huge fire at Central America’s largest open-air market killed 15 people, including 3 children, and sent up columns of smoke visible ten kilometers (six miles) away. The fire broke out in an area of illegal temporary fireworks stands near a section of the permanent market. (AP)
STOCKHOLM A revolver that may have been used in the unsolved murder of Olof Palme, the Swedish Prime Minister, in 1986 was found in a lake near Mockfjaerd. The .357 Magnum was used in a robbery there in 1983. A bullet fired from the gun used in the raid matched those found at the murder scene. (AFP)
BBC reporter freed
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ISLAMABAD A Pakistani BBC journalist was released in the capital by unknown men a day after they abducted, blindfolded and assaulted him. Dilawar Khan Wazir, from the BBC Urdu-language service, said that he was snatched from a taxi in Rawalpindi. He did not know why he was targeted. (AP)
Racists’ life terms
SANTA ANA Stephen Wolfe, the Assistant US Attorney, sentenced three suspected leaders of Aryan Brotherhood, a violent white supremacist gang, to multiple life terms for three decades of murders and attempted murders in jails. Barry Mills, 58, Tyler Bingham, 59, and Edgar Hevle, 54, will not be eligible for parole. (AP)