A roundup of today's other world stories in brief:
Military helicopter crash kills 10
YUZHNY, Russia - Ten Russian servicemen died when a military helicopter crashed as it ferried a party of senior officers in the North Caucasus region, an emergencies ministry spokesman said yesterday.
Anti-Moscow insurgents have shot down Russian helicopters in the region in the past. But Russia's Vesti 24 TV station said the aircraft crashed after losing its bearings in fog.
A witness said he saw an unconscious man with serious head injuries, wearing a general's uniform, being carried on a stretcher out of the wooded area where the helicopter came down.
Local people in the village of Yuzhny said they had heard an explosion and then saw flames. The site, reached along dirt roads, was cordoned off by troops.
- (Reuters)
Ivory Coast toxic waste risk abates
ABIDJAN - The health risk from toxic waste which killed six people in Ivory Coast and made thousands ill after being dumped in Abidjan is easing as some of the chemicals evaporate, the health ministry said yesterday.
Nearly 9,000 people have sought treatment for symptoms that include vomiting, nausea and breathing difficulties caused by noxious fumes from the poisonous fuel slops, which were deposited at open-air sites around the economic capital.
- (Reuters)
Two charged after terrorism swoop
LONDON - British police said yesterday they had charged two men held after a major swoop last week, one of whom was accused of undergoing terrorism training at a camp in southern England.
Detectives said Yassin Mutegombwa (22) had been charged with three counts of receiving training for terrorism at a caravan and camp site during April and June, and also at a farm in Berkshire, west of London.
He was one of 14 men arrested when officers raided a restaurant in south London. Another of the arrested men was also charged yesterday with procuring funds for terrorism.
- (Reuters)
Man cleared of murder confesses
LONDON - A man cleared of killing his former girlfriend 15 years ago made British legal history yesterday when he admitted her murder in the first case to go to court again following the reform of the double jeopardy law.
Billy Dunlop (43) was formally acquitted in 1991 of murdering Julie Hogg after two juries failed to reach a verdict. However he admitted murder at London's Old Bailey yesterday before he was due to face another trial.
His case was the first to be affected since the 2003 reform of the so-called double jeopardy rule - an 800-year-old law which stipulated that a person once acquitted could not be tried again for the same offence.
- (Reuters)
US shuttle docks at space station
HOUSTON - Space shuttle Atlantis docked with the International Space Station 218 miles (349km) above Earth yesterday to deliver a new pair of solar arrays for the half-built research outpost. The arrays are the first major addition to the station in nearly four years.
- (Reuters)
Comorian ship drowning fears
ANTANANARIVO - A Comorian ship carrying 53 passengers sank on its way from Madagascar to Comoros, with at least 22 survivors, a police source said yesterday.
- (Reuters)
Bermuda bashed by hurricane
HAMILTON, Bermuda - Hurricane Florence bashed Bermuda with powerful winds and pounding surf yesterday as it swept just offshore of the mid-Atlantic British island, with winds growing to 90mph.