Today's other stories in brief
Executions in Indonesia spark violence
JAKARTA - Violence erupted across several parts of eastern Indonesia yesterday after three Christians were executed for leading attacks on Muslims during a sectarian conflict on Sulawesi island in 2000.
A prison in Atambua, in West Timor, the home of one of the militants, was stormed and 200 men escaped and attacked the prosecutors' office. On Flores, where the other two were born, police fired warning shots to save a parliament building from a mob. - (Guardian service)
Hammond making 'good progress'
LONDON - Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is making "good progress" after being moved out of intensive care yesterday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
His friend and co-host James May said doctors at Leeds General Infirmary were "cautiously optimistic". - (Reuters)
Ban on use of illegal phone-taps
ROME - The Italian government yesterday passed a decree banning the use of illegally intercepted phone conversations as evidence in court and imposing large fines for printing or broadcasting illegal phone-taps.
The move comes just days after 20 people, including the former head of security at telephone firm Telecom Italia, were arrested over an alleged bugged call scam and after a long series of high-profile phone-tap leaks. - (Reuters)
19 workers killed in Afghan ambush
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Nineteen Afghan labourers were killed yesterday in an ambush in southern Afghanistan, the interior ministry said. The workers' bus was blown up and gunmen then opened fire. - (Reuters)
Turkish media want law scrapped
ANKARA - Turkey's media yesterday called for a law making it a crime to insult "Turkishness" to be scrapped, saying it tarnished the image of the country.
Leading novelist Elif Shafak was acquitted on Thursday ocharges that her characters in a novel had insulted Turkey by referring to a massacre of Armenians in 1915. - (Reuters)