Today's other stories in brief
Gunman takes two hostage at high school
COLORADO - An adult gunman took two girl students hostage at the high school in the tiny mountain town of Bailey, Colorado, yesterday and several shots were reported to have been fired.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Hundreds of students were evacuated from Platte Canyon High School. - (AP)
Israel releases Hamas politician
TEL AVIV - Israel has released the Palestinian deputy prime minister, the highest-ranking of some 30 officials in the Hamas-led government, after jailing him without charges for more than a month.
Nasser Shaer said yesterday he was not mistreated by his jailers. More than 30 top Palestinian officials were arrested, apparently for use as a bargaining chip to try to win release of a captured Israeli soldier. Relations between Israel and the Palestine have deteriorated since Hamas took power in March.
An Israeli court has banned Mr Shaer from going to Ramallah on the West Bank for two weeks. - (AP)
British police hunt 'violent' prisoner
REDDITCH - British police are hunting a "violent" and "very dangerous" criminal who escaped from custody with the help of two masked men with a gun.
Det Chief Insp Kevin Purcell of West Mercia Police said Craig Hickinbot- tom was serving a five-year 11-month sentence for armed robbery when he escaped.
- (AP)
Milingo to press for married priests
WASHINGTON - A dissident African Catholic archbishop who was excommunicated for ordaining married men as bishops, says he rejects the Vatican's censure and will continue his campaign to force the church to accept married priests.
Emmanuel Milingo in 2001 was married in a mass ceremony conducted by the Rev Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. He was excommunicated on Tuesday for ordaining four married men as bishops at a ceremony in Washington.
- (Reuters)
Gotti escapes conviction again
NEW YORK - Accused mob boss John Gotti eluded conviction for a third time - matching his late father's record - when a federal judge declared a mistrial yesterday after jurors were deadlocked.
Prosecutors did not say whether they would seek a fourth trial on racketeering charges. Two previous trials were voided when juries failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Mr Gotti (42) had faced up to 30 years in prison. - (Reuters)
Missing orphan found in Italy
ROME - Italian police have found a 10-year-old Belarus orphan girl whom an Italian couple kept in hiding for nearly three weeks, fearing she would be abused if she returned to the orphanage in her home country.
The girl disappeared three weeks ago just as she was due to return to the orphanage where the Italian family, who host her each year for holidays, believes she was sexually abused.
Police found the girl in a village in northern Italy with the couple's parents. The Belarussian ambassador to Italy said she would be repatriated as soon as doctors found her fit for travel. - (Reuters)
Protests against Kenya corruption
NAIROBI - Thousands of Kenyan opposition supporters marched through Nairobi yesterday calling for the country's top anti-graft official to quit.
Many Kenyans blame Aaron Ringera, director of Kenya's anti-corruption commission, for the slow pace of investigations into the Anglo Leasing affair, in which $200 million in state contracts went to a phantom firm. - (Reuters)