A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Strong quake hits Africa's lakes region
NAIROBI - A strong earthquake jolted Africa's Great Lakes region yesterday, killing at least one person in Congo's remote east and rattling regional capitals.
The US Geological Survey reported that a 6.8 magnitude quake struck near the town of Kalemie in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 975 km (600 miles) southwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Tremors were also felt in Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Kalemie, an eastern Congolese town on the shores of Lake Tanganyika with a population of 200,000 people, has reported at least one death and several injuries. - (Reuters)
10 children among 14 pool dead
MOSCOW - Fourteen people, including 10 children, have been confirmed dead after a roof caved in on a swimming pool in Russia's Urals.
A further nine people were being treated for injuries in hospital, a news agency said.
The swimmers were buried in debris on Sunday when metal supports holding up the roof at the 11-year-old pool in Chusovo collapsed, the local administration said. Its list of victims included 10 children, one boy born as recently as 2001. - (Reuters)
Architect sued over fake quake data
TOKYO - Japan's infrastruc- ture ministry has filed a criminal complaint with police against an architect who had faked quake-proof data in a widening scandal that has stunned home owners in the earthquake- prone country.
The ministry took the action amid growing public concern that many buildings may not withstand even moderate earthquakes.
Hidetsugu Aneha (48) was believed to have been involved in designing 208 buildings in 11 prefectures. Officials said he had fabricated quake-proof data for at least 55 of them so that they would not withstand even moderate tremors. - (Reuters)
Eminem 'fan' jailed for murder
LONDON - A British man, who was so obsessed with the US rapper Eminem that he dressed like him, had the same tattoos and used to perform the same dance routines, has been jailed for life for battering a woman to death.
Christopher Duncan (21) forced his victim to undergo a torrid sexual ordeal before he beat her round the head with a metal baseball bat and, although she was still alive, crammed her into a suitcase where she died up to 90 minutes later.
On the night of the murder, Duncan had met her in a London karaoke bar where the manager said he had been "aggressively" performing songs by Eminem, notorious for his violent and misogynistic lyrics. - (Reuters)
More jailings in Uzbekistan
TASHKENT - A further 58 people have been given long jail sentences over a rebellion last May in the Uzbek town of Andizhan in two separate closed trials, according to Uzbekistan's Supreme Court.
More than 500 people were killed, witnesses said, when troops cracked down on anti-government protesters in the town, in the east of the former Soviet Central Asian state. Authorities say 187 people - mainly "foreign-paid terrorists" - died. - (Reuters)
Paedophile rulings overturned
PARIS - French President Jacques Chirac has apologised to 13 people who spent long periods in jail before being cleared of paedophilia charges, saying they were the victims of an unprecedented judicial disaster.
An appeals court last week overturned paedophilia convictions against six people, including a priest, after the collapse of a case in which seven other people had already been acquitted last year. - (Reuters)