A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Policewoman shot dead in Bradford
BRADFORD - One female police officer was shot dead and another injured while investigating a robbery in the centre of Bradford yesterday , West Yorkshire police said.
The policewomen had been called to a travel agency in the city's Morley Street when they were shot by armed men at around 3.25 pm.
"Two officers were shot. This proved fatal to one officer, and the other officer is injured and is receiving treatment in hospital," a spokeswoman said.
Police sealed off streets in the city centre as they searched for suspects. - (Reuters)
Sri Lanka PM wins presidency
COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's hawkish prime minister, Mahinda Rajapakse, won the island's presidency yesterday after a Tamil Tiger boycott torpedoed his main rival, and vowed to forge an "honourable peace" with the rebels.
Thursday's poll was seen as a referendum on how to rescue the island's faltering peace process and tsunami-hit economy, but the rebels scared away ethnic Tamil voters who had been expected to back opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Analysts suspect the Tigers are using a 2002 ceasefire that halted two decades of civil war to regroup and rearm.
They say the Tigers called for a poll boycott to damage the chances of the more moderate Mr Wickremesinghe to buy time to push for a separate homeland. Without the boycott, Mr Wickremesinghe could have won.- (Reuters)
China detains Catholic priest
BEIJING - China recently detained an underground Roman Catholic priest and 10 seminarians, a rights group said in a statement yesterday.
Word of last Saturday's detentions came just ahead of a planned visit to Beijing by President George W Bush during which he is expected to press China on religious freedom and attend a church service.
Beijing has had no links with the Vatican since 1951 and insists relations cannot be resumed unless the Holy See severs links with self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as a breakaway province.- (Reuters)
Prince to sue over journal reports
LONDON - Prince Charles is to take legal action against a Sunday tabloid newspaper that published extracts from his private journals.
A spokesman for the prince said yesterday that he had reluctantly decided on the move against Associated Newspapers after extracts appeared in the Mail on Sunday.
The journal contained Charles's views on the 1997 handover of the British colony of Hong Kong to China. - (Reuters)
Crowe pleads guilty to assault
NEW YORK, - Academy Award-winning actor Russell Crowe pleaded guilty yesterday to reduced misdemeanor charges for hitting a hotel clerk with a telephone in June and was fined $160 and told to stay out of trouble.
Crowe, the star of such movies as A Beautiful Mind and Gladiator, was given a conditional discharge by Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Kathryn Freed and told he must avoid arrest for a year. The New Zealand native admitted to using a phone to assault a hotel employee but said nothing else.- (Reuters)