Today's other stories in brief
Israeli forces kill boy (13) during raid
WEST BANK - Israeli forces killed a 13-year-old Israeli Arab boy and a Palestinian gunman yesterday during a raid in a village in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian ambulance crews said.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers crossed into the territory and killed two Palestinian gunmen who had opened fire at them near the border fence, an army spokeswoman said in Tel Aviv. - (Reuters)
Klansman gets life for 1964 murders
JACKSON - A former Ku Klux Klansman was sentenced to three life terms yesterday for his role in the 1964 killings of two black men in a case that highlights white supremacist violence during the civil rights era.
James Seale, who was shackled and wore an orange prison jump suit, remained impassive as the sentence was read out, witnesses said.
Seale maintains his innocence and will appeal, his lawyer, Kathy Nester, said. - (Reuters)
16 people die in Greek blazes
ATHENS - At least 16 people died and thousands of acres of forest were consumed in fires racing through Greece's Peloponnese peninsula yesterday as southeast Europe experienced a resurgence of summer blazes.
Six bodies were found near the town of Areopolis, 190km southwest of Athens, including two French tourists and two firefighters, the fire brigade and police said. Authorities were evacuating the town and nearby villages.
Ten more people were found dead near Zakharo, on the west coast of the peninsula, at least six of them in cars, a fire brigade official said. - (Reuters)
Mother Teresa's doubts revealed
NEW YORK - A book of letters written by Mother Teresa of Calcutta reveals for the first time that she was deeply tormented about her faith and suffered periods of doubt about God.
"Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear," she wrote to the Rev Michael van der Peet in September 1979.
Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light - letters written over 66 years - is due out on September 4th. - (Reuters)
Lebanese families leave camp
LEBANON - The Lebanese army has started evacuating families of the Islamist militants who have been fighting troops at a Palestinian refugee camp, a military source said yesterday.
The militants and their families have been holed up at the Nahr al-Bared camp since the conflict began on May 20th. The fighting has killed almost 300 people - the worst internal violence since Lebanon's civil war ended 17 years ago.
- (Reuters)
'Celebrity Big Brother' axed
LONDON - Channel 4 said on Friday it has scrapped next year's Celebrity Big Brother, one of its most popular shows, in sweeping changes to its primetime schedule. Director of television Kevin Lygo said all but one of the 9pm line-up will disappear.
"It is time to be brutal with some much-loved shows in order, once again, to make way for the new," he said. - (Reuters)
Eight more miners missing in China
BEIJING - Eight Chinese miners are missing after another coal shaft was flooded, this time in southwest China, a week after a mine flood in eastern China trapped and likely killed 181 miners.
Emergency crews continued to try to reach the 181 miners trapped in the eastern province of Shandong, but an official has said there is "no hope" of survivors. - (Reuters)