Other stories from around the world in brief
8 foreign staff abducted from Nigerian rig
LAGOS - Gunmen abducted eight foreign workers in a night-time raid on an oil rig off the coast of Nigeria yesterday, raising new security fears after a series of militant attacks that cut output from Africa's top oil producer.
Some 20 to 30 attackers fired shots as they boarded the rig at 3am from four speedboats but no one was injured, security sources said.
The abducted men are six Britons, one Canadian and one American, the owners and operators of the Bulford Dolphin rig said. - (Reuters)
New bird flu outbreak in Niger
LONDON - Scientists in Europe have confirmed a new outbreak of deadly H5N1 bird flu in southern Niger, near the border with Africa's most populous country Nigeria, a senior local government official said.
Tests carried out in Europe confirmed the presence of H5N1 in samples taken from the village of Boko Mai Gao, around 10km from the border with Nigeria's Kano state. The discovery comes three days after Niger described its epidemiological situation as "calm". - (Reuters)
Rwandan radio ex-chief jailed
NAIROBI - A United Nations court trying the masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide yesterday handed a six-year sentence to a former director of a radio station whose broadcasts were accused of encouraging the killings.
Joseph Serugendo was a member of the governing board of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), and of the National Committee of the Interahamwe za MRND militia group.
The RTLM was notorious for its radio broadcasts encouraging the killing of "cockroaches", as Tutsis were called during the genocide in which 800,000 people were killed. - (Reuters)
New rights for Danish lesbians
COPENHAGEN - Denmark's parliament passed a controversial law allowing lesbian couples and single women the right to free artificial insemination at public hospitals.
Most members of Denmark's centre-right government opposed the Bill, which was proposed by the opposition, but several members of the governing Liberal party defied Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, ensuring its passage. - (Reuters)
'Titus' comes with health warning
LONDON - Shakespeare's Globe Theatre has issued a warning about its gory new production of Titus Andronicus after four members of the audience fainted in one night.
The Bard's bloodiest play features scenes of mutilation, rape and murder.
Its most famous moment comes when the Queen of the Goths is served a pie filled with the cooked flesh of her own sons.
But it was the horrific scenes in which Titus's daughter Lavinia, played by Laura Rees, has her hands cut off and tongue cut out that proved too gruesome for some standing close to the stage. - (PA)
Actor stops show after phones ring
NEW YORK - British actor Richard Griffiths reportedly unleashed a furious outburst on a Broadway audience after a succession of mobile phones rang during a performance of Alan Bennett's The History Boys.
When the third call trilled out, Griffiths, who has previously thrown theatregoers out of West End performances for the same crime, was said to have turned to the auditorium and told the perpetrators they should be ashamed of themselves.
He announced he would start the scene again and threatened that the show would be over if he heard any more ringing. - (PA)