A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Al-Qaeda gang in Morocco broken up
RABAT- Moroccan officials broke up a network recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda's north African branch and arrested 20 people overnight in several towns across the country, state news agency MAP reported yesterday.
The gang sent volunteers to training camps run by the Algerian-based al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, MAP quoted police sources as saying.
"The operation allowed the arrest of around 20 people in several towns across the kingdom." - (Reuters)
Basques barred from May election
MADRID- Spain's supreme court has banned Basque nationalists from standing in regional elections on May 27th because of links to outlawed separatist party Batasuna, court documents showed yesterday.
The judges, after 18 hours of overnight deliberation, banned the Abertzale Sozialistak group, saying it was a front for Batasuna, outlawed since 2002 for links to armed guerrillas Eta.
Batasuna has the support of about one-in-seven voters in Spain's northern Basque country, but the party has refused to meet government demands to condemn violence to be able to participate in the May local government elections. - (Reuters)
British policeman shot dead
LONDON -A police officer was shot dead yesterday while investigating a "domestic-related incident" at a house in Shrewsbury, West Mercia police said.
Officers had been confronted by a man with a firearm after being called to the house in the Shropshire town at 6.10am.
A man in his 30s was found dead at the house and a firearm removed from the scene. Police said they were not seeking anyone else in connection with the shooting. - (Reuters)
Pope to visit 'continent of hope'
VATICAN CITY- Pope Benedict yesterday called South America "the continent of hope" ahead of his trip to Brazil this week.
"I am spiritually preparing myself to meet the Latin American subcontinent where nearly half the world's Catholics live, many of them young people," the pope told the faithful in Saint Peter's square yesterday.
Pope Benedict will visit Brazil from May 9th to 14th. - (Reuters)
18,000 strip for photographer
MEXICO CITY- A record 18,000 people took off their clothes yesterday to pose for US photographic artist Spencer Tunick in Mexico city's Zocalo square, the heart of the ancient Aztec empire.
Tunick, who has raised eyebrows by staging mass nude photo shoots in cities from Dusseldorf to Caracas, smashed his previous record of 7,000 volunteers set in 2003 in Barcelona, Spain. - ( Reuters)
Afghan floods death toll rises
MAZAR-I-SHARIF- Floods killed at least 12 people in Afghanistan's Samangan province, the governor said yesterday, raising the death toll from flooding in the mountainous north of the country to 36 in the past week. - (Reuters)