A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Whistleblower sent to jail for life in China
BEIJING - A Communist Party official in southern China who rose to prominence last year by denouncing official corruption in a letter on the Internet was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday at the culmination of a year-long campaign by party authorities to silence and discredit him.
Chinese state media did not report the conviction of Huang Jingao (53), the whistleblower in Fujian province who captivated the country last year with stories of his attempts to root out corruption in party ranks. - (Los Angeles Times/Washington Post Service)
Damages awarded to Annan's son
LONDON - The son of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan accepted substantial undisclosed damages yesterday over a claim that he was involved in negotiations to sell millions of dollars of Iraqi oil under the auspices of Saddam Hussein.
Businessman Kojo Annan had brought High Court libel proceedings over a story in the Sunday Times last January. - (PA)
Lichfield dies after suffering stroke
LONDON - Patrick Lichfield, whose dashing looks, royal pedigree and artistic talent made him one of the fashion world's best-known photographers, died in hospital yesterday after suffering a stroke. He was 66. Lichfield, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth, was best known for his informally-posed 1981 wedding portraits of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. - (Reuters)
Protesters attack French institutes
ATHENS - Groups of demonstrators, some of them said to be anarchists, broke windows and spray-painted slogans on buildings housing French cultural institutes in Athens and northern Greece in support of rioters in France, Greek police said yesterday. - (Reuters)
Vatican has no place for gays
MILAN - A new Vatican document will bar from the priesthood practising homosexuals, men whose gay tendencies are "deeply rooted" or who openly espouse a gay culture, a leading Italian newspaper reported yesterday.
Il Giornale of Milan printed what it said were excerpts from the document, which is due to be issued at the end of this month. - (Reuters)
Prosecutors go after CIA agents
ROME - Prosecutors have requested the Italian government to seek the extradition of 22 suspected CIA agents over the kidnapping of a terrorism suspect who was allegedly grabbed off a Milan street in 2003 and taken abroad, a judicial source in Rome said yesterday. - (Reuters)
More Tory MPs swing to Cameron
LONDON - Conservative leadership contender David Cameron yesterday won the support of a further five Tory MPs, including one who had previously backed his rival, David Davis.
The latest estimates show that Mr Cameron now has the backing of 107 MPs - well over half the 198-strong Conservative parliamentary party. - (PA)
Dutch arrest in terror inquiry
AMSTERDAM - Dutch police have arrested a 22-year-old man as part of an investigation into planned attacks on politicians and government buildings by suspected Islamic extremists, prosecutors said yesterday.
The man was arrested on Tuesday at his home in Amsterdam and a judge in Amsterdam ruled that he should remain in custody while police inquiries continued in the case. - (Reuters)