A round up of today's other stories in brief...
Man with burns arrested over student killings
LONDON - A man arrested by police seeking the killer of two French students is suffering from burns, it emerged last night.
The man (33) walked into a south London police station earlier yesterday and was arrested over the deaths of Gabriel Ferez (23) and Laurent Bonomo (23).
But officers will have to wait to interview the suspect because he required hospital treatment for his injuries.
The badly burned bodies of the two students were found after an explosion at a rented bedsit in southeast London eight days ago. They had been bound, gagged and tortured. - (PA)
Mann sentenced over coup plot
MALABO - British mercenary Simon Mann was jailed yesterday for 34 years by a court in Equatorial Guinea for a failed 2004 coup plot in which he said the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was also involved.
Mann (56) an Eton- educated former army special forces officer, was sentenced to 34 years, four months and three days for conspiring to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in the west African state. - (Reuters)
Mechanical glitch on Obama aircraft
CHICAGO - An aircraft carrying Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made an unscheduled landing after developing a mechanical problem yesterday.
The pilot experienced a problem maintaining the proper pitch, or keeping the nose at the proper angle, as it was taking off from Chicago.
A US federal aviation administration spokeswoman said the aircraft landed in St Louis, Missouri, en route to North Carolina. - (AP)
Polish minister in US for shield talks
WARSAW - Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski flew to Washington yesterday to try to salvage talks with the US on missile defence after Warsaw rejected a US proposal to upgrade Poland's armed forces.
The US wants to base 10 missile interceptors in Nato ally Poland as part of a drive to counter perceived threats from what Washington calls "rogue states", particularly Iran. But Poland has sought in return billions of dollars in US investment to upgrade its air defences. - (Reuters)
Hizbullah, Israel to swap prisoners
BEIRUT - Israel and Hizbullah have signed a UN-mediated prisoner exchange deal and the date for the swap will be settled this week, a Lebanese political source and the Israeli prime minister's office said yesterday.
The Lebanese source said Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert had signed a deal under which Israel will release five Lebanese prisoners and Hizbullah will hand over two Israeli soldiers. - (Reuters)
Nicole Kidman gives birth to girl
NEW YORK - Actor Nicole Kidman gave birth yesterday to a girl, her husband, singer Keith Urban, told fans on his website. The baby will be called Sunday Rose Kidman Urban. - (Reuters)
Abuse of Afghan boys denounced
UNITED NATIONS - Afghanistan must do more to end an age-old practice of young boys being kept as sex slaves by powerful patrons, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict said yesterday.
Radhika Coomaraswamy said the practice, called bacha bazi (boy play), was a taboo subject, but she had heard reports of warlords and military commanders keeping boys and "exploiting them in terrible ways". - (Reuters)