A roundup of today's other world stories in brief:
Opposition wins Beirut by-election
BEIRUT- A Maronite Christian opposition candidate won a byelection to Lebanon's parliament yesterday, an opposition leader said, dealing a blow to the country's western-backed ruling coalition.
Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun said his candidate closely beat Amin Gemayel, a former president and a key member of the ruling coalition, in a byelection in the Metn district of Beirut.
Earlier, unofficial results showed pro-government candidate Mohammad Amin Itani winning by a large margin the Sunni Muslim seat in a Beirut district vacated by the killing of MP Walid Eido in June.
- (Reuters)
Korean hostages' medicine delivered
GHAZNI- Afghan doctors delivered medicines yesterday for 21 South Koreans kidnapped by Taliban rebels in Afghanistan more than two weeks ago.
The head of a private Afghan clinic said his team had dropped more than $1,200 (€870) worth of antibiotics, painkillers, vitamin tablets and heart pills in an area of desert in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province as instructed by the rebels.
- (Reuters)
Asylum seekers escape from centre
LONDON- Sixteen asylum seekers are on the run after escaping from an immigration detention centre in Oxfordshire, British police said yesterday.
After a fire was started on Saturday evening at Campsfield House, around five miles north of Oxford, 26 detainees escaped. Ten were quickly recaptured.
"We're working to ensure everything is done to locate the missing detainees," said Supt Robin Rickard.
- (Reuters)
Closed trial for Muslim officials
CAIRO- Egyptian authorities barred human rights groups, the media and around 60 defence lawyers from the closed military trial of Muslim Brotherhood officials yesterday, the opposition group said.
A source said observers from Amnesty International and the Arab Commission for Human Rights, based in France, were stopped from attending. Some defence lawyers were allowed in court and four family members for each defendant. The Brotherhood is Egypt's biggest opposition force.
- (Reuters)
Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel
BEIJING- A railway tunnel under construction in central China collapsed yesterday, trapping 12 workers, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The official agency said the rest of the 52 people working in the tunnel had been freed after the accident in Hubei province early in the day.
- (Reuters)
Aztec ruler's tomb discovered
MEXICO CITY- Archaeologists believe they have made the first discovery of a tomb of an Aztec ruler.
Radar equipment suggests the tomb of Ahuizotl, the last Aztec ruler to die in power, has several chambers and lies five metres below ground in a major ceremonial site in the heart of Mexico City.
- (Guardian service)
Madonna faces adoption setback
JOHANNESBURG- Pop star Madonna's attempts to adopt a Malawian child hit a snag after the court-appointed official on the case was refused permission to travel to Britain.
One of Malawi's leading weeklies reported yesterday that the minister of women and child development, Kate Kainja, refused to allow Penstone Kilembe to travel to assess the suitability of Madonna and her husband, film director Guy Ritchie.
- (Reuters)