US filmmaker held, accused of spying

LAGOS - A US documentary filmmaker was arrested along with his translator and accused of spying after he filmed soldiers in Nigeria's troubled oil region, a military spokesman and media rights organization said yesterday. Nigerian Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa said the military handed the American to state security operatives for questioning after arresting him in the southern oil center of Port Harcourt. The Paris-based rights group Reporters Without Borders identified the filmmaker as Andrew Berends, from New York. (AP)

HIROSHIMA - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday became the highest-ranking sitting US official to visit ground zero of the world's first atomic bombing. The Democrat, who came to this western port city for a two-day annual gathering of Group of Eight legislative heads, joined other speakers in paying their respects at a memorial to the Hiroshima bombing. One by one, each bowed, then laid flowers at a white, arch-shaped monument containing the names of more than 200,000 victims of the nuclear blast. No serving US president or vice president has ever visited Hiroshima. (AP)

CAIRO - An Egyptian lawmaker and business tycoon was arrested yesterday in the death of a Lebanese pop singer, Egypt's chief prosecutor said, accusing the man of paying a former police officer $2 million to kill her. Hisham Talaat, a lawmaker from President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party, is accused of ordering the death of 30-year-old Suzanne Tamim, who was found decapitated in her Dubai apartment in July, chief prosecutor Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud said. The death prompted a media ban last month, following reports that high-profile Egyptian figures were involved. (AP)

SYDNEY - Australian troops clashed with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan late yesterday in fighting that left several insurgents dead and nine Australian soldiers wounded, the military said. The fighting reflected rising violence in southern Uruzgan Province, where attacks on foreign forces by the resurgent Taliban have increased in recent months. It was not immediately clear whether the Australian troops attacked the Taliban, or vice versa. One Australian soldier sustained life-threatening injuries, five had serious wounds, and the wounds to three others were reported to be slight, Australian military officials said. A precise number of Taliban casualties wasn't available. (AP)

WANA - At least 11 people, including women and children, were killed in northwest Pakistan today in an attack a security official and a witness said was carried out by US forces from Afghanistan. The attack involving helicopters took place in the village of Angor Adda in the South Waziristan region, a known sanctuary for Al Qaeda and Taliban militants, they said. (Reuters)