Police break up alleged terror cell

ROME - Police broke up a suspected terror cell yesterday and arrested five North Africans, including the alleged leader who Italian officials said recruited Islamic extremists for attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan. Authorities also suspect the cell sent tens of thousands of dollars to groups in Bosnia that offer training and logistical support to Iraqi and Afghan terror organizations, said Claudio Galzerano, head of the Italian police force's international terrorism division. Police arrested the five suspects - four Tunisians and one Moroccan - in Bologna and the nearby towns of Faenza and Imola, Galzerano said. A sixth suspect was being sought. (AP)

DAR ES SALAAM - The African Union will suspend Mauritania until democracy is restored in the West African nation where soldiers overthrew the president this week, AU chair Tanzania said yesterday. The statement said Mauritania had signed several AU conventions that prohibit unconstitutional changes of government, including one that it ratified last month: the African Charter for Democracy, Elections and Governance. Soldiers led by the presidential guard last week overthrew Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, the country's first democratically elected president since independence in 1974. (Reuters)

HANOI - Landslides and floods killed at least 62 people in northern Vietnam, covering the homes of some victims as they slept in their beds, disaster officials said yesterday. Dozens more were reported missing and officials feared the death toll would rise. With heavy rain continuing yesterday, rescue workers were trying to move people to higher ground. The province of Lao Cai was the hardest hit, with 25 people reported dead and 35 missing, said a provincial disaster official. (AP)