3rd Satyam officer charged with fraud

NEW DELHI - Indian police yesterday arrested Vadlamani Srinivas, the chief financial officer of outsourcing company Satyam Computer Services, the third executive to be charged in a fraud case involving nonexistent assets. The arrest came as authorities tried to contain the $1 billion scandal by dissolving the company's board and announcing plans to name 10 replacements. (AP)

EAST LONDON - Jacob Zuma, president of the African National Congress, launched his party's parliamentary election campaign yesterday by promising massive public spending projects to aid the poor. Zuma told a rally of 60,000 leftist supporters that the party is determined, despite the global financial crisis, to create jobs and a stronger social safety net in this nation of 50 million. (AP)

BUENOS AIRES - Six children were killed and eight other people injured when a predawn fire ripped through a former Buenos Aires bank that was being used as a home by poor families. At least 28 people were living illegally in the building, officials said. The victims were all siblings, 1 to 13 years old. Their parents survived. The cause was not determined. (AP)

SAN'A - Osama bin Laden's former driver was released yesterday from a Yemeni prison after completing his sentence, the Interior Ministry said. A US military tribunal convicted Salim Hamdan in August of aiding Al Qaeda and sentenced him to 5 1/2 years in prison. Hamdan, who had served five years and one month at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, was transferred to his home country to finish the term. (AP)