PARIS -- Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor originally sentenced to death in Libya for allegedly contaminating children with the AIDS virus left Tripoli today on a plane with the French president's wife, France's presidential palace said. Cecilia Sarkozy, the wife of Nicolas Sarkozy, arrived Sunday with the delegation, which includes the European Union commissioner for foreign affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner. France had been seeking the return home of the six -- in jail for eight years -- in a final goodwill gesture by Libya after it commuted their death sentences last week in favor of life in prison. Bulgaria has asked Tripoli to repatriate the medics to serve their sentences in Bulgaria. It had granted citizenship to the Palestinian doctor, Ashraf al-Hazouz. (AP)
switzerland
Lindbergh imitator is killed in crash
ZURICH -- A Swiss pilot attempting to emulate Charles Lindbergh's 1927 solo trans-Atlantic flight was killed yesterday when his small aircraft crashed into an apartment block shortly after takeoff, police said. Six people on the ground were injured when the former airline captain lost control as he began a 30-hour solo flight to Oshkosh, Wis., Basel police spokesman Nicholas Drechsler said. Aero Club of Switzerland identified the pilot as Hans Georg Schmid, a 58-year-old retired captain with the former national airline Swissair. (Bloomberg)
gaza
Relatives suspected in sisters' slayings
GAZA CITY -- A Hamas security force said yesterday that the brother and cousin of three sisters who were stabbed to death last weekend were suspects of what was likely to have been an "honor killing" and ordered the men jailed. Witnesses said unidentified men dumped the bodies of the women in a predug grave in a cemetery late on Saturday. Honor killings are usually carried out to punish women suspecting of committing acts seen as dishonorable to the family, such as adultery, being the victim of a rape or sex crime, or refusing an arranged marriage. (Reuters)
china
Climber's body found on mountain
BEIJING -- Chinese rescuers have found the body of an American climber on a remote mountain eight months after she disappeared, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. Christine Boskoff, 39, and fellow climber Charlie Fowler, 52, had not been heard from since November. Fowler's body was found in December at an altitude of 17,400 feet on Genyen Mountain, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, but the search for Boskoff was suspended because of poor weather. Chinese rescuers resumed the search after winter snow had melted and discovered Boskoff's body near where Fowler was found, Xinhua said. (Reuters)
indonesia
Death toll rising in flood disaster
JAKARTA -- Flash floods and landslides caused by torrential rain have inundated villages, destroyed bridges and roads, and sent thousands fleeing their homes, officials said yesterday. At least 39 people have died, and the toll is expected to rise in the next few days as rescuers reach the disaster zone's more isolated areas, officials said. Rescuers struggled to get food, blankets, medicine, and other supplies to some 16,000 forced from their homes. (AP)
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