News In Brief

Guantanamo hunger strike widens
Afp, Washington

More Guantanamo prisoners have joined a hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention at the US-run military jail, with 97 out of 166 detainees refusing food, officials said Friday.
Among the strikers, 19 have been given nasal feeding tubes, and five of those are hospitalized but do not have life-threatening conditions, Guantanamo Bay spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Samuel House said in a statement.
The rapidly-growing protest movement began on February 6, when inmates claimed prison officials searched their copies of the Koran for contraband, according to their lawyers. Officials have denied any mishandling of Islam's holy book.

Bomb hits police station in Benghazi
Ap, Tripoli

Libyan security officials say a blast hit a police station in the eastern city of Benghazi, causing no human casualties but underlining the fragile security situation in the country's east.
The explosion took place early morning Saturday at Barka police station, destroying the facade, the officials said. It was the second bombing at the site this year.
A day earlier, a militiaman was killed when armed men attacked the headquarters of his pro-government group, Uqba ibn Nafi, in the eastern city of Darnah. The area is largely controlled by radical Islamist militias, officials said.
Meanwhile, a five-star hotel in Tripoli evacuated its staff and guests after receiving a bomb threat on Friday. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Japan PM Abe escapes car injury
Afp, Tokyo

A limousine carrying Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was involved in a five-car pile-up at a toll gate in Tokyo yesterday but he escaped without any injuries, police said.
Two guards in a police car accompanying Abe's official vehicle suffered slight injuries to the face, a Metropolitan Police Department spokesman said.
The police car made a sudden stop at the toll gate, which led to Abe's vehicle bumping into it from behind.
Two other police cars and a saloon carrying reporters, which were trailing Abe's limousine, were also involved in the collision, said the official.

Napoleon's ring sold in Vienna
Afp, Vienna

A silver lock of an Austrian emperor's hair and a ring containing a jewel unearthed by Napoleon in Egypt and then given to his wife Josephine have been auctioned in Vienna.
Franz Joseph's hair lock went for 13,720 euros ($17,870) to an unidentified buyer while an unnamed Italian telephone bidder bought the ring for 97,900 euros, the Dorotheum auction house said.
Napoleon (1769-1821) discovered the antique gemstone during his militarily disastrous but scientifically successful expedition -- it also turned up the famed Rosetta Stone -- to Egypt in 1798-99.

2 dead in India hospital roof collapse
Afp, Bhopal, India

Two people were killed and 16 injured when the ceiling of a hospital in central India came crashing down, trapping patients and employees under the rubble, officials said Saturday.
Rescue workers smashed through giant slabs of concrete and combed through other debris to search for victims after the ceiling of the first floor of the women's wing of the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital in Bhopal caved in Friday.
"The bodies of two persons were found when the rescue team started removing debris from the collapsed structure," Nikunj Shrivastava, chief district administrative officer, told reporters at the scene.