News in Brief

American found dead in Egypt police cell
Afp, Cairo

An American found hanged in his police cell in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya on Sunday was believed to have committed suicide, Egyptian security officials said.
They said the body of James Henry, 55, who told authorities he was a "retired officer", was found at noon at Ismailiya Awal police station. The US embassy in Cairo confirmed "that a US citizen prisoner in Ismailiya died from an apparent suicide."

Shorten elected as Aussie Labor leader
Afp, Sydney

Former union chief Bill Shorten was elected Australia's new Labor leader yesterday, with the party pledging to draw a line under years of infighting that saw two prime ministers toppled.
Shorten beat ex-deputy prime minister Anthony Albanese in a month-long leadership race which went to a combined vote of Labor MPs and the party's rank-and-file members for the first time in its history.

Israel halts building supplies to Gaza
Afp, Jerusalem

Israel yesterday froze shipments of building materials to the Gaza Strip after discovering an alleged "terror tunnel" into the Jewish state from the adjoining territory, a defence official said.
Inbar, spokesman for the Israeli defence ministry unit responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, did not say how long the ban would remain in force.

Threat bars tourists from Eiffel Tower
Afp, Paris

The Eiffel Tower was evacuated yesterday and the area ringed by security forces.A police source said the action followed a threat delivered over the telephone but did not give any details. The Eiffel Tower is the world's most visited monument attracting up to 32,000 tourists daily.

Wave of blasts kills 9 in Iraq
Afp, Baghdad

More than a dozen bombs exploded in Iraq yesterday, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 70 others, officials said, as the death toll for 2013 nears 5,000.
Ten car bombs and three roadside bombs hit eight different areas of Iraq, seven of them south of Baghdad. The attacks came a day after violence including a car bomb targeting shoppers in Samarra, north of Baghdad, killed a total of 16 people.