World Briefs

A father and his children wade through a flooded street caused by flash floods brought about by Typhoon Mirinae in the town of Santa Cruz, Laguna province, south of Manila in the Philippines yesterday. Typhoon Mirinae smashed through the Philippines overnight, killing at least one person and worsening floods in areas that were struggling to recover from recent deadly storms, officials said. (AFP)

Italian mobster caught after 15 years

Italian police have captured a mobster at a farmhouse on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius after 15 years on the run, the country's Foreign Minister said today.

Minister Roberto Maroni said the fugitive, Salvatore Russo, is a Camorra crime syndicate boss who has been convicted of several murders and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Police said Russo had several weapons, including an Uzi and a pistol, when they found him in a hiding space behind a wall on the farm during a raid today.

Investigators say Russo headed a crime clan based in Nola, a town north-east of Naples. They say his older brother Pasquale has been a fugitive since 1995. (PA)

Bush: 'Tyranny' if militants retake Afghanistan

Former US President George W. Bush warned yesterday that "the world would face serious threats" if the resurgent Taliban and Al Qaida are allowed to retake control of Afghanistan.

While not directly commenting on the choice facing Barack Obama, Mr Bush said a peaceful, democratic Afghanistan is vital to the region.

"If the Taliban and al Qaida and their extremist allies were allowed to take over Afghanistan again, they would have a safe haven and the Afghan people, particularly the Afghan women, would face a return to a brutal tyranny," he told a leadership conference in New Delhi. (PA)

Shot mosque leader 'was no extremist'

A mosque dismissed as "utterly preposterous" FBI claims that its leader was part of a radical Islamic group.

Luqman Ameen Abdullah, the imam of Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit, Michigan, was a "recognised and respected member of numerous mainstream Muslim organisations and leadership bodies", the mosque said.

Abdullah, 53, was shot dead last Wednesday as FBI agents tried to arrest him on several charges, including conspiracy to sell stolen goods.

The FBI said he resisted arrest inside a warehouse and fired a gun.

A criminal complaint filed by the US government describes Abdullah as a leader of a national radical Sunni group that wants to create an Islamic state within the US. (PA)

Six held over UN hostel attack

Afghan authorities have arrested six people in connection with a deadly Taliban attack against a guesthouse for UN staff in the capital Kabul, the head of the national intelligence service said yesterday.

Amrullah Salih said it had been confirmed that three suicide attackers who carried out the attack at the Bekhtar Guesthouse on Wednesday were from the Swat Valley in Pakistan.

Taliban suicide gunmen stormed a UN hostel in Kabul early Wednesday morning, killing at least five foreign staff in an assault the Islamist militia said marked the start of a bloody countdown to new Afghan elections on Saturday. (AFP)

Hunt for rapist after grim find

Police in the US said at least three bodies have been found at the home of a convicted rapist, and they expect to confirm three more.

Police spokesman Lieutenant Thomas Stacho said yesterday that the bodies were found at the home of 50-year-old Anthony Sowell of Cleveland, Ohio.

He said officers have found three bodies and believe they have discovered three more but are awaiting confirmation from the coroner.

Police came to Sowell's home last Thursday to arrest him on charges of felonious assault and rape. Sowell was gone, but police found two decomposing bodies inside.

Post-mortem examinations were done on the two bodies last Friday, but the decomposition meant it would take awhile to determine the identity of the bodies and how they died. (PA)