World Briefs

Tina Aydon pedals her way around the shark tank at Deep Sea World near Edinburgh, Scotland in aid of the Breast Cancer Campaign charity, held over the weekend. (PA)

Pizza may be baked using coffin wood

Italian prosecutors believe pizza in Naples may be baked in ovens lit with wood from coffins dug up from the local cemetery, Italian daily Il Giornale reported yesterday.

"Pizza, one of the few symbols of Naples that resists... is hit by the concrete suspicion that it could be baked with wood from coffins," Il Giornale said.

Investigators in Naples are setting their sights on the thousands of small, lower-end pizza shops and bakeries that dot the city on suspicion that patrons may "use wood from caskets to keep ovens burning."

Naples' graveyard has long been hunting ground for thieves: last year, 5,000 flower pots were stolen from the cemetery. (AFP)

Dies while trying to save pet

A 16-year-old girl from the Leeds area died after she was hit by a train while trying to retrieve her dog from the tracks, police said.

British Transport Police said Natasha Jennifer Elliott died after she was hit just outside Morley station, near Leeds, on Sunday.

A spokesman said: "Natasha was believed to have been trying to retrieve her dog from the tracks when she was struck by the 17.52 York to Blackpool North Northern Rail service." (PA)

Maoists blow up bus

At least 35 people were killed after Maoist rebels blew up a bus carrying police and civilians in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh yesterday, an official said.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh told reporters in the state capital Raipur that the dead included 11 police personnel.

"Twenty-four civilians and 11 policemen have died and 15 persons including 14 police personnel were injured in the blast," the chief minister said.

He said an unspecified number of bodies were still trapped in the mangled bus following the mine blast in Dantewada district - a Maoist stronghold where rebels ambushed and killed 75 policemen last month in the bloodiest massacre of security forces by the extremists. (AFP)

Internet trickster jailed indefinitely

A "devious" 48-year-old man who tricked two teenage girls from the Preston area into believing he was 17 on the internet and then raped them has been jailed indefinitely.

Eugene Molloy gained their confidence before he pretended to be the fictitious boy's father who threatened to kill his "son" if they did not have sex with him. Both victims complied with the truck driver in the misguided belief they were protecting "Deano", who they considered to be their boyfriend, Preston Crown Court heard.

Mr Molloy, of Filey, North Yorkshire, used the photograph of a good-looking young man from the West Midlands area who would unwittingly become the face of "Deano" on a social networking website. He went on to groom the girls for between six and 12 months before he put the second stage of his plan into practice. (PA)

Seven-year-old shot dead by police

A sleeping seven-year-old girl was killed when a Detroit police officer's gun went off during a search for a murder suspect.

Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee said Aiyana Jones was hit in the neck by a single bullet and died in hospital. Police said the girl was sleeping on a couch when she was shot.

"This is any parent's worst nightmare. It also is any police officer's worst nightmare," Mr Godbee said.

Mr Godbee said officers with the department's Special Response Team set off a flash grenade as they entered an apartment with guns drawn about 12.40 a.m. local time yesterday, with a warrant to look for a suspect in the murder of a 17-year-old boy.

The lead officer encountered a 46-year-old woman immediately inside the front room of the house and "some level of physical contact" followed, during which the officer's gun went off, Mr Godbee said. The officers had identified themselves as police, he said. (PA)