One of ETA's most notorious members left a Spanish jail yesterday after serving 21 years for offences including the killing of 25 people, prompting victims' groups to hold countrywide protests.
Inaki de Juana of the Basque separatist group had been originally sentenced to 3,000 years for a wave of bombings and shootings in Madrid in the mid-1980s.
He walked free from a jail near Madrid in the early morning accompanied by his wife and lawyers amid tight security.
Spain's government has voiced its concern and said it expected de Juana to abide by the law.
Six dead in Georgia shootout
As many as six people died in a shootout in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, where Georgian forces exchanged fire with separatists overnight, a separatist website said yesterday.
South Ossetia broke away from Georgia after a bloody war in the early 1990s. Russia has deployed a peacekeeping force there which Moscow says is needed to avert a new war.
South Ossetia said on its official website, cominf.org, that the death toll had risen overnight from three to six people and armed clashes continued through the night on the outskirts of the separatist capital, Tskhinvali.
It said shooting came from three ethnic Georgian villages, but Georgia blamed the rebels for provoking the clashes.
Somali ministers quit as government rift deepens
Two thirds of Somalia's cabinet ministers resigned yesterday, officials said, widening a rift between the president and prime minister that threatens to wreck the country's interim government.
The 10 ministers who quit were all allies of President Abdullahi Yusuf, who has appeared increasingly at odds with Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein. This week, Yusuf revoked an order by Hussein sacking Mogadishu's powerful mayor.
"I have resigned because the government has failed to implement its programmes and has gone against the charter," Khadija Mohammed Diriye, the former family affairs minister, told Reuters in Baidoa, where parliament sits.
She said 10 of her colleagues tendered their resignations, four of them from overseas. Somalia had 15 ministers.
Kenyan cattle raiders kill at least 30
Livestock rustlers have killed at least 30 people in Kenya's remote Turkana region where clashes over scarce pasture and water resources often flare, a local leader said yesterday.
Heavily armed raiders from the Pokot community attacked the Turkana, about 300 kilometres north of the capital Nairobi, and made away with at least 700 animals, area legislator Josphat Nanok told Reuters.
"The place where the killing happened is very remote and can only be accessed by aircraft. So far the police have not even been to the scene to get the facts on the ground," Nanok told Reuters about the attack.
Scotland Yard to join Antigua shooting probe
British detectives were flying to Antigua yesterday to help the Caribbean island's police investigate the shooting that left newly-wed Ben Mullany in a coma and killed his wife, Scotland Yard said.
The Antiguan police force has limited resources, prompting authorities there to make the request for assistance through Britain's Foreign Office.
"The Metropolitan Police will be sending a team of officers to Antigua today," Scotland Yard said in statement. "The team, which will include one officer from South Wales police, will support the local senior investigating officers."
Mullany, a 31-year-old physiotherapist who has been in intensive care since being shot in the neck, was flown home by air ambulance and is being assessed at a hospital in Swansea.
His wife Catherine, 31, died when the pair were attacked in their hotel bungalow in what reports said was a botched robbery.
The couple were at the end of their honeymoon after a wedding in south Wales on July 12. A large reward has been offered for information leading to the conviction of the killer.
Japan PM launches new cabinet
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda launched his new cabinet yesterday after a reshuffle aimed at boosting his soggy ratings with voters, but domestic media said the unpopular leader was still at risk of losing his job.
Fukuda tapped a popular rival, former foreign minister Taro Aso, for a key ruling party post and drafted a mix of veterans and fresh faces to put his stamp on policy amid worries about a slowing economy and the growing costs of an ageing population.
But it was unclear whether the personnel revamp would give much of a boost to Fukuda's support rates, recently languishing around 25 per cent, given doubts about his leadership.
The leader faces a divided parliament, where feisty opposition parties can stall laws and are keen to force a snap poll for the lower house.