The Iraqi army unearthed 30 decomposed bodies in a series of shallow graves in northern Iraq's volatile Diyala province, the army said yesterday.
The bodies were found over three days in the predominantly Shi'ite village of Albu-Toma, north of Baghdad, where Sunni Islamist Al-Qaeda militants once ruled and carried out frequent mass sectarian killings against Shi'ites.
"We know this area contains many graves. We may find more bodies," an army officer on the scene, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak, told Reuters.
BBC big star salaries unlikely
Multi-million pound pay deals for stars at the BBC in the future were "extremely unlikely", BBC One controller Jay Hunt said yesterday.
She told the Daily Telegraph the public broadcaster was in a good position to drive hard bargains with celebrities in pay negotiations and that salaries like the reputed six million pounds for presenter Jonathan Ross would not be the norm.
"I would say it's extremely unlikely. I believe that part of what I am there to do is to be a custodian of value on the channel and I take that very, very seriously," she said.
Sydney Opera House architect dies at 90
Danish architect Jorn Utzon, designer of the Sydney Opera House, has died of a heart attack at the age of 90, Danish media reported yesterday.
Utzon was famous for the design of the Opera House, which was declared a Unesco World Heritage site last year, but he also designed the National Assembly of Kuwait and several buildings in his native Denmark.
In 1957 he unexpectedly won the competition to design the Sydney Opera House, but left the project in 1966, six years before the official opening of the building, after quarrels with the client and huge cost overruns.
In 2003, Utzon was awarded the Pritzker Prize, one of the world's premier architecture prizes.
'Naked scanner'
Germany will begin laboratory tests in the next few weeks on full-body airport screening devices to see if they can produce images that do not show passengers naked, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.
Earlier this month, the European Commission shelved plans to introduce the security check, dubbed a 'naked scanner' by German critics, but said it still aimed to use body scanners in future.
Germany last month described the EU scanner plan as "nonsense", and an Interior Ministry spokesman said tests would attempt to show whether images of concealed explosives or ceramic knives could be generated without also showing passengers naked.
Surging shoppers kill Wal-Mart worker
A man working for Wal-Mart was killed when a throng of shoppers surged into a Long Island, New York, store and physically broke down the doors, a police spokesman said.
The 34-year-old man was at the entrance of the Valley Stream Walmart store just after it opened at 5 a.m. local time and was knocked to the ground, the police report said.
The exact cause of death was still to be determined by a medical examiner.
Four shoppers, including a 28-year-old pregnant woman, were also taken to local hospitals for injuries sustained in the incident, police said.
Italian truffle fetches $200,000
Defying the economic downturn, an Italian white truffle weighing just over one kilo sold at an international auction yesterday for $200,000.
The prized tuber went for the second year running to Hong Kong-born casino mogul Stanley Ho after an auction held simultaneously in Rome, London, Abu Dhabi and Macau, auction organisers said.
Last December, Ho bought a 1.5-kg specimen - one of the biggest truffles unearthed in half a century - for a record $330,000.
Crisis takes shine off Millionaire Fair
The global financial crisis cast such a pall over Moscow's Millionaire Fair last week that even the yachts were two-for-the-price-of-one. And nobody was buying.
Instead, members of the crisis-hit Russian elite congratulated each other on simply finding the courage to attend what is usually a glittering show of ostentation.
"We're going through a murky and complicated period," socialite Ksenia Sobchak, the master of ceremonies, told the guests at the opening of the fair.
"Everyone is a superhero for finding it in themselves to come here tonight, to try to bask in the luxury."
With a helicopter and two dazzling sports cars greeting the guests at the door, there was plenty of luxury up for sale. But the main attraction seemed to be the central bar, where free champagne was served until around midnight.