Daily Staff Writer

Europe

Press Association

• A man’s conviction in an alleged road chase will be re-tried in England after it was revealed that a judge fell asleep during the Oxfordshire trial.

The suspect’s lawyer discovered the sleeping judge during the trial and reported the incident to his superiors.

After an internal investigation, a re-trial was granted, based on the fact that the suspect, Tim Brown, did not have a fair trial.

The matter has now been turned over to the English Lord Chancellor’s Office.

Asia

AFP

• Two children were shot and killed by Indian troops four kilometers inside Pakistan last week. The children were 11 and 12 years old, and they fell victim to an Indian attack that included several villagers from the disputed Kashmir region.

India and Pakistan have waged three wars in the area since 1947.

Reuters

• Thousands of people are fleeing the Russian republic of Chechnya as Russian planes continue bombing for the fifth day.

Several houses outside the capital Grozny were destroyed in Monday’s attack.

After a meeting in Moscow Monday, Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergejev said the bombing would not stop until they took care of “the last bandit.”

Africa and the Middle East

Azas

• Iran’s religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has decided to allow abortions in cases where the fetus is injured.

According to Islamic law, which has been enforced since the country’s revolution in 1979, abortion is illegal.

The exception has been if the mother’s life is in danger.

Daily Dispatch

• Twenty-seven people died in a bus crash in South Africa Monday, with all but one of the fatalities being British tourists.

The crash is the second in as many weeks involving tourist buses, and tour operators fear that the recent incidents might deter tourists from coming to the country.

South America

Reuters

• A Colombian senior guerrilla leader said Monday that the United States has a much larger military presence in the nation than publicly reported and that it may be involving itself in a situation similar to the Vietnam War.

American military leaders insist that an average of 150 to 200 U.S. military personnel are in Columbia, the third-largest allocation in the world this year.