■ Germany
Corpse dumped at castle
The headless and naked corpse of a man was discovered at the parking lot on a road leading to the landmark castle Frankenstein near Darmstadt. Officials said a couple made the grisly find on Monday and alerted the authorities. No further clues were found during an extensive search of the forests around the hilltop medieval-style fortress. In what was termed a "gangland-style" killing, the bullet-riddled body of a male 30 to 50 years of age was devoid of clothes or any other possible clues to identification.
■ United States
Double agent wants bail
A wealthy Chinese-American woman who claims she was a double agent working for the US should not be granted bail, prosecutors said in arguing that she is a flight risk who could easily flee to China. Katrina Leung, who is accused of passing classified documents to China, filed a motion in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday asking that she be released on US$1 million bail. Leung is charged with obtaining classified documents from the briefcase of her FBI handler, James Smith, and copying them with the intent of using them to benefit a foreign nation. The government also alleges that Leung, 49, carried on sexual relationships with Smith, 59, and another FBI agent.
■ Italy
Leader protests innocence
Italy's billionaire Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made a symbolic appearance at his own corruption trial on Tuesday, blustering against his adversaries but giving little strong new evidence, while parliament prepared to pass a law giving him immunity. Berlusconi protested his innocence, claiming the trial -- for allegedly corrupting judges during the 80s -- had been one long, entirely fictitious smear campaign. "There is nobody here. There is no murder weapon. There is no motive," Berlusconi told a packed Milan courtroom.
■ South Africa
Boy looks for white family
A South African boy who said he was abducted from a white family and brought up tending animals in a rural black township is not related to two white families who thought he was theirs, officials said on Tuesday. The case of the blond, pale-skinned youth known as "Happy Sindane" has gripped the country's media since he turned up at a police station on May 19 saying he had been kidnapped years ago. A white Afrikaner couple from the capital Pretoria said they thought Sindane might be their son, who vanished in 1992. But justice department spokesman Heinrich Augustyn said they and another white family who had volunteered for DNA tests had been shown not to be related to Sindane.
Agencies
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