■ United Kingdom
Former football star arrested
Former Manchester United and Northern Ireland football star George Best spent 11 hours under arrest Friday in connection with an alleged assault on his estranged wife Alex, a top-selling British newspaper said yesterday. Best, 57, was arrested after a drunken tiff with his wife in the south England town of Reigate where he and Alex once shared a house, The Sun said. He split from 31-year-old Alex in September after failing to give up drinking despite undergoing a liver transplant in July last year. "We just wanted a nice Christmas. It was meant to be amicable," Alex was quoted as saying by The Sun. "He started drinking and then this happened," Alex said, reportedly pointing to a bruise on her lip.
■ United States
Boy killer could walk
Prosecutors said they have offered a plea bargain that could mean almost immediate freedom for the boy whose murder conviction and life sentence in the slaying of a 6-year-old playmate were thrown out earlier this month. The deal is identical to one the boy, Lionel Tate, and his mother rejected in 2001, before he went to trial. Tate, now 16, beat 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick to death when he was 12, claiming he accidentally killed her while imitating pro wrestling moves he had seen on television. The plea bargain would let Tate plead guilty to second-degree murder and receive a sentence of three years in prison, of which he has already served 33 months.
■ United States
Bush offers help to Iran
US President George W. Bush expressed sympathy for Iran on Friday after an earthquake there killed more than 20,000 people and offered support for a country he has deemed part of an "axis of evil." "Laura and I heard this morning of the earthquake centered in the city of Bam, Iran," Bush said in a statement from his ranch in Texas, where he will spend the New Year's holiday with his family. A Bush spokesman said Washington would be offering humanitarian aid to Iran but it was unclear how that offer would be extended since the US has no official ties with Tehran.
■ Haiti
Mass protest against Aristide
Thousands turned out for the latest protest against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government on Friday as the country prepared for its bicentennial celebrations. Organized by university students the day after Christmas -- what is normally a quiet day in the Caribbean country -- the march drew both workers and unemployed. Most of Haiti's 8 million people are jobless. Meanwhile on Friday, government attorney Dameus Clame Ocman said he fled to the US to escape government pressures on him to sign an illegal arrest warrant for three organizers of a Dec. 2 anti-government protest.
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