■ United States
Toddler drowns, recovers
A hospital worker preparing a drowned toddler for a funeral home noticed the boy was breathing -- more than an hour after he had been pronounced dead. Logan Pinto, who is 22 months old, apparently wandered away from his baby sitter on Thursday and fell into a canal near his home in Rexburg, 440km east of Boise, Idaho. He was submerged for nearly 30 minutes before police found him 1km downstream, said Rexburg police Captain Randy Lewis. Though an officer tried to resuscitate him and emergency workers did everything they could to revive him, Lewis said, the boy was pronounced dead.
■ United States
Man executed in S Carolina
A man convicted of killing two women while looking for money 12 years ago was executed in South Carolina's electric chair. James Neil Tucker, 47, was pronounced dead at 6:11pm on Friday. He was the first person to die by electrocution in more than a year. Tucker was remorseful in a final statement read to witnesses by his attorney. He was convicted of killing Rosa Lee "Dolly" Oakley, 54, in her home in June 1992. He stole US$14 from Oakley, then shot her twice in the head. Tucker was convicted of killing Shannon Mellon, 21, six days after killing Oakley. Her hands and legs had been bound and she was shot three times in the head. He took her car and US$20.
■ Iran
Quake kills 20 people
A powerful earthquake struck the Alborz mountain chain in northern Iran, killing at least 20 people and damaging scores of villages, officials said. The quake, which the US Geological Survey said measured 6.2 on the Richter scale, also shook the capital Tehran on Friday, sending some startled residents running into the streets. Some windows were broken. Details on casualties and damage were thin, but officials in the quake-prone Islamic Republic played down fears of a heavy death toll in the lush region on the Caspian Sea coast that is famed for its exports of caviar.
■ Colombia
Rebels hit power supply
Two soldiers and a civilian were killed and several electricity towers bombed in a series of attacks by the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to mark their 40th anniversary this week, authorities said on Friday. The attacks on the towers occurred in Narino and Huila states, left 36 towns and tens of thousands of people without electricity and forced Colombia to buy electricity from Ecuador. In the town of Carmen de Bolivar, to the north, two soldiers, a civilian and several rebels were killed in clashes between FARC and the Colombian army.
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