■ Iraq
More Lebanese captured
Two more Lebanese men employed by companies working in Iraq have been kidnapped there by groups seeking ransom payments for their release, the Lebanese daily newspaper As-Safir reported yesterday, quoting diplomatic sources in Beirut and Baghdad. The paper said the men -- named by security sources as Georges Fernando and Jamil Dib -- were abducted on Monday. It also confirmed that a third man, shown earlier in a video screened by an Arabic-language TV station had been held for the past month.
■ United States
God stays in pledge
Millions of American children will continue to start their school day by pledging allegiance to "one nation, under God" after the US Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a challenge to the oath from the father of a 10-year-old girl. Michael Newdow, a Californian atheist, had sued Congress, US President George W. Bush and others to remove the words from the pledge. He argued that the phrase contradicted the first amendment of the US constitution, which guarantees that government will not "establish" religion. But in its decision the Supreme Court dodged the issue of the separation of church and state, and instead chose to dismiss the case on the grounds that the father, who is in a custody case with the girl's mother, had not established the right to speak for the child.
■ European Union
Prodi successor sought
Germany and France said on Monday they were working very closely on finding a successor to Romano Prodi as head of the EU Commission and expected a candidate to be named soon. "I expect the Irish presidency will make a proposal that can be agreed on," German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told a news conference following a meeting in the western German town of Aachen with French President Jacques Chirac.
■ United States
Writer, neighbor slain
Los Angeles police on Monday arrested a man suspected of decapitating an elderly Hollywood screenwriter before taking his head as a grisly trophy and slaughtering his neighbor. The killer murdered the 91-year-old scriptwriter Richard Lees in his home on Sunday before leaping a garden fence with the severed head and slaying his next victim, retired doctor Morley Engelson, 67. Police said they had brought Kevin Graff, 27, into custody in connection with the grisly double murder just minutes after making a public appeal for information. Lees had written scripts for the US comedy show Abbott and Costello and for the western series Rawhide and a number of B-movies.
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