■ United States
No charges for Iraqi shooting
US military investigators have decided there is not enough evidence to bring formal charges against a Marine who killed an unarmed Iraqi while his unit searched a Fallujah mosque last fall, CBS reported on Wednesday. The Marines entered the mosque during an offensive aimed at clearing insurgents from Fallujah. They were seeking the source of insurgent gunfire and found several men wrapped in blankets on the mosque floor. After what he reported as movement, a Marine fired at one of the men on the floor, killing him. "At the very least, Navy legal experts believe the situation is ambiguous enough that no prosecutor could get a conviction," the network reported.
■ Slovakia
Gloves cost Bush points
US President George W. Bush technically didn't press the flesh when he greeted top Slovak officials on Wednesday night because he never took his gloves off. The White House wardrobe malfunction -- an apparent violation of protocol in Slovakia caused a stir in that country, where Bush's arrival for yesterday's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin was shown live on TV. Deana Lutherova, an expert in Slovak manners and protocol, said Bush's failure to remove his black leather gloves when greeting the country's president, prime minister and others was unheard of in Slovakia. First lady Laura Bush also kept her gloves on during the round of handshakes at Bratislava's airport.
■ United States
Roaming tiger killed in LA
Wildlife authorities in California shot and killed an elusive tiger on Wednesday that had stalked homes and alarmed the residents of a Los Angeles suburb for more than a week, police said. The tiger, which weighed between 181kg and 272kg was hunted down near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, after residents spotted the mysterious beast in their back yard. It had sparked a major alert last when its large paw prints were spotted on Feb. 8 around suburban neighborhoods of the second largest US city. The animal however was not sighted until Wednesday morning. Officials are trying to determine where the big cat had come from but said that no-one had reported losing a tiger in the area.
■ United States
Torso found at recycler
A badly decomposed partial human torso found on Wednesday in a Brooklyn recycling plant that handles trash from the New York City Transit system may be from the same man whose limbs were found last week in a subway tunnel, the police said. The lower torso, with an upper thigh, was found about 10am by a worker at the Rapid Processing plant. Detectives suspect that the torso and limbs came from the same man because both sets of remains were in similar recycling bags but are awaiting the results of DNA tests and an autopsy.
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