■ United Kingdom
`Cursing Stone' a curse?
After a string of local misfortunes, elders of the town of Carlisle are considering whether the £10,000 (US$19,000) artwork, the "Cursing Stone" should be removed and destroyed, a report said on Wednesday. The stone, a 14-tonne granite slab intricately engraved with a 16th-century diatribe against violent raiders, was commissioned by city councilors for the Millennium celebrations. Created by Carlisle-born artist Gordon Young, is now stands at the center of the city, near its castle. The 1,069-word curse was originally levelled at "reiver families," who raided Carlisle and other parts of the far north of England from just over the border in Scotland in the 16th century.
■ South Africa
Coup plotters to be freed
Most of the suspected mercenaries detained in Zimbabwe over an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea were set to return to South Africa yesterday after their sentences were suddenly reduced without explanation, a foreign ministry official said. On Wednesday, a Zimbabwean court cut the sentences of most men by four months, but judge Yunus Omerjee gave no reasons when he handed down his ruling in an application made by the suspected mercenaries' lawyers late last year.
■ The Hague
Bosnian pleads not guilty
The wartime commander of Bosnia's Muslim army pleaded not guilty at a war crimes tribunal yesterday, to charges of responsibility for the murder and rape of Croats and Serbs by foreign Islamic fighters. Delic, charged with four counts of violations of the laws or customs of war, pleaded not guilty to responsibility for the murder, cruel treatment and rape of Croats and Serbs by forces under his command during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. "Your Honor, not guilty," Delic said in a webcast of his initial appearance at the UN's tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
■ United States
Writer leaves mystery
It might not have the majesty of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, or the viciousness of his attacks on the American dream. But the last written word of Hunter S. Thompson, who died last week, has left the literary world intrigued and enthralled. According to a sheriff's report, the author's body was found in a chair by his kitchen table, on which a typewriter had been placed and a page of writing paper had been lined up with the word "counselor" typed at its center. Thompson, 67, killed himself with a shot from a pistol at his home in Colorado. The police report describes how his son, Juan Thompson, walked outside the house after discovering the body and fired three shotgun blasts into the air, later telling a deputy sheriff he had done it to "mark the passing of his father."
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