■ Saudi Arabia
Eight gunmen killed
Security forces have killed eight gunmen and wounded another in a 24-hour siege in the northern town of al-Ras, security sources said. Witnesses said gunfire could still be heard yesterday morning in a neighborhood which security forces have surrounded since early Sunday. Officials described the gunmen as "terrorists." Saudi Arabia has been battling supporters of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, who have targeted Westerners and security forces in a wave of violence since May 2003.
■ Germany
Church service attacked
A man wielding a samurai sword killed a 43-year-old woman and seriously injured three others during a church service Sunday in Stuttgart. Police arrested the man at the door of the church, subduing him with pepper spray when he refused orders to surrender. Police officers arriving at the scene reported finding "grisly" circumstances. Congregants tried to push the swordsman out of the building with chairs. The suspected attacker was to face a judge later yesterday for a hearing on whether he should be initially held in jail or transferred psychiatric hospital. The suspect had previously threatened people at the church and was known to police.
■ Israel
West Bank eyed for dump
Israeli waste operators plan to dump garbage in the occupied West Bank territory for the first time since 1967, despite international treaties prohibiting an occupying state from making use of occupied territory unless it benefits the local population, reported the Haaretz daily yesterday. The plan by privately-owned waste companies is to deposit some 10,000 tonnes of garbage in a former quarry near Nablus at about a third of Israeli dumping prices. Experts fear the garbage will jeopardize Palestinian drinking water sources.
■ United Kingdom
AIDS linked to plague
The waves of plague that swept through Europe during medieval times right up to the 18th century may have contributed to a genetic make-up that has made a significant proportion of the European population resistant to AIDS, according to new British research. Christopher Duncan and Susan Scott of Liverpool University's School of Biological Sciences have created a mathematical model of genetic mutation in response to plague, according to a report in The Times. These mutations arose with each stage of plague outbreak from the Black Death in 1347 to the Great Plague of London and the Plague of Copenhagen more than half a century later, the biologists wrote in the Journal of Medical Genetics. Their research suggests that around 10 percent of Europeans enjoy protection against AIDS.
■ Denmark
Smoking lowers kids' IQs
Mothers who smoke during pregnancy appear to give birth to children who score lower on IQ tests as adults, a new Danish study says. Danish researchers studied the IQ of 3,044 young men born between 1959 and 1961, and checked their mother's smoking habits during pregnancy. The results indicated that men born to women who smoked during pregnancy scored lower on IQ tests than men born to non-smokers, the study said. Researchers believe that substances in the smoke affect the development of the central nervous system, thereby affecting the foetus' intellect.
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