■ United States
Addict feared `hemadromes'
A known drug addict accused of causing a deadly car crash claims he was driving like a maniac because he was being pursued by man-eating subterranean beings, a California prosecutor said on Tuesday. Scott Krause, whose trial got underway on Monday in Nevada City, California, is accused of vehicular murder after slamming an allegedly carjacked vehicle into a parcel delivery van, killing its driver. Krause has a long history of drug abuse and was under the influence of the delusion-inducing drug crystal meth at the time. "He claims he was driving fast because he was being chased by entities called `hemadromes,' subterranean beings that he thought had killed his girlfriend and were out to eat him and his children," district attorney Mike Ferguson said.
■ Russia
Arms boss beaten up
Armed men beat up and threatened to kill the head of Russian aerospace giant Sukhoi yesterday after breaking into his house and stripping it of money and jewelry, police said. The four unidentified men broke into Mikhail Pogosyan's villa in a heavily guarded compound near Moscow through an open window just after midnight, tied up his wife and 19-year-old son with electric cables, and beat him up. "They stole money, gold jewelry and a collection of coins," a Moscow police spokesman said. State-owned Sukhoi -- Russia's biggest warplane manufacturer and the country's No.1 arms exporter -- declined to comment. A source close to Pogosyan said that "Mikhail Aslanovich is alive and well."
■ Russia
Ex-detainee sues US
A Russian national released last year from the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has sued the US government in a civil court over the humiliations he claims he suffered, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported, citing the ex-detainee. "It's not a question of compensation. I want the United States to publicly recognize my innocence," Airat Vakhitov, formerly an imam in the Russian republic of Tatarstan, said. Vakhitov, one of seven Russian nationals released from Guantanamo in February last year, said he had already given testimony to a US civil court examining his complaint. He said that US soldiers at Guantanamo had tried to provoke detainees by insulting the Koran.
■ South Africa
Zuma faces court
Sacked former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma, facing two charges of corruption, appeared in court yesterday in a case that has hobbled his chances of becoming president in 2009. Prosecutors informed Zuma of the charges he would face and the Durban Magistrate's Court released him on 1,000 rand (US$150) bail.
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