■ United States
CIA paid Saddam's minister
Saddam Hussein's foreign minister was paid for information he supplied to the CIA through the French intelligence agency, which raised questions about the scale of Iraq's weapons programs, former intelligence officials said on Tuesday. The role of Naji Sabri, Iraq's foreign minister from 2001 until the US-led invasion began in 2003, was first described publicly in a 2004 speech by George Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, but Tenet did not give the Iraqi's name. The Bush administration has been accused of deliberately skewing prewar intelligence to make the case for war.
■ United States
Fleeing man dies in mud
A man running from a routine traffic stop sank waist-deep in mud and apparently died of exhaustion and cold while authorities tried to pull him out. Deputies stopped Shawn Leflore, 33, on Tuesday for having an outdated registration sticker, sheriff's spokesman Sergeant Don Peritz said. "He thought he was wanted. That is why he ran," Peritz said. "But it turns out he wasn't wanted for anything, except his driver's license was expired." Leflore ran about 640m off the road when he encountered the mud, Peritz said. The weather was windy and the temperature was about 4?C in the dark field, which had been saturated by heavy rain. Deputies searched about an hour before finding him.
■ United States
`South Park' to seek revenge
South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker vowed vengeance last week in their running battle with Scientology -- and last night's new-season premiere was apparently to be the start. Isaac Hayes may have left the animated satire in a huff over what he described as religious "intolerance and bigotry," but his Chef character, which he's voiced since 1997, is not forgotten. The character is to return just a few days after Hayes quit, saying he said he could no longer accept the show's satirical blasts at religion. Hayes, a Scientologist, is not going back to the show, but there is speculation that Stone and Parker used creative editing of his voice from past shows to fashion new dialogue.
■ United States
Pop star irritates athlete
US basketball player Carlos Boozer should really have had his wits about him when he let his US$11.9 million Hollywood home to a 47- year-old Minneapolis man with no surname. Last May, Boozer, a star with the Utah Jazz basketball team, rented out his home for US$70,000 a month to the pop star Prince. But despite an agreement that the tenant would make no alterations, Boozer soon noticed the appearance of his property had changed. According to the lawsuit, Prince painted the outside of the house in purple stripes, had his personalized hieroglyph painted on the house, as well as the number 3121 -- the title of the singer's latest album.
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