■ United States
Bank robber panics
Two people spent three hours cowering in the basement of a bank in suburban Chicago after an armed robber threatened to hold them hostage, authorities said. But what they -- and the scores of police who surrounded the building -- did not know was that the robber ran away in a panic. A man armed with a handgun walked into the Heritage Bank around 11am and told a teller that he was robbing the bank. "Something went wrong," FBI spokesman Ross Rice said. "He ordered two employees into the basement. The others fled the bank and he fled the bank ... nobody saw him leave." Police eventually stormed the building and found only the two employees.
■ Italy
Polish workers feared killed
More than 100 Poles, lured to Italy by the promise of work, have disappeared there, according to the Web site of the Polish police. It is feared some were murdered while working like slave laborers in the tomato fields of Puglia. In July Italian and Polish police seized 25 people after an inquiry revealed that thousands of Poles had been hired to work on farms that had been described by the chief organized crime prosecutor of Italy as "out and out concentration camps." The inquiry reportedly also uncovered evidence of murder.
■ United Kingdom
Study links music, lifestyle
Fans of hip hop music are likely to have had more sexual partners in the last five years while many of those who prefer classical strains will have tried cannabis, according to a study released yesterday. Psychologist Adrian North from the University of Leicester surveyed 2,500 Britons to find out how their musical tastes related to their lifestyles and interests. Almost 38 percent of hip hop devotees and 29 percent of dance music fans were more likely to have had more than one sexual partner in the last five years compared to just 1.5 percent of country music fans.
■ United States
Richards dies of cancer
Former Texas governor Ann Richards, the witty and flamboyant Democrat who went from homemaker to national political celebrity, died at home on Wednesday night after a battle with esophageal cancer, a family spokeswoman said. Richards rose to the governorship with a come-from-behind victory in 1990, cracking a half-century male grip on the governor's mansion and celebrated by holding up a T-shirt that showed the state Capitol and read: "A woman's place is in the dome." She lost to now President George W. Bush in 1995.
■ United States
Houston files for separation
The marriage of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown -- which withstood drug addiction, Brown's numerous arrests and domestic abuse allegations -- is coming to an end. Houston filed papers in Orange County Superior Court in California last Friday requesting a legal separation from her husband of 14 years, and citing irreconcilable differences.
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