■ COLOMBIA
Drug haul not largest
The Colombian navy said on Tuesday that a buried cache of cocaine found along the Pacific coast was much smaller than initially believed and not the largest drug haul in the nation's history, as officials first claimed. On Monday, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said a 25m ton cache of cocaine worth upward of US$500 million was found buried in 1,000 packages near the town of Pizarro, 400km west of Bogota. He called the seizure the "biggest in the history of Colombia." But the navy said on Tuesday the amount of cocaine seized actually totaled 13.2m tonnes.
■ NIGERIA
Kidnappers release victim
Gunmen released the mother of a prominent Nigerian politician in the troubled oil-rich southern region late on Tuesday, nearly a day after she was kidnapped from her home, police said. Police Commissioner Felix Ogbaudu said the mother of River State Governor-elect Celestine Omeiha was in good health and had been reunited with her son. It was not immediately clear who her kidnappers were, and they had not made any demands, Ogbadu said.
■ GUYANA
Crowd lynch `vampire'
A crowd lynched an elderly woman after villagers accused her of being an evil spirit of local lore who drinks the blood of babies, police said. Police have arrested three people and are questioning others in the beating death of the unidentified woman, whose remains were found on Saturday in a village east of Georgetown, Superintendent Balram Persaud said on Monday. Authorities said the woman raised suspicions with unusual behavior and was set upon by villagers who apparently believed she was an "Old Higue" -- the equivalent of a vampire in the local Obeah religion that blends folk magic and African rituals. The woman's assailants reportedly beat her to death with a broom made from manicole trees and circled the body with white rice.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Prince Charles fires up
Britain's Prince Charles compared the challenge of tackling climate change to the Allies' struggle in World War II during a speech to business leaders on Tuesday. Addressing representatives from firms including Barclays Bank, British Airways and Rolls-Royce at Saint James's Palace in London, Charles said that "we need to act very rapidly indeed" to avert environmental disaster. "We can do it, just think what they did in the last war. Things that seemed impossible were achieved almost overnight," the heir to the throne added. Charles has long harbored a passionate interest in green issues.
■ UNITED STATES
David Lynch makes plea
Maverick filmmaker David Lynch called on Tuesday for schools around the world to adopt transcendental meditation to help avoid a repeat of last month's US university shooting in which 33 people died. "I think rules about guns being in schools will never stop school violence," Lynch, whose dark and disturbing movies include Blue Velvet and Eraserhead, said in a Webcast to promote the brand of meditation he has been practicing for more than 30 years. "The cure for this is a very, very beautiful cure, a very beautiful technique," he said. In 2005 Lynch launched the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-based Education and World Peace.
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