■ UNITED STATES
Pearl's widow drops lawsuit
The widow of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl has withdrawn a lawsuit seeking damages against al-Qaeda, a dozen reputed terrorists and Pakistan's largest bank. In a letter on Tuesday to the federal judge presiding over the case, lawyers for Mariane Pearl noted that Habib Bank Limited and the other defendants in the case had not answered the lawsuit filed in July, but they otherwise did not explain their reason for dropping the action. The lawsuit had sought unspecified damages against people and organizations that Mariane Pearl alleged were involved in the kidnapping, torture and murder of her husband in 2002.
■ COLOMBIA
Journalists flee after threats
Two journalists have fled the country in the past week because of death threats, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said on Wednesday. The committee said in a statement that television presenter and documentarian Hollman Morris left on Sunday and radio host Geovanny Alvarez fled on Friday. Morris, who recently won an award from the Foundation for New Journalism, has been threatened before but decided to leave for the US with his family after receiving an e-mail last month from a group calling itself the Colombian Patriotic Front that called him "an anti-patriot, a member of the guerrillas, and a tattletale."
■ UNITED STATES
Truck driver charged
A truck driver who stole an art masterpiece by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya from an unattended transport truck in Newark, New Jersey, and then claimed he found it in his basement was charged with theft, authorities said. Steven Lee Olson, 49, was charged with stealing Children with a Cart, a 1778 painting by Goya, federal prosecutors said. The painting was insured at a value of about US$1 million. In an initial appearance in federal court in Newark on Wednesday, Olson through his lawyer decided not to immediately contest his detainment.
■ CANADA
PM Harper survives vote
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government on Wednesday tightened its grip on power by surviving the last in a series of tricky no-confidence votes that could have led to early elections. MPs voted 126-79 in favor of the ruling Conservatives' upcoming legislative agenda, unveiled last week in a major policy speech. Both the separatist Bloc Quebecois and leftist New Democratic Party voted against Harper's program. But the main opposition Liberals abstained.
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