■ BOLIVIA
Residents lynch policemen
Three off-duty policemen were stoned, beaten and hanged to death in a central Bolivian town after residents said they tried to extort money from a man driving without license plates, local media said on Wednesday. Deputy Interior Minister Ruben Gamarra called the lynching a "cowardly assassination" and said there would be an investigation into the possible participation of local authorities in the town of Epizana, in the province of Cochabamba, 600km southeast of La Paz. According to local media reports, residents said the policemen had stopped a driver and were trying to get money out of him because he did not have license plates.
■ CANADA
Minister may wear diaper
Ontario's health minister said on Wednesday he was prepared to wear an adult diaper in response to complaints that seniors in nursing homes are left in soiled diapers for extended periods of time. George Smitherman's suggestion was immediately dismissed as ridiculous, with a union saying he had missed the point -- that nursing homes are so short-staffed, residents are forced to wear soiled diapers through the night and sometimes well into the next day. "If the minister wants to play silly games, well then, let him put on a diaper and sleep in it all night long and come into the legislature and wear it up until 12 o'clock," said Sid Ryan, head of Ontario's chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
■ UNITED STATES
Conservative icon dies
William F. Buckley, an influential writer and commentator hailed as the guiding light behind US political conservatism, has died at 82, media reported on Wednesday. Buckley, who founded the National Review, essential reading for the right-of-center political class, reportedly died at his home in Connecticut after fighting emphysema. Buckley hosted the influential political chat show Firing Line on US television from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist.
■ KENYA
Town to protest over photo
Residents of a remote town plan to demonstrate today after a photo of US presidential hopeful Barack Obama in Somali dress took center stage in an increasingly acrimonious race for the White House. The picture showed the senator donning a traditional headdress and robes during a 2006 trip to Wajir in northeastern Kenya. Ahmed Sheikh Bahalow, a retired teacher and elder from ethnically Somali Wajir, said his community was offended by the insinuation Obama had done anything wrong on his visit. "The Somali community and in particular those living in Kenya have never been that interested in America politics," Bahalow said. "But we are following it keenly now because we have been provoked." Wajir residents planned to demonstrate after Friday prayers to show their support for Obama, he said.
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