Bomb attackers are given life sentences

NEW DELHI A court sentenced 23 people to life imprisonment for their role in bomb blasts that killed 58 people in a southern Indian town nine years ago.

A total of 70 people were convicted for their role in the planting of 19 bombs in Coimbatore on February 14, 1998, shortly before Lal Krishna Advani, the Hindu nationalist leader, was to address an election rally. He was not present at the attack as his flight was delayed.

S.A. Basha, the founder of a banned radical Muslim group, Al-Umma, was among those sentenced yesterday.

The town was the scene of clashes between Hindu and Muslim mobs in November 1997 when 17 people, mostly Muslims, died. (AP)

Flight of fantasy

SINGAPORE Julian Hayward, a Briton, was the first passenger on board Singapore Airlines’ Airbus A380, the world’s largest airliner, for its maiden commercial flight to Sydney last night. He paid £50,160 in an online auction for two first-class suites. (AP)

Sick boy loses horse

AMARILLO Two pit bulls killed a miniature horse that had been donated to a three-year-old boy who has a malignant brain tumour. The dogs attacked the 79cm tall horse, called Anniversary, in its enclosure in Pampa, Texas. (AP)

Mine collapse kills 12

BEIJING At least 12 people died after houses fell into a coal-mine tunnel that was being extended under a residential area of the city of Yangquan, northern China. State media did not say if those that died had been in the houses or the tunnel. (AP)

‘Voodoo gang’ held

THE HAGUE Police in Europe and the United States have arrested 20 members of a gang who are suspected of smuggling young girls out of Nigeria to work as prostitutes. It is thought the gang used voodoo rituals to intimidate their victims. (AP)

Paraglider killed

OSLO A student died when he lost control of his paraglider and hit a 22,000-volt power line in Svorkmo, central Norway. A teacher had tried to contact the 22-year-old victim, who has not been named, by radio to alert him to a fault on the wing. (AP)

Executed for ambush

RIYADH A man convicted of injuring a security guard after opening fire on a truck carrying prisoners has been beheaded, Saudi sources said. Hadi Sulieman was executed in the southern city of Najran after the attempt to free a prisoner. (AP)

Mother ‘heard devil’

MICHIGAN A woman who said she heard the devil’s voice tell her to kill her two young daughters and the family pets will spend her life in prison, a judge ruled yesterday. Jennifer Kukla, 31, was found guilty of first-degree murder. (AP)

Gropers beware

TOKYO Women commuters on Tokyo’s packed trains have a new defence against wandering hands. A free download allows their mobile phones to display messages in large type such as: “Groping is a crime” and “Shall we head for the police?”. (AP)

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