Los Angeles Two women in their seventies could spend the rest of their days behind bars for murdering two homeless men to make millions from a life insurance scam.

Helen Golay, 77, and her friend Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, were convicted of the murders of Paul Vados, 73, who was run over by a car in 1999, and Kenneth McDavid, 50, knocked down by a car in 2005.

The court was told that the women, friends for more than 20 years, had taken out some 26 life insurance policies on the two men and were paid $2.8 million by the insurers after their deaths. The women were arrested in 2006 after police found DNA traces of one of the victims on the underside of a car. (AFP)

Kathmandu Former Maoist insurgents have won 120 of 240 directly elected seats in the assembly that will write a new constitution for Nepal. King Gyanendra has denied he will be leaving the country ruled for centuries by his ancestors. (AP)

Kuala Lumpur The Malaysian leg of the Olympic torch relay passed off largely without incident under a heavy security presence. Police arrested three members of a Japanese family after they waved a Tibetan flag and detained a British woman and a Buddhist monk.

After Kuala Lumpur, the torch travels to Indonesia where a shortened, invitation-only event will be held in a stadium guarded by 2,500 police to deter protesters. Australia has beefed up security for Thursday's relay in Canberra, where nearly half the police force will be on duty.

Japanese officials, who receive the Olympic torch on Saturday, will start the relay from a car park after a temple pulled out of the event. (AFP)

Beijing Crops and livestock in northwest China were devastated by sandstorms and cold weather, causing a loss of about 5 billion yuan (£363 million), according to news agencies. The cold snap coincided with the early arrival of China's typhoon season. (Reuters)

Srinagar The body of a Norwegian skier who went missing in January was found at a resort in Kashmir. Franciska Rogne, 26, was last seen heading for the slopes in Gulmarg, west of Srinagar, just before snowstorms set in. (Reuters)

Madrid Pirates holding 26 crew on a Spanish fishing boat off the Somali coast demanded a ransom for their release, a day after storming the vessel. Pirates also attacked a Japanese oil tanker in waters between Somalia and Yemen. (AFP)

Washington The Supreme Court cleared the way for capital punishment to resume after a 7-month hiatus by rejecting the appeals of three men who were given reprieves. Executions had been halted by a legal challenge to lethal injection methods. (AP)

Nassau The bodies of 20 migrants - 19 Haitian and a Honduran - were recovered from the sea near the Bahamas. The rescue operation began after fishermen heard screaming in the water. Three survivors were found. (AP)

Kathmandu The former communist insurgents have won 120 of the 240 directly elected seats in the assembly that will write a new constitution for Nepal. King Gyanendra has denied that he will be going into exile. (AP)

Moscow An American pastor was sentenced to three years and two months in jail for smuggling ammunition into Russia. Phillip Miles, from Conway, South Carolina, said that the .300-calibre hunting cartridges were for a friend. (AP)

Brussels Poland must urgently upgrade its environmental protection laws to European Union standards or risk losing billions of euros in aid, the EU's regional aid commissioner Danuta Hübner said. (Reuters)

Riga A Latvian minister has resigned after being accused of using state funds to pay for her birthday party. It was reported last week that Ina Gudele's 43rd birthday party in June 2007 had been paid for with 790 lats (£909) from public coffers. (AFP)

Lagos Rebels from the Niger Delta in Nigeria said that they attacked two oil pipelines in a message to the US to stop supporting “injustice” there. They said the pipelines could belong to Shell and Chevron, but there was no confirmation. (Reuters)

Athens Greece reclaimed an ancient funerary vase more than 1m tall found in the possession of a Swiss art dealer after it was illegally exported, the Greek Culture Ministry said. The dealer intended to sell the vase, made in the 4th century BC. (AFP)

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