WASHINGTON
Terrorist is sentenced in millennium plot An Algerian man convicted of plotting to blow up the Los Angeles airport around the turn of the millennium was sentenced to 37 years in prison after previous 22-year terms were thrown out by an appeals court as too lenient. Ahmed Ressam, who had trained with Al-Qaida in Afghanistan, was arrested in December 1999 when a customs agent noticed that he appeared suspicious as he drove off a ferry from Canada onto Washington's Olympic Peninsula. A resulting search turned up a trunk full of explosives.
GEORGIA
Suspect in church shooting is in custody The suspect in a deadly shooting at a Georgia megachurch, Floyd Palmer, 52, was taken into custody. The shooting happened Wednesday morning inside the chapel at World Changers Church International in College Park. The victim was identified as Gregory McDowell, a 39-year-old church volunteer who was leading a prayer at the time of the shooting.
LIBYA
Government takes Gadhafi stronghold Libya's government declared it had taken control of one of the last strongholds of deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi's loyalists. The capture of Bani Walid, 90 miles southeast of Tripoli, was a triumph for the government that replaced Gadhafi's regime. But the length of time it took the government to secure the town -- a full year -- underlined the difficulties faced by the new regime in imposing its authority over squabbling tribes and heavily armed militias.
SUDAN
Israel is accused of bombing weapons factory Sudan accused Israel of an airstrike that caused a large explosion at a munitions factory, killing two people, in a residential area of the capital, Khartoum. Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman said that four planes bombed the Yarmouk complex housing a military arms factory in the south of the capital and that an analysis of rocket debris from the explosion confirmed Israel was behind the attack. Israel, which has been accused in the past of airstrikes in Sudan, did not comment on the accusations.
SOMALIA
Number of murdered reporters grows to 16 The list of murdered Somali journalists keeps growing longer. The death of Ahmed Saakin Farah brought the number of Somali journalists killed this year to 16, most in targeted attacks by gunmen who know there is little chance they will be caught. Assailants shot Farah, a 25-year-old reporter for London-based Universal TV, three times in the head around 9 p.m. Tuesday in the northern region of Somaliland. Mohamed Ibrahim, the secretary of a journalists union in Somalia, said most killings are carried out by Al-Shabab Islamist militants. "And the rest are either politically motivated assassinations or by independent criminals whose aim are all about disrupting the increasing media landscape in Somalia," he said. NEWS SERVICES
