Cop gets five years for panty stunt

CAIRO, Egypt (AP):

An Egyptian court in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria sentenced a police major to five years in prison and two policemen to one year for forcing a detainee to wear women's underwear and parading him before the public, judicial sources reported yesterday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said Major Yousri Ahmed Issa was convicted Saturday for ordering his men to force Ibrahim Abbas, the detainee, to wear women's underwear and walk on a major street.

Garbage protest

NAPLES, Italy (AP):

Protesters opposing the reopening of a garbage dump in Naples celebrated Mass in the street yesterday as the city's trash, uncollected for more than two weeks, piled ever higher.

''You can't solve the problem by reopening another dump,'' the Rev. Giuseppe Cipolletta told reporters after holding the open-air Mass in the Pianura neighbourhood. ''It will just fill up, so where is the solution to the problem?''

Using a plastic table as an improvise the Catholic priest celebrated Mass at a gas station near the long-closed dump that is to be reopened, leading about 100 protesters who sang prayers and Christmas hymns in the rain.

Sarkozy to wed ex-model soon

PARIS (AP):

A French newspaper said yesterday that recently divorced French President Nicolas Sarkozy may marry former supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni, his new girlfriend, next month.

Under the headline 'Marriage Imminent,' the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche reported that several sources, none of whom it identified, said the two would marry on February 8 or 9.

Pilots die in crash

AMMAN, Jordan (AP):

Two Jordanian air force pilots were killed yesterday when their aircraft crashed outside the capital Amman, the official Petra news agency reported. It was the second air force crash in a week.

In a brief dispatch, Petra said the crash took place at noon. It quoted an unnamed military source as saying the aircraft was on routine training mission.

Six killed as plane plunges into sea

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP):

A small plane crashed in waters off Kodiak island in southern Alaska, killing six of the 10 people on-board, authorities said.

The Piper Navajo Chieftain crashed soon after take-off Saturday afternoon in shallow waters, according to the coastguard. The pilot radioed that he would be turning the plane around, according to Clint Johnson, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.