World briefs 10/17/02

Jury discharged in trial of Princess Diana's butler

LONDON -- A judge halted the theft trial of Princess Diana's butler on Wednesday and dismissed the jury without public explanation.

The trial of Paul Burrell, which has filled tabloid pages for 2 1/2 days, is expected to restart at the Old Bailey criminal court today, with a new jury of seven men and five women who were sworn in Wednesday afternoon. They were told the case would last six weeks.

Court orders forbid reporting why Justice Anne Rafferty dismissed the jury so soon after the start of the trial.

Burrell has pleaded innocent to three charges relating to the theft of hundreds of items from the princess and other members of the royal family.

Burrell, 44, is accused of taking more than 300 items in 1997 and 1998.

Hostage-taking incident leaves three dead

KAMLOOPS, British Columbia -- A provincial government worker who lost his job returned to his office with a gun, taking hostages in a standoff that left three men dead, police said Wednesday.

The identities of the dead men were being withheld, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Andy Murray would not say whether the 56-year-old armed man was among them.

Four parcel bombs go off in Karachi, nine injured

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Police and government offices were shaken by a series of parcel bombs that exploded within minutes of each other Wednesday in this volatile port city, injuring at least nine people.

Authorities said at least one of the packages had "from Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal," written on it -- a reference to the United Action Front, a coalition of anti-American religious parties that made unprecedented gains in last week's national elections.

Four other bombs were spotted and defused.

Israel allows West Bank outpost to stay

HAVAT GILAD, West Bank -- Israeli soldiers and police backed down from a confrontation with Jewish settlers at an illegal West Bank outpost Wednesday, permitting them to remain at the disputed hilltop site during daylight , the settlers said.

"It's a victory for us," said Rivka Shimon, a relative of the family that lives on the land, maintaining that for the first time, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government had given tacit approval to creation of a new West Bank settlement.

Some 2,000 settlers and backers, most of them teenagers, had gathered in a show of force to discourage soldiers from tearing down a cluster of three mobile homes, camping tents and a roofless synagogue placed there as the beginning of a new settlement near the Palestinian town of Nablus.

Jordanian court orders retrial of terrorist

AMMAN, Jordan -- An appeals court has struck down the conviction of a Jordanian-American condemned to death for conspiring to bomb tourist sites and ordered a retrial.

The court ruled that military judges had "insufficient evidence" to convict Raed Hijazi, 33, of possessing arms and manufacturing explosives at the end of his trial in February.

The appeal court delivered its ruling on Oct. 6, but it was released to journalists only on Wednesday.

-- From wire reports