Around the world
CHECHNYA: Russian troops launched air and artillery raids in a battle with Chechen rebels Friday morning outside the village of Bamut, the second day of air attacks on the longtime separatist stronghold. Russian Gen. Nikolai Tkachev told the Interfax news agency that Russian fire on rebel positions in the mountains around the village had destroyed one Chechen armored vehicle. He said there were between 300 and 500 rebels at Bamut. Tkachev said virtually all civilians have left the village, but that was impossible to verify independently. In other recent cases, civilians have been trapped in villages that came under Russian attack.TOYS KILLING: An eight-year-old boy in Taiwan beat up and killed his three-year-old cousin because he was upset that she took his toys, a district prosecutor said Friday. "The boy pushed her to the ground, kicked her repeatedly and rammed her head against the wall several times," said Huang Chun-chia, a district prosecutor in the southern county of Kaohsiung where the killing occurred. Huang said the girl was already dead when her father and the boy's mother, who are brother and sister, came home. "The boy admitted to killing his cousin and said he was upset because she took his toys," Huang said. The boy will be tried in a juvenile court.
BOVINE BONUS: A Brazilian soccer team is rewarding its players for good performances by giving them cattle instead of cash bonuses. The team's new top executive, a cattle rancher, came up with the idea after finding the club Londrina was $5 million in debt. "There was no point in giving checks because they just bounced," he said. So far the squad has been awarded 20 head of cattle from the executive's ranch.
Across the nation
EXECUTED: A man who dodged execution 13 times in his 14 years on death row hopped onto a gurney and was executed in Louisiana by injection early Friday for killing an elderly man during a 1979 robbery. Antonio James' last words were, "Bless you." James, 42, who waited longer for his execution than any other prisoner still on the state's death row, was sentenced to die in 1982 for murdering Henry Silver, 70, on New Year's Day 1979 in New Orleans.
MILL SHOOTING: A construction worker at a paper mill in Hawesville, Ky., opened fire during an argument in the parking lot, killing a co-worker and wounding two others. Donald L. Harris, 38, of Owensboro, had a box of ammunition and reloaded his handgun once during the attack, police said. He escaped on foot along the banks of the Ohio River and was still on the run early Friday. Police brought in dogs, erected roadblocks and commissioned a Coast Guard vessel with spotlights to help search the riverbanks.