A round-up of today's other world stories in brief...
Mother on daughter kidnap charge
LEEDS - The mother of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews, who went missing for 24 days earlier this year, has been charged with her kidnap and false imprisonment, a court heard yesterday. Karen Matthews, (32), had previously been accused of perverting the course of justice and child neglect.
The extra charges were revealed during a plea hearing at Leeds Crown Court. Matthews appeared in court along with Michael Donovan (40), who is already charged with nine-year-old Shannon's kidnap and false imprisonment. He is also charged with perverting the course of justice, the court heard.
Both defendants pleaded not guilty to the kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice charges. No plea was entered for the child neglect charge. - (PA)
10 killed in air strike on Taliban
HERAT - A US-led coalition air strike killed a woman and child and eight Taliban fighters in western Afghanistan yesterday.
The raid in Farah province was aimed at the house of a local Taliban commander who was among those killed, Ghulam Farouq Niami, an Afghan army commander said. - (Reuters)
• ROBERT DE Niro has walked out of Mel Gibson's return to acting thriller, Edge of Darkness, after less than a week due to "creative differences".
De Niro was to play an operative sent to the scene of the killing to clean up the evidence.
Gibson plays the father of the victim, a detective working for the Boston police department. "Sometimes things don't work out; it's called creative differences," a spokesman for De Niro told Variety. - ( Guardian service)