An 8-year-old boy suspected of murdering his father and another man in a remote northern Arizona town admitted the crime in a video interview with police which surfaced Wednesday.

The hunt for a suspected pensioner serial killer in Germany was called off on Wednesday after police said they had been fooled by a prankster suffering from mental health problems.

A Polish university lecturer was allegedly stabbed to death by a teenager in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan, the interior ministry of the ex-Soviet republic said Wednesday.

Maciej Jozek Chowanek, who was born in 1980, was stabbed at his home and died overnight in a hospital in the Kyrgz capital Bishkek, the ministry said in a statement.

A Polish university lecturer was allegedly stabbed to death by a teenager in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan, the interior ministry of the ex-Soviet republic said Wednesday.

Maciej Jozek Chowanek, who was born in 1980, was stabbed at his home and died overnight in a hospital in the Kyrgz capital Bishkek, the ministry said in a statement.

Four men charged in connection with the killing of outspoken Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya entered not guilty pleas at their trial, a lawyer for one of the defendants told AFP on Wednesday.

Four men charged in connection with the killing of outspoken Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya entered not guilty pleas at their trial, a lawyer for one of the defendants told AFP on Wednesday.

The trial of four men charged over the 2006 murder of outspoken Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya will be held behind closed doors, a judge ruled Wednesday, infuriating her family and lawyers.

The trial of four men charged over the 2006 murder of outspoken Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya will be held behind closed doors, a judge ruled Wednesday, infuriating her family and lawyers.

The trial of four men charged in connection with the 2006 murder of Russian reporter and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya will from now on be closed to the public, the judge ruled Wednesday.

`This trial will continue as a closed trial,` said Judge Yevgeny Zubov, who is presiding over the case in a Moscow military court.

The trial of four men charged in connection with the 2006 murder of Russian reporter and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya will from now on be closed to the public, the judge ruled Wednesday.

`This trial will continue as a closed trial,` said Judge Yevgeny Zubov, who is presiding over the case in a Moscow military court.

Japanese police were Wednesday investigating suspected `terror` attacks on former top pension bureaucrats after three people were stabbed on their doorsteps, two of them fatally, officials said.

Japanese police were Wednesday investigating suspected `terror` attacks on former top pension bureaucrats after three people were stabbed on their doorsteps, two of them fatally, officials said.

A trial into the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya opens on Monday in a military court in Moscow, with supporters of the Kremlin critic fearing it will shed little light on the case.

Josef Fritzl, 73, has been charged with murdering one of the children he fathered with his daughter during the 24 years he held her captive in a cellar, as new details of her plight emerged Thursday.

Josef Fritzl, 73, who held his daughter as a sex slave in a cellar for 24 years, has been charged with murdering one of the children he fathered with her, according to the charge sheet published Thursday.

Josef Fritzl, 73, who held his daughter as a sex slave in a cellar for 24 years, has been charged with murdering one of the children he had with her, according to the charge sheet published Thursday.

Josef Fritzl, 73, who held his daughter as a sex slave in a cellar for 24 years, has been charged with murdering one of the children he had with her, according to the charge sheet published Thursday.

Prosecutors allege he was responsible for the death of a new-born in 1996 by failing to seek help even though he was aware that the baby might die.

A court in Moscow on Thursday sentenced a former banker to 19 years in prison for ordering the contract killing of deputy Central Bank governor Andrei Kozlov in 2006, a spokeswoman told AFP.

An Indian court has dropped sexual assault charges against the boyfriend of murdered British teenager Scarlett Keeling, whose body was found on a beach in the resort state of Goa.

The 15-year-old girl had been staying with Julio Lobo, 27, before her death in February this year.

An eight-year-old boy accused of murdering his father and another man was to appear in an Arizona court on Monday in a case that has shocked police and prosecutors.

The boy is alleged to have gunned down the two men, his 29-year-old father and a 39-year-old co-worker in the small rural town of St Johns, 170 miles (273 kilometers) northeast of Phoenix last Wednesday.

The killer`s confession came in a letter to police, an old man whose hidden crimes gnaw at his soul. Only he left off his name -- and triggered an unlikely police swoop on German pensioners.

To uncover the retiree with the murderous past, police took DNA samples from 5,000 elderly men around the small town of Weiskirchen this week.

A Canadian man who weighs 380 pounds (172 kilograms) will face a new trial for crushing his wife to death, local media said Thursday.

The Ontario Court of Appeal overturned Peter Mathisen`s 2005 murder conviction and ordered a new trial, saying the trial judge failed to properly instruct the jury about whether the death may have been accidental.

German police began taking DNA samples from around 5,000 pensioners in a small town on Thursday as they investigated two murders committed four decades ago.

Police had long since given up on solving the 1962 murder of 13-year-old Lydia Schuermann and the 1970 killing of 29-year-old prostitute Heiderose Berchner but a few years ago anonymous letters began appearing.

A Canadian filmmaker has been charged in a murder plot eerily similar to one of his horror movies, media said Monday.

Mark Twitchell, 29, was charged Saturday with the murder of Johnny Altinger in what police believe is a case of life imitating art.

He was to appear in court Monday.

A German woman sentenced to life in prison earlier this month for killing two Swedish children and attempting to murder their mother appealed the verdict on Wednesday, the court said.

Gunmen shot dead the brother of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in a northwestern town on Sunday, police said.

Yahya bin Haroon was abducted by armed men from his home town in Bannu district early this morning and his bullet ridden body was later found dumped in a roadside drain, senor police officer Mohammad Alam Shinwari told AFP.

LIBREVILLE, Oct 25, 2008 (AFP) - Thirteen ritual murders have been recorded in the west African country of Gabon since September, activists charged Saturday, accusing authorities of not doing enough to stop the killings.

LONDON, Oct 25, 2008 (AFP) - A 30-year-old man has been charged with the murder of two Chinese graduates whose bodies were found in their flat in Britain, police said Saturday.

Guang Hui Cao, a Chinese national, was arrested Thursday in connection with the murders of Xi Zhou and Zhen Xing Yang, both 25, found dead on August 9 in their flat in the city of Newcastle, northeast England.

KIGALI, Oct 24, 2008 (AFP) - A military court in Kigali jailed two Rwandan army captains for eight years Friday for killing 13 Catholic priests during the 1994 genocide, but acquitted their superiors of involvement in the slaughter.

JAKARTA, Oct 23, 2008 (AFP) - Indonesian police said Thursday they were looking for the 'sadistic' killer of a pregnant woman whose bruised body was found with her hands cut off.

'We have so far questioned eight people and will investigate more,' senior police officer Ramses Sianipar said, adding that the victim's husband and her 15-year-old stepson were among those questioned.

The driver for the family of a Brazilian supermarket magnate fatally shot in his Rio de Janeiro home told police Tuesday he was responsible for the crime, but said it was `accidental.`

Attackers murdered and mutilated a Tanzanian albino girl who became the latest victim of gangs who sell body parts as lucky charms to sorcerers.

Local councillor Joseph Manyara said that 10-year-old Esther Charles was killed on Sunday in the village of Shilela, in the western Shinyanga region.

Attackers murdered an albino girl in Tanzania, where albinos have been targeted by witch doctors who use their body parts for lucky charms, an official said Tuesday.

Local councillor Joseph Manyara of the western Tanzanian village where the young girl -- a grade three primary school pupil -- was murdered at the weekend said police were hunting the attackers.

A former child actor was found guilty by a California jury on Monday of murdering a retired couple who were tied to the anchor of their yacht and thrown overboard while still alive.

A Japanese businessman who was found dead in prison shortly after arriving in Los Angeles to face trial for killing his wife committed suicide and was not murdered, police said Monday.

Los Angeles Police Department deputy chief Mark Perez said there was no evidence to suggest that 61-year-old Kazuyoshi Miura, who faced trial for the 1981 killing of his wife, had been murdered.

A Brazilian supermarket magnate was shot dead in his Rio de Janeiro home early Monday, possibly by one of his former bodyguards, police said.

Arthur Sendas, 75, was murdered after apparently opening his door for his killer. The gunman fled after firing one shot.

Sendas, who owns 80 supermarkets in Rio de Janeiro state, was taken to a nearby hospital but died of his injuries.

A Shanghai court on Monday rejected an appeal from an unemployed man who became an unlikely cult hero after murdering six policemen in what he said was revenge for a wrongful arrest, his lawyer said.

Staff and students at a university in northwest Algeria suspended classes on Sunday to protest the murder of a lecturer who was stabbed to death by one of his pupils.

A high-ranking police official in the Central African Republic (CAR) was murdered by unknown assailants in the capital Bangui, a police source said Thursday.

Commisioner Herve Trepasse, the head of emigration services, was killed by a group of attackers as he was going home Wednesday night, the source said.