Afghanistan
Taliban kill cows in atonement
Butchers with long knives sacrificed 12 cows in the courtyard of Afghanistan's presidential palace Monday to atone for the delay in destroying two giant statues of Buddha.
The cows were the first of 100 that were ordered killed throughout the country by the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. The meat was given to the poor.
Omar issued the order last weekend, saying the cows would be sacrificed as an offering because of the tardy demolition of 170-foot and 120-foot statues of Buddha in central Bamiyan. The statues were carved from a cliff face in the third and fifth centuries.
Video footage released Monday by Associated Press Television showed an empty cavern, above, where one statue stood.
Romania
Stray dogs shipped abroad for adoption
Bucharest's stray dogs will be sent abroad for adoption to save them from being put to death, an international animal rights group said Monday.
The first 16 dogs were sent Sunday night to Brussels, Belgium, the rights group Animals Without Borders said. Requests for adoptions have come from as far away as Los Angeles, spokeswoman Gabriela Ionita said.
More than 200,000 stray dogs roam the streets of the Romanian capital. Thousands of residents have complained about being bitten by the animals.
On March 1, Bucharest Mayor Traian Basescu launched a campaign to rid the city of strays. Sick dogs are to be put to death while healthy ones will be sterilized and placed in temporary shelters for 10 days. If they aren't adopted, they are put to death.
So far, 700 dogs about half the strays in city pounds have been adopted, including 14 by the French actress and animal activist Brigitte Bardot.
Havana
Cuba to sell own Bacardi rum
Launching a new duel over trademark rights, President Fidel Castro said Cuba will begin producing its own Bacardi rum, using the name made famous by a Cuban family in exile.
Bacardi rum "is ours and is better than what they produced," Castro said Saturday in a speech broadcast on state television late Sunday.
Bacardi & Co., the world-famous maker of rum, was founded in Cuba in the 1860s and resurrected abroad when the Bacardi family fled the island in 1960. The company is now based in Bermuda.
Portugal
Crews find tour bus from bridge collapse
Rescue crews on Monday found the wreckage of a tour bus that plunged into a rain-swollen river when a bridge collapsed two weeks ago, killing more than 50 people, officials said.
It was not immediately known whether any bodies were still inside the double-decker bus, which is lying on the riverbed of the Douro River in northern Portugal. Only eight bodies have been recovered so far, most of them swept into the sea dozens of miles away.
Three cars also plunged into the river in the March 4 collapse, although they have not yet been found.
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