SUDAN

Sudan expelled the top Canadian and European Union diplomats in the country for meddling in its affairs, state media quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadeq as saying.

Many Western countries have criticized the Sudanese government's role in atrocities committed in its Darfur region.

The Foreign Ministry did not identify the diplomats, but its diplomatic records listed Kent Degerfelt as the head of mission for the European Union. The Canadian government said acting Charge d'Affaires Nuala Lawlor was expelled.

Sadeq said he hoped the action would not harm relations with the EU and Canada.

U.S. forces intercepted a submarine-like vessel packed with tons of cocaine and arrested the crew off Guatemala.

Four suspects were captured after they abandoned the semi-submersible vessel discovered by officials from Customs and Border Protection, the Navy and the Coast Guard, the customs agency said in a statement.

The vessel was intercepted Sunday about 300 miles southwest of the Mexico-Guatemala border, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a separate statement.

Eleven bales containing 1,210 pounds of cocaine bobbed to the surface after the crew scuttled the 50-foot vessel, the Coast Guard said. It estimated the craft was transporting about 5 1/2 tons of cocaine when it sank.

Aviation officials investigating this week's tarmac fire that destroyed a China Airlines jet in southern Japan found that a bolt had pierced a fuel tank.

Investigators believe that fuel leaked through the small hole and caused the fire. The Boeing 737 exploded in a fireball Monday seconds after all 157 passengers and eight crew had evacuated at Okinawa's Naha Airport.

Rioting inmates rounded up rivals in a Brazilian jail cell and set fire to it, killing 25 prisoners.

The inmates took control of the jail before dawn in the small town of Ponte Nova in the eastern state of Minas Gerais, said police Lt. Andrea Amara Lopes.

Authorities who had been trying to negotiate an end to the rebellion doused the flames.

Brutal prison violence and rebellions are common in Brazil's overcrowded lockups, where gangs often exert more control than their keepers and manage outside criminal enterprises using smuggled cellphones.

A small ring of flab around French President Nicolas Sarkozy's middle mysteriously disappeared when the weekly Paris Match published photos of him in a swimsuit.

The original photos of Sarkozy canoeing with his son Louis on Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H., first appeared this month in the French press, complete with his poignees d'amour, or love handles. Paris Match published the touched-up version Aug. 9.

Sarkozy's office said it had nothing to do with the change.

The owner of the magazine, Arnaud Lagardere, is a friend of Sarkozy's.

Paris Match said it had retouched the photos because "the position of the boat exaggerated this protuberance."

From Times Wire Reports