ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe's main bakery said bread shortages would worsen because it had to close one of its largest outlets because of a lack of wheat.

Lobels Bread had only a two-day supply of wheat and has cut daily production to 40,000 loaves from 200,000, said Lemmy Chikomo, a company official.

The World Food Program's Zimbabwe representative, Kevin Farrell, said the United Nations agency was seeking an additional $100 million to deliver grain. Farrell said the situation was getting "acutely serious."

POLAND Author sentenced in murder case

A court in Wroclaw, Poland, sentenced an author to 25 years in prison for planning and directing a murder that resembled a killing in one of his novels.

"Amok" author Krystian Bala suspected the victim, Dariusz Janiszewski, of having an affair with his estranged wife. Fishermen dragged Janiszewski's body -- hands bound behind his back and tied to a noose around his neck -- from the Oder River in December 2000.

Police got a tip five years later about the novel, in which a woman is stabbed after her attacker binds her in the same way.

Though the novel aroused suspicions, it was not a part of the case.

AFGHANISTAN 2 Britons killed in Taliban attacks

Taliban attacks killed two British soldiers and two Afghan police officers in southern Afghanistan, and two dozen militants were killed elsewhere, authorities said.

An explosion killed the two British soldiers as they patrolled in Helmand province, Britain's Defense Ministry said. A remote-controlled bomb killed the two Afghans, also in Helmand, where coalition airstrikes killed "more than 24" militants.

NORTH KOREA Agency makes espionage arrests

North Korea's intelligence agency has arrested some of the country's own citizens and a foreigner for spying, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

An unnamed foreign spy agency allegedly hired North Koreans who frequently travel abroad to carry out espionage on major military facilities and strategic locations in North Korea, the agency said.

From Times Wire Reports