Search for boy

A desperate search was under way last night to find a missing 12-yearold boy after members of a young family he was possibly in a car with were found dead in central Australia. Northern Territory Police and Emergency Services were conducting land and air searches of the Willowra area, 300km northwest of Alice Springs, after three people were found dead near their broken-down car on Wednesday.

Christian freed

A Christian woman in Pakistan acquitted after eight years on death row for blasphemy has been freed from jail. And while an offer from the European Parliament has been made to protect her family, those familiar with her whereabouts say she is still in Pakistan. Aasia Bibi was with her family and under heavy security yesterday after being transferred to Islamabad under cover of darkness from her prison cell in south Punjab the night before. A letter from European Parliament President Antonio Tajani invited the family to Europe.

Dioxin cleanup

Vietnam and the United States have finished the cleanup of dioxin contamination at Da Nang airport caused by the transport and storage of the herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. The 30 hectares of land cleansed of the toxic chemical were handed over to Vietnam at a ceremony in Da Nang. Large amounts of Agent Orange, which contains dioxin, were stored at Da Nang airport during the war and sprayed by US forces to defoliate the countryside. Dioxin stays in the soil and in the sediment at the bottom of lakes and rivers for generations.