News in Brief

International

Storm causes massive power outage in Italy

ROME (AP) - A storm-tossed tree branch that hit Swiss power lines helped trigger a massive blackout in almost all of Italy on Sunday, trapping thousands on trains and forcing the pope to use a backup generator to proclaim his new cardinals. The outage, blamed for three deaths, underlined the dangers of Italy's reliance on imported power. It was Italy's worst power outage since World War II. Most of the country's 58 million people were affected - more than in North America's biggest blackout, which left 50 million people without power in Canada and the United States on Aug. 14.

Conspirator in Sadat assassination released

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - An Islamic militant group leader who helped plot the assassination of President Anwar Sadat but later expressed regret for the Egyptian leader's killing has been released from prison after nearly 22 years, officials said Sunday. Karam Zohdy, 51, one of the leaders of Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, or Islamic Group, was serving a life sentence for being among those who ordered Sadat's assassination in October, 1981. Zohdy was released Thursday and returned to his hometown of Minya, 140 miles south of Cairo, police officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.