London - The funeral of a 23-year-old British soldier shot dead by terrorists in Northern Ireland earlier this month took place in his home city of Birmingham on Wednesday.

Sapper Mark Quinsey was one of two soldiers gunned down outside Massereene army barracks north of Belfast, Northern Ireland, on March 7.

He and his colleague, Patrick Azimkar, from London, were the first British soldiers to die in a terrorist attack in the British province since the signing of the 1998 peace agreement.

Antananarivo - The United States embassy in Madagascar's capital Antananarivo on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of all non- critical embassy staff from the island.

The embassy said in a travel advisory that it had moved to "ordered departure" which meant that "non non-mission critical personnel and their families have been ordered to depart."

The embassy also urged private US citizens to "seriously consider the risks of staying."

Paris  - The French government on Wednesday sharply criticized comments made by Pope Benedict XVI regarding the effectiveness of condoms in the fight against AIDS.

"Such statements are a danger to public health policies and the protection of human life," foreign affairs ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier told journalists in Paris. "The condom is an important element in the fight against the spread of AIDS."

Mexico City  - Twelve people died and 14 others were injured in northern Mexico when the tourist bus they were travelling in crashed with a truck.

The Mexican daily Reforma reported Tuesday that there were 11 US citizens among those killed in the crash, which happened late Monday near the city of Saltillo, in the state of Coahuila. The bus driver, a Mexican, was also killed.

Los Angeles  - A woman who tried to assassinate police officers thirty years ago and hid for 24 years mostly as a suburban housewife was released from jail Tuesday after serving almost eight years of a 14-year sentence.

Sara Jane Olson, 62, was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, an urban guerrilla group in the US which is most notorious for the 1974 kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst.

Cairo - For the first time in three years, Hussein Bakhit, a 20-year-old student from Cairo, can leave his house without worrying about being stopped by the police.

Bakhit will also be able to resume his studies for a degree in social sciences at Helwan Univerity, south of Cairo. He will be able to apply for a passport and, perhaps, to travel.

In short, as Bakhit put it, he will become a "first-class Egyptian citizen" again.