New York  - Years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, many rescue workers are still suffering from breathing and lung problems, a study by Mount Sinai Medical Centre in New York said.

The research found 24 per cent of 3,000 patients were still suffering from abnormal lung function between 2004 and 2007, local television station NY 1 reported Thursday. An earlier study looking at the years from 2002 to 2004 found 28 per cent of patients had lung problems.

Rafah, Egypt  - A senior Hamas member trying to return to Gaza Thursday after talks with Egyptian mediators was turned back at the Rafah crossing by border guards who found cash in his bags totalling nearly 12 million dollars.

But Senior Hamas member Ayman Taha was allowed back into the strip late Thursday after Egyptian authorities insisted he put the money in a bank in the north Sinai town of Arish, al-Arabiya news channel reported.

London  - Art lovers drove the price of a painting by the famous German artist Gerhard Richter to 2.1 million pounds (3 million dollars) Thursday night despite the world financial crisis.

Sotheby's auction house said the price was at the maximum of what it had estimated. It did not identify the buyer.

The 85-by-120-centimetre artwork, a misty landscape called Troisdorf, originated in 1985 and is considered one of the 76-year- old German artist's most impressive landscapes for his use of light.

Bogota  - Leftist Colombian rebels on Thursday released a former legislator who was taken hostage in 2002 and was the last politician held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Sigifredo Lopez, 45, a former regional legislator in the Valle del Cauca province who was kidnapped on April 11, 2002, had an emotional reunion in Cali airport with his two sons, aged 18 and 20, and his wife and mother.

Later, hundreds of people gathered in Cali's San Francisco square to greet Lopez. "Let us demand the freedom of all the kidnapped," he said.

Mexico City  - Five people were found dead Thursday in the northern Mexican village of El Millon, on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, the Chihuahua state attorney general's office said.

The bodies bore gunshot wounds and were lying on the road from Ciudad Juarez to Porvenir.

Last week, three human heads were found in El Millon, placed on a cooler in the middle of a public square.

Bogota - Leftist Colombian rebels on Thursday released a former legislator who was taken hostage in 2002 and was the last politician held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Sigifredo Lopez, 45, a former regional legislator in the Valle del Cauca province who was kidnapped on April 11, 2002, had an emotional reunion in Cali with his two sons, aged 18 and 20, and his wife and mother.

A Brazilian Army helicopter transported Lopez from a rural area of Cauca province in southwestern Colombia.