Baghdad  - After a series of atrocities against Iraqi Christians in Mosul, around 400 Christians have arrived in Syria over the past fortnight to escape the harsh conditions in their own region, according to a statement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

"Many Christians from Mosul have been systematically targeted recently and are no longer safe there. We are ready to provide support for those Iraqis that seek refuge in neighbouring countries," said Laurens Jolles, UNHCR's representative in Syria.

Prague - A Czech court Friday sentenced six people to prison for torturing two boys whose ordeal came to light when a neighbour accidentally tuned in to a camera trained on a naked, tied-up child.

Klara Mauerova, 31, was sentenced to nine years for the abuse of her two sons. Her sister, accused of inciting the torture, drew 10 years and four others were sentenced to up to seven years' prison.

The case came to light in the southeastern town of Kurim in May 2007, shocking Czechs much as incest father Josef Fritzl upset Austrians this spring.

The tormentors, four of whom had worked with children, beat the brothers, locked them up in cages, cut them and burned them with cigarettes.

Bratislava - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II Friday concluded a central European trip that took her to two ex-communist states, Slovenia and Slovakia, for the first time.

The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, headed home after two days in Slovakia and two days in Slovenia.

Both countries won their independence and became economic success stories after communism fell in Europe in 1989.

Slovenia was the first ex-communist country to adopt the euro, while Slovakia is set to make the switch on January 1.

Ankara  - A court in south-east Turkey on Friday banned Turkish internet users from accessing Blogger, the world's largest free blog hosting service.

Internet users in Turkey discovered Friday afternoon that the site, which hosts millions of blogs, or web logs, had been blocked. When users tried to view a blogger's page they were redirected to a message which said: "Access to this website has been suspended in accordance with decision no. 2008/2761 of the TR Diyarbakir First Criminal Court of Peace."

No reason for the ban was given.

Moscow  - Texan space tourist Richard Garriott returned to firm ground Friday in a Russian Soyuz capsule that carried him and two Russian cosmonauts back from space.

The capsule with Richard Garriott, a computer games designer and son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, touched down safely around 0330 GMT at the Baikonour base on the steppes of Kazakhstan. Garriott paid 30 million dollars to follow in his father's footsteps.