Oberhof, Germany  - Russia dominated the women's 4x6-kilometre World Cup biathlon relay in Oberhof, Germany Wednesday for a third straight relay win of the season.

Olga Medvedtseva eased over the line carrying the Russian flag to complete the last leg for a combined time of 1 hour 16 minutes 47.7 seconds.

Medvedtseva, Svetlana Slepzova, Olga Saizeva and Ekaterina Iourieva could afford one penalty round and seven shooting errors on the way to giving Russia victory in all three of the season's relays.

Durban  - Police in South Africa are coming under fire for negligence in a weekend attack that led to two deaths and one serious injury in an apartment building next to a police station.

According to reports, 150 armed people stormed an apartment building inhabited by migrants in the port city of Durban from other parts of Africa. Those targeted were forced to jump from windows of the building in Albert Park.

Berlin  - Germany welcomed Wednesday a proposal by Egypt's President Hosny Mubarak for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and supporters of Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested German peacekeepers be sent to Gaza.

"If the parties to the conflict were to desire it, German soldiers could of course play a role," said Gert Weisskirchen, a Social Democratic spokesman on foreign policy in remarks to the Spiegel Online news website.

Islamabad  - Pakistan admitted on Wednesday that the sole surviving Mumbai attacker was a Pakistani national, media reports said quoting officials.

The confirmation came from Pakistani Information Minister Sherry Rehman who gave no further details, according to the private Urdu- language Geo news channel.

India has long been insisted that gunman Ajmal Amir Qasab was a Pakistani, and on Tuesday officially gave Islamabad the information that New Delhi says links the perpetrators to elements inside Pakistan.

Nairobi/Accra  - John Atta Mills was sworn in as the president of Ghana on Wednesday after winning a tight run-off election.

Atta Mills, representing the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), on Saturday took the presidency by a margin of under 0.5 per cent from Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He took his oath in front of thousands of people and regional heads of state in Independence Square in the capital Accra.

Baghdad  - Thousands of Iraqi Shiites gathered in the central Iraqi city of Karbala on Wednesday in an annual religious observance known as Ashura.

The pilgrimage starts on the first day of the Islamic Hijri year and culminates on the 10th day, known as Ashura, when Shiites mourn the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam's prophet Mohammed, at the 7th century battle of Karbala.

Men marched down the streets of Karbala, whipping their backs with chains and sobbing as blood covered their bodies and faces. Others tapped their chests in a steady rhythm.