Karlsruhe, Germany - A woman and two men have been arrested on suspicion of supporting a terrorist organization dedicated to overthrowing the Turkish state, German prosecutors said Thursday.

The three Turks are accused of supplying funds and money to the the terrorist wing of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C).

They are also believed to be high-ranking functionaries of the DHKP-C, which has been blamed for suicide killings as well as firebomb attacks and explosions that have claimed many lives.

Maputo  , Mozambique - Mozambican health authorities on Thursday announced an alert in the face of an outbreak of cholera that has already killed 50 people in central Mozambique.

The outbreak started last weekend in the district of Guro in the province of Manica, immediately claiming 36 lives out of more than 100 cases diagnosed, the daily Noticias reported.

Mauricio Vieira, the provincial governor, said the so-called red alert was launched in order to control the spread of the disease to other regions while the rainy season is still in its initial days.

Moscow - Russia oil major Lukoil will sign a 1.35 billion-euro (1.73 billion-dollar) deal to purchase a stake in Italian refiner ERG and enter into a joint venture that would allow it to break into European markets.

The deal was expected to be formalized during Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's visit to Moscow Thursday.

"The transaction with ERG will be closed on December 1. Lukoil will pay cash during the year," Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov told news agency Interfax on Thursday.

Athens - Qatar Airways, Iberia and Chrysler Aviation are among 13 companies which have expressed interest in the sale of state-owned Olympic Airlines, Greece's transport minister said Thursday.

"We were presented with 13 interested companies for flight operations, 15 have expressed interest for the ground handling and 10 for the technical maintenance part," Transport Minister Kostas Hatzidakis said in a radio interview.

Lusaka, Zambia - The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) Thursday suspended the verification of votes cast in last week's disputed presidential election after supporters of new President Rupiah Banda and opposition leader Michael Sata traded punches.

State radio reported that a number of election workers got caught in the middle when fists started to fly at the hall where the verification was taking place.

Moscow - Russian investigators have detained a suspect who confessed to the murder of two Jesuit priests in their Moscow apartment, the Interfax agency reported Thursday.

Interfax quoted a police source Thursday as saying the Russian suspect was arrested at 6 am (0300 GMT) and was a repeat sex offender from the town of Tver north of Moscow. He was charged with four counts of rape but there were also suspicions that the 38-year-old may have been a male prostitute.