Rafah, Egypt - Egyptian security forces arrested 15 people on Friday on charges of making rockets to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip through border tunnels, an Egyptian security source said. He added that authorities confiscated components that could have been used to make rockets in a workshop located in the Sheikh Zuwaid area of the northern part of the Sinai peninsula.

Border tunnels were dug by Palestinians to transfer food supplies, goods and even people from Egypt into the besieged enclave.

New York - A deadly tornado ripped through the quiet Arkansas town of Mena killing three people, injuring more than 20 and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, officials said Friday. The twister touched down late Thursday night and reduced more than 100 homes to rubble, uprooting massive trees and leaving the town of 5,400 without basic services. The tornado also damaged the local hospital, jail and schools. The local Department of Emergency Management said several hundred more homes were damaged.

Washington - A second US Navy ship arrived Friday on the scene of a tense hostage stand-off near the coast of Somalia, where the captain of a US-operated ship was still being held by a group of four pirates, US defence officials confirmed. The USS Halyburton, a frigate, joined the USS Bainbridge, a destroyer that had arrived Thursday morning and taken up negotiations with the pirates, according to Commander Peter Schneider, a spokesman for the US Defence Department.

Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, was taken hostage Wednesday after a failed attempt by Somali pirates to capture the cargo vessel.

Wellington - The family of a 78-year-old Indian immigrant, said to have lived by the principles of Mahatma Gandhi, was Thursday mourning his death in an apparent road rage incident.

Jasmatbhai Pancha Patel died in Auckland Hospital Wednesday afternoon, a day after he was pulled from his car and beaten following what witnesses described as a minor vehicle collision in suburban Mount Albert.

Patel emigrated to New Zealand 33 years ago and lived with his two sons, their wives and five grandchildren, helping at the family fruit market, news reports said.

Rome  - Efforts to find survivors of the earthquake that struck central Italy on Monday will continue through Sunday - three days beyond a previous limit announced by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said Wednesday.

"The search to find survivors under the rubble will continue incessantly until Easter (Sunday)," Maroni said during a visit to an operating centre in Rome that is coordinating the rescue work.

Rome - The death toll after the Italian earthquake rose with the recovery of another 22 bodies, to 272, by late Wednesday, according to Italian rescue officials.

The new figure was released after the Italian government announced it would extend rescue efforts through Sunday, three days beyond a previous limit set by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Monday's temblor destroyed scores of buildings in the city of L'Aquila and other nearby towns in the country's central Abruzzo region and left an estimated 20,000 people homeless.