Tehran  - Four Iranian convicts were executed on Monday in Zahedan, the capital of the south-eastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, official news agency IRNA reported.

One of the four was part of the gang that kidnapped a Belgian couple in August 2007 in Sistan-Baluchistan. The gang had demanded the release from prison of the brother of its leader, Ismael Shahbakhsh, in exchange for the Belgians.

The Iranian authorities rejected the demand and arrested one of the kidnappers.

Munich  - Throughout his trial, Helg Sgarbi presented the slick image which he had used to work his way into the hearts and wallets of wealthy female spa guests.

The 44-year-old was on Monday convicted and jailed for six years for extorting millions of euros from Germany's richest woman after seducing the married mother-of-three.

Immaculately dressed in a black suit with a white shirt, the Swiss citizen calmly faced a sea of camera flashes before addressing the court in Munich - and the women he had duped.

Mosul, Iraq  - Four people died in attacks near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Monday, police said, in the latest in string of clashes and bombings in the area.

Three civilians were killed and four others were wounded by stray bullets when Iraqi police officers and unidentified gunmen exchanged fire in the al-Salam district east of Mosul, a source in the city's police department told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Monday.

Kampala  - Recovery operations were still going on into the afternoon Monday after a Russian-built plane crashed into Lake Victoria earlier in the day, with up to 11 persons feared dead, officials said.

"As we talk now, the rescue team has not fished out the bodies and the plane wreckage," Information Minister Kabakumba Matsiko said. "The mission is still going on."

Vienna  - It was case of litterally tracking down a suspect for Austrian police early Monday, when a suspected burglar left marks in the snow leading straight from a break-in in the Upper Austria province across the German border to his garage.

Local police said the 21-year-old suspect was found asleep in his bed in the German hamlet of Messnerschlag, along with cigarettes believed to have been stolen some six kilometres away at a petrol station in Kollerschlag, across the Austrian border.

Washington  - More people in the United States are using public transportation than at any time in the last 52 years, according to an industry study released Monday.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) said Americans took 10.7 billion trips on buses, trains and trams in 2008, a 4-per-cent increase from 2007. Ridership has jumped 38 per cent since 1995, the study said.