23 dead in prison riot DURANGO: Rival gangs clashed inside a notorious prison in the Mexican state of Durango on Wednesday, leaving at least 23 inmates dead, officials said. Army and federal troops as well as police were sent in to quell fighting between gangs which broke out shortly after breakfast at the jail housing 1,800 inmates, well over capacity, outside the city of Durango. It took 40 minutes for security officers to quell the clashes, reportedly between members of the rival Gulf and Sinaloa drug cartels using makeshift weapons but no firearms. Airport security scare MUNICH: Parts of Munich airport were sealed off on Wednesday after a laptop tested positive for the possible presence of explosives and its owner fled into a secured area, police said. An explosives scanner at the German airport alerted personnel as the man went through security at around 1430 GMT, but instead of stopping he ran into a restricted area, police said. The fourth floor of the airport’s Terminal Two, used for European flights, was evacuated and all docked planes were stopped. The man was still at large. Police were unable to comment on his nationality. Zimbabwe statute HARARE: Zimbabwe has suspended its public outreach efforts to gather views on a new constitution, throwing another obstacle on the path toward fresh elections, state media said on Thursday. Funding problems caused the latest hitch in the process, which began in July but has been repeatedly delayed, said the state-run Herald newspaper. “All constitutional programmes have been suspended by the management committee,” Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, a chairman of the committee, said. Teams of rapporteurs were meant to travel around the country to collect opinions on the charter. Troops in Nigeria city KADUNA: Thousands of troops remained on the streets of the Nigerian city of Jos on Thursday to quell clashes between Christian and Muslim mobs that has left about 300 dead. Residents said the troubles eased during the night and authorities relaxed a permanent curfew, letting people leave their homes for seven hours to get food and water. The government ordered in troops after gun and machete-wielding gangs rampaged across the city. “The situation is calm, fighting has ceased,” said David Maiyaki, a resident of Nassarawa Gwom, a predominantly Christian area where the fighting first erupted on Sunday over plans for a mosque. WASHINGTON: Police on Wednesday arrested a man suspected of shooting to death eight people in the southern state of Virginia. The suspect, Christopher Speight, 39, surrendered without incident to police after he was cornered in woods west of the historic town of Appomattox, a police statement said. “At 7:10 EST (1210 GMT) this morning, Christopher B Speight walked in the security perimeter and turned himself in without incident. Charges are pending. He was taken into custody and is being debriefed,” the statement said. Speight was wearing a bullet-proof vest but was unarmed when he was apprehended, it added. Three killed in Iraq BAGHDAD: Three people were killed and dozens were wounded on Wednesday in an attempted robbery and ensuing gun battle in Baghdad and suicide car bombing in the northern city of Mosul, security officials said. Two jewellers died when their stores were attacked in the Bunuk district of northern Baghdad, with one assailant killed and another wounded in a subsequent shoot-out with police, an interior ministry official said. Four others were wounded but no goods were stolen.