In Brief

* CAPTURE CLAIM – Taliban guerrillas said yesterday they had killed a missing American commando they claimed to have captured in eastern Afghanistan last month, but the US military said it had no information to support the claim.

Elsewhere, a senior pro-government cleric and his wife were stabbed to death by Taliban insurgents in Paktika province and guerrillas captured 11 government soldiers, including a senior commander, in Helmand, government officials in Kabul said. * DEADLY DENNIS – Hurricane Dennis left behind a battered Cuba with shattered houses, shredded power lines and debris-littered streets and re-intensified over the warm Gulf of Mexico after a Caribbean rampage that killed at least 32 people.* RELIGIOUS REPRIEVE – Catholic bishops appeared to be retreating from joining the chorus calling on Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign, giving the embattled Philippine president at least a temporary respite.Earlier reports had suggested the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines – a politically influential body in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines – would call for her resignation during its weekend meeting.* PAMPLONA PAIN – A French man running with Pamplona’s fighting bulls in Spain was gored in the mouth and three others were injured in the legs and buttocks by the bulls, officials said.It was the first day that people had been gored by the bulls since the festival, made famous by Ernest Hemingway, opened on Thursday.* WILD WEATHER – Rising temperatures in Alaska have sparked an unusual number of storms along the state’s south-central coast this summer, officials say, and the multitude of lightning strikes and resulting fires have burned more than one million acres.In recent weeks, there have been thunderstorms nearly every day along the normally temperate south-central coastline, Sharon Alden, manager of Alaska’s fire weather programme, said in an interview this week.- Nampa-Reuters* DEADLY DENNIS – Hurricane Dennis left behind a battered Cuba with shattered houses, shredded power lines and debris-littered streets and re-intensified over the warm Gulf of Mexico after a Caribbean rampage that killed at least 32 people.* RELIGIOUS REPRIEVE – Catholic bishops appeared to be retreating from joining the chorus calling on Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign, giving the embattled Philippine president at least a temporary respite.Earlier reports had suggested the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines – a politically influential body in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines – would call for her resignation during its weekend meeting.* PAMPLONA PAIN – A French man running with Pamplona’s fighting bulls in Spain was gored in the mouth and three others were injured in the legs and buttocks by the bulls, officials said.It was the first day that people had been gored by the bulls since the festival, made famous by Ernest Hemingway, opened on Thursday.* WILD WEATHER – Rising temperatures in Alaska have sparked an unusual number of storms along the state’s south-central coast this summer, officials say, and the multitude of lightning strikes and resulting fires have burned more than one million acres.In recent weeks, there have been thunderstorms nearly every day along the normally temperate south-central coastline, Sharon Alden, manager of Alaska’s fire weather programme, said in an interview this week.- Nampa-Reuters