In brief: Afghans report massive jailbreak

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Afghan officials say more than 400 inmates have escaped from the main prison in Kandahar city. They say many of the men who dug a tunnel out of the facility are Taliban insurgents.

Prison supervisor Ghulam Dastagir Mayar said today that they estimate about 476 prisoners escaped through a tunnel they had dug to the outside. He said the jailbreak happened about 11 p.m. Sunday and many of those missing were held for working for the insurgency.

Kandahar prison holds about 1,200 inmates.

Police and government officials also confirmed the jailbreak but said they did not have details.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said about 100 of those who escaped are Taliban commanders and many of the others are fighters with the insurgency.

Alitalia flight hijacking foiled

ROME – An agitated passenger aboard an Alitalia flight from Paris to Rome on Sunday night attacked a flight attendant and demanded the plane be diverted to Libya, but other attendants subdued the man, the airline said.

The flight landed safely in the Italian capital as scheduled, Alitalia said in a statement. All 131 passengers aboard Flight AZ329 disembarked safely in Rome.

Alitalia didn’t identify the passenger. The Italian news agency ANSA reported that he was a middle-aged man from Kazakhstan with no criminal record. ANSA said the man had brandished a nail-clipper against the flight attendant.

Police took the man into custody for questioning at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport, Alitalia said.

Strong quake jolts Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A strong, shallow earthquake hit eastern Indonesia early today, sending residents, hotel guests and patients from a hospital fleeing in panic. Some homes were damaged, with windows shattered and walls cracked, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-6.2 quake struck the southeastern tip of Sulawesi Island.

It was centered 45 miles from the town of Kendari, just 6 miles beneath the earth’s crust. The shallower a quake is, the more damage it can cause. Three strong aftershocks followed.

“Women and children were screaming as they ran from their homes and into nearby fields,” said Lt. Laode Surachman, a police officer in Kendari, adding that hotels emptied out and patients in a hospital were evacuated to safety. “Even officers taking part in morning roll call scattered and fled.”