Jailed for selling young son to paedophiles

FREIBURG (Germany) • A German court handed down lengthy jail sentences yesterday to an unemployed couple for repeatedly sexually abusing their son, now 10, and selling him to paedophiles online.

The regional court in Freiburg sentenced the boy's mother to 12½ years in prison. Her 39-year-old partner, the boy's stepfather, received a 12-year sentence followed by preventive detention.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Security lapse leads to airport evacuation

FRANKFURT • Parts of Frankfurt airport were evacuated for several hours yesterday, following a lapse in security, federal police said, disrupting summer holiday travel.

"The cause of the evacuation... was an error by a security officer. Despite a positive test for explosives, a French family of four were allowed to leave the security zone," police said on Twitter. The family were later located in the terminal.

REUTERS

Tanker explodes in Italy, driver killed and 145 hurt

ROME • The driver of a tanker truck that exploded - sending a fireball across a busy motorway in Bologna - was killed in the crash and 145 others were hurt, Italian officials said yesterday.

An initial reconstruction of the event suggests that the incident was caused by the driver of the vehicle, which was carrying liquefied petroleum gas.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE