Spain's ruling party guilty of graft

MADRID • A Spanish court said yesterday it had found Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's Popular Party (PP) guilty of benefiting from a vast kickbacks scheme that saw PP politicians take bribes in exchange for contracts.

The Madrid-based National Court, which deals with major criminal cases, also sentenced businessman Francisco Correa, the brains of the graft network, to 51 years in prison and several former PP members to up to 38 years.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Uproar on NZ campus over magazine seizure

KUALA LUMPUR • A New Zealand university has apologised after it seized hundreds of copies of a campus magazine that featured a cover on menstruation, sparking anger from students saying the move reinforced social stigmas and amounted to censorship.

The University of Otago said its staff this week removed 500 copies of the latest edition of student magazine Critic - which included a cartoon character bleeding from the genitals on the cover - over fears that it was "objectionable to many people".

REUTERS

Couple convicted of murdering nanny

LONDON • A French couple were found guilty yesterday of murdering their nanny and burning her body in their back garden in London after what police said was months of mistreatment, threats and physical abuse that left her a virtual prisoner.

Sabrina Kouider, 35, and Ouissem Medouni, 40, were described at the Old Bailey court as having spun a web of lies to justify the torture and murder last year of their young nanny Sophie Lionnet, 21, from Troyes in eastern France.

REUTERS