AUTRANS: A British woman potholer was found dead last night in one of the world's deepest caves. Mrs Nicola Perrin, 31, from the Wirral, Merseyside, died after becoming trapped in a flood-swollen cave in the French Alps.

Mrs Perrin was one of six British and Hungarian cavers missing in the Berger cave in the Vercors mountain range near Grenoble since the weekend. The second Briton, William Stead, 37, was found alive but exhausted. A Hungarian man was also found alive. The search for the three other cavers - all Hungarians - was continuing.

Strike call

PARIS: Algerian journalists said they would boycott official activities from July 14 and organise a 24-hour strike at national newspapers unless Algeria's authorities freed a detained colleague and met other demands.

Child labour

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities rescued at least 50 child labourers aged between six and 14 who were found working at three small carpet factories in Karachi, a government statement said.

Boiling vat death

JOHANNESBURG: A man seeking shelter from a cold snap gripping South Africa died when he fell into a tank of boiling water, police said. The tank was part of the heating system of a Johannesburg building. The man had broken a padlock to get on to a platform above the tank.

Parting shot

BUENOS AIRES: A 65-year-old Argentine man walked into an undertaker's office and, after being reassured that his insurance would cover a funeral, shot himself dead on the spot.

Exhumation call

BUENOS AIRES: Argentine authorities will exhume the body of President Carlos Menem's son and perform an autopsy to determine whether he was murdered as his mother suspects, a judge said. Government officials have insisted that Carlos Menem Jun. died when the helicopter he was piloting accidentally hit a power line and crashed in March 1995.

Bomb defused

COPENHAGEN: Danish army explosives experts defused a bomb planted outside a motor-cycle gang clubhouse in the provincial town of Nykoebing on Wednesday, averting more bloodshed in a vicious Nordic biker war.

Actor charged

LOS ANGELES: Actor Harry Morgan, 81, best known for his role as Colonel Sherman Potter in the television series M*A*S*H, was charged on Wednesday with beating his 70-year-old wife, Barbara.

Papal holiday

LORENZAGO DI CADORE: Pope John Paul, pronouncing himself in real need of a rest, began a two-week private holiday in the Dolomite mountains of northern Italy on Wednesday.

No Cannes do

CANNES: The French riviera resort of Cannes is to hand out tops to the topless in a drive to stop tourists wandering its streets naked to the waist.