Turkey arrests Islamic leader. Police arrested the leader of a violent Islamic group, foiling a string of planned attacks on bars and discos across Turkey on New Year's Eve. news reports said Wednesday, AP says from Istanbul.

Riot police arrested Salih Izzet Erdis, leader of the outlawed Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front, on Tuesday at a house in Istanbul where he was in hiding, Turkey's Anatolia news agency said. Authorities had learned the group was plotting to bomb places where alcohol is consumed, private Star television said.

Women with 500g heroin held in Iran: Iranian police have arrested a woman with 500 grams of heroin hidden in packets in her stomach, a newspaper reported Wednesday, AFP says from Tehran.

The woman was caught at a police checkpoint near the city of Esfahan as she was travelling with her husband in a coach coming from the province of Sistan-Baluchestan, bordering Pakistan. She was taken first to a nearby hospital, where 80 small packets of heroin were retrieved from her stomach, then into police custody.

8 prisoners continue fast in Brazil: Eight Jailed kidnappers, nearing death after a 45-day long hunger strike, refused to break their fast after a government oh fer of repatriation, inmate spokesman Breno Altman said Wednesday. AFP reports from Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil has agreed to repatriate seven of them — five Chileans and two Argentines — but refused to pardon the Brazilian in the group. The Chilean and Argentine inmates have vowed to reject any deal that does not include a pardon for the Brazilian.