HAUPPAUGUE, New York (AP) — A 20-ton block of granite once envisioned as the cornerstone for New York’s Freedom Tower is getting a new home on Long Island. Although dedicated at the ground zero site in 2004, the stone was quietly removed in 2006 to allow for other construction and returned to the company where it was inscribed. Innovative Stone CEO Karen Pearse says it’s not clear whether the 5 1/2-foot (1.67 meter) -tall stone will ever return to New York City. Rather than keep it in storage, Pearse says the company wants to give it a place of honor. Giant cranes moved the stone Tuesday to a garden in front of the company’s Hauppaugue facility.

NATO troopsfree kidnapped NY Times reporter

KABUL (Reuters) — NATO troops released a kidnapped New York Times reporter in Northern Afghanistan in a raid before dawn on Wednesday, after he had been held for four days, an Afghan district chief said. Reporter Stephen Farrell, who is British, was abducted on Saturday along with his Afghan interpreter while attempting to visit the scene of a NATO air strike. Abdul Waheed Omarkheil, district chief of Char Dara district in Kunduz province, said Farrell had been released in a pre-dawn raid by NATO troops. The district chief had no information about the fate of the interpreter.

6 Malaysian Muslims charged with in sulting Hindus

SHAH ALAM, Malaysia (AP) — Six Malaysian Muslims have been charged with sedition for parading a severed cow’s head to protest against the planned construction of a Hindu temple. The cow is the holiest animal in Hinduism. The men were charged Wednesday in a district court in Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor state, where they had marched with the cow head and stomped on it Aug. 28. They are against the state government’s plan to build a temple in their largely Muslim neighborhood. Sedition is punishable by up to three years in jail and a fine. The six men were freed on bail pending trial. Their protest offended Hindus and stoked tensions among Malaysia’s main ethnic groups; the Malay Muslim majority and Chinese and Indian minorities.

Tornado, mudslides kill 15 in Argentina, Brazil

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A violent storm that spawned a tornado and mudslides killed at least 15 people across northern Argentina and southern Brazil, authorities said Tuesday. Dozens were injured in the winds and hail as their homes were destroyed. At least 10 died in Argentina, said Ricardo Veselka, civil defense director for the town of San Pedro, where the twister hit. Four people were killed in the Brazilian city of Guaraciaba, and one person died in a Sao Paulo slum after a mudslide swept into ramshackle homes, civil defense officials said in a statement on their Web site. Civil defense earlier reported two victims there, but later lowered the death toll without explanation.

UN distributes food to West Africa flood victims

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — The World Food Program has launched emergency operations in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania, distributing food rations to the victims of flooding across West Africa, the U.N. relief agency said Tuesday. The organization has provided rations to 50,000 victims since Friday. Burkina Faso has been the hardest hit by the floods, with 110,000 people forced to flee their homes, mainly in the capital, Ouagadougou. The WFP said it aims to provide food to 125,000 people in the country. In Niger, the relief agency distributed assistance on Monday to 41,000 people after a dike near the northern town of Agadez burst.