BAGHDAD — An Iraqi court today convicted Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's longtime foreign minister, of terrorizing Shiite Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war, sentencing him to 10 years in prison.

The jail term piles a new penalty on the 74-year-old Aziz, who already faces an execution sentence from another case.

Aziz was spared the death penalty in the Saddam-era crimes against humanity because he had a lesser involvement in the atrocities than some of his co-defendants, said Mohammed Abdul-Sahib, a spokesman for the Iraqi High Tribunal. The case involves crimes targeting Iraq's small sect of Shiite Kurds, known as Faili.

At least three former Saddam loyalists were sentenced to death in the same case, although two of the dictator's half brothers were found not guilty in the campaign against the Faili Kurds.

Aziz was the highest-profile defendant to come before judges today. He already faces execution in an earlier case linking him to Saddam's persecution of Shiite political parties.

BEIJING — A mad rush to the playground turned into a stampede that left dozens of elementary school children hurt and seven severely injured in western China today, state media and officials said.Students at the No. 5 Elementary School in Aksu city were rushing downstairs for after-class exercises around noon when some students fell, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The report said other students then pushed to squeeze through the narrow stairway, trampling those who had fallen.Xinhua reported that 41 students were admitted to the Aksu's No. 1 People's Hospital for treatment, with seven of them seriously injured. No deaths were reported.

PARIS — A lawyer for the administrator of Pablo Picasso’s estate says a retired French electrician and his wife have come forward with 271 previously unknown works by the artist — a staggering trove worth at least €60 million.Picasso Administration lawyer Jean-Jacques Neuer says the couple from the French Riviera showed many of the works to Picasso’s son Claude and other estate administrators in September.Neuer says the administrators believe the works are authentic.It is unclear how the man — who worked for Picasso in the 1970s — came by the pictures. The estate administrators have filed suit for alleged illegal receipt of the works.