WASHINGTON - All commercial aircraft were due to be searched by US security personnel over a 24-hour period yesterday after the discovery of box-cutters, bleach and other items aboard two Southwest Airlines Inc planes.
Federal law enforcement officials said the FBI, working with the Department of Homeland Security, was investigating the discovery of the box-cutters, bleach and other items found late on Thursday in plastic bags on the aircraft, which landed in Houston and New Orleans. - (Reuters)
Police caught Blaine-watching
LONDON - Ten police officers are facing disciplinary action after they abandoned their street patrol to go and watch the American illusionist, David Blaine.
The probationers were supposed to be on night duty in Newham, east London, when they sneaked off to see the magician in his 44-day starvation bid. Blaine's period suspended in a glass box next to London's Tower Bridge is to end tomorrow. - (PA)
Maldives ruler to stay on
COLOMBO - Asia's longest-serving leader is set to extend his rule after the Maldives voted in a referendum in which only President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was standing.
Already in power for 25 years, Mr Gayoom will easily win a sixth five-year term, although it was unclear whether an unprecedented riot that rocked the country last month would cut into his customary, Soviet-style winning margin.- (Reuters)
Politician accused of sedition
BUJUMBURA - Burundian security services have arrested an opposition politician on charges of sedition linked to his rejection of a new peace deal between government and rebels.
Mr Charles Mukasi, a prominent figure in the Tutsi-dominated Uprona party, is accused of inciting Burundians to resist the government for signing a deal with rebels from the ethnic Hutu majority earlier this month. - (Reuters)
Police disperse Hindu activists
AYODHYA - Indian police fired tear gas and rubber bullets yesterday to break up a crowd of stone-throwing Hindu activists trying to rally in the holy town of Ayodhya, a flashpoint for Hindu- Muslim tensions.
Defying an official ban, the hardliners were trying to march in support of demands to build a temple over a razed mosque, a dispute that caused some of India's worst religious riots a decade ago and has been behind more bloodshed since. - (Reuters)
Beheaded for smuggling heroin
RIYADH - Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani man yesterday for smuggling heroin into the Gulf state, which practises strict Islamic sharia law, the Interior Ministry said. - (Reuters)
Racial bias fine for Moulin Rouge
PARIS - The management company of the Moulin Rouge cabaret has lost an appeal against a court fine of €10,000 for racial discrimination in refusing to employ a Senegalese man outside its kitchen.
Mr Abdoulaye Marega said he applied for a job at the cabaret in January 2001 but was told by an employee that "the Moulin Rouge doesn't take blacks in the theatre, only in the kitchen".
An investigation by state prosecutors found that the Moulin Rouge, whose can-can dancers are a huge tourist draw, had not hired a person who was not white as a performer or waiter for 40 years, though many were employed as kitchen staff. - (Reuters)