■ United Kingdom
Police diverted by magician
Ten British police officers face disciplinary action after they visited American showman David Blaine's starvation stunt while they were supposed to be on patrol, police said on Friday. The officers abandoned street duties in a deprived part of London to see the New Yorker, who is near the end of 44 days confined in a plastic box by the River Thames. Scotland Yard said it had launched an internal inquiry after newspapers published pictures of the police in uniform on their way to see Blaine.
■ Saudi Arabia
Legislative elections planned
The first legislative elections to be held in Saudi Arabia will take place in three years, a leading newspaper reported yesterday. The Saudi-owned daily Al-Hayat quoted Saudi sources as saying elections would be held to fill one-third of the 120 seats in the Majlis ash-Shura, or Consultative Council, which until now has been an all-appointed body offering advice to the government. The daily, published in London, also said half the members of regional councils would be elected in the kingdom within two years. The news came after the Saudi Press Agency, quoting the cabinet, announced on Oct. 13 that the first ever polls in the kingdom would take place in 2004 to elect half the members of municipal councils.
■ United States
Reconstruction approved
Both houses of Congress on Friday overwhelmingly approved US$85 billion for military deployment and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, meeting most of President George W. Bush's US$87 billion request. The Senate's 87-12 vote followed a 303-125 approval in the House of Representatives, where 74 Democrats crossed party lines to vote for the bill. The two bills now go to a House-Senate reconciliation committee to hammer out a single version. The Senate watered down Bush's request with an amendment Thursday night requiring Baghdad to pay back half of the US$20.3 billion earmarked for Iraqi reconstruction. The Senate trimmed another US$1.9 billion with an amendment cutting expenses it deemed unnecessary, including creation of a postal code system for Iraq.
■ Germany
Mother fined for hitting child
A mother who slapped her small daughter at a bus stop in the western German city of Cologne will have to pay a 75 euro (US$87) fine, a local court ruled on Friday. The 22 year-old mother admitted to having temporarily lost control of herself when she hit the child, fearing she would run out into the street. Witnesses said the slap had been particularly violent. The court ruled that the mother's action was extremely inappropriate on the part of a parent.
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