■ United States
Peace poll `antisemitic'
A leading US Jewish lobby group on Friday denounced as "shocking" and "antisemitic" a poll indicating that almost 60 percent of Europeans felt Israel was a greater threat to world peace than North Korea, Iran or Afghanistan. The influential Simon Wiesenthal Center said the European Commission poll of around 7,500 people across the continent that is scheduled to be made public tomorrow defied logic and was a "racist flight of fantasy." The results of the poll were reported on Friday by the Paris-based International Herald Tribune newspaper.
■ Canada
`Blood diamond' pact passed
The incoming Canadian chairman of a global group of diamond-producing countries trying to eradicate the trade in "blood diamonds" said on Friday he wanted to press ahead with reviews of each nation's record. Members of the Kimberley Process, which includes some 70 producer and importer countries, industry players and non-governmental organizations, passed a pact on Thursday that paves the way for individual countries to volunteer for review by their peers. The Kimberley Process has also set up a certification scheme aimed at stopping trade in "blood" or "conflict diamonds" -- blamed for fueling wars and instability in many African countries. The grouping includes 45 nations.
■ United States
Iraq papers handed to probe
The US State Department has delivered documents to a Senate committee probing US pre-war intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons programs, a spokesman said on Friday. The State Department has provided 11 of 15 document requested by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Two more were to be submitted on Friday and the remaining two are being worked on, spokesman Richard Boucher said. The Senate committee has complained that the White House, State Department, CIA and Pentagon have been too slow in providing documents and access to certain officials, and the legislative panel sent a letter to the agencies setting a deadline of Friday.
■ United States
Girls chase down flasher
About 20 Catholic schoolgirls chased down a man who had been flashing them near their high school, tackled him to the ground and held him there until police arrived. The students from St. Maria Goretti's High School for Girls in South Philadelphia said the man had been flashing students since September. He typically hid behind a van, waited for students and then jumped out and exposed himself, police said. But on Thursday, store owners saw the man flashing girls and started yelling at him. The students then chased him down the street and subdued him with the help of a passer-by. The suspect was treated at the hospital for minor injuries to his mouth.
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