■ United Kingdom
Drug program expanded
A ?442 million expansion of the British government's program to identify hardcore drug-using criminals and get them into treatment was announced on Tuesday by the Home Secretary David Blunkett. The criminal justice intervention program, which targets heroin and crack cocaine users who commit crime to feed their addiction, has been running in 30 of the highest crime areas since April. It is now to be extended to 36 police divisions across England at a cost of ?442 million over the next three years. Under the program, class A drug users are referred to drug workers while in police custody and are guided into treatment. Class A drugs are the most strictly controlled category which includes heroin and cocaine.
■ Russia
Kids made to pay to pee
Pay toilets are commonly found, but in school? For a short time, students at a high school in the southern Russian city of Taganrog had to do more than raise their hands an ask for permission to use the bathroom -- they had to fork over cash, NTV television reported Tuesday. School officials instituted a plan to charge pupils for toilet trips in order to pay for repairs that were needed after students vandalized bathroom fixtures, NTV reported. The network broadcast part of what it said was an amateur video taken in a hallway at the school, which showed a boy asking a cleaning woman whether he could use the bathroom. Her reply: "Pay."
■ United States
Funding for nuclear weapons
The US Congress late Tuesday allocated millions of dollars for research into new types of nuclear weapons and bolstering readiness at the Nevada nuclear test site, but, bowing to critics, trimmed the administration's program. By a vote of 387 to 36, the House of Representatives passed a spending bill for energy and water programs that contains US$7.5 million to study the feasibility of the so-called Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, which one Energy Department official insisted "would enhance the nation's ability to hold deeply buried targets at risk."
■ Zimbabwe
Police arrest union leaders
Riot police arrested Zimbabwe's main trade union leaders and dozens of rights activists around the country on Tuesday as they broke up marches called to protest a deepening economic crisis, union officials said. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said police had arrested more than 360 people in the capital Harare and several other towns. There was no independent confirmation of the figure and police were not available for comment.
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