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World News Quick Take

■ New Zealand
Cat survives by holding on
A house cat survived a hairy ride through a city clinging to the roof of a car, with the driver unaware of the drama. John Sutton of Tauranga thought he had chased his Persian, Bono, from his car before leaving home but after he'd traveled three blocks at 50km an hour along a city street, something fluffy slid down the windscreen and gripped the wiper blades. "It gave me a hell of a fright," Sutton said. "Then I realized it was Bono and he was bloody petrified." Police Constable Tim Shields said, "The expression on that cat's face was hilarious. It was wide-eyed and obviously knew the consequences if it let go." The cat was returned home inside Sutton's car.

■ South Korea
Uri Party offends old people
The party supporting South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun got off to a stumbling start in its election campaign yesterday, with its chairman apologizing for telling old people to stay home and let the young decide the future. Chung Dong-young, chairman of the Uri Party that has led polls ahead of the April 15 general election, opened campaigning with a contrite bow for comments he made a week earlier. "I made a big mistake in remarks meant to encourage those in the 20s and 30s to vote," Chung told a news conference. He had told the Kookmin Ilbo's on-line edition, "It's okay if voters in their 60s and 70s do not vote in this general election. They can just stay home and rest."

■ Australia
Mother fined for beating kid
A mother who smacked a three-year-old having a tantrum in a Sydney supermarket was convicted of common assault, news reports said yesterday. The conviction was a timely reminder for all parents that there were legal limits on how they can discipline their children, New South Wales Children's Commissioner Gillian Calvert said. "You've got to remember, parents, that there's a limit to how to chastise your children," Calvert said. "That limit in New South Wales is that you don't ever hit them on the head or the shoulders or the neck or the face." The woman was reported to police by shoppers who had witnessed her belting her toddler around the head at least three times.

■ Philippines
Communists to be released
The Philippine government said yesterday it will release 32 detained Communist Party members and supporters, including women and minors, as part of the peace process with communist rebels. The release of political prisoners has been one of the key demands of the rebels, who opened a new round of talks with government negotiators in Norway this week on ending a 35-year-old Maoist insurgency. The rebels have complained the government has reneged on its promise to free political offenders.

■ China
Polluters ignore regulations
China's environmental watchdog has ordered the immediate implementation of pollution controls at the controversial Three Gorges Dam after it discovered environmental regulations were being flouted, state media said yesterday. According to a recent report by the State Environmental Protection Administration, 93.8 percent of polluters required to clean up their act had not done so, while more than two-thirds of polluting enterprises due to be shut down were still operating, the China Daily reported. Water quality in the Chongqing section in the upper reaches of the reservoir had deteriorated since the reservoir began filling up last year, the Chongqing Morning Post reported last month.

■ United Kingdom
Chicken bomb revealed
A claim that British scientists considered using live chickens in a nuclear weapon aroused skepticism on Thursday, but archivists insisted it was not an April Fool's hoax. "It's a genuine story," said Robert Smith, head of press and publicity at The National Archives. The archives released a secret 1957 report from the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment that suggested -- and immediately dismissed -- the possibility of putting chickens inside a plutonium land mine to keep it warm enough to be viable for eight days in extreme cold weather. The seven-tonne device would have been detonated from a distance or by timer in the event of a retreat from invading Soviet troops, to prevent them from occupying the area.

■ United Kingdom
More Shipman victims?
An inquiry into British family doctor Harold Shipman, who murdered more than 200 patients to become one of the worst serial killers of all time, said Thursday it would look again at his early career after fears he could have claimed more victims. An employee at the infirmary where Shipman worked as a junior doctor had come forward to express concerns, the inquiry said. "In view of the nature of these concerns, the inquiry has felt it necessary to look again into Shipman's time as a hospital doctor in Pontefract", north England, it said.

■ United Kingdom
`Dirty war' probe confirmed
Britain agreed to hold public inquiries into Northern Ireland's "dirty war" after an independent judge found evidence of state collusion in four high-profile killings during the province's 30-year conflict. Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy announced the move in response to reports released on Thursday from retired Canadian Supreme Court Judge Peter Cory that criticized authorities in four cases dogged by allegations that police, soldiers or prison guards colluded with paramilitary gangs behind the killings.

■ United States
Bush signs fetus law
US President George W. Bush signed into law new protections for the unborn that for the first time make it a separate federal crime to harm a fetus during an assault on the mother. "If the crime is murder and the unborn child's life ends, justice demands a full accounting under the law," Bush said on Thursday before signing the measure, a major priority for many of the president's most loyal political supporters. "The suffering of two victims can never equal only one offense," he said. Abortion-rights proponents, meanwhile, called the measure an assault on reproductive freedom.

■ Canada
Officials' expenses online
Canada took its bid to clean up politics to new levels on Thursday, publishing details of expenses claimed by ministers and other senior officials on government Web sites. "Making this kind of information available online demonstrates our commitment to functioning in an ethical and trans-parent manner," said Reg Alcock, head of the government's Treasury Board, which oversees all spending. The measures were announced last year after it emerged that former privacy commissioner George Radwanski and his press aide had racked up C$510,000 (US$390,000) on travel, meals and hotels in just two years.

■ United States
Homer wants more dough
The actors who give voice to Homer, Marge and other characters on The Simpsons reportedly skipped work on the Fox television network's animated series as contract renewal talks hit an impasse. Each cast member is seeking about US$360,000 an episode, or US$8 million for the 22-episode, 2004 to 2005 season, the trade paper Daily Variety said on Thursday, citing unidentified sources. The actors currently earn US$125,000 an episode, Variety said. The cast reportedly held up production on the show's 16th season by missing two "table reads," at which a script is performed informally.

■ Haiti
Request for extradition
Haiti's US-backed interim government plans to ask for the extradition of ousted Jean-Bertrand Aristide on charges of corruption and rights abuses that are under investigation, the new justice minister said. The plan could further complicate Aristide's efforts to find a permanent home in exile. In coming weeks, Haitian authorities will appoint an independent body to investigate allegations of embezzlement and assassinations under Aristide, Justice Minister Bernard Gousse said in an interview on Thursday.

■ Ivory Coast
France agrees on patrols
France has agreed to conduct joint patrols with Ivory Coast's army in an effort to restore calm after deadly clashes involving security forces and protesters, the West African country said on Thursday. The government in the world's top cocoa grower also said it backed an international investigation into last week's violence following widespread accusations that security forces and loyalist militia killed unarmed opposition supporters.

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