Post reported yesterday. The memo said if a government employee were to torture
a suspect in captivity, "he would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the US by the al-Qaeda terrorist network," the newspaper reported. The memo also said that arguments centering on "necessity and self-defense could provide justifications that would eliminate any criminal liability" later. Bush administration officials say that the US has abided by international conventions barring torture.
■ United States
Abortion `postponer' sued
A purported anti-abortion activist in Louisiana was accused in a lawsuit of running a sham abortion clinic that dupes women
into waiting too long
to have abortions. The
federal complaint, filed on
Monday by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of five plaintiffs, accuses William Graham
of running the Causeway Center for Women as a way to prevent abortions. The lawsuit accuses Graham of pretending to refer women to abortion providers at bargain prices, then telling them their appointments have been postponed. The lawsuit accuses him of
fraud, false advertising and trademark infringement because "Causeway" also appears in the name of a nearby abortion clinic.
■ United Kingdom
Bookish men to get cash
In a bid to lure British
men away from TV football matches and into bookshops, publisher Penguin Books will send out a sexy model to offer ?1,000 (US$1,837) prizes to males spotted reading a selected title. The publicity ploy, launched on Monday, aims to boost sales among men, who on average buy fewer books than women. "It's to sex up the book industry, which probably needs it, but also to address the more serious issue that reading has fallen off the radar of younger men," said Neil Griffiths, author of the Penguin-published Betrayal in Naples. Penguin's so-
called Good Booking Girl
will canvass the streets this month for men older than
16 years reading versions of Nick Hornby's 31 Songs that bear a special cover sticker. A different title will be chosen each month.
■ Italy
Satanists blamed for death
A young Italian woman was allegedly murdered because satanists had become obsessed with the idea that she was the re-embodiment of the Virgin Mary. According to Italian media reports on Monday, Chiara Marino,
19, was among up to seven people who investigators believe may have been killed in the Milan area in the past six years by a group calling itself the Beasts of Satan. Police and prosecutors are now investigating claims by an alleged member of the group that they were acting on orders from more senior devil worshippers, one of whom was known as the Antichrist. Marino went missing more than six years ago.
■ Canada
Japanese princess visits
Japan's Princess Takamado began a two-week tour
of Canada with a visit to Steveston Village, a historic center for the Japanese-Canadian community in southern British Columbia. The princess, 50, visited
a monument marking the history of Nikkei fishermen. She last visited Canada in 1999 with her late husband, Prince Takamado.
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