■ United States
Diver sets scuba record
An American man beat his own record for staying underwater with scuba gear after five days in a lake -- complete with recliner, a checkerboard, music and good friends to keep him company. Then Jerry Hall cheerfully signed a pledge to his wife never to do it again. "I had the easy job," Hall said. "It was my dive team that did all the work. I kept them hopping all the time, and they never once complained. Whatever I wanted or needed, they were there for me." Hall, 39, of Bluff City, Tennessee, already is in the current edition of the Guinness World Book of Records for staying underwater with scuba gear for 71 hours, 39 minutes and 40 seconds. He surpassed that at 9:56am Wednesday and didn't leave Tennessee's Watauga Lake until Friday with a time of 120 hours, 1 minute and 25 seconds.
■ Germany
Opposition win likely
Voters went to the polls yesterday in regional elections in Saar state which are expected to result in a heavy defeat for German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD). Some 818,000 electors were eligible to vote for a new state assembly in the first of four local elections in Germany this month which could see a voter backlash against the SPD amid anger over the government's welfare reforms.
■ Gaza
Militants seize office
Palestinian gunmen yesterday seized the local government offices in a southern city, demanding that the Palestinian Authority do more to assist families left homeless by an Israeli military operation last week, witnesses said. It was the latest case of violence directed toward Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, which has been widely accused of corruption and ineffectiveness. About 15 gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group with loose ties to Arafat's Fatah movement, seized the governor's office in Khan Younis early yesterday and expelled most of the 22 workers in the building, witnesses said.
■ Iraq
Fighting kills 2
Two Iraqis were killed and nine wounded yesterday as US troops and insurgents battled in the northern Iraqi town of Tall Afar for a second straight day. Fighting erupted after gunmen fired on a US Army convoy outside the town, 60km west of Mosul, said police lieutenant Ghaith Mohammed al-Obeidi. US soldiers and Iraqi national guardsmen then poured into Tall Afar and clashes broke out in the town center, lasting for about two hours before the US and Iraqi forces withdrew, he said, adding that US helicopters opened fire on insurgents.
RSS