■ Brazil
Athlete's mother kidnapped
The mother of Santos forward Robinho, one of Brazil's most exciting football players, has been kidnapped, police said on Sunday. Marina de Souza, 43, was abducted by two armed men who invaded a barbecue in Praia Grande, near Santos, on Saturday night, detective Alberto Torrassa told reporters. The pair locked the other guests in the bathroom before driving off. Torrassa said that so far the kidnappers had not been in contact with the family. "Our target at the moment is to bring back the victim in safety, that's our only worry," said Torrassa. Santos were away to Criciuma in a Brazilian championship match on Sunday afternoon but club president Marcelo Teixeira told reporters the player would return home and would not play.
■ Macedonia
Boycott kills referendum
A referendum to end the autonomy granted to Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority appeared to be defeated on Sunday because of insufficient voter turnout. The apparent defeat of the referendum was a victory for Macedonia's multiethnic coalition government, which had urged voters to boycott it. Not showing up to vote was in effect the same as a no vote for the measure, which had been supported by Macedonian nationalists. The US and European nations had also urged defeat of the referendum, contending it would have weakened Macedonia's political stability and diminished the prospects for the country's entry to NATO and the EU.
■ United States
Women prisoners increasing
The number of women in US state and federal prisons is at an all-time high and growing fast, with the incarceration rate for females increasing at nearly twice that of men, the government reported Sunday. There were 101,179 women in prisons last year, 3.6 percent more than in 2002, the Justice Department said. That marks the first time the women's prison population has topped 100,000, and continues a trend of rapid growth. Overall, men are still far more likely than women to be in jail or prison, and black men are more likely than any other group to be locked up.
■ France
Legal action rejected
The government on Sunday rejected a US-based Jewish group's call for legal action against one of the country's largest Muslim organizations that it said was anti-Semitic and linked to the militant Islamist group Hamas. Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said Paris had proved it was tough on Islamic radicals by questioning about 100 so far this year and expelling 17 of them. But he declined to follow up a call by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to probe links between the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) and pro-Palestinian groups it says collect money for Hamas. The UOIF denied it was anti-Jewish.
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