■ Italy
Italian troops to stay in Iraq
Italy will keep its some 3,000 troops in Iraq until the new Iraqi government decides that it is stable enough for them to leave, Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said in an interview published in The Wall Street Journal newspaper yesterday. The government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch supporter of the US-led war in Iraq, had previously suggested it might be ready to withdraw its troops after Iraqi elections due at the end of next month. Fini, who was appointed to the foreign ministry last month, said previous reports had been a "misunderstanding."
■ Spain
Boy dies in Mafia crossfire
The resort of Marbella Sunday declared three days of mourning after a 10-year-old boy and an Italian hairdresser were killed in the crossfire of what appeared to be an underworld assassination attempt. Three men drew up in a car outside a hairdressing salon and peppered it with machine gun fire. The target, said to be a French-Algerian underworld figure, was reported to have been inside the Cosmo hairdresser when the gunmen began shooting. He escaped, but a 10-year-old Spanish boy on holiday was killed, and the aunt he was with was wounded. The second victim was a 36-year-old hairdresser at the salon. Local media reported that more than 50 shots had been fired during the shootout.
■ Canada
Security uniforms lost
Authorities have begun an investigation into the disappearance of hundreds of uniforms and badges worn by airport security screeners, news reports said on Sunday. Federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre ordered the investigation following a television report that said in the first nine months of this year 1,127 uniform parts were lost or stolen. More than 200 of the uniform parts bore the logo of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. In addition, 91 security badges are missing. "What worries me is it makes it much easier to impersonate an official," Colin Kenny, chairman of the standing Senate committee on national security and defense, told CBC television.
■ France
Soldier refuses to retire
A soldier who had locked himself in an explosives depot and threatened to blow it up surrendered yesterday, the French Interior Ministry said, ending a three-day standoff that prompted the evacuation of hundreds of villagers. Angered about being forced to retire at age 47, 46-year-old Regis Le Tohic on Friday seized control of the depot where he worked near the town of Fere-Champenoise. The warehouse contained 54 tonnes of explosives, mostly anti-tank mines. Le Tohic had been turned down for a promotion he had requested, officials said. He was demanding that the army reconsider his case.
■ United States
Jackson DNA sample taken
Investigators took DNA from pop star Michael Jackson's mouth on Saturday, a day after raiding his Neverland Ranch to prepare for his trial on child molestation charges, a family source said. "The DNA swab was done on Saturday in Michael's house at the ranch," the source said. "Attorney Tom Mesereau, Michael Jackson and his three children -- aged 7, 6 and 2 -- were all at the ranch when dozens of sheriff's deputies armed with two search warrants arrived. Police on Friday spent eight hours combing Jackson's ranch.
RSS