■ Italy
Election tests conservatives
Regional elections were scheduled for yesterday and today across Italy in what is considered a key test for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition ahead of next year's general elections. More than 41 million people were eligible to vote in the election of the governors and councils in 13 of Italy's 20 regions, the Interior Ministry said. The polls were expected to remain open from 8am to 10pm yesterday and from 7am to 3pm today, the ministry said. Going into the election, Berlusconi's ruling coalition controlled over eight of the regions that were up for grabs. The center-left opposition held power in the remaining five regions.
■ United States
Citizens to patrol border
Scores of volunteers waving flags and chanting "Close Our Borders" rallied in Arizona on Saturday, kicking off a month of "citizens' patrols" against illegal immigration across the Mexican border. Some 150 protesters from the Minuteman Project demonstrated outside the US Border Patrol in the town of Naco, at what they say is the federal government's failure to stem the flow of undocumented immigrants. "We want the government to secure the border which is right now uncontrolled," Pennsylvania hotel operator Greg Sheehan said as he joined volunteers mustering in cars and trucks for the curbside rally.
■ United Kingdom
`Rich list' features foreigners
Seven of Britain's top 10 wealthiest people moved there from overseas, including Indian-born steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Russian oil magnate Roman Abramovich, according to the Sunday Times newspaper. The paper's 17th annual "Rich List" put Mittal at the top of the table, with an estimated wealth of £14.8 billion (US$27.8 billion). Abramovich, owner of the Chelsea soccer club in London, was in second place, with wealth of £7.5 billion. The Duke of Westminster, the richest British-born man in the list, was in third place.
■ France
Plastic explosive seized
Authorities in northern France seized a truck carrying 100kg of the plastic explosive Semtex on Saturday afternoon, officials said. Police stopped the truck in Hazebrouck as part of an investigation directed by a Paris judge, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Several people have been questioned in the case. Officials gave no details about where the truck came from. Semtex is a Czech-made plastic explosive which has been used by terrorists on several occasions, including by Libyan operatives in 1988 to blow up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
RSS