■ Serbia
No-confidence vote tabled
Hardline allies of former president Slobodan Milosevic began a parliamentary procedure Wednesday to oust the Serbian government over the handover of a top Serb war crimes suspect to a UN tribunal. The ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party said it submitted a 80 signatures by its lawmakers calling for Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's conservative government to face a no-confidence vote. It was not immediately clear when the vote would be held. The Radicals, who ruled Serbia along with Milosevic's Socialists in the 1990s, are furious that the government extradited retired police General Sreten Lukic to UN war crimes tribunal to face charges for atrocities allegedly committed by Serb troops in the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo.
■ Italy
EU constitution ratified
The Senate has ratified the EU constitution, giving final approval to the treaty meant to bolster the 25-nation bloc's role on the world stage and streamline its decision- making process. The Senate approved the treaty's ratification with a 217-16 vote Wednesday evening. The lower house of parliament had gave its green light in January. The constitution, which was signed in a solemn ceremony in Rome last October, foresees the creation of a president and a foreign minister for the EU. Before it comes into effect in 2007, all 25 members must ratify it by parliamentary vote or referendum.
■ United Kingdom
`Beckingham' house safe
Authorities have told David and Victoria Beckham that they don't have to tear down the giant playhouse that was being built on their property without planning permission. The soccer star and his former Spice Girl wife had been warned they might have to demolish the half-built 5m brick playhouse as well as a play castle -- complete with mock tower, drawbridge, slides and rope swings -- at their "Beckingham Palace" mansion north of London. But East Hertfordshire District Council said on Wednesday it had granted retrospective planning permission for the structures -- on condition that no one live in them.
■ United States
Girls suspected of bomb plot
Federal authorities arrested two teenage girls from Bangladesh and Guinea on charges of immigration violations after the FBI claimed that they planned to become suicide bombers and posed a threat to US security, a newspaper reported yesterday. The two girls, both 16 and living in New York City, were arrested on March 24 and were being held in a family detention center in Leesport, Pennsylvania, the New York Times reported yesterday, citing a government document provided by a federal agent. According to the document, the FBI found the girls posed "an imminent threat to the security of the United States based upon evidence that they plan to be suicide bombers," the Times said.
■ United States
Manure theft soils academic
A Harvard professor who specializes in environmental economics was arrested on suspicion of trying to steal a load of manure from a Massachusetts farm, a police officer said on Wednesday. Martin Weitzman was arrested near Rockport on April 1, a police officer said. The manager of a horse stable at the farm called police after finding Weitzman and his truck on the farm. Weitzman was charged with trespassing, larceny under US$250, and malicious destruction of property.
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