■ Mexico
Thousands gather for big hug
More than 14,000 people in Ciudad Juarez, on the US-Mexico border, embraced and held on tight on Sunday for a 15-minute "Giant Hug," that attempted to set a new Guinness World Record. Mayor Hector Murguia led the gathering, which took place in the shadow of a Mexican flag close to a bridge leading over the border and into neighboring El Paso, Texas. The embrace began with the cry "Mexico, Mexico, Mexico" around midday.
■ United States
Flawed safety vests probed
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether a maker of bulletproof vests endangered lives, including that of US President George W. Bush. A whistle-blower from the company, Second Chance Body Armor Inc, testified this month that the Secret Service tested and bought some of the defective vests for the president and first lady Laura Bush. The Pentagon also obtained the same armor for elite troops. Many sales occurred well after Second Chance had been alerted that the Japanese-made Zylon synthetic material in the vests was degrading faster than expected, allowing bullets to potentially penetrate the armor, according to the whistle-blower's testimony.
■ Canada
French citizenship given up
The next governor general of Canada is giving up her dual French citizenship as she prepares to take up her post. Michaelle Jean said that she was making the move given the duties she will be assuming, including the title of commander and chief of the Canadian Forces. Jean, a Quebec-based journalist and filmmaker whose family fled dictatorship in Haiti when she was a child, is set to become Canada's first black vice-regal, and at age 48, one of its youngest when she succeeds Adrienne Clarkson today. She acquired French citizenship when she married filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond, who was born in France.
■ United Kingdom
9/11 arrest went too far
Scotland Yard went over the top when police arrested an Algerian wrongly suspected of having given flying lessons to four of the 9/11 terrorists, the Times reported. A letter from the FBI to Scotland Yard dated Sept. 17, 2001, six days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, said British police should not arrest Lotfi Raissi and the matter should be handled "as expeditiously and discreetly as possible." "The FBI requests that Raissi NOT BE alerted to the US government's interests at this time," the letter said, with the words "not be" in black capital letters and underlined. On Sept. 21, however, at 3am the police smashed down Raissi's door where he lived in Colnbrook, west of London and arresting him at gunpoint. Taken away naked in a police car, Raissi was held for five months until magistrates rejected all the accusations against him.
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