■ United Kingdom
Schools ban junk
Junk food high in fat, salt or sugar is to be banned in schools across England within a year, Education Secretary Ruth Kelly announced yesterday after a campaign by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. Healthier school meals became a big issue during the May election after Oliver made a television series in which he tried to feed children on the government's budget. He appeared visibly shocked in the program when confronted by modern-day school staples. The government responded by announcing an extra US$495.4 million to be spent on school food over the next three years.
■ United states
Self-help author dies
Author M. Scott Peck, who wrote the best-seller The Road Less Traveled and other self-help books, has died. He was 69. Peck died on Sunday at his home in Connecticut, longtime friend Michael Levine said. He had suffered from pancreatic and liver duct cancer. Peck spent more than 10 years in the private practice of psychiatry and had his first book The Road Less Traveled published in 1978. It sold more than 6 million copies in North America and been translated into 20 languages.
■ Egypt
President vows reform
President Hosni Mubarak was sworn for a new, six-year term, pledging to reform the economy and politics. However, the political opposition and economists remained deeply skeptical. In a 20-minute inauguration speech, he pledged on Tuesday to push ahead with political reforms, improve services and raise the living standards of Egypt's low-income majority. Mubarak won 88 percent of the vote in the Sept. 7 election, Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential poll. However, only 23 percent of the 32 million registered voters took part in the election. The low turnout has been seized on by critics as further proof of his regime's waning validity.
■ France
Algerians held over threat
Nine Islamic militants arrested outside Paris on Monday were plotting a terrorist attack on the subway system, an airport or France's intelligence headquarters, an intelligence official said on Tuesday. "We have to act on any threat," the official said, adding that the nine suspects had been under surveillance since the beginning of the year. France has stepped up surveillance in the wake of the London attacks and updated its emergency response plans to take into account multiple bombings. The nine suspects are suspected of being part of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, an Algerian group that is fighting to install an Islamic government in Algeria.
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