■ Brazil
Bankers passports seized
Federal police said they have confiscated the passports of six officials with Credit Suisse, pending an investigation into alleged tax evasion and money laundering. Four are Swiss nationals and two are Brazilian, a federal police statement said. The six, who work in private banking with Credit Suisse First Boston in Sao Paulo, were ordered not to leave the country without permission. Police on Friday announced that they had detained a director of Credit Suisse at Sao Paulo International Airport when he tried to board a plane to Switzerland late on Wednesday. A federal police officer said that Peter Schaffner is under surveillance and that a judge in Sao Paulo had ordered him held until yesterday, to allow for interrogation. Schaffner, 50, is responsible for Credit Suisse's private banking operation in Sao Paulo, according to police.
■ United Kingdom
Kember returns home
Christian peace campaigner Norman Kember urged people to think about the suffering of Iraqis as he flew home to Britain on Saturday after being held hostage in Iraq for four months. "There is a real sense in which you are interviewing the wrong person," he told reporters at London's Heathrow Airport. "It is the ordinary people of Iraq that you should be talking to -- the people who have suffered so much over many years and still await the stable and just society that they deserve." Looking tired and frail, but speaking in a firm voice, Kember also thanked the soldiers who had rescued him.
■ Chile
Crash driver may be charged
The driver of a bus that crashed in Arica, northern Chile, leaving 12 elderly American tourists dead, remains under investigation as authorities seek to determine the cause of the wreck, the prosecutor in the case, Manuel Gonzalez, said on Saturday. Gonzalez said that the driver Cristian Contreras, 32, may be charged. One likely cause of the accident was that Contreras, who remains hospitalized under police watch, may have fallen asleep at the wheel. The charges that Contreras could face include involuntary manslaughter, he said.
■ Canada
No damage from oil spill
Officials cleaning up the oil spill from a ferry that sank off British Columbia's north coast have found no serious environmental damage in the area. Incident commander Andy Ackerman said on Saturday that cleanup crews are still finding pockets of diesel fuel connected with the Queen of the North, which sank on Wednesday, but they haven't found any dead wildlife yet. Ninety-nine passengers and crew were rescued from the vessel after it hit a rock and sank. Two passengers remain unaccounted for.
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