■ Iraq
100,000 flee homes
More than 100,000 people have fled their homes since late February because of the insurgency and rising sectarian bloodshed, up from 65,000 just over two weeks ago, officials said. These are only the refugees who have registered with the Displacement and Migration Ministry for financial support, food and supplies since the bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine on Feb. 22 in the city of Samarra fanned sectarian tensions. "After the bombing in Samarra and the eruption of widespread violence, thousands of families left their homes to escape the constant violence," said ministry spokesman Sattar Nawrouz.
■ United Kingdom
Prescott faces probe
Scotland Yard said on Sunday it would consider a complaint from a retired police officer that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott had broken the law by having sex with his civil service secretary. "We will consider it in due course," said a police spokeswoman. Tracey Temple, Prescott's former secretary, says the couple had sex in his Whitehall office while they were both meant to be working. Prescott was stripped of his ministerial department in a government reshuffle last Friday. Alistair Watson wrote to Britain's most senior police officer to say that Prescott may have committed the offence of misconduct in public office.
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