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World News Quick Take

■ JAPAN
Tokyo may ease sanctions
The government said yesterday it was ready to gradually lift its sweeping sanctions on North Korea if the communist state releases hostages Tokyo believes it is still holding. Japan has tense relations with North Korea in part due to its kidnappings of Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s to train the regime's spies. North Korea returned five and their families in 2002 and says the case is closed, but Japan contends that more are alive and being kept under wraps. "If some of them can return home, it's progress," Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said. "But if progress is made, we will take action in accordance with that progress, which is natural for the sake of improvement of relations between Japan and North Korea."

■ AUSTRALIA
Dutch car wins solar race
Dutch solar car Nuna4 won the 20th World Solar Challenge, a 3,000km race through the Australian outback, race officials said yesterday. The Nuna4 took 33 hours and 17 minutes for the race and was the fourth win for the Dutch team Nuon Solar, which holds the race record at 29 hours and 11 minutes. Sun-powered cars from around the world raced from Darwin to Adelaide. Nuna4's average speed was 90.7kph.

■ MALAYSIA
Party draws veil over summit
The country's ruling party will forbid live telecasts of its annual congress from Nov. 5 to Nov. 9, an official said, after speakers from the Malay Muslim majority fueled racial anxiety among the country's ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities last year. Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, secretary-general of the United Malays National Organization, said broadcasts of the party's general assembly last year sparked controversy because some viewers were shocked that delegates used harsh rhetoric to debate race relations.

■ JAPAN
Officials suspected of rape
Two Ministry of Finance officials have been arrested on suspicion of raping a woman, a Tokyo police spokesman said yesterday. The two are suspected of raping the woman at her apartment early on the morning of Feb. 23, the spokesman said, adding that one man had denied the allegations while the other had broadly admitted them. In a statement the ministry called the arrests "extremely regrettable."

■ FRANCE
PLO disputes Jerusalem rail
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has begun legal action in the court at Nanterre against two prominent French companies in an attempt to stop work on a contested light-railway project in Jerusalem. When it begins operating in 2010, the railway will stretch for 14km through West and East Jerusalem, taking, it is estimated, 400,000 passenger-journeys a day. Its backers say it will ease road congestion. But the PLO, which is bringing the court case through its delegation in Paris, says Israel is trying to exert more control over the east of the city.

■ AUSTRIA
Activist against naked Jesus
An anti-pornography activist wants officials in Innsbruck to take down a large crucifix bearing a sculpture of a naked Jesus Christ. Martin Humer is pressuring authorities to remove the crucifix from a public square where it has been displayed for 20 years, public broadcaster ORF reported on Thursday. Humer, an 82-year-old former photographer, said he and about 100 supporters were organizing a protest for yesterday. Innsbruck Mayor Hilde Zach dismissed the fuss and said she would refuse to remove the crucifix, insisting it is a work of art and is in no way pornographic.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Church investigates abuse
The Church of England has pledged to investigate the records of thousands of clergy, dating back decades, in an attempt to uncover unchecked incidents of child abuse. More than 2,500 letters will be sent to previous staff urging them to come forward with information on any cases of abuse or concerns that were not followed up at the time in the way they would be now. Diocesan bishops will also review the current files of the 23,000 licensed clergy in the Church of England. The investigation is aimed at incidents that occurred before 1995.

■ SOUTH AFRICA
Cows, goats found in car
In a bizarre case of overloading, police in a rural area of northern KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday found two cows and two goats being transported in a car barely large enough for four people. The car, a blue Fiat Uno, was impounded after police were tipped off by residents to its unusual passengers, the South African Press Association reported. Police spokesman Captain Jabulani Mdletshe said that by the time the two officers had arrived at the given address, the driver had loaded the animals and sped away. Unable to outrun the police, he stopped the car and fled into nearby bushes, SAPA said. The animals were handed over to a stock theft unit. The report did not say if they were wearing seat belts.

■ CHAD
Adoption operation foiled
Police arrested nine French nationals on Thursday as they were preparing to fly more than 100 children to France with a view to having them adopted, French diplomats said. They included the head of a group called Zoe's Ark, which said earlier this year that it intended to bring orphans from Sudan's violent Darfur region to France for adoption. The French Foreign Ministry issued a warning about the group in August, saying there was no guarantee the children were helpless orphans and casting doubt on the project's legality. Families from France and Belgium are believed to have paid between 2,800 euros and 6,000 euros (US$4,000 and US$8,600) for a child.

■ UNITED STATES
Parrot saves lives
A noisy parrot that likes to imitate sounds helped save a man and his son from a house fire by mocking a smoke alarm, the bird's owner says. Shannon Conwell, 33, said he and his nine-year-old son fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie. They awoke about 3am yesterday to find their home on fire after hearing the family's Amazon parrot, Peanut, imitating a fire alarm. "He was really screaming his head off," Conwell said. The smoke alarm had activated, but it was the bird's call that caught Conwell's attention.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Sleepwalkers increasing
A surge in nude sleepwalking among guests has led one of the largest budget hotel groups to re-train staff to handle late-night nudity. Travelodge, which runs more than 300 business hotels, says sleepwalking rose seven-fold in the past year, and 95 percent of the sleepwalkers are scantily clad men. One tip in the company's new "sleepwalkers guide" tells staff to keep towels handy at the front desk in case a customer's dignity needs preserving. The company said naked wanderers often ask receptionists questions such as: "Do you have a newspaper?" or "Can I check out, I'm late for work?"

■ IRAN
Khatami criticizes successor
Former president Mohammad Khatami fueled speculation of a possible comeback by accusing his successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, of peddling false statistics to hide rising inflation and unemployment. Khatami, who was regarded as a reformist, said the country's worsening economic woes did not tally with the rosy picture painted by the government, and warned that officially endorsed "lies" would destroy trust in the Islamic system. Speaking at the financial paper Sarmayeh, he said: "Unfortunately, it has become customary that the real issues are concealed and portrayed in some other ways. If there is inflation ... it will not remove the reality if you say it doesn't exist."

■ UNITED STATES
Watson retires after remark
James Watson, famous for DNA research but widely condemned for recent comments about intelligence levels among Africans, retired on Thursday from his post at a prestigious research institution. Watson, 79, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York announced his departure a week after the lab suspended him. He was chancellor of the institution, and his retirement took effect immediately. Watson shared a Nobel Prize in 1962 for co-discovering the structure of the DNA molecule. In his statement on Thursday, Watson said that because of his age, his retirement was "more than overdue. The circumstances in which this transfer is occurring, however, are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired." Watson ran into trouble last week for racist comments.

■ UNITED STATES
Man's sentence `cruel'
Georgia's Supreme Court yesterday ordered the release a young black man who was imprisoned for having consensual oral sex with a white girl when they were both teenagers. The court ruled that Genarlow Wilson's 10-year sentence was cruel and unusual punishment. Wilson was convicted of aggravated child molestation following a 2003 party at a hotel room where he was taped having oral sex with a 15-year-old. Wilson was 17 at the time. He was also charged with raping another 17-year-old girl at the party, but he was acquitted by a jury.

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