A round-up of today's other stories
EU citizens made 3,920 complaints
BRUSSELS - A record 3,920 complaints were made in 2005 by people in the European Union against those running the bloc, an official report said yesterday. Most complaints cited a lack of transparency, the European Ombudsman, charged with dealing with the grievances, said in an annual report.
"Twenty-four per cent of complaints related to the lack or refusal of information, with the next highest being 17 per cent related to unfairness or abuse of power," Ombudsman P Nikiforos Diamandouros told a news conference. - (Reuters)
1,000 Iraqis face radioactive risk
BAGHDAD - More than 1,000 Iraqis who live south of Baghdad within the bombed and looted complex that was once the centre of Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme are at acute risk of radioactive poisoning, the UN's nuclear authority said yesterday.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said it was launching a clean-up operation at the Tuwaitha plant, 22km (14 miles) south of Baghdad, and appealed for international involvement. - (Guardian service)
Sarkozy criticised over race remarks
PARIS - French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy faced charges of xenophobia yesterday over his weekend comments on immigrants, thrusting the sensitive issue to the fore as rivals manoeuvre ahead of 2007 presidential polls.
Mr Sarkozy, who presents a tough new immigration Bill to parliament on May 2nd, said he was sick of having to apologise for being French and that a small minority could not dictate French laws or customs. - (Reuters)
Lineker brother jailed for fraud
LONDON - Wayne Lineker, the brother of former England striker Gary, was jailed for 30 months yesterday for a £220,000 tax fraud linked to a chain of Mediterranean sports bars he launched bearing the family name.
The trial heard how Essex-based Lineker had smuggled foreign currency from the bars into Britain in suitcases. - (Reuters)
Crackdown on people trafficking
LONDON - In a bid to beat people trafficking, men in the UK who knowingly have sex with trafficked prostitutes will be prosecuted for rape as part of a police crackdown.
A drive to cut the demand for trafficked prostitutes will target punters by urging them to report any contacts they have with trafficked women and making it clear that action will be taken against any who have sex in the knowledge that the woman has been trafficked. - (Guardian service)
Rise in Nazi war crime convictions
VIENNA - Convictions of Nazi war criminals rose more than threefold in the past year, challenging conventional wisdom that suspects are now too old to prosecute, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre said yesterday.
But the centre criticised some countries, ranging from Austria to Syria, for what it called a refusal in principle to investigate, let alone prosecute, suspected war criminals. - (Reuters)
Party official held for gum offence
ANKARA - An official in Turkey's ruling party has been arrested for chewing gum while laying a wreath at a monument to the country's revered founder Kemal Ataturk, the state Anatolian news agency said yesterday.
Veysel Dalci, head of the local branch of the Justice and Development Party in the Black Sea town of Fatsa, was charged with insulting Ataturk's memory during National Sovereignty Day last Sunday. - (Reuters)