Today's other stories in brief
Arrests in EU, US on child pornography
AMSTERDAM - Police in 12 EU countries and the US searched more than 150 houses and arrested several people suspected of being involved in child pornography, the European police agency said yesterday. The operation, codenamed "Baleno", is the result of a worldwide investigation led by the Dutch National Police Agency, Europol said. - (Reuters)
Former Romanian minister charged
BUCHAREST - Romanian prosecutors indicted former government minister Serban Mihailescu yesterday on graft charges as the country races to prove to the EU that its anti-corruption reforms are working. - (Reuters)
UN Aids envoy criticises Zuma
NAIROBI - An apology by South Africa's former deputy president Jacob Zuma for having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman will not make up for the harm done to efforts to fight Aids there, a top UN official said yesterday. "I don't think anything can compensate for the damage he has done," said Stephen Lewis, the UN secretary general's special envoy for Aids in Africa. - (Reuters)
Anti-Lukashenko activist sentenced
MINSK - A Belarussian court sentenced an activist opposed to President Alexander Lukashenko to two years of enforced labour yesterday for spraying graffiti on walls. This was a shorter sentence than had been sought by prosecutors. - (Reuters)
Immunity lifted on Croat deputy
ZAGREB - The Croatian parliament yesterday lifted immunity from prosecution for a deputy suspected of committing war crimes in the Croatian independence war, state radio reported.
The parliamentary immunity was lifted on independent deputy Branimir Glavas after the state attorney's office said it wanted to complete an investigation into killings of Serb civilians in 1991 in Osijek. - (Reuters)
Go-ahead for film slated by Islamists
RABAT - Morocco authorised the screening yesterday of a film condemned by powerful Islamic groups.
The film, Marock, shows sons and daughters of rich Casablanca families struggling with the rival influences of tradition and modernity. It has outraged Islamic groups with scenes that include a woman in underwear mocking a Muslim kneeling for prayer. - (Reuters)
Suspected war criminal arrested
BERLIN - German police have arrested a suspected war criminal from Kosovo and are preparing to hand him over to UN authorities there, prosecutors and police said yesterday.
They declined to identify the 38-year-old ethnic Albanian man, but a UN source in Kosovo named him as Xhemail Gashi. - (Reuters)