A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Berlusconi's 'boil babies' remark decried
ROME - Italy's centre-left opposition yesterday accused prime minister Silvio Berlusconi of damaging Italy's international image after China denounced his assertion that Chinese communists used to boil babies.
"Do you realise what image is being given of our country if the prime minister says these things?" opposition leader Romano Prodi asked supporters at a rally ahead of an April general election that opinion polls say he is likely to win.
Mr Berlusconi, who is often accused of being obsessed with the "communist threat" in Italy, said at the weekend that the Chinese under Mao Zedong boiled babies. - (Reuters)
Havel's Belarus protest disrupted
PRAGUE - Former Czech president Vaclav Havel was refused entry to the Belarus embassy in Prague yesterday as he attempted to hand over a letter protesting against the recent presidential election.
The letter, which Havel was forced to put in the embassy's letterbox, also demanded that Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko, whose Soviet-style policies have brought condemnation in the West, step down. - (Reuters)
300,000 children in danger, says UN
DAKAR - Hunger will kill more than 300,000 children in west Africa this year if donor nations fail to stump up enough money to provide food aid, the UN said yesterday. The world body said it needed $92 million to help feed over five million people - many of them women and children - at risk of malnutrition in four countries bordering the Sahara desert: Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. - (Reuters)
Hamas wins vote of confidence
GAZA - Hamas won a Palestinian parliamentary vote of confidence in its cabinet yesterday, the final formality before the Islamic militant group takes office. The vote was 71 legislators in favour, to 36 against. The result was expected to favour Hamas since the group has a majority in parliament. - (Reuters)