A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Blunkett bows to pressure on share purchase
LONDON - Britain's work and pensions secretary, David Blunkett, last night bowed to pressure and asked his sons to sell off shares in the technology firm DNA Bioscience which he bought on their behalf.
The minister had insisted that no conflict of interest was involved in the setting up of a trust holding the shares for his sons. But in a press statement he said: "I am not prepared even to have the appearance that there could be any potential future conflict while the trust retains any shares in DNA Bioscience. I have therefore asked my sons to authorise the trustees to dispose of the shares. They have agreed to this." - (PA)
Sarkozy defends tough policing
PARIS - France's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, yesterday defended his law-and-order tactics and pledged rapid police reinforcements after four nights of rioting in a Paris suburb. Mr Sarkozy, who also promised the parents of two teenagers whose deaths sparked the violence that they would learn the "full truth" about how their sons died, said that the situation in some deprived neighbourhoods had been deteriorating "for 30 years" and had to be tackled firmly.
Groups of youths set cars alight in rioting which began on Thursday after two youths were electrocuted while apparently fleeing from police. On Sunday, a tear-gas grenade was fired into a mosque. - (Reuters)
Paper buys into good news
NEWARK - Elected officials under attack by their local newspapers for the three deadly sins - corruption, incompetence and indifference - can take hope from the fact that good news can be bought, at least in New Jersey. The city's mayor, Sharpe James, and the city council has awarded a $100,000 contract to a community paper to publish "positive news" about the city and its elected leaders.
The Newark Weekly News will, for the next year, write stories fed by the city's public information office. Howard Scott, the paper's editor, offered the deal to the city council. "We have found oodles and oodles of positive news not identified by your paper of record, the Star Liar, I mean the Star-Ledger," said Scott, referring to the state's largest newspaper. - (Washington Post Service)
Study points way to cut cholesterol
CHICAGO - Two servings a day of soy protein - such as that found in tofu, soy milk or soy powder - can lower cholesterol levels by as much as 9 per cent as long as the raw soy is uncooked, according to a study published in Chicago.
Soy-fortified muffins, cereals or nutritional bars in which the soy protein is baked at high temperatures do not provide the benefit, the study says. - (Reuters)
Head of religious centre arrested
TEL AVIV - The head of a religious centre which hosted singer Madonna's visit to Israel was last night under arrest on suspicion of promising to cure a woman's cancer in return for more than £30,000 sterling. Shaul Youdkevitch, the director of the Kabbalah Centre in Tel Aviv, was remanded for questioning.
The centre, which presents an interpretation of aspects of Jewish mysticism which has attracted hundreds of celebrities, has been rejected by mainstream Judaism. - (Guardian service)
Poland gets new government
WARSAW - Poland's conservative Law and Justice Party took the reins of power yesterday, forming a minority cabinet after it failed to bring the pro-business Civic Platform into a coalition.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski swore in conservative politician Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz as prime minister, formally ending four years of left-wing rule. - (Reuters)