A roundup of today's other world stories in brief
Paris march for hostage Betancourt
PARIS- The president of Argentina, the first lady of France and several senior French ministers joined thousands of protesters in Paris yesterday to call on Colombian guerrillas to release their ailing hostage, Ingrid Betancourt.
France has sent a medical mission to Colombia to try to get access to the French-Colombian citizen who has been held in the jungle for six years by the FARC, but the guerrillas have not yet given their blessing to the operation.
- (Reuters)
Cut speed limit, says Livingstone
LONDON- London mayor Ken Livingstone said yesterday he would try to impose a 20mph (32km/h) speed limit on all London's residential streets to reduce road deaths if he was re-elected for a third term.
Mr Livingstone, who has adopted a tough policy towards traffic, is neck-and-neck with rival Boris Johnson in the runup to the May 1st election.
Last week Porsche launched a legal challenge to a tax proposed by Mr Livingstone to raise the £8 (€10.20) daily levy on all cars driving in the capital to £25 for those with high fuel consumption.
- (Reuters)
France talks to yacht pirates
PARIS- France has made contact with pirates who have hijacked a luxury yacht off Somalia and will do everything it can to safeguard the 30-strong crew taken hostage, the French foreign minister said yesterday.
"We have established contact and it risks being a long drawn-out affair," foreign minister Bernard Kouchner told French radio.
Asked if France was ready to pay a ransom to secure the release of the crew, he said: "We'll see."
- (Reuters)
Anti-Dutch rally in Pakistan
KARACHI- Several thousand Pakistani Islamists protested in Karachi yesterday against the reprinting of a satirical cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad and the release of a film that accuses the Koran of inciting violence.
Some 5,000 activists from Jamaat-e-Islami took to the streets of the southern Pakistani city shouting "Down with Holland" and "Down with Denmark".
- (Reuters)
Bomb attack on Yemeni complex
YEMEN- A blast shook a complex housing Westerners, mostly Americans, in the Yemeni capital yesterday, but there were no casualties, a Yemeni security official said.
- (Reuters)
More body parts found in harbour
LONDON- Police divers have recovered more body parts believed to be from a Lithuanian woman whose head and hands were found on a Scottish beach.
The dismembered remains were found in a suitcase at the bottom of Arbroath harbour at the weekend after an underwater search. Two Lithuanian men have been arrested.
- (PA)