Today's other world news in brief
Police officer suspended for being in BNP
LIVERPOOL - A serving police officer included in a list of British National Party members leaked on an internet blog was last night suspended from duty.
PC Steve Bettley, of Merseyside Police, returned early from a holiday abroad to help the force with an investigation into his alleged involvement with the far-right party. - (PA)
Shipping firm to avoid Somali coast
MOGADISHU - One of the world's biggest shipping firms said yesterday it would no longer send part of its huge merchant fleet through the Suez Canal because of rampant piracy off Somalia's coast.
Danish shipper AP Moller-Maersk is routeing some of its 50 oil tankers around the Cape of Good Hope instead. Norway's Frontline said it was considering a similar move. - (Reuters)
SA to withhold Zimbabwe aid
HARARE - South Africa said yesterday it will withhold aid for Zimbabwe until a representative government is in place, in what appeared to be the first punitive measure by a regional country to enforce a power-sharing agreement.
The government said it was "extremely concerned" about Zimbabwe's political impasse which has deepened a humanitarian crisis. - (Reuters)
Register of Nazi atrocities started
BERLIN - German historians have started compiling a central register of 9,000 mentally ill people murdered as part of the Nazis' euthanasia policy, most of whom were previously unidentified.
More than 100,000 are believed to have been killed during a drive inspired by Hitler that was carried out in six extermination centres between 1940 and 1945. - (Reuters)
UK crackdown on drivers speeding
LONDON - British drivers caught going more than 20mph over the speed limit could lose their licences after just two offences, under government proposals published yesterday. - (Reuters)