A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Chirac says colonial law should change
PARIS - France should change a law that encourages the positive portrayal of its colonial past in school books, according to president Jacques Chirac.
"The current text divides the French," he said yesterday. "It must be rewritten. I want this move to happen within the framework of a general reflection." The law was passed in February last year but became politically explosive when deputies refused to revoke it after riots in November by youths mostly of North African and black African origin. The opposition Socialists wanted it repealed. - (Reuters)
Yemen executes hostage-taker
SANAA - Yemen, hit by a wave of tourist kidnappings, yesterday executed a convicted hostage-taker and says it will put to death all those convicted of kidnapping Westerners to act as a deterrent.
The state-run September 26 site (www. 26sept.net) quoted government sources as saying the decision was also intended to reaffirm its commitment to stamping out abductions of foreigners in the impoverished Arab country. - (Reuters)
Slight advance for women in Britain
LONDON - It could take another 200 years in Britain for women to be as powerful as men even though sex discrimination legislation has been in force for three decades, according to the Equal Opportunities Commission yesterday.
Its annual Sex and Power - who runs Britain? survey showed that the number of women in top positions in politics, business, the judiciary and other areas of public life has inched up only marginally from the previous year. - (Reuters)
Man who captured Mussolini dies
ROME - The second World War resistance fighter who captured Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as he tried to escape Allied forces died late on Tuesday.
Urbano Lazzaro, best known under his nom de guerre "Partisan Bill", stormed into Italy's history books on April 27th, 1945, when he halted a Nazi truck in the village of Dongo and discovered Il Duce disguised as a Nazi soldier inside. - (Reuters)
Syria allows Hariri interviews
BEIRUT - Syria has agreed to allow UN investigators to interview its foreign minister over the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, diplomats said yesterday.
Syria was still considering a request by the UN team investigating last year's killing to meet President Bashar al-Assad, but an interview with foreign minister Farouq al-Shara was acceptable, the diplomats said. - (Reuters)
Somali moves agreed in Aden
ADEN - Somalia's president and parliamentary speaker have agreed to move the government to Mogadishu, ending a rift which had paralysed the administration of the anarchic nation, a Yemeni official has said.
President Abdullahi Yusuf and speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan have been holding talks on the dispute in the Yemeni port city of Aden as their respective factions have refused to meet on home ground. - (Reuters)
Rights worker held in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH - Police in Cambodia have arrested another human rights worker in a wider crackdown on opposition figures that has drawn international condemnation, in particular from Washington, activists and police said.
Pa Nguon Teang, vice- director of the US-funded Cambodian Center for Human Rights, was detained in the northeast province of Stung Treng, near the border with Laos, said spokesman Ou Virak. - (Reuters)