Carnival ban for ‘Holocaust float’
RIO DE JANEIRO A samba group has been banned from parading during carnival with a float depicting naked bodies of Holocaust victims. Judge Juliana Kalichszteim issued the injunction in response to a lawsuit by the Jewish Federation of Rio de Janeiro, which asked for the float to be removed from the carnival parade next week. The judge said that the float could be used but that organisers of the Viradouro samba group must remove mannequins meant to represent bodies. “It’s inadmissible that they could have a float depicting dead Jews and a live Hitler on top of them,” a federation spokesman said. (AP)
Burma death toll
BANGKOK About 100 people died when Burma’s military rulers quashed anti-government protests in September, far higher than the 15 reported by the junta, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report. (AFP)
Rare tiger killed
Advertisement
JAKARTA A soldier shot dead an endangered Sumatran tiger that was caught in a pig snare in Riau province, western Indonesia. He asked villagers to skin it so he could take the pelt, a conservation official said. (AP)
Army suicides rise
WASHINGTON US Army suicide rates have soared in the past three years, hitting levels not seen for more than a quarter of a century. More than 2,000 soldiers attempted suicide in 2006 and 102 succeeded. (AFP)
Record drug haul
DUSHANBE Tajik forces seized more than 1,100lb (500kg) of opium and heroin from Afghanistan in the biggest drugs haul since the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. (Reuters)
Advertisement
Rebel base hit
COLOMBO Sri Lanka’s air force bombed and destroyed a Tamil Tiger “suicide bomber” training base in the rebel-held Mullaithivu district in the north of the troubled country, the Defence Ministry said. (AP)
Bolshoi sets a date
MOSCOW The Bolshoi Theatre will reopen in November next year, a year behind schedule, after emergency work to save it from collapse. The historic opera and ballet theatre closed in July 2005. (Reuters)
War on drugs
Advertisement
AMSTERDAM The Dutch Interior Ministry said that it wants police officers to stop using soft drugs such as cannabis, even when off duty, because it tarnishes the image of law enforcement officials. (Reuters)
Organ row arrests
DELHI Police in India have confiscated the passports of two Britons who allegedly travelled to the country to buy kidneys in a transplant racket that made money off poor labourers’ organs, a British newspaper reported
Busted flush
MOSCOW Seventeen people were taken to hospital after being given enemas with hydrogen peroxide instead of water at a health farm. The clinic in Yessentuki said it was because the chemical looked like water.