A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Galloway in new challenge to US senators
LONDON - British MP George Galloway has challenged US senators to charge him with perjury over claims that he solicited money from Saddam Hussein's oil-for-food programme and lied about it under oath.
The US Senate committee investigating the Respect MP's alleged involvement in the saga claims to have discovered $150,000 in Iraqi oil money in his estranged wife's bank account.
Its chairman, Republican Senator Norm Coleman, says this means Mr Galloway lied under oath when giving evidence to the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations on May 17th this year, when he offered a passionate defence against similar claims. - (PA)
Refugees in Sudan free aid workers
NYALA - Refugees took 34 aid workers hostage in Darfur's largest refugee camp yesterday, but later released all but five, UN officials and sources in the aid community said.
The hostage takers were demanding the release of a local tribal leader in the restive Kalma camp who was arrested on Sunday, they said. - (Reuters)
EU population up by 2.3m last year
BRUSSELS - The European Union's population grew by 2.3 million in 2004, mostly due to immigration, which accounted for 1.9 million of the total, the Union's statistical agency Eurostat said. The 25-nation EU's population was estimated at 459.5 million on January 1st this year, up from 457.2 million a year earlier, Eurostat said. - (Reuters)
New car rental tax for Spanish islands
MADRID - Tourists to the Spanish Balearic islands will have to pay a controversial new tax next year which, travel agents say, will accelerate the steep decline in visitors. Majorca, Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera will charge visitors who hire a car up to €5 a day in an attempt to raise an extra €12 million in local taxes. - (Guardian service)
Fined for not watching Ws, Qs
DIYARBAKIR - A Turkish court fined 20 people for using the letters Q and W on placards at a Kurdish new year celebration, under a law banning characters not used in the Turkish alphabet, rights campaigners said. The court in the southeastern city of Siirt fined each of the 20 people 100 new lira (€62) for holding up the placards, written in Kurdish, at the event last year.
The letters Q and W do not exist in the Turkish alphabet, but are used in Kurdish. - (Reuters)
'Alien' encounters mostly dreamt up
LONDON - Strange encounters of the alien kind have more to do with sleep disorders than little green men with a penchant for kidnapping, according to a study. A survey of people who believed they had had contact with aliens showed they were much more likely to experience sleep paralysis, a state where people are temporarily stuck between sleep and wakefulness and unable to move.
"When a person is in that state, they can see things and hear things and be convinced they're real," said Chris French, head of anomalistic psychology research at Goldsmith's College, London. often people will see bright lights and menacing figures and given the choice between truth and madness, many decide the experience was real.- (Guardian service)
Big Mac wrappers to reveal fat facts
CHICAGO - In its latest measure to fend off critics that blame the world's largest restaurant company for contributing to a rising incidence of obesity and other health problems, McDonald's has said it will start printing nutritional information on the packaging of its food. - (Reuters)