A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Democrats vote for cheaper drugs
WASHINGTON- The US House of Representatives voted yesterday to require the government to negotiate directly with drug companies to obtain lower drug prices for older people, ignoring a White House threat to veto the Democratic measure.
The Bill, the latest in the "first 100 hours" agenda that helped Democrats win control of Congress in last year's elections, would instruct the government to negotiate with drug companies to get lower prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in the drug programme through private plans. - (Reuters)
Protests over BNP ballet dancer
LONDON- About 50 protesters shouting "Ballet not bigotry!" demonstrated noisily yesterday outside a London theatre where a ballerina, who is a member of a far-right British political party, was performing.
The demonstration outside the Coliseum threatened to upset the genteel world of pirouettes and arabesques as Simone Clarke prepared to play the lead in the romantic classic Giselle.
The performance itself was briefly interrupted by a handful of protesters in the audience, but they were quickly bundled out of the auditorium and the show continued.
The English National Ballet's principal dancer, Simone Clarke, was named in a newspaper last month as a member of the British National Party. - (Reuters)
Former Argentine president arrested
MADRID- Spanish police arrested former Argentine president Isabel Peron yesterday. She is wanted in her home country for a judicial investigation into dissident killings before the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.
Ms Peron, whose full name is Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, was arrested at her home in Villanueva de la Canada, a town in the province of Madrid. - (Reuters)
Fresh blow to leader of Ukraine
KIEV- Rivals of Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko voted in parliament yesterday to curb the president's powers in a potentially mortal blow to his authority.
Deputies supporting the prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, and Yulia Tymoshenko won two-thirds of the votes in the 450-seat parliament to overturn the president's veto. Under a new law, Mr Yushchenko loses his veto over parliament's choice of prime minister and his right to pick the defence and foreign ministers, two of his few allies in the current government. - (Reuters)