SYDNEY, Australia
Cheerleaders banned from baring tummies
Australian cheerleaders have been banned from baring midriffs by officials of the sport who fear displays of skin may encourage eating disorders.
Gymnastics Australia has ordered cheerleading troupes to find new uniforms by the end of the year.
Nerine Cooper, national cheerleading manager for Gymnastics Australia, said the decision, which followed similar moves in the United States and elsewhere, was needed because cheerleaders often performed in front of family groups.
“We don’t want girls to feel under pressure to lose weight because of uniforms,” she told Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph.
MOSCOW
Oil tycoon slashed in face at prison camp
Oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was slashed in the face Friday in a Siberian prison colony, his lawyers said Saturday.
The injury was not life-threatening, one of his lawyers, Yuri Schmidt, said in a telephone interview, but it raised fresh issues about Khodorkovsky’s safety in a remote prison camp.
Khodorkovsky, Russia’s most famous inmate, awoke during the night and found his face bloodied and cut, Schmidt said. The wound was stitched closed at the infirmary in the prison in Chita, where he is serving an eight-year sentence.
Khodorkovsky was the founder and head of the Yukos oil company and a sharp critic of the Kremlin. He was convicted last year on charges including tax evasion and fraud.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka
Mine detonated near bus carrying troops
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels detonated a mine near a bus carrying troops in northern Sri Lanka on Saturday, killing five soldiers and wounding six, a police official said.
The Claymore mine, which can be detonated by remote control, exploded as the bus approached the town of Vavuniya, said Gamini Silva, deputy inspector general of police. He blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebel group for the blast.
In a separate attack, two gunmen killed a Tamil civilian in the northern Jaffna Peninsula, a police officer said. No other details were available.
BEIJING
Tariff cuts on fruit, fish offered to Taiwan
China announced tariff cuts on imports of fruit and fish from Taiwan, offering the self-ruled island new trade concessions Saturday in an effort to boost sentiment for uniting with the communist mainland.
The announcement came during a visit to Beijing by Taiwan’s former opposition leader, who is calling for increased trade ties between the island and the mainland.
Beijing is trying to isolate Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian by forging ties with his political opposition and offering trade concessions to appeal to Taiwan’s farmers.
In Taiwan, the government body responsible for ties with China called on the mainland to open direct talks with Taiwan’s government on trade issues.
The two sides split amid civil war in 1949 and have no official relations, but China claims Taiwan as part of its territory.
LONDON
Medical volunteer: I’ll lose fingers, toes
A 20-year-old man who suffered severe reactions during testing of a drug intended to treat autoimmune diseases and leukemia said he will lose parts of his fingers and toes.
Ryan Wilson was among six healthy volunteers who took part in the clinical trial and suffered convulsions and organ failure minutes after being administered the test drug TGN1412. All the other volunteers have been released from hospital.
“I’m told it’s like frostbite and my fingers will just fall off,” he told the News of the World.
Large parts of Wilson’s hands and feet have turned black, where flesh has died, according to pictures in the newspaper.
