LONDON – Britain and Ireland will not give Romanians and Bulgarians the free access to work that other Eastern Europeans received when their countries joined the European Union in 2004, officials said Tuesday.
Seeking to prevent a wave of new arrivals, London and Dublin imposed restrictions on workers from the countries that are soon to become the EU’s newest members. Both Romania and Bulgaria said they were disappointed by the move.
While the post-2004 influx has caused little friction, the British and Irish governments have been under political pressure not to allow such an unrestricted flow of workers again.
MORE BRIEFS
CANBERRA, Australia
72,000 farmers OK’d for drought relief
Australia’s worst drought in a century has affected more than half of Australia’s farm and ranch land, making more than 70,000 farmers eligible for special federal relief, the government said Tuesday.
The cost of additional drought aid in interest rate subsidies and farmer welfare payments under so-called exceptional circumstances could be $424 million, said acting Prime Minister Mark Vaile.
That’s in addition to $263 million announced last week in extra government handouts for farmers hit hardest by the drought.
Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said the number of farmers eligible for the emergency support had increased by 10,000 to 72,000.
SAN JOSE DEL CABO, Mexico
Paul weakens to tropical storm, kills 1
Hurricane Paul weakened to a tropical storm Tuesday as it headed toward the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, whipping up high surf that left one person dead and another missing in the resort region.
Paul had maximum sustained winds near 65 mph, but was expected to further weaken before making landfall south of Los Cabos early today, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Forecasters warned, however, that the storm could still dump up to 10 inches of rain in the mountains on Mexico’s mainland, causing severe flooding.
Paul was the third hurricane to threaten the Pacific coast’s resort areas this season.
WASHINGTON
2 accused of military sales in Middle East
A former Defense Department official was sentenced to 18 months in prison and another pleaded guilty Tuesday to selling military equipment in the Middle East and pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Most of the equipment was unneeded and scheduled for auction, but prosecutors said the illegal deals also included the sale of Humvees that were still weaponized and were not supposed to have been sold.
Ronald W. Wiseman of New Boston, Texas, was sentenced for violating federal weapons laws. Wiseman worked for the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service, the Pentagon agency that sells excess military equipment.
The agency contracts with overseas auctioneers to sell the equipment and return the money to the government. Prosecutors said Wiseman and a Saudi Arabian auctioneer agreed to sell some equipment off the books and share in the profits.
PASADENA, Calif.
Shopping-cart prank breaks woman’s neck
A shopping cart that had been hoisted atop a supermarket flagpole by pranksters fell on a store employee and broke her neck.
The cart fell Saturday as the woman untied the rope to raise the flag, as she did every day when she went to work, police Lt. Lisa Perrine said Tuesday.
Shantie Marjal, 62, was hospitalized in serious condition, also suffering serious head injuries.
