World news in brief

BAHAMAS: Offshore oil exploration will be allowed, environmental minister Kenred Dorsett said on Sunday.

A voter referendum on whether to go forward with full production will be held only after it is determined whether the island chain has commercially viable reserves.

Dorsett said the government would seek new regulations to protect the environment but cannot ignore the potential economic benefits of oil for a country that now imports fuel.

Prosecutors want Berlusconi check

ITALY: Prosecutors in Silvio Berlusconi's sensational sex-for-hire trial have asked court-appointed doctors to certify that his medical condition is severe enough to postpone a hearing.

Mr Berlusconi's lawyers presented three medical certificates supporting the request. He has been hospitalised with an eye inflammation and his lawyers said he was also suffering heart problems.

104 migrants freed by rescue operation

MEXICO: Marines have freed 104 kidnapped central American migrants who were being held in a house in Nuevo Laredo, authorities said on Sunday.

The Secretary of Marines said that 102 Hondurans and two Salvadorans, including 13 women, had been held captive for four days.

It said the rescue operation came after authorities received a tip that vehicles were seen arriving at the house in Tamaulipas state and armed men were seen violently unloading people.

Authorities fire on protesters

BANGLADESH: Security forces in Dhaka fired rubber bullets and tear gas again today to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing protesters.

The protest had been called by an alliance of 18 parties to denounce the trials of opposition politicians accused of atrocities during the 1971 independence war.

The alliance called for a dawn-to-dusk general strike tomorrow to protest against the police action.

Woman's suicide threat

GREECE: A 35-year-old deaf and mute woman threatened to commit suicide after climbing up the supports of a sculpture in Omonia Square, central Athens, on Monday.

The single mother of two was protesting against serious delays in disability payments that have resulted from successive austerity measures.

She was later lifted to safety by firefighters using a crane.

Merkel's party loses Wiesbaden

GERMANY: The opposition has ousted Chancellor Angela Merkel's party from the mayor's office in the capital of a traditional battleground state.

Centre-left Social Democrat Sven Gerich won the election in Wiesbaden with 50.8 per cent of the vote, defeating incumbent Helmut Mueller of Ms Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats.

Wiesbaden is the capital of Hesse state, which has been run by Ms Merkel's party since 1999.

Police hunt for seven escaped prisoners

GREECE: Police say seven prisoners have escaped from a newly built prison in north-eastern Greece near the Turkish border.

Officers are searching near the town of Feres for the inmates, who got out through a prison window and jumped over a fence.

The prisoners are said to be three foreign nationals from Iraq and one each from Algeria, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. Six had been jailed for trafficking in illegal migrants and one for a drug-related offence.

UN: Syrian people need protection

UN: The body's human rights council said today that neither side in the Syrian civil war is doing enough to protect civilians.

The Geneva-based council said that government forces are targeting civilians in bakery lines and funeral processions, while anti-government forces continue to use protected places, such as mosques, as bases or for weapons storage.

The council said both sides are showing "insufficient respect for the protection of the civilian population."

New deal settles banking dispute

SLOVENIA: Slovenia and Croatia have signed an agreement to resolve a long-standing banking dispute, removing a hurdle that has threatened to block Croatia's entry into the European Union.

The two former Yugoslav republics have clashed for years over the savings deposits of the former Slovenian LB bank following the breakup of the Yugoslav federation.