World in brief

Unemployment at 13-year high

Spain: The number of people claiming unemployment benefits rose by about 61,000 in August as temporary summer work contracts ran out, the Labour Ministry has said.

The rise took the number of claimants to 3.97 million.

The overall number of unemployed in Spain, which includes those whose jobless benefits have run out, stood at 4.65 million in the second quarter, making a jobless rate of 20.09 per cent - a 13-year high and the worst in the eurozone.

Jobless figures show slight fall

France: Government sources have said that unemployment fell slightly to 9.7 per cent in the second quarter, the first drop in two years.

State statistics agency Insee said that the unemployment figure for mainland France and its overseas provinces fell from 9.9 per cent in the first quarter. The agency said that 2.6 million people were registered jobless in mainland France in the second quarter.

Unemployment figures for France's overseas territories, where joblessness is generally higher, were not available.

Paper-making trio could merge

Scandinavia: Stock market trading in paper-makers Stora Enso Oyj, Holmen AB and Norske Skog ASA has been halted following reports that the three companies are planning to merge some operations.

The Helsingin Sanomat newspaper reported that the companies were planning to merge their newsprint operations to cut overcapacity and costs.

Forest product companies were hard hit in the global downturn and were forced to cut production, close mills and lay off thousands of workers.

Four arrested in torture protest

Indonesia: Police have arrested four people in connection with protests that saw the shootings of villagers in central Indonesia.

Several hundred locals attacked a police station in Central Sulawesi province on Tuesday night with rocks and Molotov cocktails.

They accused the police of torturing to death a motorist detained in a traffic accident.

Seven protesters were killed when police opened fire and at least 17 others were wounded.

City left with no government

Brazil: The city of Dourados has been left without a government because of the arrests on corruption charges of its mayor, deputy mayor and the entire leadership of its municipal council.

Mayor Ari Artuzi was arrested along with 27 other politicians in a Federal Police operation in the country's central Mato Grosso do Sul state to capture officials accused of skimming 10 per cent off the top of the city government's contracts with private firms.

Among those arrested were also the mayor's wife and the local government's secretaries for public works, finance, administration and urban services, as well as businessmen and the director of a hospital.

Drugs hit squad targets editor

Colombia: Colombian Journalists Federation organisers have revealed that a newspaper editor had survived an attempted assassination attempt after publishing reports on drug cartels.

An assailant on a motorbike fired shots at El Norte editor Marco Tulio Valencia as he was returning to his home in the central Colombian town of Mariquita after work.

Mr Valencia reported hearing two shots and turned to see a gunman dressed in black and wearing a helmet firing at him from the passing motorbike.

Miners' meals milestone

Chile: Gold-miners trapped underground after a rock collapse have received their first hot meal in 26 days.

Meatballs, chicken and rice were piped through a tube to the 33 miners, who are stuck 700m below the surface in the country's northern Atacama desert.

Previously the miners have received only glucose tablets and high-protein milk.

Greenpeace rig occupiers held

Greenland: Four Greenpeace activists have been arrested after giving up their occupation of a drilling rig off Greenland's coast.

The environmental group boarded the exploration rig, whose workers have recently discovered gas and are hopeful of finding oil, earlier this week but the activists gave up yesterday after the weather changed for the worse.