World Briefs

A senior official in South Sudan who ordered a crackdown on young women wearing tight trousers has been sacked, officials said yesterday.

Police arrested scores of women - many on their way home from church - in the capital Juba a couple of weeks ago on charges of disturbing the peace. Officers said their choice of clothing proved they belonged to youth gangs.

Police acted after Juba county commissioner Albert Pitia Redentore banned any public display of gang behaviour that, he said, threatened traditional values.

Gender minister Mary Kiden said the crackdown was unconstitutional and reminded her of the restrictions on women's dress enforced in the Muslim north of the country.

China plans to settle 470,000

Authorities in the Chinese province of Sichuan plan to spend five billion yuan ($732 million) to settle 470,000 Tibetan herders in permanent houses, state media said, as part of efforts to promote the development of ethnic Tibetan areas.

Rioting broke out in ethnic Tibetan areas of the southwest province earlier this year after Lhasa, the capital of neighbouring Tibet, was hit by violent protests against Chinese rule.

Over the next four years, the Sichuan government will build brick houses and villages including primary schools, clinics and offices for the Tibetan nomads, Xinhua news agency said in a report yesterday.

Jolie breast-feeding triumph or trouble?

A magazine cover photo of Angelina Jolie breast-feeding one of her newborn twins may have turned the superstar actress into a role model for new mothers.

The photo, taken by Jolie's partner Brad Pitt, will adorn the November issue of W magazine.

Other family pictures taken by Pitt in the weeks after the birth in July of twins Vivienne Marcheline and Leon Knox will appear inside.

"I think it is fabulous. Seeing a celebrity like Angelina Jolie breast-feed can be a role model to encourage women to make a choice that is wonderful for their baby," said Andi Silverman, mother of two and author of Mama Knows Breast.

"Breasts are used to sell all sorts of products, so to see them used the way nature intended can only be a great thing," Silverman told Reuters.

But while breast-feeding support groups and mums celebrated Jolie's public statement, one expert said the picture felt like voyeurism, especially given Jolie's sex symbol status in movies like Wanted and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

Indonesians oppose anti-porn bill

Several thousand Indonesians from across the archipelago held a rally in Bali yesterday to oppose a controversial anti-pornography bill that parliament may vote on this week.

The protesters, who came from Papua, North Sulawesi, Yogyakarta on Java island and Bali, carried a 230-metre-long Indonesian flag and performed traditional dances.

"The bill will threaten national unity. We must keep struggling to reject the passing of the bill," said Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Hemas, who is the wife of the sultan of Yogyakarta, a royal province in Java and a centre for art in Indonesia.

The anti-smut bill, which aims to shield the young from pornographic material and lewd acts, is being pushed by a small group of Islamist parties in predominantly Muslim, but officially secular, Indonesia.

Minor injuries in Dutch rail crash

A Thalys international train hit a Dutch intercity train on an adjoining track at Gouda station in the Netherlands yesterday, causing a number of minor injuries, the Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported.

No one was seriously injured in the accident, which took place at about 11.15 a.m., the broadcaster said. The Thalys, which was travelling to Paris, and the intercity train brushed against each other as they passed.

It was not immediately clear how many passengers had been hurt.

India's first woman saint cheered

Thousands of Christians flocked to a small town in southern India yesterday to celebrate the planned canonisation of a Roman Catholic nun, against a backdrop of the worst anti-Christian riots in decades.

Sister Alphonsa will become India's first woman saint when she is canonised by Pope Benedict XVI at a special ceremony at the Vatican today. "It is a very important event and a big recognition for a woman born in a simple, ordinary Indian family," said Archbishop Raphael Cheenath in eastern Orissa, where recent attacks on Christians have killed about 35 people.

Net to catch suicides

The California panel that oversees the Golden Gate Bridge voted on Friday to install netting to catch would-be suicides throwing themselves off the famous span.

The 1,280-metre-long suspension bridge, which crosses the entrance to San Francisco Bay, is a tourist magnet that also draws people trying to end their lives.

There were 39 confirmed suicides from the bridge in 2007, with seven unconfirmed cases, and 19 confirmed so far this year, bridge officials said.

The netting would be set six metres below the sidewalk and extend out the same distance from the bridge. Officials estimate the barrier will cost $40 to $50 million.