World briefs 9/17/03

EU giving $13.5 million in emergency aid to Liberia

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union said Tuesday it would give another $13.5 million in emergency aid to support African peacekeepers in Liberia.

The European Commission said $9 million would be used to cover support costs for peacekeepers from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Mali and other peace-building efforts in the West African nation.

The 3,000-member force was deployed to help end fighting between forces loyal to then-President Charles Taylor and rebels battling since 1999 to oust him. The Nigerian-led peacekeepers arrived last month, bringing calm to the capital after 2 1/2 months of fighting that killed more than 1,000 civilians.

Canada debates divisive same-sex marriage issue

TORONTO -- Canada's Parliament took on the divisive issue of same-sex marriage Tuesday, debating a nonbinding resolution that opposes the government's plan to legalize homosexual unions.

While the resolution has no legal weight, it is designed to force lawmakers from the governing Liberal Party to show where they stand on the matter.

Hundreds of homosexual couples have been married in Ontario and British Columbia since courts there ruled earlier this year that the definition of marriage as between a man and woman is discriminatory. The government has not appealed, choosing instead to rewrite the law to define marriage as between two people, without any reference to their gender.

The draft law has been sent to the Supreme Court for review before Parliament considers it.

Man attacks co-workers with samurai sword

PFORZHEIM, Germany -- A 24-year-old man burst into a mail-order warehouse where he worked and swung a samurai sword at co-workers Tuesday, killing one woman and seriously wounding three others before slashing his arms, police said.

Police in Pforzheim, west of Stuttgart, said they arrested the attacker in a sixth-floor bathroom where he was found feigning death. He required stitches for his wounds, but was well enough to be questioned, police chief Karl-Heinz Arnitz said.

The motive for the 8:40 a.m. attack at the Bader company was not immediately clear, Arnitz said.

Police said the doorman saw the attacker enter the building carrying a slightly bowed black sheath, which held the 30-inch blade. He then got on an elevator and headed for the sixth floor. Earlier reports had said the sword had hung on the wall as a decoration.

Death toll from Saudi Arabia prison fire rises

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- The death toll of a fire that raged through a Riyadh prison has risen to 94, a Saudi prison official said Tuesday.

Relatives of inmates waited outside al-Haer prison a day after the fire to learn the fate of family members in a fire that burned some bodies beyond recognition, the official said.

Authorities initially said 67 people died and 23 suffered from smoke inhalation. It took firefighters about three hours to bring the fire under control. The cause appeared to be an electrical short-circuit at the prison 12 miles south of Riyadh.

-- From wire reports