After riots, strike

Paris, Nov. 22 (Reuters): A strike by French rail workers caused chaos for commuters today and increased the conservative government's woes, just days after three weeks of urban rioting abated.

Many commuters drove to work, causing long traffic jams around Paris, and others crowded into the few trains that were running despite the strike called by unions who fear the state-run railways will be privatised. The strike is indefinite, but is due to last at least 24 hours. The railways will lose about 20 million euros a day during the strike.

Jazeera

London (Reuters): US President George W. Bush had planned to bomb pan-Arab TV station Al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar as it infuriated Washington by reporting from behind rebel lines and broadcasting pictures of dead soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi victims, a tabloid has claimed. Quoting a source and a “top secret” 10 Downing Street memo, the report said: “There’s no doubt what bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn’t want him to do it.”

Flu death

Beijing (Reuters): China’s eastern Anhui province, which recorded one of its first human deaths from bird flu, announced on Tuesday that all domestic poultry must be raised in pens or cages and not allowed to range freely. The 24-year-old poultry worker from died from the H5N1 virus on November 10.

Kenya polls

Nairobi (Reuters): President Mwai Kibaki suffered a humiliating defeat on Tuesday in a constitutional referendum that galvanised Kenyans’ disappointment with their leader three years after he took power vowing to end graft and tribalism.

Pope travels

Vatican City (AP): Despite his latest bout with yearu Guoqiang, said shay confirmed reports tre behind a plot to assassiRerrogated” by security agencies and a hunt was on for other suspects.

There have been attempts on Yasser Arafat’s life in recent weeks, a senior PLO official said in an interview published on Friday. “There were a few attempts,”.