National/World news

Military spending up worldwide, in U.S.

Stockholm, Sweden World military spending surged during 2003, reaching $956 billion, nearly half of it by the United States as it paid for missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror, a prominent European think tank said Wednesday.

The money has been effective in waging war, but threats of terror and weapons of mass destruction still exist, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Military spending rose by 11 percent, which the group called a “remarkable increase.” The amount was up 18 percent from 2001.

The $956 billion spent on defense costs worldwide corresponded to 2.7 percent of the world’s gross domestic product, according to the annual report.

“It’s very close to the Cold War peak in 1987,” said SIPRI researcher Elisabeth Skoens, who co-authored the report.

SIPRI also warned of fears that biotechnology research, particularly concerning human genes, could lead to the development of a new class of biological weapons

Twenty gunmen kill 10 Chinese workers

Beijing Ten Chinese construction workers were killed today in northern Afghanistan when “armed terrorists” opened fire at a construction site, China’s government said.

About 20 gunmen attacked the construction site in the province of Kondoz at about 1 a.m., the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing Chinese diplomats.

It said security guards exchanged fire with the attackers but didn’t say whether any of the gunmen were hit.

Six Chinese workers also were injured, one of them critically, the report said.

Spilled pig’s blood messes up autobahn

Bremen, Germany A truck carrying 9,000 gallons of pig’s blood was rear-ended and spilled its entire cargo on the German autobahn Wednesday, forcing the highway to close for several hours.

The truck hauling the waste blood from the Netherlands for disposal was pulling onto the autobahn near Sittensen about 4:15 a.m. from a rest stop when it was rear-ended by another truck, police spokesman Klaus-Dieter Kroll said.

The entire load of pigs’ blood formed a large slick that caused another truck to crash, Kroll said. The highway was closed, creating traffic jams 13 miles long on both sides.

The driver of the truck that crashed into the vehicle hauling the blood suffered minor injuries. Damage is estimated at $221,000, Kroll said.

Portable toilet falls on woman’s car

Hamburg, Germany A woman’s car was badly damaged Wednesday when a portable toilet was whisked into the air in a storm and flung down on the hood of her car, police said.

The accident happened as the woman was driving toward downtown Hamburg, police spokesman Ralf Kunz said. The woman was not hurt, but the toilet caused damage estimated at $6,000. self end