Government funds solar power plant

The Australian government pledged $95 million in funding Wednesday for two projects as part of its new strategy to combat global warming, including the construction of the world’s largest solar power plant.

The projects are the first to be funded under a $379 million package announced earlier this week to prevent global warming. Australia has been criticized over its refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The government will contribute $57 million to the $319 million project to build a 154 megawatt solar power plant in Victoria state, which will use mirrored panels to concentrate the sun’s rays, Treasurer Peter Costello said.

“The project aims to build the biggest photovoltaic project in the world,” Costello told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Jonannesburg, South Africa

Analyst says entry to U.S. denied

A prominent South African political analyst said Wednesday that U.S. border agents had denied him entry into the United States and questioned him about his views on terrorism.

Adam Habib, executive director of the Democracy and Governance Research Program for South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council, was taken to a holding room at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday after his arrival for meetings in New York and Washington, he said in an interview.

Seven hours later, his visa had been canceled and he was escorted by an armed guard to a return flight to Johannesburg.

Habib said the border agents did not give him a reason. A U.S. Embassy spokesman, Mark Schlachter, confirmed the incident but said he did not know why Habib was denied entry.

Habib, who is Muslim, said that most of the dozens of people he saw in the holding room had dark skin and appeared to be Muslim, by virtue of their language or dress. The Human Sciences Research Council has asked the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria to investigate.

Berlin

Troops criticized for skull photos

Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed disgust Wednesday at photos that appeared to show German troops in Afghanistan posing with a human skull and pledged that any soldiers found to be involved would be punished severely.

The macabre pictures were published by Germany’s biggest-selling daily, Bild, which said they showed German peacekeepers near the Afghan capital of Kabul in early 2003.

The uniformed men were seen holding up the skull and posing with it on a jeep; one is seen exposing himself with the skull. Bild’s headline declared: “German soldiers desecrate a dead person.”

The newspaper said it was unclear where the skull came from, but cited an unidentified serviceman as saying it may have come from a suspected “mass grave” outside Kabul.

Bild, which would not identify the source of the photos, said it was unclear whether the skull belonged to an Afghan or dated back to the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.