Hong Kong - Hong Kong's city-wide anti-smoking drive was facing a serious setback Thursday after three popular bars won a court ruling that may allow them to let smokers back indoors.

A row continued to rage Friday in Finland over the hiring and subsequent firing of a female chief editor, allegedly due to her same-sex relationship.

Some 30 female students from Tampere College, north-west of Helsinki, staged a protest Friday outside the editorial offices of the Aamulehti daily, Finnish news agency STT reported.

Communal tensions are on the rise in eastern India as radical Hindus in the state of Orissa have torched hundreds of churches and Christian homes since late August.

As in past confrontations in recent years, the violence between Hindus and Christians has centred in Orissa's Kandhamal district.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard launched Thursday the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Tlatelolco Massacre by setting the Mexican flag at half-mast on the site of the violent repression of students in 1968. 

During the ceremony at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas square in the Tlatelolco neighbourhood of Mexico City, people demanded that the truth about the events of October 
2, 1968 - when scores of people died in the repression of demonstrators by police and Army forces - be revealed. 

Swedish schools were criticized Thursday for widespread use of surveillance cameras inside their premises, violating personal integrity rules. 

The Swedish Data Inspection Board that issued the criticism based its findings after inspecting seven randomly selected schools, saying they used surveillance cameras indiscriminately. 

The spectre of recession has Australians drinking more but spending less on alcohol, a market research firm said Wednesday. 

A survey of 1,300 liquor outlets by the Bailey Group found more alcohol being sold but the average purchase price declining. 

The explanation for the conundrum is that drinkers are shifting downmarket. 

Mike MacAvoy, chief executive of lobby group Drinkwise, said drinkers were adjusting to their budgets. 

Radical Muslim cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri, who has been living in Lebanon since he was exiled from the Britain three years ago, said Monday he had no idea that his daughter was working as a pole dancer in London. 

"If this is true, I am deeply shocked," Bakri said in Tripoli northern Lebanon. 

An OSCE report launched Monday paints a "bleak picture" and shows "considerable gaps" in improving the situation of the Roma and Sinti people across Europe, officials said at an annual conference in Warsaw. 

Taipei on Saturday held Asia's largest gay pride march to demand equal rights for homosexuals, transsexuals and transgender people.

Braving showers brought on by Typhoon Jangmi, an estimated 18,000 people - including representatives from gay rights groups in foreign countries - marched through the main streets of Taipei.

The bus stop is a sandy square surrounded by apple orchards, where a cluster of people has assembled around a coach.

Talea, 24, gives his parents a final hug before boarding the bus that will bring him across the Syrian-Golan border in just a few minutes' time.

In the coming semester, Talea is going to finish his studies in medicine in Damascus. He won't come back to his home country until the beginning of next year's summer break.