Spain: Submarine to check for leaks from oil tanker

The government plans to send a small submarine to examine the sunken tanker Prestige and check whether 17 million gallons of fuel oil in its hold have turned solid and pose only a limited environmental threat as experts believe, officials said Friday.

France’s Environment Ministry has agreed to lend Spain the Nautile, a deep-water submarine that can carry a crew of up to three people.

The Prestige sank Tuesday and rests two miles below the surface of the Atlantic off Spain’s northwest coast, Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s office said.

The pressure at that depth is 350 times that of the earth’s atmosphere and the temperature is just above freezing.

Meanwhile, Portugal said patrol planes detected three oil slicks Thursday near the spot where the Prestige sank after it was damaged in a storm and split in two. They spotted a smaller one Friday.

Toronto: Insult of president talk of the nation

A private comment that became very public was the talk of Canada on Friday, with newspaper and broadcast reports detailing how an aide to Prime Minister Jean Chretien called President Bush a moron.

Political foes demanded the ouster of Francoise Ducros for what she said Wednesday at the NATO summit in Prague. Ducros offered her resignation Friday, but Chretien refused to accept it.

“What a moron,” is the quote attributed to Ducros, Chretien’s communications director, during what she called a private conversation with a reporter that was overhead by other reporters who wrote about it.

“If I made comments in the context of what I understood to be a private conversation, I regret that they have attracted so much media attention,” Ducros said in a statement. “I accept full responsibility for them and I sincerely apologize.”

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told American reporters Thursday: “I just dismiss it as something from someone who doesn’t speak for the Canadian government.”

Paris: Moulin Rouge fined for racist labor practices

The managers of the Moulin Rouge, the French cabaret famous for its scantily clad dancers, was fined $10,000 Friday for refusing to hire a waiter because he is black.

The cabaret must also pay $4,500 in compensation to Abdoulaye Marega, a waiter from Senegal, the court said.

The Moulin Rouge’s difficulties began in November 1999 when a job agency notified Marega about an opening in the cabaret’s restaurant, where customers sit and watch the show.

He applied but was turned down. When the agency called for an explanation, a manager said the restaurant “does not employ people of color in the (entertainment) room, but sometimes in the kitchen,” prosecutors told the court.

An anti-racism group, SOS-Racisme, took up Marega’s cause and sent another black man to apply for the job. The manager gave him the same answer, unaware that a labor official was present.

Jerusalem: Mahler score found at Israeli academy

Musicologists are hailing the discovery of a score of Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony that contains his own handwritten revisions, found by chance in the archives of an Israeli music academy.

A teacher at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Charles Bornstein, came upon the score as he was searching the archives while preparing for a class. It had been unknowingly filed away for more than 40 years, said academy chairman Avner Biron.

Musicologists said the discovery of such a rare manuscript held enormous value, shedding light on the Austrian composer’s thought process. But they noted that Mahler constantly revised his works and that this was probably one of many versions of the symphony.

“It’s a fantastic discovery for Mahler scholarship,” said Leon Botstein, a Mahler expert and music director of the American Symphony Orchestra.

London: Pubs fined because drinkers also dance

You’re drinking with friends in a pub in London’s lively West End when a catchy tune comes on the jukebox and you begin swaying to the music. Stop right there – you might be on the verge of breaking the law.

A British pub chain was fined $7,850 after undercover inspectors caught a few patrons dancing at two of its popular bars. The crime: flouting licensing laws that ban “rhythmic moving.”

Another pub where customers were found “swaying” was served two written warnings.

Under British law, dancing is allowed only in pubs with public entertainment licenses, which is less than 5 percent of pubs.