Iraq

10 troops injured in separate attacks

U.S. soldiers opened fire on a truck packed with explosives Saturday, killing the driver, and three Americans were wounded when the truck crashed on a bridge and exploded.

The apparent vehicle-bomb attack was in Habaniyah, west of Baghdad. In Amarah, seven British soldiers were wounded in a three-hour firefight with unknown attackers in southern Iraq, coalition officials said. Three Iraqis were killed, British officials said.

Beijing

China’s budget raises military spending

Putting its money on stability, the Chinese government on Saturday announced a 2004 budget that sharply raises spending for the restive countryside and hands a double-digit increase to outdated military forces grappling with a changing world.

China’s communist leaders say they are trading blind economic expansion for a more stable model of growth as they struggle to narrow the gap that divides newly affluent city dwellers and the perennially poor farmers who feed the nation.

The new budget balanced long-overdue increases in spending on rural construction, education and health care with an 11.6 percent — or $2.6 billion — rise in military spending that Finance Minister Jin Renqing said was needed to improve the “defensive combat readiness of the armed forces under high-tech conditions.”

Geneva

Women’s wages rock-bottom, U.N. says

Women make up a greater percentage of the global work force than ever before, but many make so little money they can barely survive, the United Nations said.

A report released Friday by the International Labor Organization said women now account for 40.5 percent of the world’s work force, up from 39.9 percent a decade ago and the highest figure ever recorded by the U.N. agency.

Of the 2.8 billion workers in the world, 1.1 billion are women, said the report, issued ahead of International Women’s Day on Monday.

But women account for 60 percent of the world’s 550 million “working poor,” the study said, using 2003 figures.

London

Parliament doesn’t like ‘family-friendly’ hours

Parliament’s late-night culture of hard drinking, boozy debates and midnight votes could make a comeback if a large segment of disgruntled British lawmakers gets its way.

A campaign is growing in the Palace of Westminster to ditch the new “family-friendly” working hours.

Many MPs, or members of Parliament, argue that their timetable, which gets most House of Commons business wrapped up by 7 p.m., has destroyed the raucous, clubby atmosphere of political life.

Two hundred and forty-six lawmakers from all parties have signed a motion demanding a reconsideration of the later hours.