LONDON -- British families whose non-European relatives visit would pay a $2,000 bond under immigration proposals announced Tuesday.Non-European tourists also could stay only three months versus the current six months under the plans, which aim to curtail illegal immigration and employment, London's Daily Telegraph said.Similar measures where shelved in 2000 due to protests. Some deemed the plan impractical."If you have for example a big wedding in Leicester you are dealing with 20 people coming and ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- Taiwan's economic and cultural representative office spokesman told a Washington audience Tuesday China has no right to claim authority over the island nation.In a keynote address to the Heritage Foundation, Jaushieh Joseph Wu accused the People's Republic of China of attempting to block every move Taiwan makes to participate in world organizations, including the United Nations."Taiwan possesses all the criteria for a sovereign state: a permanent population, a defined territory, a government and ... [full story]

SAN LUCA, Italy -- Four alleged mobsters were arrested Tuesday for the gangland killing of six rival clan members, the latest chapter in a 16-year Italian mafia feud.German and Italian police Tuesday arrested four men for the August slaying of six Calabrians, who were gunned down outside a Duisburg, Germany, pizzeria. ''With these arrests the offensive against the Calabrian mafia is reaching its peak,'' Italy's Interior Minister Giuliano Amato told ANSA.The feud between warring clans ... [full story]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Emergency crews braved dangerous cold to clean up 100 barrels of oil and water that fouled the Kuparuk oil field on Alaska's North Slope.The spill was discovered early Sunday by workers who heard a whistling sound coming from a pressurized pipeline, state pollution regulators said.The Anchorage Daily News reports the pipeline suffered a 6-inch rupture, which was blamed on external corrosion. Natalie Knox Lowman, spokeswoman for Conoco Phillips, which runs Kuparuk, said ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton leads, hands down, in anti-votes: 40 percent of those polled said they'd vote to keep her out of office.Coming in second was former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican who 17 percent of respondents said they would like to keep out of office, a Fox 5-The Washington Times-Rasmussen Reports survey found.Clinton's, D-N.Y., least-loving crowd was adult young men, the poll said. The survey of people identifying ... [full story]

CHICAGO -- Airline passengers are being screened by psychological experts for dubious behavior at U.S. airports, including Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.The federal SPOT program -- Screening Passengers by Observation Technique -- looks for hostile intentions and possible terrorists by observing people for signs of stress, fear and deception, the Chicago Tribune said. About 600 SPOT officers work in U.S. airports, the Chicago Tribune said."Attacking aviation remains very much on al-Qaida's radar," Kip Hawley, administrator of ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- Police and prison guard brutality and excessive force cases in the United States increased 25 percent since 2001, U.S. Justice Department statistics showed.But it's unclear whether the rise is due to increased misbehavior by law enforcement or more aggressive prosecution, University of Toledo law professor and police-conduct analyst David Harris told USA Today.National Fraternal Order of Police Executive Director James Pasco said there's worry about reduced standards and promotions of inexperienced officers, USA ... [full story]

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Hungary became the first country to ratify the European Union's reform treaty, less than a week after EU 27 leaders signed it in Portugal.The Hungarian parliament in Budapest Monday approved, on a 325-5 vote and 14 abstentions, the reform treaty that makes easier the mechanism of decision-making and running the union, the Serbian news agency Beta reported Tuesday.The Lisbon treaty was signed Thursday as a replacement for an EU draft constitution, which ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- The FBI and CIA are butting heads over whether al-Qaida captive Abu Zubaida was an unstable hotelier or a bona fide terrorist, the Washington Post said.The CIA destroyed tapes of Zubaida's interrogation, which included what are called "enhanced interrogation" techniques including waterboarding, a simulated drowning, the Post said. A House measure to ban waterboarding and other extreme interrogation measures has stalled in the Senate under the threat of a presidential veto.CIA officials considered ... [full story]

SYDNEY -- Activists patrolled waters looking for Japanese fishing fleets while Australia awaited a court rule on enforcing a whaling ban in an Antarctic sanctuary."What we want to do is find the fleet and enforce international conservation law against their illegal activities," Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's boat, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "That means obstruct, interfere, disable, do anything that we can, short of causing any injury to any of ... [full story]