News in brief

Ottawa
Canada's newly tabled anti-terrorist bill could open the door to greater police surveillance of universities, says the Canadian Association of University Professors. The broad definition of terrorism in Bill C-36 means legitimate advocacy groups on campuses might be considered "terrorist", and that researchers could be made to reveal sources.

Bangkok
Kasetsart University students have petitioned the government to provide a specially trained unit to handle hostage situations after a female student was taken hostage at knifepoint and killed.

Rome
University and school students in Italy are staging protests and hunger strikes against plans by the conservative government to provide state support for private schools and to cut resources to universities. They fear the plans will impoverish state schools and result in higher university fees. Education minister Letizia Moratti regularly faces protests as she visits universities for ceremonies inaugurating the academic year.

Chittagong
Police in Bangladesh have charged two professors at Nazirhat College with hiring the gunmen who shot dead the college's principal while he was having breakfast with his family. Authorities said that the professors had been involved in a power struggle with Gopal Krishna Mahuri. The gunmen made off in a rickshaw.

Copenhagen
Helge Sander has been named minister of science, technology and innovation in Denmark's new Liberal-Conservative coalition government.

Canberra
Brendan Nelson, a former general practitioner and head of the Australian Medical Association, has been named Australia's new education minister. He has no previous ministerial experience.

Geneva
Among those feared dead in the Swiss air crash last Saturday was Israeli Ya'akov Matzner, dean of the Hebrew University school of medicine.