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Washington, D.C.
Free condoms: The government of Washington, D.C., is planning to put dispensers loaded with free condoms in some of its offices to help prevent AIDS, The Washington Post reported this week.

Cincinnati
Beating caught on tape: Racial tensions surged in Cincinnati this week after a 350-pound black man, Nathaniel Jones, died following a videotaped beating by two white policemen.

Fort Benning, Georgia
Chaplain faces new charge: A Muslim Army chaplain once suspected of espionage has been released from a military jail, only to be charged with adultery and storing pornography on his government computer.

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Homeward bound: The Pentagon plans to release 140 suspected Taliban and al Qaida fighters being held at Guantanamo Bay, home as early as this month without charges, while others will be transferred to jails in their home countries.

New York
9/11 and a dirty secret: A dozen New York City firefighters have left their wives for the widows of comrades who died on Sept. 11, the New York Post reported this week.

Cap-Haitien
Payback time: Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide demanded this week that France return $21.7 billion, the equivalent of the sum that his country paid nearly two centuries ago for formal recognition of its independence.

Berlin
Adenauer the greatest: Germans have picked Konrad Adenauer, the chancellor who led West Germany out of the post-Nazi gloom, as the "best German" of all time.

Milan
Kyoto pact on the ropes: Russia may have dealt the Kyoto treaty on global warming a deathblow this week when it said it would not ratify the pact.

Belfast, U.K.
Hard-liners triumph: Protestant voters in the British province of Norther Ireland have elected a hard-line party opposed to the Good Friday peace accord.

Paris
Diplomat strike: Thousands of French diplomats staged a one-day strike this week to protest budget cuts at the Foreign Ministry.

Rome
Baby bonus: Italian mothers who give birth between now and the end of next year will win a cash prize of more than $1,000. Italy has one of the lowest birth rate in the world, at 1.2 children per woman.

Chisinau, Moldova
No to Russia: Nearly 10,000 people demonstrated in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau this week, protesting a Russian-backed plan to give a separatist region more autonomy.

Tbillisi, Georgia
Those meddling Russians: Georgian officials are furious that Russian officials hosted three Georgian rebel leaders in Moscow this week.

Adidjan, Ivory Coast
Peacekeppers unpopular: A machetewaving mob mob laid siege to France's main military base in Ivory Coast this week, demanding that French peacekeepers leave so that government forces can crush the rebels.

Baghdad
Dishonorable love? A U.S. soldier in Iraq is being kicked out of the Army for sneaking away from patrol duty to marry an Iraqi woman, his lawyer siad this week.

Taipei
Step toward sovereignty? Taiwanese legilsators last week passed a bill allowing a referendum on whether the island should declare itself officially sovereign and separate from mainland China.

Bangkok
No philandering: The ruling party in Thailand has sparked an internal revolt over its plans to require members running for office to give up their mistresses.

Beijing
AIDS awareness breakthrough: The prime minister of China appeared on national television this week holding hands with AIDS patients, making him the first Chinese leader to publicly address the epidemic.