<B>LONDON. Young mums fume at Blair plan to tackle tearaways. </B> Young, single mothers in London are fuming at comments by British Prime Minister Tony Blair that their children run a high risk of turning into delinquents without help from the state. It is unfair, they argue, to blacklist a child or even an unborn baby just because his or her parents are unwed teenagers rather than a well-to-do married couple. A welfare expert agreed, saying that the remarks by Blair, who this week embarks on a regional tour to tackle ?social exclusion?, were probably made without proper consideration. The prime minister said on Thursday that the government should intervene early ? possibly even before birth ? to stop the children of problem families growing up into troublemakers. He singled out unmarried, teenage mothers who were not in a stable relationship as his prime target. ?Tony Blair is talking rubbish. We have got more than enough experience to bring up our children properly,? says Victoria Clarke, 23, who lives in a local authority flat in southeast London, fell pregnant with her first baby when she was 17 and is expecting her third child in November.

<B>ISRAEL. Police caught flat-footed in car chase. </B>A police pursuit of suspected car thieves through the streets of an Israeli city ended with officers reporting another stolen vehicle ? their own. After crashing into an electricity pole during the chase in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak, the three suspects abandoned their car and made a run for it on foot, a police spokesman said yesterday. Two officers bolted from their police cruiser to try to catch them. One of the suspected thieves was arrested, another got away, but the third man doubled back, jumped into the police car and sped off, the spokesman said. It was later found abandoned, its radio and computer screen smashed. The police spokesman said he could not confirm an Israeli newspaper report which said the officers had left the cruiser unlocked and its engine running. He said a senior police commander had ordered an investigation of the incident.

<B>JAPAN. Former Internet icon Horie goes on trial. </B>He once cruised the nightspots of Tokyo in a Ferrari and enjoyed trips by private jet ? now he prefers reading or meditating on a quiet mountainside while awaiting trial. Takafumi Horie, the former CEO of Internet firm Livedoor Co. who came to symbolise a bare-knuckles capitalism at odds with Japan?s cozy corporate mores, will go on trial in Tokyo today on charges of breaking securities laws. The pudgy 33-year-old Horie was constantly in the media spotlight for his lavish personal spending and aggressive business tactics until a surprise raid on Livedoor in January. The ?Livedoor Shock? sparked chaos on the Tokyo stock market, sending share prices plunging and overwhelming the exchange?s computer system with sell orders. It also sparked calls for a beefed-up securities watchdog and embarrassed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who had tapped Horie to run as a poster boy for reform in a national election last year. Horie lost despite support from party heavyweights. He was released on bail in April after three months in a cramped detention cell.