In the World

The families of three American hikers detained in Iran filed a petition with the Iranian mission to the United Nations yesterday.

The petition, with 2,500 signatures, seeks the release of Shane Bauer, 27; Sarah Shourd, 31; and Josh Fattal, 27, whose family lives in Elkins Park.

The families say the three accidentally crossed an unmarked border into Iran while hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan on July 31. Iran has charged them with espionage.

Cindy Hickey, Bauer's mother, said that supporters from around the world had signed the petition online at www.freethehikers.org and at vigils that took place across the United States on Sept. 30.

- AP

LONDON - A toll bridge built in 1769 across the River Thames will be auctioned next month, offering buyers a tax-free investment with a bit of historic charm.

The Swinford bridge brings in about $320,000 in tolls from four million vehicle crossings a year, and the bridge's owner can pocket all the income without paying tax. The bridge in Oxfordshire is priced at $2.77 million.

The property comes with a stone toll cottage and acres of land. The bridge is owned by a family living nearby, surveyor Charlie Mason said.

The span has been free of income tax since the 18th century, when Parliament granted ownership to the Earl of Abingdon and "to his heirs and assignees for ever."

- AP

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The Dutch government approved a pilot project yesterday to pump carbon dioxide into depleted gas fields beneath a town of 43,000 people as a way of reducing emissions blamed for global warming.

Residents of Barendrecht, a suburb of Rotterdam, fiercely oppose the plan, and the municipality immediately vowed legal proceedings to prevent it. The government said Royal Dutch Shell would pump about 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the underground chamber more than a mile beneath the suburb.

Officials estimates there is room to store 10 million tons in two fields under Barendrecht. It will closely monitor the first project before considering using the second field.

- AP

More than 3,000 Zimbabweans have fled their homes in South Africa's Western Cape Province after being threatened by local residents competing for jobs. Most of the displaced are being housed in tents near Cape Town. The Red Cross said it needed $270,000 to aid victims of the unrest, which began Monday.

Swedish museum officials returned the remains of five indigenous Maori people to New Zealand as part of a broader move in Europe to repatriate remains taken from burial grounds. Visiting delegates from the Museum of New Zealand joined in a ceremony in Goteborg that included songs and prayers.

Pope Benedict XVI called for greater international efforts to ensure basic human rights for children. He made the speech on the 20th anniversary of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.