In 1999, the territory of Nunavut will be created in the Canadian Arctic where about 30,000 Inuit people will control 2.2 million square kilometres, or one-fifth of the Canadian land mass.Canada, Mr Rankin said, showed how the patchwork of progress and regression can co-exist in one country.. When the Northern League announces the birth of Padania, a federation of northern Italian regions next Sunday, it will be the first, crucial, step down the road to a new-look European Union, a leading party official said yesterday. On reservations, Native American and not US law prevails in many areas - a situation upheld by a 1978 ruling of the US Supreme Court that federal courts had no jurisdiction to protect the civil rights of a Native American living on the reservation. We're going to be victorious."Hawaii's tentative move towards greater autonomy is part of a wave of movements towards self-government amongst the world's indigenous peoples. But Aidan Rankin, of Survival International, said that in global terms their progress towards self-determination showed "a patchwork of losses and gains".Technically, America's Indian tribes are already "sovereign" nations In fact their position is complex. Hawaii remained a territory of the US until it became a state in 1959.The stay, issued minutes before the formal results were to be released on Monday, infuriated election council officials.

"We're very disappointed," said Jon Van Dyke, the lawyer for the council. "But I'd be very surprised if the stay lasted very long." It was unclear when the hearing would take place.Undaunted, Sol Kahoohalahala, the council chairman, declared: "We waited 100 years What's another day or so? We're going to come through. Many native Hawaiians believe they have been treated as second- class citizens in their own land ever since the overthrow by US Marines of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893. The stay will allow a further hearing into a lawsuit lodged by a non-native resident of Hawaii who claims the referendum discriminated against non-Hawaiians and was unconstitutional. About 80,000 Hawaiians of indigenous descent were asked whether they favoured electing delegates to a convention to consider self-government which could range from the creation of a nation within a nation within the United States' 50th state to the secession of Hawaii from the Union. "It's very definitely a 'yes' vote," Poka Laenui, a member of the Hawaiian Sovereignty Elections Council said. He noted that the ballots had been colour-coded yellow for "yes" and pink for "'no" and that the ballots cast had been overwhelmingly yellow.Further progress was unexpectedly halted, however, by a US district court in California.

The offices of the judicial police in the southern town of Charleroi were searched. Among those held for questioning were eight members of the judicial police and three members of the gendarmerie. The questioning of police officers will add to mounting suspicion that Mark Dutroux and his accomplices may have been aided and abetted by the authorities themselves.. Native Hawaiians voted overwhelmingly in favour of self- government in a referendum held earlier this summer, organisers said, even though formal release of the poll's results was delayed at the last moment. More than three weeks after the discovery of the bodies of two eight-year-old girls, the first victims to be found, investigators broadened inquiries yesterday to examine widespread complicity within the Belgian police force. Belgian police questioned 23 suspects in the Dutroux child sex and murder inquiry, including 11 policemen.

The top Ananda Marg monks, believed by police to have helped organise and fund the arms drop, also fled.In the court hearing, due to start in several weeks, Mr Bleach has few chances of defending himself. The Indian police, Mr Bleach claims, have "openly admitted, in front of British diplomats, that they will not tell the courts about my assistance [in exposing the arms drop], and that I must defend myself as best as I can."The Foreign Office said yesterday, "We are in regular touch with the Indian authorities to ensure that if [Mr Bleach] comes to trial he receives a fair trial.". The mysterious Kim Davy walked out of the airport and has never been seen since. Mr Bleach and the Latvian crew were arrested, as were six leaders of the Ananda Marg. Bleach expected the aircraft to be surrounded by armed police and troops. But instead it was ordered to park at a remote side of the airport and left for an hour before Indian officials turned up.