■ Guatemala
Activists protest murders
Hundreds of women's rights activists and female workers marched down the streets of Guatemala City Thursday to demand an end to a senseless wave of violence that has seen 445 Guatemalan women killed this year. "There is no way to stop this and authorities are not paying attention to our calls," said Aida Saravia, a member of the Guatemalan Women's Group who took part in the demonstration to mark the international day to end violence against women. She said police reports indicated that in the last 72 hours, six more women were brutally killed. One woman's body was found Thursday morning dumped at the bottom of a ravine just outside Guatemala City.
■ Canada
Ukranian-Canadians protest
Hundreds of Canadians, many of Ukrainian descent, braved freezing temperatures to protest Thursday what they consider to be the fixed outcome of the Ukrainian presidential election. Busloads of demonstrators travelled from Montreal, Ottawa and the Kitchener area of Ontario to lawns outside the parliament of Canada -- the first nation to recognize Ukraine as an independent state as the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. Inside the building, the House of Commons passed a resolution rejecting pro-Russia prime minister Victor Yanukovich as the winner of Ukraine's election.
■ Israel
Troops drop pants for paper
Six navy commandos were threatened with dismissal from their elite unit Thursday after their naked picture found its way into the country's top-selling news-paper. The six are shown with their pants down in the snow, cupping their hands in front of their private parts in a centerfold-like photo splashed in a double-page spread in Yediot Aharonot. Their commander told the newspaper his men would be fired for having shamed the prestigious unit but other top brass reportedly deemed the punishment too severe. And their parents expressed outrage that their offspring could be discharged "for a silly boys' prank" when they risk their life daily to defend Israel, the paper said.
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