A Turkish court yesterday acquitted Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Turkey-based spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, and other top church leaders of charges that they prevented a Bulgarian priest from conducting religious ser-vices. The court dropped the charges without giving a reason in a case that represented a challenge to Bartholomew's authority. Bartholomew and the 12 senior clerics were charged in this predominantly Muslim, but secular, country on rarely invoked charges of "preventing others from observing faith and conduc-ting religious services" after the priest was dismissed in 2002.
■ South Africa
Mandela's party canceled
Nelson Mandela's Christmas party was brought to a halt on Sunday after around 76,000 people, far more than organizers had expected, turned up at his rural Eastern Cape Province home. Children and adults reported-ly began pushing and shoving at the event that had seen many arrive a day early to queue for a meal and Christ-mas gifts at the anti-apartheid struggle hero's house in the village of Qunu. Officials from the Nelson Mandela Foundation that catered for around 45,000 people said they were forced to call off the event that police feared could end in a stampede. Mandela was not in attendance for the first time since the party was initiated 11 years ago.
■ United States
Bush `Person of the Year'
After winning re-election and "reshaping the rules of politics to fit his 10-gallon-hat leadership style," US President George W. Bush for the second time was chosen as Time magazine's Person of the Year. The magazine's editors tapped Bush "for sharpening the debate until the choices bled, for reframing reality to match his design, for gambling his fortunes -- and ours -- on his faith in the power of leadership." After a grueling election campaign, Bush remains a polarizing figure in America and around the world, and that's part of the reason the magazine selected him, managing editor Jim Kelly said. The magazine gives the title to the person who had the greatest impact, good or bad, over the year.
■ Chile
Pinochet on the mend
Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was still in hospital recovering from a stroke yesterday, as an appeals court was readying to rule on whether to drop the latest criminal charges against him. Officials at the hospital where the former general is being treated said that Pinochet's health was improving, but that he would remain hospitalized for more tests. The former dictator had regained consciousness and his mobility, they said. Pinochet, 89, suffered a stroke on Saturday.
■ United States
Cancer a risk for war vets
Veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War exposed to pollution from oil well fires, exhausts and other sources face an increase risk of lung cancer, a government advi-sory group reported yester-day. A committee of the Institute of Medicine con-cluded there isn't enough evidence to determine whether most of veterans' health problems are asso-ciated with such exposures. But it said occupational and environmental exposure to combustion products has been shown to increase danger of lung cancer. The committee said evidence is too weak to connect other cancers to exposure to combustion products.
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