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■ EAST TIMOR

Ramos-Horta out of coma

President Jose Ramos-Horta has regained consciousness and spoken to family members after being in an induced coma since he was shot 10 days ago, his spokesman said yesterday. "Doctors at [Australia's] Royal Darwin Hospital have reported that President Jose Ramos-Horta continued his steady recovery today and is slowly waking up," Luke Gosling said in a statement. Hospital general manager Len Notaras said the Nobel laureate was aware that he had been shot but was probably unsure about details of the attack after being unconscious for so long. He has had five operations to repair the damage caused by bullet wounds to the back and chest.



■ INDIA

Watchdog group quits

Members of the Delhi Urban Arts Commission have quit en masse in protest construction projects backed by the city government ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the Hindustan Times reported yesterday. The six-member architectural watchdog vets major new projects to make sure they fit in with heritage sites. "We have not shown any bias and have tried to steer Delhi into a more contemporary position while conserving the past," the newspaper quoted commission chair and architect Charles Correa saying. "What has really angered us is the complete disinterest shown by the government in the future of the city. They just kept shoving more road projects down our throat."



■ CHINA

Panda-monium at zoo

Beijing Zoo is expanding its panda exhibit for the August Olympics and will ship in up to 10 more from the Wolong Giant Panda Center in Sichuan, an official said yesterday. ■ GREECE

Attackers torch banks

Unknown attackers set fire to eight banks, an insurance office and several cars early yesterday in apparently coordinated strikes throughout the Greek capital, causing damage but no injuries, police said. The attackers, using camping gas canisters and petrol in their home-made explosive devices, set fire to banks from Piraeus to the northern suburbs, an insurance company office and vehicles belonging to state agencies and security firms. Dozens of small self-styled anarchist and leftist fringe groups regularly attack banks and government buildings causing minor damage.



■ United Kingdom

Airport home for chef

A newspaper reports that a homeless chef has been living at London's Gatwick Airport for three years. The Argus newspaper Brighton says Anthony Delaney has been camping out at the airport's south terminal and leaving only rarely to collect unemployment benefits. The newspaper says the 41-year-old ate, showered and slept at the airport despite dozens of run-ins with police and a civil order banning him from the facility. The paper says Delaney is due to be sentenced next month. He acknowledged violating the order in court on Monday. Sussex Police say they first stopped Delaney at the airport in 2004 and have recorded more than 30 encounters with him since.



■ Israel

MP blames gays for quake

A Jewish ultra-Orthodox MP on Wednesday blamed homosexuals for a recent earthquake that struck Israel and the region. Speaking at a parliamentary committee on the country's preparedness for quakes, Shas MP Shlomo Benizri lashed out at homosexuality, considered an abomination under Jewish law and in its religious text, the Gemara. "We are looking for earthly solutions, how to prevent them," Benizri said. "I have another way to prevent earthquakes. The Gemara says that one of the reasons earthquakes happen -- which the Knesset [parliament] legitimizes -- is homosexuality. God says you shake your genitals where you are not supposed to and I will shake my world in order to wake you up."



■ United Kingdom

Aspiring Brits face probation

Aspiring British citizens will be put on probation for at least one year to show they can speak English, pay their taxes, abide by the law and have integrated into local life, the government said on Wednesday. The move is the latest by Britain to try to control the influx of migrants and ease public fears that schools, hospitals and transport networks are being swamped by foreign nationals. Migrants, particularly those with elderly relatives and children, will also face higher application fees to help Britain adapt its infrastructure to cope with rising immigration.



■ SPAIN

Bullet trains link capitals

After years of delays, the first high-speed trains linking Madrid and Barcelona arrived at their destinations without incident on Wednesday, the national train company Renfe said. The first of the so-called AVE trains left the Spanish capital and the capital of the northeastern Catalonia region at 6am and covered their journeys in approximately two hours, 38 minutes as scheduled, a Renfe spokesman said. For the moment there will be 17 trains daily in each direction with return prices starting at 163 euros (US$240), the official said. ■ BRAZIL

Climate change discussed

Around 100 lawmakers from India, China, South Africa and Mexico met with local lawmakers on Wednesday in Brasilia to discuss proposals on how to combat climate change to be presented at the G8 summit in Tokyo in July. The GLOBE forum (Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment) aims to agree on a post-2012 climate change settlement and submit it to the leaders of powerful G8 countries. Legislators and officials from China to Cameroon were considering approval of a document demanding "ambitious absolute emission reductions for developed countries" to fight climate change.



■ MEXICO

Conflict arises in cult

Police were sent to a religious community to maintain order after its reclusive leader died amid a bitter power struggle over who would succeed him, authorities said on Wednesday. Nabor Cardenas, a defrocked Catholic priest known as "Papa Nabor" and founder of the New Jerusalem religious community, died on Tuesday of renal and respiratory problems, Michoacan's state government said in a statement. Cardenas, 98, hadn't been seen in public since he fell ill in 2005. Police were sent to the area, located about 360km west of Mexico City, in case problems arise, said Magdalena Guzman, a spokeswoman for state investigators.



■ UNITED STATES

Pilot dies after crash

One pilot died and a second was rescued after two US F-15C fighter planes crashed mid-air on Wednesday near Florida, the Air Force said. The jets assigned to the 33rd Fighter Wing were on a training mission when they went missing at about 2pm over the Gulf of Mexico, about 80km from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, according to a statement from the base. Coast Guard crews located the two pilots, and the one who survived the crash was in good condition at the Eglin base hospital.



■ UNITED STATES

Russia criticized by group

The head of a New York-based human rights group accused Russia on Wednesday of "bureaucratic harassment" of civil groups critical of the Kremlin after he was was denied a visa to travel to Moscow. The comments by Human Rights Watch head Kenneth Roth came two weeks before a presidential election opposition groups say furnishes Russian President Vladimir Putin's chosen successor with blanket media coverage. Europe's human rights watchdog, the OSCE, has opted not to field observers, citing lack of official cooperation. Roth had been due to present a report in Moscow that said new laws on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were being used to crack down on groups the Kremlin does not like.



■ UNITED STATES

Withdrawal leads to charges

A New York man was charged with withdrawing US$2 million from an account after a bank confused him with a man who has the same name. Benjamin Lovell was arraigned on Tuesday on grand larceny charges. The 48-year-old salesman said he tried to tell officials at Commerce Bank in December that he did not have a US$5 million account. He says he was told it was his and he could withdraw the money. Prosecutors said the bank confused Lovell with a Benjamin Lovell who works for a property management company. The lesser-funded Lovell gave away some of the money but lost much of it on bad investments, prosecutors said.
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