■ UAE
Burj Dubai opening delayed
The world's latest tallest skyscraper, being built in Dubai, will take longer than planned to finish, its builders said on Wednesday, putting off the opening planned for the end of this year. The Burj Dubai tower currently stands over 500m tall. The state-owned developer Emaar Properties said completion would be postponed until next year. It did not give specifics, but the newspaper Gulf News and ArabianBusiness.com said the delay would be four months. Emaar did not give the reason for the delay and the company's representatives refused to answer calls on Wednesday. Last summer, the company said the skyscraper had reached 512m, surpassing Taiwan's Taipei 101, which has dominated the global skyline at 508m since 2004.
■ RUSSIA
Apartment mobsters caught
Police have arrested an organized criminal group suspected of kidnapping Moscow flat owners to gain control over valuable real estate, police said on Wednesday. Two of those arrested had used various schemes to gain ownership of 300 flats in the center of Moscow, a spokeswoman for police in the Orlov region south of the capital said. In one case, a 30-year-old man was kidnapped, falsely diagnosed as mentally ill and hospitalized, leaving his apartment to the criminals. He was freed last month. Some of those kidnapped were used as slave labor, police said.
■ ALBANIA
Twins' party turns tragic
A boat carrying 20 people celebrating the birthday of five-year-old twins sank overnight in a lake near the capital, killing 16 people, including the two children, police said yesterday. The boat belonged to a restaurant on the shores of Lake Farka, about 5km east of the capital, Tirana. It had a capacity of seven, but was transporting 20 partygoers from the restaurant when it sank shortly after midnight, a Tirana police spokeswoman said. Four people survived, she said. By 3am authorities had collected 16 bodies from the lake: seven men, seven women and the five-year-old twin boys.
■ UZBEKISTAN
US on the way back
The US military is again using the country as a stop-off point for military operations in Afghanistan after ending its presence there over a diplomatic row, a US official said yesterday. Uzbekistan in 2005 closed down a US air base set up near the Afghan border in retaliation against US criticism of the repression of unrest in the city of Andijan by Uzbek forces. But diplomatic contacts between the former Soviet republic and Washington have warmed up recently. "Individual Americans attached to the NATO international staff can use the German airbridge from Termez to Afghanistan on a case-by-case basis," an official from the US embassy in Tashkent said.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Missing penis angers actor
London's Royal Opera House agreed to stop using a picture in its advertisements after an actor complained that his penis had been air brushed out of a nude image. Argentine Juan Pablo Di Pace appeared to have no penis at all in the full-frontal shot used in publicity material for a production of Verdi's Rigoletto. The actor complained to the opera house via his lawyer that the photograph, taken in the 2001 production, was used to promote shows six years later, even though he no longer worked there.
■ UNITED STATES
Small explosion in NYC
A small explosion caused minor damage to a military recruiting center in New York's Times Square area early yesterday, but there were no injuries, police said. NY1 television said a small bomb or incendiary device was thrown at the one-story building at about 3:45am, causing a small break in one of the windows. Police said minor damage was caused to the building's door. A witness said three people ran away from the scene. Police closed off traffic in the area and said a bomb squad searching the area.
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