■SRI LANKA
Highway finally reopens
The government let civilians use the main highway to the northern Jaffna peninsula for the first time in 24 years as it tries to rebuild the region after defeating the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May. “Any citizen can now travel on the A-9 road using either private transport or public transport with no restrictions whatsoever,” senior presidential adviser Basil Rajapaksa said yesterday, according to the Defense Ministry Web site. Security forces seized the highway from the LTTE in January. The army began using the road in March for its offensive against the Tamil Tigers.
■AUSTRALIA
Twins leave hospital
Formerly conjoined Bangladeshi twins Trishna and Krishna left hospital yesterday after doctors who separated their fused brains decided they should celebrate their third birthday at home. The girls, who were born joined at the head, have amazed medics with their recovery since the complex, 32-hour operation to separate them five weeks ago.
■CHINA
Gay bar opens in Yunnan
A gay bar partly funded by the government of a city heavily affected by AIDS has opened after a delay caused by intense media interest that the owners felt could scared off patrons. Initially scheduled to open on World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, the bar in Dali, Yunnan Province, had to postpone opening after details were published by media. “The plan was delayed because gay men were worried about potential media exposure and discrimination,” the Beijing Youth Daily quoted the founder as saying. The newspaper said the not-for-profit venue will serve as a gathering place for gay men and will provide emotional and medical support free of charge.
■TURKEY
Officer commits suicide
A military officer suspected of involvement in an alleged plot to topple the Islamist-rooted government has committed suicide, the state-run Anatolian news agency said on Sunday. Lieutenant Colonel Deniz Tatar was found dead at his home in Istanbul on Saturday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Anatolian reported. Tatar was detained on Dec. 7 and released three days later. A court later agreed to a prosecutor’s request that he be arrested again and Tatar committed suicide after notification of the decision, the agency said. Some 200 people, including military officers, politicians, journalists and academics, are on trial in connection with the so-called Ergenekon plot.
■MADAGASCAR
Rajoelina names new PM
Military-backed leader Andry Rajoelina named a new prime minister on Sunday for the second time in 48 hours, a decree said. As well as naming Colonel Albert Camille Vital as prime minister with immediate effect, the decree said that other ministers and secretaries of state “remain in place pending the appointment of the government.” As recently as Friday evening Rajoelina had released a decree appointing Cecile Manorohanta, the deputy prime minister in charge of interior affairs, as prime minister and head of a new transitional government.
■LEBANON
Rescuers recover six bodies
Rescuers recovered another six bodies on Sunday from a ship that sank in rough seas off the northern Lebanese coast as chances of finding more survivors dwindled, a port official said. “Rescue efforts are ongoing, but at this point we highly doubt there are any survivors left,” Tripoli port authority chief Ahmad Tamer said. He said the latest bodies to be recovered were found further north in the Mediterranean Sea off the Syrian coast, four of them off Lattakia, one off Jabli and the other off Banyas. That brought to 17 the number of bodies retrieved since the ship sank on Thursday. Forty survivors have been found, but 26 people are still unaccounted for.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Eurostar troubles continue
Weekend suspensions to Eurostar rail services caused by acute weather conditions continued through to yesterday, while trains were modified to cope with more snow expected in northern France, the operating company said. On Friday, six trains carrying 2,500 passengers broke down, five of them in the undersea tunnel linking Britain and France, leaving passengers stuck on the trains for up to 16 hours overnight. Eurostar said on Sunday that the results of test runs had shown a need for modifications to the snow screens and snow shields in the trains’ locomotives. The company said the trains failed after moving from cold air outside into the warmer tunnel, causing condensation that affected electrical systems.
■EGYPT
Cairo to demand bust back
Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Sunday that Cairo would demand the return of a 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti, accusing Germany of fraudulently acquiring it. Hawass made the announcement after talks in Cairo with Friederike Seyfried, director of the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection at the Neues Museum in Berlin. Hawass will “convene an extraordinary meeting to examine the steps required to officially ask for the return of the statue,” a statement said. The statue was discovered in 1912 in southern Egypt by German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt.
■PACIFIC OCEAN
Cargo ship tossed around
An India-flagged bulk cargo freighter with a failed engine was adrift on Sunday in the North Pacific, being tossed about by stormy seas and fierce winds, the Coast Guard said. The 28 crew members aboard the 225m APJ Suryavir planned to abandon ship and board a Samaritan freighter expected to arrive early yesterday, the Coast Guard said. A Coast Guard plane was bringing them supplies. There were no reports of injuries among those onboard and the ship was not taking on water, the Coast Guard said. The Suryavir is carrying no cargo, making it unstable in the 9m seas about 870km southwest of Alaska’s Adak Island, Coast Guard Lietenant Nate Johnson said. Winds were reported at 96kph in the area. The Coast Guard said on Sunday evening that the weather was worsening. The vessel has sea water in its tanks to add some weight, but is “still pretty light,” Johnson said. A Coast Guard plane was expected to reach the Suryavir sometime on Sunday night. Johnson said the C-130 plane would drop supplies including life rafts, food and water.
■VENEZUELA
Chavez to rename waterfall
The world’s tallest waterfall — Angel Falls — should be stripped of the name by which it is widely known in favor of its indigenous one, President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday. The falls, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were spotted by US pilot Jimmy Angel back in 1937, bringing international attention to what has become one of the country’s top tourist attractions, though it is in remote Bolivar state. “How could we accept this idea that the falls were discovered by a guy who came from the United States in a plane. If we do that, that would be like accepting that nobody was living here,” Chavez mused on his weekly radio and television show, Hello Mr President. “Nobody should speak of Angel Falls anymore,” Chavez said. “That is ours, and was a long time before Angel ever got there.” In indigenous Pemon, the falls are called Kerepakupai meru, meaning “waterfall of the deepest place.”
■UNITED STATES
Obama to deal with secrets
President Barack Obama plans to deal with a Dec. 31 deadline that automatically would declassify secrets in more than 400 million pages of Cold War-era documents by ordering government-wide changes that could sharply curb the number of new and old government records hidden from the public. In an executive order the president is likely to sign before year’s end, Obama will create a National Declassification Center to clear up the backlog of Cold War documents. But the order will also give everyone more time to process the 400 million pages rather than flinging them open at year’s end without a second glance.
■UNITED STATES
Judge mulls abortion case
A judge is weighing a critical legal question in the case of a man who confessed to killing one of the few late-term abortion providers in the country: Can the man claim at his trial that the slaying was justified to save the lives of unborn children? Scott Roeder, a 51-year-old from Kansas City, Missouri, is charged with one count of premeditated, first-degree murder in George Tiller’s death and two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly threatening two ushers during the May 31 melee in the foyer of the doctor’s Wichita church. District Judge Warren Wilbert has yet to rule on a bevy of court filings that will set the course for the Jan. 11 trial, and will consider some of them in court today.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number