■ 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.
■ UNITED STATES
No 'Danny Boy' allowed
It's depressing, it's not usually sung in Ireland for St Patrick's Day and its lyrics were written by an Englishman who never set foot on Irish soil. Those are just some of the reasons a Manhattan pub has given for banning the song Danny Boy for this whole month. "It's been ranked among the 25 most depressing songs of all time and it's more appropriate for a funeral than for a St Patrick's Day celebration," says Shaun Clancy, who owns Foley's Pub and Restaurant opposite the Empire State Building. The 38-year-old offers rewards, such as a free Guinness, for singing any other traditional Irish song.
■ CANADA
Party rethinks platform
The leader of the Quebec separatist movement on Wednesday stepped back from its commitment to eventually hold a referendum on the province splitting from the rest of the country. Parti Quebecois (PQ) leader Pauline Marois told a press conference that if the party, now in opposition, is ever tasked to govern Quebec, "I propose that we remove the straightjacket and suspend our obligation to hold a referendum." The proposal to scrap the movement's commitment immediately to seek independence must still be endorsed by PQ delegates later this month. Marois said the party should shelve the plan while it focuses on rebuilding public support.
■ UNITED STATES
Swayze treated for cancer
Actor Patrick Swayze is being treated for pancreatic cancer but is doing well enough to continue working, his representative said on Wednesday. The Dirty Dancing star has a very limited amount of the cancer and appears to be responding well to treatment, according to George Fisher, Swayze's physician. Fisher's prognosis was included in a statement released on Wednesday by Swayze's representative, Annett Wolf. "Patrick is continuing his normal schedule during this time," the statement said. Swayze, 55, has two films in the works: the movie Powder Blue and a television movie titled The Beast.
■ UNITED STATES
Air officials express concern
A key worry of officials is that terrorists could sneak tiny bomb parts onto a plane and then assemble them, a transportation official said. Gale Rossides, deputy administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, said the agency was trying to detect small components that might be turned into improvised explosive devices (IED). "These things are what we see as the No. 1 threat today. Getting very small, tiny, hard-to-find component pieces through the checkpoint," Rossides told the Canadian Aviation Security Conference on Wednesday in Gatineau, Canada. "The most important part of detecting the IED starts with our officers at the checkpoint.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
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