■ 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.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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