■ 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.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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