A round up of today's other world news in brief ...
New Russian Orthodox head selected
MOSCOW – Russian Orthodox bishops, monks and lay people picked a man seen as a moderniser yesterday to head the world’s second largest church, sparking hopes he may inaugurate a thaw in relations with Catholics.
Metropolitan Kirill, the church’s acting head since the death last month of Patriarch Alexiy II, won 508 out of 677 valid votes cast in a secret ballot, a church official announced. –(Reuters)
Athletes ‘affected’ by concussion
CHICAGO – A single concussion early in an athlete’s career can take a toll on memory, attention and reaction time 30 years later, Canadian researchers said yesterday.
Compared with athletes with no history of concussion, those who had sustained a concussion had memory and attention problems and had slower reaction times, researchers reported in the journal Brain.
“This study shows that the effects of sports concussions in early adulthood persist beyond 30 years post-concussion and that it can cause cognitive and motor function alterations as the athletes age,” Louis De Beaumont of the University of Montreal, who led the study, said. –(Reuters)
Apology over Holocaust denial
VATICAN CITY – The leader of a traditionalist Catholic movement apologised to Pope Benedict yesterday for remarks denying the Holocaust made by one of his members whom the pope recently rehabilitated.
Bishop Bernard Fellay said he had disciplined the bishop who made the statement, British-born Richard Williamson, and ordered him not to speak out again on any political or historical issues.
Williamson’s remarks on the Holocaust provoked widespread criticism by Jews who said he had wiped out nearly half a century of dialogue with Catholics.
Last Saturday, the pope lifted the 20-year-old excommunication of Fellay, Williamson and two other bishops of the traditionalist fraternity. –(Reuters)
Flood fears over north Spain rains
BILBAO – Authorities in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao closed shops and businesses in the historic town yesterday over fears the river Nervion could burst its banks due to heavy rains.
“There’s a real risk of flooding,” said the city’s cabinet chief, Andoni Aldekoa, as meteorologists forecast more rain after downpours in the cities of Bilbao and San Sebastian and the surrounding Basque Country. –(Reuters)
Socialists urge anti-Sarkozy vote
PARIS – France’s Socialist party called for a no-confidence motion against the government’s economic policies yesterday, looking to pile pressure on President Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of this week’s national strike.
It was only the second such vote since Mr Sarkozy took power in 2007, and although his parliamentary allies easily defeated the motion, the debate enabled the opposition to shine a spotlight on the government’s record at a time of economic slowdown.
Unions will pick up the baton tomorrow, with nationwide protests likely to bring hundreds of thousands of strikers onto the streets. –(Reuters)
Seven poisoned in blowfish error
A bumbling Japanese chef put seven customers in hospital by serving them toxic blowfish testicles.
Blowfish, extremely poisonous if not prepared properly, is considered a delicacy in Japan. The men, who had developed limb paralysis, were taken to hospital for treatment. – (PA)