A round-up of today's other stories in brief
NY transit workers return to work
NEW YORK - Leaders of striking bus and subway workers in New York agreed yesterday to a return to work after talks at which the union and transit authorities undertook to go back to the bargaining table, mediators said.
Some 34,000 workers in the Transport Workers Union Local 100 walked off the job on Tuesday after contract talks broke down over pay, healthcare and pensions, stranding some seven million passengers who use subways and buses each day. - (Reuters)
Greek Cypriots to get compensation
STRASBOURG, France - The European Court of Human Rights yesterday ordered Turkey to provide effective compensation to Greek Cypriots who fled property when the island was partitioned after a 1974 Turkish invasion.
The emotional issue of property - everything from farms to hotels to family homes - has proven to be one of the greatest obstacles to a reunification of Cyprus. Turkey is eager to resolve the issue to ease its negotiations for European Union entry. - (Reuters)
Belarus president seeks re-election
MINSK - Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing all dissent in his former Soviet state, submitted nomination papers yesterday to seek a new term in a March election.
Mr Lukashenko, in power since 1994, says he will either win the contest or retire. He has vowed to cut short any attempt at mass election upheaval as occurred in Ukraine last year. - (Reuters)
UK tops importers Xmas league in EU
BRUSSELS - The UK is the European Union's biggest importer of toys, Christmas lights, decorations and sparkling wine, a survey showed yesterday.
More than a quarter of the toys entering the 25 member states, more than a third of Christmas trinkets and fake trees, and three-quarters of imported sparkling wine go to Britain. Most of the EU's real Christmas trees are bought from within the Union and Germany buys the most, followed by the UK. - (PA)
Journal highlights evolution in 2005
WASHINGTON - Two days after a US judge struck down the teaching of intelligent design theory in a Pennsylvania public school, the journal Science yesterday proclaimed evolution the breakthrough of 2005. Wide-ranging research published this year, including a study that showed a mere 4 per cent difference between human and chimpanzee DNA, built on Charles Darwin's landmark 1859 work The Origin of Species, the journal's editors wrote. - (Reuters)
French soup for the chosen few
NICE - An extreme-right French group has found a way to distribute charity to only a chosen few by offering homeless people soup containing pork, which observant Jews and Muslims do not eat.
Dominique Lescure, head of a group distributing the soup, said: "I don't see why I should not be able to put pork, which has always played a major role in my country's cuisine, into a traditional soup that I want to distribute, admittedly, to my compatriots and European homeless people." - (Reuters)
Cambodian court finds Rainsy guilty
PHNOM PENH - A Cambodian court convicted opposition leader Sam Rainsy yesterday for defaming prime minister Hun Sen in a case that rights activists said was aimed at silencing the opposition. Mr Rainsy has been living in self-imposed exile in France since his parliamentary immunity was revoked in February. - (Reuters)