A round-up of other world stories in brief...
Italy hands over Orthodox church's keys
BARI, Italy – Italy’s president handed Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev the keys to an Orthodox church and pilgrim hostel in Italy yesterday, saying it could help ease a 1,000-year schism between Christianity’s two biggest churches.
“This is a symbol of dialogue between the Russian Orthodox and Catholic churches,” President Giorgio Napolitano told a solemn ceremony in the grey stone complex before handing over a symbolic key to the buildings to President Medvedev in the southern port of Bari.
Funded by Russian Orthodox believers, the church and pilgrimage centre were constructed between the two World Wars in Bari, on Italys Adriatic coast about 450km from Rome.
The city is significant for inter-church relations because it is home to the relics of St Nicholas, a fourth-century bishop who is revered by Catholics and Orthodox Christians, and is the patron saint of Russia. –(Reuters)
Threat to kill UN hostage by group
ISLAMABAD – A suspected separatist group holding an American UN worker in Pakistan said it will kill him in four days if its demands are not met.
The threat on the life of John Solecki was made in a letter sent to a local news agency yesterday.
Gunmen seized Mr Solecki on February 2nd after shooting his driver dead as they drove to work in the southwestern city of Quetta.
In the letter, the previously unknown Baluchistan Liberation United Front called on the government to free more than 1,000 people it claims have been arrested in the region. –(AP)
Journalist held in Iran
CAIRO – A US freelance journalist has been held in Iran since January 31st, ostensibly for buying a bottle of wine, and there has been no information about her for more than two weeks, her father said.
Roxana Saberi (31), an Iranian-American, told her parents on February 10th she was being held in detention for buying a bottle of wine, her father said. – (Reuters)
Cancer-stricken Jade Goody (27) was last night facing the prospect of an operation to relieve her “awful pain”, her publicist Max Clifford said.
The Big Brother star was admitted to the Royal Marsden Hospital, in southwest London after spending the day in agony, said Mr Clifford. Goody has been given weeks to live after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. – (PA)