A round-up of today's world news stories in brief
Colombia, Venezuela divide widens
BOGOTA – Colombia will not be provoked into engaging in armed conflict with Venezuela despite the neighbouring country’s aggressive rhetoric and its dynamiting of two cross-border pedestrian bridges, Colombia’s defence minister said yesterday.
“We will not be provoked. The insults bounce off us,” Gabriel Silva said a day after Venezuelan troops dynamited the two suspended wooden plank pathways connecting the countries. – (Reuters)
Gunman murders Orthodox priest
MOSCOW – A masked gunman entered a church and murdered a Russian Orthodox priest who had received death threats for converting Muslims to Christianity. The killing could threaten delicate relations between the powerful majority Russian Orthodox Church and the countrys growing Muslim minority of about 20 million. – (Reuters)
Man freed after killing in sleep
SWANSEA – A man walked free from court yesterday after strangling his wife during a nightmare.
Brian Thomas (59) of Neath, in Wales, strangled his wife in his sleep as he dreamed he was battling an intruder. He woke, in July last year, to find he had killed his wife Christine (57) while the couple slept in their camper van in a pub car park. – (PA)