BARCELONA - Russia is likely to ratify the Kyoto protocol this year, salvaging the stalled UN pact aimed at curbing global warming, the head of the UN Environment Programme said.
President Vladimir Putin set no deadlines, but the UNEP head, Mr Klaus Töpfer, said he expected Russia would ratify by the next meeting of Kyoto signatories, scheduled for December in Buenos Aires.
"I hope they will do it before the next conference of the parties, and I believe that there is quite good information backing this," he said on the eve of World Environment day.- (Reuters)
Jewish student stabbed in Paris
PARIS - A 17-year-old Jewish student was stabbed in the chest outside a Jewish school in the Paris suburb of Epinay-sur-Seine yesterday, police said, in the latest incident of rising anti-Semitism in France.
The attacker shouted in Arabic "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is Greatest) before attacking the student, who was leaving the school, and fleeing. The student's condition was serious but not life-threatening, police said. - (Reuters)
$8.6m award for 9/11 injuries
NEW YORK - A New York woman who suffered internal injuries and crushed legs when she was hit by falling debris in the September 11th, 2001, attacks was awarded $8.6 million (€6.99 million) by the US Victims Compensation Fund, her lawyer said.
The award, the biggest such grant yet, was given to Ms Deborah Mardenfeld (33). She had just come from a subway under the World Trade Centre when falling debris from the second plane to hit the towers split open her back, punctured her intestines, sliced off her buttocks and badly damaged her legs. - (Reuters)
New mass graves found in Bosnia
SARAJEVO - The Bosnian Serb government, under international pressure to investigate war crimes, said yesterday it had found 31 new mass graves containing remains from the Srebrenica massacre of thousands of Muslims.
It did not say how many victims were expected to be found at the sites, three of which could be so-called "primary" graves, places where the dead were buried originally as opposed to pits to which they were later moved for concealment. - (Reuters)
Korean pact to cut naval clashes
MOUNT SORAK - Two North Korean patrol boats briefly crossed a disputed border in the Yellow Sea yesterday, South Korea said, just hours after the rival forces agreed to introduce measures to prevent naval clashes.
A North Korean brigadier general and a South Korean rear admiral also agreed to remove propaganda speakers and signs along the world's last Cold War frontier, the Demilitarised Zone, during talks in South Korea's scenic Sorak mountains. - (Reuters)
Mugabe 'blocking electronic mail'
HARARE - Zimbabwe's main opposition has accused President Robert Mugabe's government of blocking its electronic mail to subscribers to suppress dissenting voices.
A local Internet service provider notified subscribers on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's electronic mailing list that an e-mail from the party had been blocked because "it contains sensitive content". - (Reuters)
9 die in bus fire
DHAKA - At least nine people were killed when fire engulfed a double-decker bus in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, yesterday in what police said might be an arson attack linked to a planned opposition-led strike today. - (Reuters)