World News

Europe copes with cold and snow, misery for travellers across Continent
MILAN, Italy - Subfreezing temperatures and exceptional snowfall caused travel woes around Europe on Wednesday, and in Rome's zoo it was so cold the chimpanzees got cookies for extra calories to keep them warm. Milan's Malpensa and Linate airports briefly closed, then struggled to overcome a morning of delays and cancellations when the facilities reopened. The city, Italy's financial capital, was digging out from 30 centimetres of snow. The airport authority said flight crews and other workers had been unable to reach the airports.
      

Israel conditionally welcomes cease-fire proposal
GAZA CITY, Gaza - Israel ordered a pause in its Gaza offensive for three hours Wednesday to allow food and fuel to reach besieged Palestinians, and a government spokesman said it "welcomes" an Egyptian-French cease-fire proposal as long as Hamas halts militant rockets and weapons smuggling. Hamas said it would only support a deal that included an opening of Gaza's borders.
      

Capitol Hill aide: Congressional Budget Office to project US$1.2T deficit in ’09
WASHINGTON - Congressional estimators are projecting an unparalleled American budget deficit of US$1.2 trillion for the 2009 budget year. A top congressional aide briefed on the estimate says the Congressional Budget Office also sees a $703 billion deficit for 2010. The dismal figures come a day after President-elect Barack Obama warned of trillion-dollar deficits for years to come.
      

Russia stops all gas supply to Europe via Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine - Russia shut off all gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine on Wednesday - leaving more than a dozen countries scrambling to cope during a winter cold snap. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin publicly endorsed the move and urged that international observers be brought into the energy dispute. The effects of the gas cutoff reverberated across the continent, where some countries have substantial reserves and others do not. The EU accused both nations of using consumers as pawns in their quarrel, and tens of thousands of people, mostly in Bulgaria, were without central heating.
      

U.S. Senate leaders meet Burris, reported moving toward seating him
WASHINGTON - In an abrupt reversal, Senate Democratic leaders are sitting down with Roland Burris in the Capitol amid indications that he's likely to be seated as the new senator from Illinois. But there is no final deal yet. Senate officials say Burris' appointment still has to be certified by the Illinois secretary of state.
      

Mumbai gunmen ordered by phone to kill foreigners: transcript from India
NEW DELHI - "We have three foreigners, including women," the gunman said into the phone. The response was brutally simple: "Kill them." Gunshots then rang out inside the Mumbai hotel, followed by cheering that could be heard over the phone.
      

Obama refuses to take stand on seating Burris in U.S. Senate
WASHINGTON - U.S. president-elect Barack Obama has declined to support giving his vacated Senate seat to former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris. Obama told a news conference today that the decision on whether to allow Burris to join the Senate is one for the Senate to make. Obama said he has known Burris for years and would be happy to "work with him" if he ultimately gets seated, but that he can't go further than that.
      

Obama explains low profile on Gaza, says U.S. must speak with single voice
WASHINGTON - U.S. president-elect Barack Obama says he is concerned about the violence in Gaza but is wary of sending conflicting messages about American foreign policy. Obama was asked today at a news conference why he hadn't said more publicly about the continuing violence in the Mideast. He replied by repeating earlier statements that the United States can have only one president at a time.
      

Questions raised after boy who vanished in 1999 reported missing last week
WICHITA, Kan. - No one claims to know what happened that summer in 1999 when 11-year-old Adam Herrman disappeared from the mobile home park where he lived with his adoptive parents. But the biggest mystery may be why no one reported him missing until nearly a decade later. The search for Adam - who would be 21 if he is still alive - has confounded authorities and left family members regretting that they did not do more when they noticed he was gone.
      

Detainees in Afghanistan seeking right for release
WASHINGTON - Four men being held as terror suspects at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan are asking a federal judge for the right to sue for their release - a right already given to detainees at Guantanamo Bay. A hearing Wednesday will test whether a 2008 Supreme Court decision - allowing al-Qaida and Taliban suspects at the U.S. naval base in Cuba to challenge their detention - should be extended to detainees held at other military prisons overseas.
      

Man's death ruled homicide 35 years after shooting
FORT WORTH, Texas - A man shot in the back 35 years ago has died of complications from the shooting and his death has been ruled a homicide - but prosecutors fear the trail for the suspect has long ago gone cold. So far, police and prosecutors said they have been unable to find out who shot Craig Buford in the back in Denver in 1973. It was a time before records could be filed on computers.
      

Troops kill 32 insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, U.S. military says
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military says coalition forces have killed 32 armed insurgents during a clash in eastern Afghanistan. The military statement says Tuesday's firefight broke out during a strike on a roadside bomb-making cell in Laghman Province. It says up to 75 armed militants converged on the coalition forces, shooting from rooftops and alleyways.
      

Obama to include accountability in economic plan
WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama vowed Tuesday to bar legislators' pet projects from his massive economic stimulus plan and to bring unprecedented accountability to federal spending. Even as he promised to fight waste and to make tough budgetary decisions, however, Obama warned that the nation could face trillion-dollar deficits for years go come. Eight years ago the federal budget ran a surplus, and the deficit on Sept. 30 was about US$455 billion.
      

Burris rejected for Illinois seat in U.S. Senate but may get another chance
WASHINGTON - Roland Burris failed to capture president-elect Barack Obama's old Senate seat Tuesday in a wild piece of political theatre, but the Democrats' opposition cracked when a key chairwoman said seating him was simply the legal thing to do. Senator Dianne Feinstein rejected the reasoning that all of the chamber's Democrats, herself included, had cited in a letter last week - that corruption charges against Burris' patron, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, tainted his appointment.
      

CNN: Sanjay Gupta approached about surgeon general post
WASHINGTON - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has approached CNN's chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, to be the country's next surgeon general, the cable news network said Tuesday. CNN said it has kept Gupta from reporting on health-care policy and other matters involving the incoming Obama administration since learning he was under consideration for the post.
      

Republican Norm Coleman sues over Minnesota Senate recount result
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Republican Norm Coleman filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging Democrat Al Franken's apparent recount victory in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race, delaying a resolution of the contest for weeks or months. At a Capitol news conference filled with cheering supporters, Coleman said he won't accept a board's determination a day earlier that Franken captured 225 more votes in the November election. He had a seven-day window to file the lawsuit.
      

Oregon woman wakes up wounded by bullet that came through wall
PORTLAND, Ore. - It wasn't until the nurse in the emergency room lifted up a phone and said, "We've got a gunshot victim," that Sandra Howell understood why her arm hurt so much. Portland police said she was wounded by a gun that discharged when a neighbour tossed it on his bed. The bullet pierced the wall separating their apartments. Howell said she woke up about 3:30 a.m. Sunday.
      

Washington, D.C. in overdrive preparing for Obama's historic inauguration
WASHINGTON - A city already well-versed in pomp, circumstance and crowd control is in serious overdrive this week with just 13 days to go until millions of people descend upon the U.S. capital for Barack Obama's inauguration. Almost as soon as the ballots had been counted after the Nov. 4 presidential election, D.C. moved into hard-core preparation mode for both Obama's historic Jan. 20 swearing-in and the weekend events leading up to it.
      

Grand Canyon, Loch Ness compete as nature wonders
GENEVA - The Grand Canyon, Mount Everest and Loch Ness will vie with more than 200 other spectacular places in the next phase of the global competition for the New 7 Wonders of Nature, organizers said Wednesday. The 261 nominees from 222 countries include some of the most famous mountain peaks, lakes, and other attractions, such as the Great Barrier Reef and Niagara Falls.
      

Member of Iraqi president's party killed in drive-by shooting
BAGHDAD - Iraqi police officials say gunmen have killed a member of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's political party in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Kirkuk. Police Brigadier Ahmed Hawandi says Subhi Hassan, who handles political relations for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and a bodyguard were killed Monday after unidentified gunmen chased down their car after it passed through a checkpoint.