Violent year for media
Brussels: Eighty-nine media professionals were killed last year because of their work, according to the International Federation of Journalists, which called it a year of unspeakable violence. Attacks in Iraq — where 35 died, starting with the shooting of the television journalist Abdul Hussein Khazal al-Basri — and the loss of 48 journalists in an aircraft crash in Tehran last month, pushed losses to a record 150, the federation said. (AP)
Israel warned
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Tehran: A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that Israel would be making a “fatal mistake, should it resort to military action against Tehran’s nuclear programme”. Israel has said that it would not accept a nuclear Iran under any circumstances. (AP)
Two miners die
Melville: Two men who died in a West Virginia coal mine after a conveyor-belt fire made a “valiant effort to escape but were blocked by scorching heat and thick smoke”, the state’s mining agency said. Fourteen state miners have been killed in a month. (AP)
Pirates captured
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Manama: The US Navy captured a number of suspected pirates in the Indian Ocean off the Somali coast after firing warning shots at their ship. The Fifth Fleet captured the group about 54 miles (85 km) off the central eastern coast of Somalia. (AFP)
Tables for 20,000
Taipei: Yen Ching-piao, a Taiwanese politician, invited 20,000 guests to his son’s wedding reception. Well-wishers packed into a stadium in the coastal town of Shalu to celebrate the nuptials of Yen Chia-yi, 17, and his bride. (AFP)
Former PM set for power
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Lisbon: Anibal Cavaco Silva, the Social Democrat-backed former Prime Minister of Portugal, won a presidential election, capturing 50.6 per cent of the vote, according to official results. Senhor Cavaco Silva, 66, who was Portuguese Prime Minister for a decade from 1985, is the first Conservative to be elected President since a 1974 military coup toppled a right-wing dictatorship. (AFP)
President dies
Pristina: Ethnic Albanians throughout Kosovo lowered flags to mourn Ibrahim Rugova, the popular President of Kosovo. An advocate of independence from Serbia, he died of lung cancer on Saturday, aged 61. (AP)
Tax office attack
Marseilles: A man died when he apparently tried to bomb the main tax office in the southern French city of Aix-en-Provence, officials said. The Corsican’s mangled body was found near the building, which suffered only minor damage to a windowsill. (AFP)
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Yamaha raided
Tokyo: Japanese police have raided the Yamaha Motor Company on suspicion of illegally exporting unmanned helicopters to China. Yamaha is suspected of selling the helicopters without obtaining the required approval from the Trade Ministry. (AP)
Sharon threat
Jerusalem: An Israeli court has convicted the jailed brother of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin of threatening Ariel Sharon. Hagai Amir told prison officials in 2004 that he could have Mr Sharon killed by making a phone call, court documents alleged. (AP)
Off to a good start
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Berlin: Angela Merkel, who has been the German Chancellor for two months, has risen to a level of popularity that Gerhard Schröder, her predecessor, never attained during his seven-year tenure, according to a poll for Der Spiegel. (AP)
One-upmanship
Princeton: Peter B. Lewis, 72, an insurance executive from Ohio, has given $101 million (£57.2 million) for the performing arts at Princeton University in New Jersey, noting that the previous largest single gift to his alma mater was $100 million. (AP)