King of Morocco sets out constitutional reform
Rabat King Mohammed of Morocco has announced a planned constitutional reform and appointed a committee to draw up proposals to be presented by June.
Speaking in a rare televised address, he said that the reform would include plans for an independent judiciary, a stronger role for political parties and a regionalisation programme to give more powers to local officials. The draft constitution would be submitted to a referendum, he said.
Kenny takes the helm
Dublin Enda Kenny, the Fine Gael party leader, was elected Taoiseach by the Dáil, giving him a mandate to lead efforts to renegotiate the €85 billion (£73 billion) bailout. At its first meeting the Cabinet cut ministers’ pay by 6.6 per cent. (Reuters)
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Brother-in-law killed by gangland grandmother
Sydney A wheelchair-bound Australian grandmother portrayed in the media as the head of a crime family that dominated the Melbourne drug trade was found guilty yesterday of orchestrating the murder of her brother-in-law. Judy Moran, 66, who lost two husbands and two sons in gangland wars — dramatised in the TV series Underbelly — was convicted over the killing of Des “Tuppence” Moran, who was shot at close range by two gunmen wearing balaclavas as he sat in a city cafe in June 2009. She will be sentenced later. (AFP)
Fire kills 7 children
Loysville Six boys and a girl aged from 7 months to 11 years died in a fire at their home on a farm in Pennsylvania while their mother milked cows and their father dozed in a milk lorry down the road, police said. The children’s grandfather, Noah Sauder, said that the blaze might have begun in the kitchen, where there was a propane heater. The only survivor was a three-year-old girl. She had run to tell her mother, who apparently tried but failed to enter the house. The Perry County coroner said that the children had died of smoke inhalation. (AP)
Cold front brings death to recession-hit capital
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Athens Three homeless people died in a park near the Acropolis after a night of unseasonable sub-freezing temperatures, George Kaminis, the Mayor of Athens, said.
Municipal staff had handed out blankets, sleeping bags, soup and tea to homeless people and called on citizens to donate to the effort, he said.
The city has more than 10,000 homeless people; migrants and native Greeks hit by the recession. Heavy snow in parts of Greece has left many areas without electricity and closed schools. (AFP)
Priests suspended
Philadelphia The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has suspended 21 Roman Catholic priests who were among 37 named as child abuse suspects in a grand jury report last month. They have been removed while their cases are reviewed, Cardinal Justin Rigali said. (AP)
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Deportations delayed
Jerusalem Israel has delayed the deportation of several hundred children of foreign workers. Several are pupils at the Tel Aviv Bialik-Rogozin School featured in Strangers No More, a film that won the Oscar for Best Short Documentary. (AFP)
Beware the alligator
Los Angeles Drug investigators arrested a man after a raid on a $1.5 million marijuana factory set up in a house in Hemet, 80 miles east of Los Angeles — and took into care a 4ft alligator named Wally. The agents described the creature as “watchgator”. (AP)