Foreign

Football family urged to unite
STOCKHOLM -- Fifa's Swiss chief Sepp Blatter and Uefa boss Lennart Johansson set aside their differences here yesterday and called on the "footballing family" to unite and keep their rivalries out of the public eye. Blatter is currently embroiled...

Catholic Church 'still in denial' of sex abuse scandals
WASHINGTON -- The ambiguous proposals released after a two-day crisis meeting between Pope John Paul II and 12 US cardinals shows the Roman Catholic Church is "still in denial" about ongoing sex-abuse scandals, US media said yesterday. The propos...

Israeli siege holds as talks deadlock
BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- A fourth round of talks aimed at ending the tense stand-off at The Church of the Nativity here wound up yesterday without a breakthrough, a Palestinian negotiator said. "We failed to reach an agreement," the city's mayor H...

50 hurt in NY building collapse
NEW YORK -- Part of a Manhattan commercial building collapsed yesterday following a possible boiler explosion, injuring more than 50 people. "There was a giant boom -- a real giant boom," said Bill Beek, who lives a half-block away. "It sounded l...

Malaria more difficult to contain - scientists
KAMPALA -- Medical researchers meeting here for an annual congress warned yesterday -- Malaria Day in Africa -- that the disease is becoming increasingly difficult to contain. The scientists said the parasite, which kills more than a million peop...

Peacock attacks on cars ruffle feathers
COPENHAGEN -- Peacocks are being banished from a Copenhagen park for repeated attacks of vandalism on cars parked in the vicinity, the Frederiskberg park's head gardener Soeren Selch told the Urban daily free-sheet here yesterday. The male birds ...

Curious
Berani, a seventh-month-old Sumatran tiger cub, explores his outdoor habitat at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington. Visitors got their first glimpse of the cub in December, behind glass, but this week he could be seen up close. Sumatra...

World Watch
Aussies bored with poker SYDNEY -- Australians are getting bored with stuffing their spare cash into poker machines, reports said. Although Australians are far and away the world's most addicted gamblers, wagering more than three times as much ...