Retired army chief is jailed
BUENOS AIRES The former army chief Cristino Nicolaides was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the kidnapping and disappearance of dissidents during Argentina’s military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. The retired general was the first high-ranking officer to be convicted since an amnesty law was repealed in 2003. Seven other former officials were sentenced to jail terms of between 20 and 23 years each. (AFP)
Army ‘failing on abuse charges’
Jerusalem More than 90 per cent of inquiries into alleged offences by the Israeli army against Palestinians — including killing. wounding, abuse and looting — have not resulted in a charges, according to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din. Of 239 cases investigated from September 2000 to September this year there were 16 convictions — less than 7 per cent. The army had derogated its duty, it said. (AFP)
50 killed as train derails
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MIRPURKHAS At least 50 people were killed when a train derailed in southern Pakistan, officials said. The train, which was full of people returning home for Eid al-Adha, was travelling between Karachi and Lahore when ten carriages derailed. (AP)
Clergy condemn IVF as ‘abortion’
Warsaw Roman Catholic clerics in Poland have condemned in vitro fertilisation (IVF) as “inadmissible and undignified”, in a public letter to MPs. The clergymen called the method “a type of refined abortion”. (AFP)
Putting deep faith in religion
Berlin Guatemala, Brazil and Indonesia had the highest share of deeply religious people, in a poll of 21,000 people in 21 countries by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a German think-tank. Russia, France and Thailand came last. (AFP)
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Letter to Santa still beats e-mail
Geneva Children around the world sent more than six million letters to Father Christmas in 2006, a higher figure than e-mails and text messages, the Universal Postal Union, the UN agency based in Switzerland, said. (AFP)