Palestinian troops target attacks
Jerusalem Hundreds of Palestinian troops fanned out across a swath of the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, checking car trunks and scrutinizing identity papers. They were acting on a pledge by new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to try to quell militants’ attacks against Israel.
Israel welcomed the deployment, which was the first on a large scale in more than four years of fighting. Both sides hope it will be a prelude to the re-establishment of high-level contacts and the revival of peace talks.
“I wouldn’t say we have the whole thing in our pocket just yet, but Abu Mazen’s first steps are very impressive in tone, rhetoric and action,” said Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres, referring to Abbas by his nickname.
Abbas, who took office a week ago, is trying to persuade militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to halt their attacks. So far he has been unable to secure promises of calm from them, but Hamas has signaled it is receptive to the idea of an accord.
Marathon disruptor defrocked as priest
London The man who disrupted the men’s marathon at the Athens Olympics was defrocked as a Roman Catholic priest Thursday.
Neil Horan tackled Brazilian runner Vanderlei de Lima in the men’s event. De Lima, who was in the lead when Horan jumped out of the crowd, quickly resumed running but finished third.
“I now cannot preach, I cannot give out communion — I am little more than a pagan,” Horan said Thursday.
Horan also disrupted the British Grand Prix Formula One race in 2003 by wandering onto the track and doing what he called a peace dance.
In October, Horan was acquitted on a charge of indecency with a 7-year-old girl in 1991.
Monsignor Richard Moth, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Southwark, issued a statement confirming that Horan had been laicized and was no longer a priest.
“We will continue to have a concern for Neil’s well-being,” Moth said.
Man kills self; wife wakes from coma
Rome Evoking comparisons to “Romeo and Juliet,” a husband in northern Italy killed himself out of grief for his ailing wife, hours before she came out of a coma, Italian state TV reported Friday.
RAI state TV said the husband visited his 67-year-old wife daily, sometimes coming to the hospital in Padua as often as four times a day, after she went into a coma after a stroke in September.
On Wednesday, the 71-year-old man committed suicide at the couple’s Padua-area home, according to RAI and the Italian news agency ANSA. About 12 hours later, the wife emerged from the coma and asked for her husband, ANSA said.
ANSA quoted their pastor as saying the husband had told him he was very pessimistic about prospects for his wife’s recovery.
The husband and wife, who were not identified, had no children.
After-hours binge may prove costly
Prague, Czech Republic It will be the most expensive keg of beer he’s ever had.
A 32-year-old Czech man got himself locked up in a pizzeria in the town of Brno late Wednesday to have free access to beer overnight. When the restaurant’s staff left, he broke into a cooling box containing a keg, disconnected the pipes leading to the tap, put them in his mouth and drank as much as he could.
The man, drunk and fast asleep, was found by cleaners in the early hours of Thursday.
Police spokesman Vit Cvrcek said he will now have to pay for the beer he drank and faces prison time or a fine for the damage he caused to the cooling box.