A round-up of other world stories in brief.
American (56) first woman to swim Atlantic
SAN JUAN – A 56-year-old American became the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean, touching land for the first time in almost a month.
Jennifer Figge, of Aspen, Colorado, realised the dream she had had since the early 1960s, when a stormy transatlantic flight made her think she could don a life vest and swim the rest of the way if needed.
Ms Figge left the Cape Verde Islands off Africa’s western coast on January 12th, often battling waves of up to 30ft.
The original plan to swim 2,100 miles to the Bahamas was scuppered by bad weather and she now plans to swim from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands, arriving at the Bitter End Yacht Club in late February. – (PA)
Marijuana link to testicular cancer
Marijuana use may increase the risk of developing testicular cancer, in particular a more aggressive form of the disease, according to a US study published yesterday.
The study of 369 Seattle-area men aged 18 to 44 with testicular cancer and 979 men in the same age bracket without the disease found that current marijuana users were 70 per cent more likely to develop it compared to non-users.
The risk appeared to be highest among men who had reported smoking marijuana for at least 10 years, used it more than once a week or started using it before age 18, the researchers wrote in the journal Cancer. – (Reuters)
Handball star stabbed to death
VESZPREM – Romanian international handball player Marian Cozma was stabbed to death and two other players were seriously wounded in an attack at a Hungarian nightclub early yesterday, police said.
Cozma (26), a centre who joined Hungarian club MKB Veszprem in 2006, and other players were celebrating the birth of a team member’s child when a dispute began with another group in the nightclub in the town of Veszprem, police said.
Cozma was stabbed in the heart outside the nightclub and died later in hospital, while two other players, Croatian Ivan Pesic (19) and Zarko Sesum (22) of Serbia, who tried to help him were badly hurt. – (Reuters)
Taliban beheads Polish geologist
KOHAT – Pakistani Taliban militants released a videotape yesterday of them beheading a Polish geologist whom they said they killed because Pakistan’s government had refused to release Taliban prisoners.
The Islamist militants said on Saturday they had executed the Polish engineer, Piotr Stanczak, who they kidnapped in September, because the government had refused to free 60 captured militants before Friday’s deadline.
Before he was killed, Mr Stanczak was seen on the tape appealing to the Polish government not to send troops to Afghanistan. He also urged Poland to sever ties with Pakistan, which he said had made no effort to secure his release, said a Reuters reporter who saw the tape.– (Reuters)