IN BRIEF

Palestinian teens charged with killing

JERUSALEM: Two Palestinian teenagers were charged with murder on Tuesday for killing an American Jew by smashing him on the head with a plank after he refused to give them cigarettes, Israeli police said. Israeli public radio said the tourist had earlier agreed to buy a bottle of vodka for the Palestinian teenagers.

Uganda awaits US funds to send troops

KAMPALA: Uganda is waiting for US funding to send up to 10,000 extra troops to the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, Uganda's Chief of Defence Forces General Aronda Nyakairima told the Daily Monitor on Tuesday. "We can even call up to 10,000 but that will depend on whether the United States supports us or not," he said.

UN panel ordered to make reforms

UNITED NATIONS: An international review panel on Monday called on the UN global climate change body to carry out fundamental reforms after embarrassing errors in a landmark report dented its credibility. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was caught in an international storm after it admitted its landmark 2007 report exaggerated the speed at which Himalaya's glaciers were melting.

Venezuela exhumes Bolivar's sisters

CARACAS: Venezuela on Monday exhumed the remains of two sisters of independence hero Simon Bolivar, hoping to compare DNA samples obtained from them to remains believed to belong to the Latin American leader. The country exhumed what is believed to be Bolivar's body in July, with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez saying investigators would try to determine how the legendary rebel died.

Power station crumbles in Russia

MOSCOW: A power substation in Russia's Volga region of Tatarstan partially crumbled after what officials said was a "bang" and cut power to the homes of around 80,000 people, authorities said on Tuesday.

Shocked Slovakians search for answers

BRATISLAVA: Shocked residents of a Bratislava suburb were searching for answers Tuesday after a local man killed seven people and wounded 13 others in an unexplained gun rampage. Police declined to speculate on why the gunman opened fire before killing himself.

Agencies