News from United Press International, around the world, around the clock ... New Years revellers remember wave victims ... Blair rejects G8 meeting on tsunami aid ... Rescuers free entangled right whale ... Bush raises pay for Cabinet, Congress
LONDON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has rejected a call to hold an emergency meeting of the G8 group of wealthy nations to discuss aid to countries hit by the Ind
INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A restaurant worker has been charged with abducting and killing a 12-year-old girl who lived in the same Indianapolis apartment complex.
PHUKET, Thailand, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- An Australian woman had to choose which of her two sons to hold when they were caught by the tsunami at a beach resort in Thailand.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- President Bush has signed an executive order increasing pay for all federal workers, including the Cabinet and Congress, the Washington Post reports.
SYDNEY, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Australians and New Zealanders ringing in the New Year's stopped the party for one minute at midnight to remember those killed by the Indian Ocean tsunami.
BOGOTA, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The head of Colombia's leading armed rebel group in captivity, Ricardo Ovidio Palmera, was extradited Friday to the United States.
News from United Press International, around the world, around the clock ... More than 90 aftershocks hit quake area ... China sends $60m more to disaster victims ... Argentina: Disco fire kills 175 ... France protests travel block on children
BEIJING, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- China will donate an another $60 million to South Asia's tsunami victims, Premier Wen Jiabao said Friday according to the official China Daily.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A Kansas woman accused of kidnapping an 8-month fetus from a strangled pregnant woman will remain in custody while awaiting an indictment.
MINSK, Belarus, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- France has urged Belarus not to limit the freedom of Belarussian children to travel abroad, Interfax-West news agency said Friday.
VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Beslan residents are sending aid to the tsunami victims in Southern Asia, the Interfax-South news agency reported Friday.
MOSCOW, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed amendments to the law on the minimum wage, the Kremlin press service reported on Friday.
OSLO, Norway, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A poll finds that Norwegians are warming to their future queen, a single mother whose 2001 marriage to Crown Prince Haakon was controversial.
VATICAN CITY, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- An article in a leading Roman Catholic journal signals that the Vatican may join the public health establishment's crusade against cigarette smoking.
NAIVASHA, Kenya, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Sudan's government and southern rebels signed a permanent cease-fire Friday ending one of Africa's longest-running civil wars.
KIEV, Ukraine, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Ukraine Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych, who just lost a presidential election, resigned Friday in a televised address, the BBC reported.
NEW YORK, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The United Nations secretary general says he will work with the four nations U.S. President Bush says are coordinating responses to South Asia's tsunamis.
ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A Virginia judge has denied political asylum to a mildly retarded teen whose cause has been supported by more than 70 members of Congress.
