Bailout talks to continue

Greece: Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos said yesterday that negotiations with rescue lenders on the future of his country’s bailout programme could last for another two months.

He forecast that the talks would be concluded before parliament elects a new president, in February in a vote that could topple the coalition government.

Athens failed to reach a compromise last week at talks in Paris.

Al-Khawaja given year in prison

Bahrain: Top prosecutor Abdullah al-Dosari revealed yesterday that the country’s higher criminal court has sentenced well-known activist Maryam al-Khawaja to a year in prison for assaulting police officers during questioning.

She was tried in absentia and the dual Danish-Bahraini national left for Copenhagen soon after a travel ban against her was lifted in October.

Ms Khawaja said that the charges were “trumped-up.”

Businesses want sacking rights

France: Thousands of business owners, particularly from small companies, demonstrated in Paris yesterday to demand that the government makes it easier and cheaper for them to sack workers.

They complained that taxes and workplace regulations have made it impossible for France to compete globally.

President Francois Hollande has weakened workers’ employment rights, but corporate critics say that he hasn’t gone far enough.

Pilot strike cancels half of flights

Germany: Lufthansa cancelled about half its flights yesterday after pilots went on strike in an ongoing dispute over retirement benefits.

The airline, Germany’s largest, said that 1,350 of its 2,800 flights scheduled before the strike’s end at midnight tonight have been cancelled, affecting 150,000 passengers.

The strike was primarily focused on Lufthansa’s inner-Europe flights yesterday but was extended to long-haul flights for today.

Search on for IRA victim’s grave

Ireland: Forensic experts began a high-tech search in Co Meath yesterday for the unmarked grave of a man killed and secretly buried decades ago by the IRA.

Lead investigator Geoff Knupfer said that ground-penetrating radar and a sniffer dog would be used to try to find the remains of Belfast IRA man Joe Lynskey who disappeared in 1972.

The organisation admitted in 2010 that it had killed IRA intelligence officer Mr Lynskey for having an affair with an imprisoned member’s wife.

Fishing ship goes down in Bering

South Korea: Russian rescuers began a desperate search yesterday for 52 missing crew members after a South Korean fishing ship sank in the western part of the Bering Sea.

They rescued seven and recovered one body, but weather and water conditions complicated the search for the others.

The crew included 35 Indonesians, 13 Filipinos, 11 South Koreans and one Russian inspector. The ship sank in the western part of the Bering Sea, near Russia.

Nine killed in funeral blast

Afghanistan: District official Taj Mohammed Taqwa revealed yesterday that a bomb blast at a crowded funeral had killed two police officers and seven civilians.

The head of the Burka district in the Baghlan province north of Kabul blamed a suicide bomber.

He said that the attacker appeared to be targeting police and local officials, including him, who were among 1,000 people attending the funeral.

Thirteen dead after Maoist ambush

India: Maoist insurgents killed at least 13 paramilitary troops yesterday in an ambush in Chhattisgarh state.

Police official RK Vij said that the attack had taken place in Sukma district, 240 miles south of Raipur, the state capital.

Mr Vij said that troops from the Central Reserve Police Force were engaged in fighting the rebels in an area that is known to be their stronghold.