News briefs
BY Wire reports
Saturday, December 01, 2012
12/01/12 at 6:20 AM
Mexico City : Mexico's president-elect selects cabinet members
President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto named a cabinet on Friday that is a mix of old guard figures from his long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party and new, foreign-educated technocrats.
Transition team leader Miguel Angel Osorio Chong announced that he will take the top position of secretary of the interior, a job that will include overseeing all domestic security and intelligence duties as well as the federal police if a proposed restructuring is approved by Congress.
Chong, a 48-year-old former governor of the central Mexican state of Hidalgo, is known as a political operator and deal maker and he has held some of the most influential positions inside the party, the PRI.
Luis Videgaray, Pena Nieto's campaign chairman and closest adviser, will run the treasury department.
Pena Nieto, who is to be inaugurated Saturday, has pledged to make economic growth and job creation the centerpiece of his administration.
Sanaa, Yemen : Yemen celebrates 45th year of independence
Thousands of Yemenis have rallied across the country's south to mark the 45th anniversary of independence from British occupation and demand autonomy from the north.
The calls for an autonomous state in the south - which was once a separate country - have compounded Yemen's many problems as the impoverished nation struggles with a resurgent al-Qaida and a deep political crisis.
Southerners joined a unified Yemen in 1990 but demands for secession from the north persisted.
Willemstad, Curacao : Fishing-boat heist nets 70 gold bars for thieves
Armed men dressed as police boarded a fishing boat Friday in Curacao and stole about 70 gold bars worth an estimated $11.5 million, police in the southern Caribbean island said.
The boat's captain was struck in the head in the early-morning assault before the thieves made off with the gold in three cars, police spokesman Reggie Huggins said. Authorities believe there were six men involved in the heist. No suspects are in custody.
The captain and three crew members were from the South American country of Guyana, he said.
Huggins declined to say who owned the boat or to provide any details about the possible source of the gold, which weighed approximately 476 pounds.
London: Monty Python producer seeks slice of 'Spamalot'
A producer of the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is suing the British comedy troupe over royalties from the hit stage musical "Spamalot."
Producer Mark Forstater wants a bigger share of proceeds from the show, which is based on the Pythons' 1975 movie spoof of the legend of King Arthur.
Lawyers for Monty Python are contesting Forstater's claim and will present their arguments later. Python members Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones will give evidence during a five-day hearing that began Friday at London's High Court.
Forstater is suing the trio and the two other surviving Python members, John Cleese and Terry Gilliam. The sixth member of the troupe, Graham Chapman, died in 1989.
Dangbo, Benin : Gang of grave-robbers hits village cemetery
Benin officials say that more than 60 graves were desecrated in the village of Dangbo, 9 miles from the capital, Porto-Novo.
Dangbo Mayor Clement Gnonlonfoun said that on the night of Nov. 24 a gang "systematically ripped away the graves and especially the skulls of the dead." He suggested the perpetrators wanted human remains to make magic potions.
In the cemetery dozens of open graves were still visible Friday morning.
Pangbourne, England: Duchess Kate revisits 'happiest' days at school
The Duchess of Cambridge has gone back to school.
The royal, formerly known as Kate Middleton, played field hockey and revealed her childhood nickname - Squeak - when she returned to her elementary school for a visit Friday.
Kate told teachers and students at the private St. Andrew's School in southern England that her 10 years there were "some of my happiest years." She said she enjoyed it so much that she had told her mother she wanted to return as a teacher.
Kate, who captained the hockey team at her high school, joined a group of 12-year-olds for a training session in a green-and-blue Alexander McQueen tartan coat and three-inch-high boots.
The 30-year-old duchess attended the school from 1986 until 1995.
Associated Images:
Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, plays field hockey during her visit Friday to St. Andrew's School in Pangbourne, England. The royal played hockey and revealed her childhood nickname - "Squeak" - when she returned to her elementary school for a visit Friday. ARTHUR EDWARDS/Associated Press
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