World Briefs

Archaeologists yesterday said they had discovered three ancient statues in Sudan with inscriptions that could bring them closer to deciphering one of Africa's oldest languages.

The stone rams, representing the god Amun, were carved during the Meroe empire, a period of kingly rule that lasted from about 300BC to AD450 and left hundreds of remains along the River Nile north of Khartoum.

Vincent Rondot, director of the dig carried out by the French section of Sudan's Directorate of Antiquities, said each statue displayed an inscription written in Meroitic script, the oldest written language in sub-Saharan Africa.

"It is one of the last antique languages that we still don't understand ... we can read it. We have no problem pronouncing the letters. But we can't understand it, apart from a few long words and the names of people," he told reporters in Khartoum.

Sudan has more pyramids than neighbouring Egypt, but few people visit its remote sites, and repeated internal conflicts have made excavation difficult.

Iraqi shoe-thrower in court

An Iraqi journalist who has admitted hurling his shoes at US President George W. Bush appeared before a judge yesterday and confirmed his action, a judicial spokesman said.

TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi, who also called Bush a "dog" at a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday and became an instant sensation in the Arab world, faced charges of "aggression against a President", said Abdul Satar Birqadr, spokesman for Iraq's High Judicial Council.

Throwing shoes at someone is considered the ultimate insult in the Arab world and dogs are viewed as dirty and disgusting. The court decided to keep Mr Zaidi in custody, and after the judge completes his investigation of the case, he may send him for trial under a clause in the Iraqi penal code that punishes anyone who attempts to murder Iraqi or foreign Presidents. Such a crime could result in imprisonment of seven to 15 years, Birqadr said.

Mr Zaidi's brother yesterday said he was hit in the head with a rifle butt and had an arm broken in the chaos that broke out after he threw his shoes at Mr Bush and was leapt on by Iraqi security officers and US secret service agents. He was in a hospital in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, his brother Maitham al-Zaidi said.

Luxury pet lodging

Jet-setting German dog owners who cannot bear to be separated from their pets a moment longer than necessary can now use a luxury pet lodging near Munich airport.

Sabine Gerteis, a managing director of the Canis-Resort that charges €80 a night, said the facility is intended to cater to well-heeled business people who are close to their pets.

A special touch - at extra cost - is a gate-to-gate service which takes dogs to the airport to greet their owners upon their return.

First near-total face transplant in US

A team of US doctors have performed the first near-total face transplant in the US, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio said.

The hospital did not release details but said in a statement it would hold a news conference today.

A French team led by Jean-Michel Dubernard of Lyon University was the first to perform a partial face transplant in November 2005, on Isabelle Dinoire, then 38.

In that operation, surgeons used donor tissue to replace her nose, cheeks, mouth, lips and chin, which had been torn off by her own dog six months earlier.

The Church's wartime record

One of Italy's most prominent conservative leaders yesterday said the Roman Catholic Church did not do enough to oppose Fascist-era race laws under dictator Benito Mussolini.

"We must ask ourselves why Italian society wholly embraced the anti-Jewish legislation and why, beyond laudable exceptions, there were not demonstrations of real resistance. Not even, it hurts me to say, by the Catholic Church," said Gianfranco Fini. Mr Fini, himself a former Fascist, was speaking at an event marking the 70th anniversary of Mussolini's race laws.

Vatican Radio quickly responded with accounts by Catholic historians denying Mr Fini's accusations, which reignited debate in Italy about the Church's wartime record.

"It is not true that the Italian Church did not oppose the race laws of 1938," Vatican Radio wrote on its website.

Church scholars say Pope Pius XI opposed the race laws at the time and they also defend his successor, Pius XII, from accusations he turned a blind eye to the Holocaust.