World Briefs

Martina Navratilova had to turn back while climbing Africa’s highest peak after feeling unwell, the sports charity she was climbing for said yesterday.

The 54-year-old tennis legend was assisted down Mount Kilimanjaro by porters and driven to the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre for assessment. The 27-person climbing team Ms Navratilova was in has faced heavy snows and mist since beginning the climb up the 5,895-metre mountain.

Ms Navratilova was “in good spirits” but disappointed to leave the mountain, the sports charity said. (AFP)

Funeral of 100th serviceman

A funeral took place yesterday for the 100th member of the British armed forces to die this year as a result of military operations in Afghanistan.

Guardsman Christopher Davies, 22, from St Helens, Merseyside, died after being shot during an ambush on November 17 in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province.

The father of one served alongside his younger brother John, 21, in 1st Battalion Irish Guards. (PA)

Former Croatia PM arrested

Ex-Croatia Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has been arrested in Austria on an international warrant, a day after he left the country amid a corruption probe.

Austrian police said he was detained “in the Salzburg area.”

Mr Sanader, who abruptly resigned as Prime Minister 17 months ago, left Croatia on Thursday, when it became clear that prosecutors want to investigate him on charges of conspiring to commit crime and abuse of office.

Croatia’s Office for Suppression of Organised Crime and Corruption said Mr Sanader was suspected of conspiring to commit crime and abuse of office.

Mr Sanader is the highest-ranked official to be charged for a crime since the country’s 1991 independence. (PA)

Jazz legend dies

US jazz saxophonist James Moody, who recorded more than 50 solo albums as well as songs with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Lionel Hampton and B.B. King, has died. He was 85.

Moody’s wife, Linda McGowan Moody, says he died at San Diego Hospice in California, after battling pancreatic cancer for 10 months.

Moody is best known for his 1949 hit Moody’s Mood for Love. (PA)

Orlando Bloom burglar sentenced

A reality TV starlet was sentenced to a year in residential rehab after being convicted of burgling actor Orlando Bloom’s house.

Los Angeles Superior Court judge Peter Espinoza told Alexis Neiers it would be her last opportunity for treatment for what he called her long-term heroin addiction. (PA)

Mugged Ecclestone in TV ad

Savvy Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone’s badly bruised face cropped up in adverts for a Swiss watchmaker and sponsor this week reputedly thanks to a quip after Mr Ecclestone was mugged in London.

The diminutive 80-year-old was kicked unconscious by a gang of muggers who attacked him outside his offices in Knightsbridge last month, stealing his possessions including a limited edition $20,000 watch.

Ecclestone e-mailed company chief executive officer Jean-Claude Biver, a friend of his, afterwards, including a picture and the quip “see what people will do for a Hublot”. (AFP)

Obama Muslim joke

When a US satirist joked that President Barack Obama will admit to Congress that he is Muslim in his latest compromise with Republicans, Saudi media took it seriously.

Yesterday, the online version of Al-Hayat newspaper and the prominent news website Sabq.org both reported straightforwardly humourist Andy Borowitz’s column that began: “In his latest effort to find common ground with Republicans in Congress, President Barack Obama said today that he was willing to agree that he is a Muslim. In agreeing that he is a Muslim, Mr Obama is sending a clear signal that he is trying to find consensus,” Mr Borowitz said in the column. (AFP)