Stephane Delajoux, 42, the French surgeon at the centre of allegations of performing a botched operation on rock legend Johnny Hallyday, arrives, escorted by bodyguards at the Hotel Dieu hospital in Paris yesterday. Delajoux, who operated 'the French Elvis' for a slipped disc on November 26, who since then has had to undergo emergency treatment in Los Angeles, was mugged by two hooded men in Paris overnight, a lawyer for the doctor said yesterday. (AFP)
New bank shutdown
Venezuela's government has shut down another bank, the eighth institution closed in less than three weeks in a growing intervention to contain damage to the country's financial sector.
The banking regulatory agency said it was closing Banorte Banco Comercial because the small bank did not have enough funds on hand to "cover its obligations in the short term".
Authorities previously seized seven other small private banks, alleging widespread breaches that led to financial troubles. At least 10 people have been jailed, including the recently-dismissed president of the National Securities Commission, Antonio Marquez Sanchez. (PA)
Open skies deal
The US and Japan have reached a landmark agreement to relax limits on flights between the two countries.
Airlines from both countries can select routes and destinations based on consumer demand for both passenger and cargo services without limitations on the number of US or Japanese carriers that can fly between the two countries or the number of flights they can operate.
The agreement is expected to prompt Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways to seek joint ventures with US airlines. (PA)
Zelaya 'meeting successor'
The leader of the Dominican Republic said ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya would meet his elected successor this week in his Caribbean nation.
Dominican president Leonel Fernandez said he expected Mr Zelaya and president-elect Porfirio Lobo to meet tomorrow in Santo Domingo to talk about ways for resolving the political crisis that has gripped Honduras since Mr Zelaya was deposed on June 28.
Honduran officials and Mr Zelaya have been at odds this week on terms of a deal that would let him emerge from the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa without fear of arrest on the charges of treason and abuse of power that led to his ousting. (PA)
Bombs made safe
Two bombs were defused outside a pension fund building in Athens, Greece.
The bombs were located after a warning call to a local television station and were safely defused, police said. Nobody was injured. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which targeted a journalists' pension fund.
Small far-left and anarchist groups frequently target symbols of wealth and state power in Greece, using small explosive or incendiary bombs. (PA)
Child soldiers 'still recruited'
Sri Lankan children continue to be recruited for combat despite the end of the country's civil war seven months ago, a UN envoy says.
Patrick Cammaert - a Dutch general who formerly headed the eastern division of the UN's Congo peacekeeping forces - said he had received reports of "isolated cases" of child recruitment in eastern Ampara district. (PA)
Imam: I'm innocent
An imam charged with lying to the FBI in the investigation of an alleged terrorism plot against New York insisted he was a loyal American who was framed.
Ahmad Afzali told reporters before a pre-trial hearing in the city's Brooklyn borough that he was innocent and hoped "justice will prevail".
Afzali is accused of tipping off Najibullah Zazi, a Colorado airport driver accused of getting training from al Qaida to build home-made bombs to attack New York City, that he was under surveillance. (PA)
Court clears ex-president
An appeal court in Paraguay has overturned the corruption conviction and prison sentence of a former president, drawing criticism from the current government.
Luis Gonzalez Macchi had been sentenced to eight years in prison for stashing £227,000 in a secret Swiss bank account during his term. (AFP)
Ex-President dies
Former president Kjell Eugenio Laugerud, credited with helping rebuild Guatemala after the devastating 1976 earthquake, has died at 79 from complications related to cancer.
Mr Laugerud died at his Guatemala City home, military spokesman Byron Gutierrez said.
His conservative 1974-78 administration was praised for an effective response to a quake that killed tens of thousands, but criticised for human rights abuses in an escalating fight with left-wing rebels.