World news in brief

GUATEMALA: A forensics report said today that former army chief of staff Hector Mario Lopez Fuentes should not stand trial for his involvement in the killing of 1,700 indigenous people during the nation's civil war.

It said the 82-year-old is not mentally capable of understanding others or expressing himself.

Mr Lopez was arrested in 2011 on charges that he planned and ordered hundreds of massacres when he was the military leader under dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt.

IAEA leaves with no probe deal

IRAN: Senior UN nuclear officials returned from Tehran today without a deal to restart an investigation into alleged atomic weapons development.

IAEA deputy director Herman Naeckerts said the two sides hadn't managed to smooth out their differences on how the probe would be conducted.

Czech economy shrinks yet again

CZECH REPUBLIC: A fourth-quarter contraction of 0.2 per cent means the country's economy is still in recession, the official statistics office said today.

It shrank by 1.1 per cent in 2012 as a whole and the latest dip carries on a trend that started in the third quarter of 2011.

It is the longest recession since the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1993.

The Czech central bank predicts the economy will contract by 0.3 per cent this year.

Greek jobless rate hits 27%

GREECE: Unemployment has reached yet another new record, with the jobless rate increasing to 27 per cent in November 2012, compared to 20.8 per cent in the same month the previous year.

Unemployment had increased from October, which stood at a record 26.6 per cent.

The worst affected are young people, with unemployment at 61.7 per cent in the 15-24 age group in November.

Landslide kills at least five miners

PHILIPPINES: A wall in a huge coal-mining pit on Semirara Island collapsed today, killing at least five workers and burying eight others.

Semirara Mining, which runs the Antique province mine, said three people were rescued after the midnight landslide but five others were missing.

The workers had been taking a break from the 24-hour mining operations at the time. The pit is one of the country's largest.

Migrant sets fire to himself at airport

ITALY: A man set himself on fire at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport today, causing a scare among bystanders until police doused the flames and rushed him to hospital.

Italian news reports say the man is an Ivory Coast citizen who was at the airport facing deportation.

Three police dead in car-bombing

RUSSIA: Police in Dagestan province said today that a suicide car-bomber killed three officers and hurt six others at a traffic post near Khasavyurt.

The man set off over 220 pounds of TNT when the officers pulled him over.

Dagestan has for years been plagued by an Islamist insurgency that spread after two separatist wars in Chechnya.

Ruling party MP arrested for graft

AZERBAIJAN: Police have arrested Gulyar Ahmadova, who was expelled from the ruling party after being implicated in a bribery scandal.

Ms Ahmadova will be charged with abusing public office to commit embezzlement and faces up to 12 years in jail if convicted.

Footage appeared online in September showing Ms Ahmadova discussing the size of the bribe required to secure her interlocutor a seat in parliament.

North marks test

NORTH KOREA: Thousands gathered in Pyongyang today to show support for a recent nuclear test.

Workers' Party secretary Kim Ki Nam said the atomic test was held to deter US hostility.

Two previous tests were held in 2006 and 2009.