A wave of violence in Iraq that has raised fears of a return to all-out sectarian strife killed more than 1,000 people in May, the United Nations said.

Lebanon’s parliament on Friday voted to extend its mandate and delay elections after failing to adopt a new electoral law at a time of deep divisions over the war in neighbouring Syria.
The motion for a 17-month extension, submitted by independent Christian MP Nicolas Fattouche, was passed unanimously by 98 members of the 128-seat house who attended, with rival camps blaming each other for the delay.
“The term of the mandate of the legislature will be modified on an exceptional basis to end on November 20, 2014,” rather than June 20 as scheduled, it reads.
The motion to extend the normal four-year term between elections was due to “the security situation in several Lebanese regions that gives rise to political escalation and division which often take on confessional forms”.
“Security and political tensions prevent the holding of an election campaign,” it said.
Fuad Siniora, the opposition head in parliament, explained: “We were forced to vote on this bad project to avoid a vacuum and after unrest in several regions and the serious negative development” of Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syria conflict.

Four elephants have been killed after they became trapped on a railway line and were hit by a speeding train.

The elephants were part of a herd crossing the railroad tracks in eastern India when the express passenger train ploughed into them.

Two adult female elephants and one calf were killed at the scene while another died later from its injuries.

They were hit by the Mahananda Express Passenger train early today in Jalpaiguri district, nearly 400 miles east of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state.

The track, which connects Siliguri to Assam, was closed down for several hours after the collision, as other elephants were guarding the dead and injured animals.

Nearby villagers attempted to join in the rescue effort but could not save the two adult female elephants and one calf which died at the scene.

Railway spokesman Jayant Sharma said the accident site was outside the state’s elephant corridor and there was no warning from the forest department about the movement of the elephants.

Dozens of elephants have died in recent years in such accidents as trains run through national parks and forests. Activists have called for trains to lower their speeds through such areas.

India’s wild elephant population was recently estimated at about 26,000.

The landmark Sydney Harbour Bridge is to undergo its biggest makeover since 1932, with a new coat of paint that will take two years to complete, the New South Wales state government said Thursday.
The bridge, which links the northern and central parts of the city and is one of the world’s most recognisable landmarks, will be sanded back to bare steel and repainted for the first time in its 81-year history.
“This grande dame of Sydney Harbour is getting a makeover with a high performance fade-resistant paint to help her endure the punishing conditions,” state Roads Minister Duncan Gay said.
Huge sections of the bridge have suffered from rust and corrosion in recent decades with some 485,000 square metres of steelwork — the equivalent of 60 football fields — needing to be painted.
“The new paint, still in that famous shade that we call ‘Harbour Bridge grey’, is expected to last 30 years and won’t darken or change over time,” Gay said.
Fifty painters will carry out the work that is expected to cost Aus$20 million (US$19.2 million).

A new-born boy was released from hospital five days after his mother accidentally dropped him down a toilet pipe while giving birth to him, state media said on Thursday.
His mother, grandparents and purported father will take care of him, it cited local officials as saying, adding that the father plans to test his paternity.
The case of the child, dubbed “Baby No. 59” by nurses after the number of his incubator, has sparked worldwide interest.
In China, there have been hundreds of thousands of comments on the country’s hugely popular weibos, services similar to Twitter, with users astonished by the circumstances and expressing good wishes for him.
The mother, 22 and unmarried, had kept her pregnancy a secret and gave birth unexpectedly when she went to the lavatory on Saturday.
The boy fell into the squat toilet and became stuck in a 10-centimetre (four-inch) tube, which firefighters and doctors spent nearly an hour taking apart before they could rescue him.

Canada is banning nearly all exports to and imports from Iran.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Wednesday Canada has grave concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. Canada is also adding 30 individuals and 82 entities to an economic blacklist.

Baird says Iran has produced nothing but “false promises and empty gestures” about its nuclear program.

The latest round of sanctions comes after talks between Iran and the United Nations Security Council, as well as Germany, failed to reach an agreement.

Canada shut its embassy in Tehran last September and ordered Iranian diplomats to leave, accusing the Islamic Republic of being the most significant threat to world peace.