Funeral in Egypt turns festive when doctor finds man alive
Funeral in Egypt turns festive when doctor finds man alive
LUXOR, Egypt — The funeral of a 28-year-old waiter in southern Egypt turned into a celebration when he woke up after being declared dead.
Hospital officials had pronounced dead Hamdi Hafez al-Nubi, who came from the village of Naga al-Simman in the southern province of Luxor, after he suffered a heart attack while working.
His family says grieving relatives took him home and, according to Islamic tradition, washed his body and prepared him for burial Friday evening.
A doctor sent to sign the death certificate found it strange that his body was warm. At closer observation she discovered he was still alive.
His mother fainted upon hearing the good news.
Yemen: U.S. drone strikes kill 11
al-Qaida militants
SANAA, Yemen — Two suspected U.S. drone strikes killed 11 al-Qaida militants in southern Yemen on Saturday, Yemeni military officials said.
The first attack took place near the border of Marib and Shabwa provinces southeast of the capital, Sanaa, killing six militants, including one Egyptian national, the officials said. The second strike hit two cars in Marib, killing five al-Qaida-linked fighters.
Over the past year, parts of Marib, Shabwa and other southern provinces have fallen under the control of al-Qaida militants who have capitalized on the turmoil in Yemen that stems from the uprising that toppled longtime leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.
There was no immediate word from the U.S. on whether Washington was behind Saturday’s attacks. In the past two weeks, suspected U.S. airstrikes have killed at least three senior al-Qaida operatives in southern Yemen.
Crossword plot? Probe ridiculed in Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela — Government critics, and even some supporters, are ridiculing a state TV host’s allegation that a newspaper crossword puzzle may have had a hidden call for a plot to kill President Hugo Chavez’s elder brother.
Intelligence agents questioned the author of the puzzle after state TV presenter Miguel Perez Pirela pointed out Wednesday’s crossword contained the word “ASESINEN,” or kill, intersecting with the name of Chavez’s brother, “ADAN.” He noted they were below the word “RAFAGAS,” meaning either gusts of wind or bursts of gunfire.
Neptali Segovia, an English teacher who has prepared crossword puzzles for the newspaper Ultimas Noticias for 17 years, said it was nonsense to think there was a hidden code in the puzzle. He told the newspaper he went voluntarily to be questioned Thursday after intelligence agents showed up at the paper asking about him.
Missing journalists released from Syria
BEIRUT — Two Turkish journalists who disappeared two months ago while reporting in Syria have been released by authorities there.
The journalists, Adem Ozkose and Hamit Coskun, were flown out of Syria to Tehran, Iran, where they were waiting for a plane to take them home, Turkey’s Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.
Ozkose and Coskun told the news agency they were in good health and were waiting to be reunited with their families.
Ozkose, a reporter for the magazine Gercek Hayat and the daily Milat, and cameraman Coskun were in Syria’s northwest Idlib province filming a documentary when they disappeared March 9. Like many journalists who have reported from Syria, they had entered the country illegally from Turkey.
College sweethearts
to marry 60 years later
DYERSBURG, Tenn. — Two residents of a Tennessee assisted living center plan to marry today, more than 60 years after they first met.
Peggy Schuster and the Rev. Henry Freund were college sweethearts in the early 1950s.
Freund said the couple often sat together in class at Rhodes College in Memphis and frequently dated. But they eventually went their separate ways and married other people.
While attending a church meeting in Memphis in 2001, Freund learned Schuster had been widowed.
Freund, who had lost his wife, wrote his college sweetheart to offer sympathy. A decade later, Schuster gave Freund her email address and the couple, both in their 80s, began corresponding.
Freund said a spark that had survived for more than 60 years “burst into flames.”
By wire sources