WORLD NEWS DIGEST: Kidney donation is parole condition

Kidney donation is parole condition

JACKSON, Miss.

For 16 years, sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott have shared a life behind bars for their part in an $11 armed robbery. To share freedom, they must also share a kidney.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour suspended the sisters’ life sentences on Wednesday, but 36-year-old Gladys Scott’s release is contingent on her giving a kidney to Jamie, her 38-year-old sister, who requires daily dialysis.

The sisters were convicted in 1994 of leading two men into an ambush in central Mississippi the year before. Three teenagers hit each man in the head with a shotgun and took their wallets — making off with only $11, court records said.

Jamie and Gladys Scott were each convicted of two counts of armed robbery and sentenced to two life sentences.

US revokes visa of foreign dignitary

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration revoked the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States on Wednesday in a tit-for-tat diplomatic response to Venezuela’s rejection of the U.S. choice to be the next envoy to the South American country.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday dared the U.S. government to expel his ambassador, saying he will not allow the U.S. diplomat, Larry Palmer, to be ambassador because he made what Chavez described as blatantly disrespectful remarks about Venezuela.

“If the government is going to expel our ambassador there, let them do it!,” Chavez said, adding: “If they’re going to cut diplomatic relations, let them do it!”

U.S. diplomats familiar with the situation said the decision to revoke Bernardo Alvarez Herrera’s visa came after Chavez’s decision to withdraw his approval of Palmer. The diplomats said Alvarez is currently not in the U.S.

Australian towns brace for long flood

BRISBANE, Australia

Flooded communities across eastern Australia could be under water for more than a week, with the cleanup bill expected to hit billions of dollars, a state official said Thursday.

Days of torrential downpours have left parts of central and southern Queensland state inundated, flooding thousands of homes and businesses, cutting off roads and forcing one town’s entire population to evacuate.

The rain eased Thursday, but river levels continued to rise in many locations as high waters made their way toward the sea. Communities already swamped could remain under water for up to 10 days, Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh warned Thursday.

“It’s an enormous disaster,” she told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. “The recovery ... is going to require literally billions of dollars from federal, state and local governments (and) insurance companies.”

Iraq war deaths fall, British group says

BAGHDAD

A British group monitoring how many Iraqi civilians have been killed since the war began says the number has dropped slightly since 2009 but warns of a lingering, low-level conflict in the years ahead.

The Iraq Body Count said in a year-end report released Thursday that 3,976 civilians have been killed in 2010 as of Dec. 25. That compares with 4,680 deaths in 2009.

The organization said it was a smaller drop than in previous years.

The group said the figures suggest a “low-level conflict in Iraq that will continue to kill civilians” for years to come.

VINDICATOR WIRE SERVICES