In the World

The aurora borealis, as it swept across the sky Tuesday night near the city of Tromsoe in northern Norway. (RUNE BERTINUSSEN / Scanpix Norway)

Posted: January 25, 2012

Northern lights stun stargazers

STOCKHOLM - A storm from the broiling sun turned the chilly northernmost skies of Earth into an ever-changing and awe-provoking art show of northern lights on Tuesday.

Even experienced stargazers were stunned by the intensity of the aurora borealis that swept across the night sky in northern Scandinavia after the biggest solar flare in six years.

"It has been absolutely incredible," British astronomer John Mason cried from the deck of the MS Midnatsol, a cruise ship plying the fjord-fringed coast of northern Norway. "I saw my first aurora 40 years ago, and this is one of the best," Mason said, his voice nearly drowning in the cheers of awestruck fellow passengers.

It was part of the strongest solar storm in years, but the sun is likely to get even more active in the next few months and years, said physicist Doug Biesecker at the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo. A different aurora Monday night was dancing across the sky as far south as Ireland and England, where people rarely get a chance to catch the stunning light show. - AP

Turkey: Sarkozy must reject bill

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey warned the French president on Tuesday against signing a law that would make it a crime to deny that the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted genocide, saying such a move would deal a heavy blow to the relations between the two countries.

France's parliament approved the bill late Monday, risking more sanctions from Turkey and complicating an already delicate relationship with the rising power. Officials in President Nicolas Sarkozy's government insisted the vote didn't directly target the country.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the bill was a result of a "racist and discriminatory" attitude toward Turkey. He warned of new, unspecified sanctions against France if the bill is signed into a law. "For us it is null and void," Erdogan said. "We still have not lost our hope that it can be corrected." - AP

Child nutrition suffers in Yemen

SANA'A, Yemen - A year of Yemen's turmoil has increased the number of malnourished children under the age of 5 to around 750,000, UNICEF said Tuesday, appealing to the government and the international community to help develop the country's infrastructure to tackle the problem.

In some parts of this country of 20 million people, the number of children suffering from malnutrition has doubled from what it was in 2000, said Maria Calivis, the UNICEF director for Middle East and North Africa. Calivis said the figure crosses the "emergency threshold," an international standard calling for urgent action.

Yemen has for years experienced localized insurgencies, and the number of displaced people has increased during the yearlong uprising against authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh, inspired by other Arab Spring revolts. According to UNICEF, 60 percent of internal refugees or, around 300,000, are Yemeni children. - AP