Rome

Italy taps millions for Venice project

Italy’s government gave the go-ahead Friday to the first chunk of money for an ambitious plan to save waterlogged Venice, authorizing some $450 million to build hinged barriers that will rise in the sea to block the tides.

The “Moses Project” ” named after the biblical figure who parted the Red Sea ” should receive the money over three years, the Interministerial Committee for Economic Programming said Friday. The go-ahead came more than a year after the plan was first approved.

The entire project is expected to take about a decade and cost some $3.5 billion. The hinged barriers would be erected in the Adriatic seabed near the entrance to the Venetian lagoon, and would be raised when high tides threaten the city.

Water threatens Venice on several fronts. The city itself is sinking, the level of the Adriatic is rising and high tides are becoming more frequent.

London

Ex-Beatle Harrison left $155 million in estate

Former Beatle George Harrison left nearly $155 million in his will, according to court documents released Friday.

The High Court documents that revealed the value of Harrison’s estate were released on the first anniversary of his death from cancer at age 58.

The documents that were released did not, however, reveal the will’s beneficiaries or how Harrison’s estate was divided.

Harrison’s estate included the mansion in Henley-on-Thames, west of London, where a knife-wielding attacker stabbed Harrison and his wife in 1999.

The two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, were scheduled to join Eric Clapton in a tribute concert Friday at the Royal Albert Hall to raise money for the Material World Charitable Foundation, a charity founded by Harrison.

Russia

Russian soldier kills eight servicemen

A Russian soldier apparently under the influence of narcotics opened fire on fellow servicemen, killing at least eight of them and wounding three others ” the latest in a string of shooting sprees in the nation’s demoralized military.

The soldier, identified as Denis Solovyov, fired his assault rifle at a tent early Friday as his 11 comrades were resting while on patrol at Russia’s border with Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains, the military said. Solovyov was detained immediately.

Some of the victims were killed on the spot and others died later in the hospital.

Lt. Col. Yuri Kolodkin, a duty officer with the regional Emergency Situations Ministry’s branch, said a preliminary investigation indicated Solovyov was in a state of narcotic intoxication.

Other officials said Solovyov may have eaten hallucinogenic mushrooms, which grow in the area, before the attack.

Tokyo

Japan urges treatment for alleged deserter

An alleged U.S. Army deserter hospitalized in North Korea has turned down Japan’s invitation to come for medical treatment and a reunion with his wife, because he fears arrest by the United States, the Kyodo news agency reported Friday.

Charles Robert Jenkins is suffering from insomnia and tremors caused by emotional trauma, the Japanese news agency reported from Pyongyang. He has been hospitalized since Tuesday.

The agency also reported North Korea had rejected Japan’s demand to let Jenkins visit for medical treatment and a reunion with his wife.

Jenkins, 62, is accused of defecting to communist North Korea in 1965 from his U.S. Army post along the South Korean border. Tokyo has asked Washington to pardon Jenkins, but the United States has not replied.