The World

Chavez viewing out

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's acting president Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday it is highly unlikely that Hugo Chavez will be embalmed for permanent viewing because the decision to do so was made too late and the late socialist leader's body was not properly prepared on time.

President Chavez died on March 5. The decision to preserve his body permanently was announced two days later.

His embalmed body was to be put on display at a military museum on a hill a mile from the presidential palace, where it was to have been transferred on Friday.

Maduro suggested the body would still be placed there.

The idea of placing Chavez on permanent display, like Vladimir Lenin, Ho Chi Minh and Mao Zedong as Maduro said when he announced it, was influenced by visiting leaders, he said.

Maduro did not name the leaders but Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia, Jose Mujica of Uruguay and Cristina Fernandez of Argentina all arrived in Venezuela the day after Chavez died.

Woman jumps, baby OK

NEW YORK -- A woman holding a baby boy fell eight storeys out of a New York City apartment window to her death in an apparent suicide, but the baby survived, police said Wednesday.

Police found 45-year-old Cynthia Wachenheim with the baby Keston in her arms. An officer took the baby to a hospital, where he was listed in critical but stable condition. The baby is 10 months old.

Wachenheim was pronounced dead at the scene. A seven-page suicide note was found inside the apartment, under the bed. The window was open, and there were no signs of struggle inside.

Transplantee delivers

MIAMI -- Miami doctors say they believe a five-organ transplant patient is the first to deliver a baby, making her the first reported case in the world.

Fatema Al Ansari was 19 and living in Qatar when she was diagnosed with a blood clot in a major vein to the intestine. In 2007, she underwent surgery at Jackson Memorial hospital in Miami and was given a new liver, pancreas, stomach and small and large intestine. Five years later, she gave birth to a girl.

Al Ansari faced some complications during pregnancy, but her doctors say she is capable of having more children.

Old, rare coin found

CHICAGO -- Scientists from Illinois have found a rare, 600-year-old Chinese coin on the Kenyan island of Manda.

The Field Museum in Chicago announced the find Wednesday. Researchers say the coin proves trade existed between China and eastern Africa decades before European explorers set sail.

The coin is made of copper and silver. It has a square hole in the centre so it could be worn on a belt. Scientists say it was issued by Emperor Yongle of China and his name is written on the coin.

No charges for Walesa

WARSAW, Poland -- Polish prosecutors say they will not charge former president Lech Walesa with hate crimes for recent remarks deemed offensive to gays.

Walesa, a communist-era fighter for democracy and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, sparked outrage among liberal Poles by saying gays have no right to a prominent role in politics. He said gay lawmakers should sit in the back of Parliament, or "even behind the wall."

Shark wrestler fired

LONDON -- A 62-year-old British man who became an Internet sensation after wrestling with a shark on an Australian beach says he was fired after his employer discovered he'd been abroad while on sick leave.

Paul Marshallsea was filmed yanking a six-foot-long shark away from waders at Caloundra beach near Brisbane in January.

But his intervention also caught the eye of his employer, the Pant and Dowlais Boys & Girls Club, a Welsh charity. Marshallsea had been on leave since April after saying he was suffering from work-related stress.

-- from the news services

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 14, 2013 A12