United Kingdom
LONDON — The next archbishop of Canterbury will be officially introduced Friday, the British government said, and the expectation is that the new leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans will be former oil company executive Justin Welby, the bishop of Durham for the past year.
Bishop Welby, 56, made an unusual mid-career shift from the oil industry to the clergy. He has said he faced conflicts between his beliefs and how companies acted and has made business ethics and standards part of his work.
He has impeccable establishment credentials, having been schooled at Eton College and Cambridge University. His mother was a private secretary to Winston Churchill, but his father went to the United States during Prohibition and became a bootlegger, Bishop Welby was quoted as saying by the Mail on Sunday newspaper in July.
Government and church officials declined Thursday to confirm speculation about the choice. But The Times and The Daily Telegraph newspapers, along with the BBC, reported it will be Bishop Welby, and two British betting agencies stopped taking bets earlier this week after a flurry of wagers backing him.
Colombia
10 peasants killed by paramilitary drug gang
BOGOTA — Colombian officials said Thursday that 10 peasants were killed by a drug-trafficking paramilitary group in a northeastern region of the country.
The massacre was carried out by a group known as “Los Rastrojos” who stormed into a tomato farm at about 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The group killed nine men and a woman in the municipality of Santa Rosa de los Osos, about 170 miles northeast of the capital Bogota, said Santiago Londono, government secretary for the state of Antioquia.
Local media said the farm laborers were killed by a grenade but officials are still investigating.
Bulgaria
Archaeologists find 2,400-year-old treasure
SOFIA — Archaeologists say they have unearthed an almost 2,400-year-old golden hoard in an ancient Thracian tomb in northern Bulgaria.
The treasure was found Thursday near the village of Sveshtari, 250 miles northeast of Sofia, team leader Diana Gergova said.
Among the artifacts, dating back to the end of the fourth or the beginning of the third century B.C., were gold jewelry and applications for horse trappings, a tiara with reliefs of lions and fantasy animals, as well as four bracelets and a ring, Ms. Gergova said.
The Thracians lived in what is now Bulgaria, and parts of modern Greece, Romania, Macedonia, and Turkey between 4,000 B.C. and the seventh century A.D., when they were assimilated by the invading Slavs.
canada
Military investigating ’bin Laden’ video
TORONTO — Canada’s military is investigating the circumstances surrounding a video played during a formal dinner that featured an unidentified member of the Canadian Forces pretending to be Osama bin Laden’s brother, the commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force said Thursday.
Lt. Gen. Yvan Blondin said he recently was informed of complaints that the video was inappropriate and culturally insensitive. He said those involved may face administrative, disciplinary or corrective action.
The man playing bin Laden’s brother wears brown makeup and a turban, and speaks with a thick accent in a four-minute excerpt of the video obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
A woman playing the role of a news anchor interviews the character, who jokes that his brother always gets all the credit for their work. He refuses to reveal where bin Laden is hiding.
The video was shown at a mess dinner at 14 Wing Greenwood base in Nova Scotia in 2010.
At the time, Canada was still involved in a combat mission in Afghanistan, which ended last year. About 950 Canadian soldiers remain in Afghanistan in a training, noncombat role.
Macedonia
Health minister says only geniuses need apply
SKOPJE — Macedonia’s health minister is looking for assistants — but they have to be certified geniuses.
Nikola Todorov’s ministry announced Thursday that it needs seven to 10 advisers to consult once or twice a month for a daily fee of $64 to $100.
The announcement said successful candidates must possess an IQ score of at least 140, certified by the Mensa International IQ society. They also must have a university degree and speak at least two foreign languages.
Macedonian public servants are not normally required to take IQ tests, but Mr. Todorov can be demanding. He recently angered state doctors by linking their salaries with the number of patients they treat.
The average intelligence quotient is 90 to 110. Above 140, people are considered geniuses.
Vatican
Pope opening Twitter account
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI will start tweeting from his own, personal Twitter account, perhaps before the end of the year, a Vatican spokesman said Thursday.
The 85-year-old Benedict sent his first tweet from a Vatican account last year when he launched the Vatican’s news information portal.
The new Twitter account will be his own, though it’s doubtful Benedict himself will wrestle down his encyclicals, apostolic exhortations and other papal pronouncements into 140-character bites.
Benedict, who writes longhand and does not normally use a computer, more likely will sign off on tweets written in his name.
• From wire dispatches and staff reports
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