PARIS

Joan of Arc birthday tribute criticized for being insincere

The father and daughter behind France’s main far-right party have taken aim at conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy for what they called his insincere tribute to Joan of Arc.

The nationalist National Front party of Jean-Marie and Marine Le Pen has in recent years rallied around the medieval French heroine and Catholic martyr who was burned at the stake by the English in 1431.

At a rally Saturday that drew a crowd of about 200 near a gilded Joan of Arc statue in Paris, Marine Le Pen said she welcomed Sarkozy’s speech honoring Joan a day earlier — but hinted that he was being insincere. France is celebrating the 600th anniversary of Joan’s birth in eastern France on Jan. 6, 1412.

RAMALLAH, West Bank

Palestinian Sesame Street put on hold by Congress

It’s quiet time on Palestinian Sesame Street.

The iconic children’s program, known as “Sharaa Simsim” in Arabic, has been put on hold for the 2012 season because of a funding freeze by the U.S. Congress.

Sharaa Simsim is one of many U.S.-funded Palestinian programs suffering after Congress froze the transfer of nearly $200 million to the U.S. Agency for International Development in October. The suspension aimed to punish the Palestinians for appealing to the United Nations for statehood.

The funding suspension — affecting hospitals, education, and government ministries that all rely on American aid — is breeding resentment and frustration in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, even among the most progressive organizations.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand

Cargo ship splits in two, sparking fears of oil spill

A cargo ship grounded off the New Zealand coast since October has split into two pieces after being lashed by pounding seas, spilling sea containers and debris and sparking fears a fresh oil spill could wash ashore from the wreck, maritime officials said Sunday.

The officials said the stern section has broken away and is “moving significantly,” pounded by 19-foot swells.

The Greek-owned Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef 14 miles from Tauranga Harbor on North Island on Oct. 5, spewing heavy fuel oil into the seas, fouling pristine beaches and killing up to 20,000 sea birds in what has been described as New Zealand’s worst martime environmental disaster.

VIENNA

East-west railway route closed by heavy snow

A major east-west railway route in western Austria was shut Saturday following heavy snow in the popular Alpine skiing region.

Railway operator OeBB said the line between Oetztal and Bludenz — part of a route that connects Vienna and Innsbruck with Austria’s western tip and Switzerland — was expected to remain closed until this afternoon. Two other rail lines connecting Tyrol province with southern Germany also were shut down.

Heavy snow has blanketed Tyrol and neighboring Vorarlberg, Austria’s westernmost province, over recent days, leading to several road closures and an elevated risk of avalanches.

TOKYO

Researchers to use particles to peer inside reactor units

A team of researchers from Nagoya University is developing technology to use elementary particles from space to see into the interiors of crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Their aim is to establish technology that can obtain images similar to X-rays of what is happening inside the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors, whose cores melted down in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to start operations to move melted-down nuclear fuel out of the reactors within the coming 10 years as a step toward decommissioning them. To do so, the power utility must know exactly where the lumps of nuclear fuel are in the reactors.

The university team is scheduled to launch studies on practical use of the envisaged technology when the amount of radiation being emitted from the reactors is reduced.

The team comprises researchers at the state-run university’s Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe. They are using elementary muon particles in lieu of X-rays. Muon particles are one of 12 kinds of elementary particles that constitute matter. They have properties similar to electrons, but weigh about 200 times more, and fall to Earth from space at a rate of one particle onto a person’s palm per second.

— From news service reports