World Briefs: Taleban makes ceasefire offer to US

ISLAMABAD • The Taleban has given the US envoy a document outlining its offer for a temporary ceasefire in Afghanistan that would last between seven and 10 days, Taleban officials familiar with the negotiations said yesterday.

The offer is seen as an opportunity to open a window to an eventual peace deal for Afghanistan that would allow the United States to bring home its troops and end the 18-year war, America's longest conflict.

The ceasefire offer was handed to Mr Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington's envoy for talks with the insurgents, late on Wednesday in Qatar, a Gulf Arab country where the Taleban maintains a political office.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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No snow, no business for Japan's ski resorts

TOKYO • Record low snowfall in Japan has forced many ski resorts to shut their doors and is threatening a World Cup ski jumping competition, with organisers being forced to truck in extra powder.

Northern Japan saw just 38 per cent of its average snowfall in December, with only a "little" snow seen in western Japan, the country's meteorological agency said.

The snowfall figures for last December are the lowest since the organisation started collecting records in 1961, an agency official said yesterday.

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Germany faces tough donor organ issue

BERLIN • German lawmakers yesterday rejected a proposal that would have made most people potential organ donors unless they objected, backing instead a less radical plan to tackle a shortage of donor organs.

Doctors in Germany can transplant organs only from people who actively declare their willingness by, for example, carrying a donor card or making a living will.

More than 1,000 people in the country of 83 million die each year while waiting for transplants, lawmakers say.

ASSOCIATED PRESS