In Brief

Ageless love LAGOS – Samuel Akinbode Sadela, Nigeria’s oldest preacher at 107, said he derived his strength from God after marrying a 30-year woman.

“The Lord is my strength. I am very strong and energetic,” they quoted him as saying after the wedding in Lagos.Sadela, founder of Gospel Apostolic Church, has been on the pulpit for 75 years.Sadela first got married in 1934, and the marriage lasted for 21 years, but none of the couple’s seven children lived beyond their infancy.A second marriage, consummated in 1965, was blessed with four children, but only two survived.His second wife died in 2001.And then he met the new woman of his life, 77 years his junior.The marriage with Christiana Sadela is “a fulfilment of the scripture and worthy of thanksgiving and appreciation to God”, his church said in a statement.”Nothing is impossible for God,” it said.* Object found MAKASSAR – An Indonesian navy ship detected a large metal object on the ocean floor yesterday, but officials were not certain it was the wreckage of an airliner that disappeared a week ago around Sulawesi island.The ship’s sonar picked up a signal with quite significant noise 1,050 metres under the sea north of Mamuju, a seaside town in West Sulawesi province, said Tony Syaiful, spokesman for the navy’s Eastern Fleet.”It is clearly metal, but we cannot confirm what it is.Four more navy ships will be sent to coordinate.We may lower a mini-submarine for underwater observation,” he said.The Adam Air went missing in bad weather on New Year’s Day after the pilot reported crosswinds and asked for safe coordinates from the airport in Makassar, Sulawesi’s largest city.* Church scandal shows ‘dark side’ WARSAW – Deeply Catholic Poland was reeling on Monday a day after the new archbishop of Warsaw dramatically resigned over his ties with communist-era secret police.Stanislaw Wielgus stepped down on Sunday at what was meant to be his formal investiture service at Warsaw Cathedral, just two days after admitting that he had collaborated over a period of two decades with Poland’s despised Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa (SB).The country’s powerful Roman Catholic church was to blame for not acting earlier to avert a full-blown crisis, Polish media charged, while an expert said it was time for a shake up in the nation’s religious leadership.* Flour-filled condoms PHILADELPHIA – A US college student imprisoned for three weeks for trying to take flour-filled condoms onto an airplane has settled her lawsuit against Philadelphia for $180 000, a city spokesman said on Friday.Janet Lee, 21, a student at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, was arrested at Philadelphia International Airport in 2003 after police and security officials thought the flour was an illegal drug.She was held in Philadelphia on drug-trafficking charges and released only when tests proved the substance in the three condoms was flour.The condoms, which are sometimes used to smuggle drugs, were a joke among the students, and Lee was taking them home to Los Angeles.Her civil rights case against Philadelphia, which had been set to go to trial on Thursday, was settled for $180 000, said Ted Qualli, spokesman for Philadelphia Mayor John Street.Nampa-Reuters-AFP-AP-BBCI am very strong and energetic,” they quoted him as saying after the wedding in Lagos.Sadela, founder of Gospel Apostolic Church, has been on the pulpit for 75 years.Sadela first got married in 1934, and the marriage lasted for 21 years, but none of the couple’s seven children lived beyond their infancy.A second marriage, consummated in 1965, was blessed with four children, but only two survived.His second wife died in 2001.And then he met the new woman of his life, 77 years his junior.The marriage with Christiana Sadela is “a fulfilment of the scripture and worthy of thanksgiving and appreciation to God”, his church said in a statement.”Nothing is impossible for God,” it said.* Object found MAKASSAR – An Indonesian navy ship detected a large metal object on the ocean floor yesterday, but officials were not certain it was the wreckage of an airliner that disappeared a week ago around Sulawesi island.The ship’s sonar picked up a signal with quite significant noise 1,050 metres under the sea north of Mamuju, a seaside town in West Sulawesi province, said Tony Syaiful, spokesman for the navy’s Eastern Fleet.”It is clearly metal, but we cannot confirm what it is.Four more navy ships will be sent to coordinate.We may lower a mini-submarine for underwater observation,” he said.The Adam Air went missing in bad weather on New Year’s Day after the pilot reported crosswinds and asked for safe coordinates from the airport in Makassar, Sulawesi’s largest city.* Church scandal shows ‘dark side’ WARSAW – Deeply Catholic Poland was reeling on Monday a day after the new archbishop of Warsaw dramatically resigned over his ties with communist-era secret police.Stanislaw Wielgus stepped down on Sunday at what was meant to be his formal investiture service at Warsaw Cathedral, just two days after admitting that he had collaborated over a period of two decades with Poland’s despised Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa (SB).The country’s powerful Roman Catholic church was to blame for not acting earlier to avert a full-blown crisis, Polish media charged, while an expert said it was time for a shake up in the nation’s religious leadership.* Flour-filled condoms PHILADELPHIA – A US college student imprisoned for three weeks for trying to take flour-filled condoms onto an airplane has settled her lawsuit against Philadelphia for $180 000, a city spokesman said on Friday.Janet Lee, 21, a student at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, was arrested at Philadelphia International Airport in 2003 after police and security officials thought the flour was an illegal drug.She was held in Philadelphia on drug-trafficking charges and released only when tests proved the substance in the three condoms was flour.The condoms, which are sometimes used to smuggle drugs, were a joke among the students, and Lee was taking them home to Los Angeles.Her civil rights case against Philadelphia, which had been set to go to trial on Thursday, was settled for $180 000, said Ted Qualli, spokesman for Philadelphia Mayor John Street.Nampa-Reuters-AFP-AP-BBC