At least 11 die, 18 injured, after roof collapse in Germany
The workers had recovered 11 bodies before halting the search earlier in the day awaiting the arrival of heavy equipment to help shore up the building.
Among the dead were at least seven children.
The search resumed after the equipment arrived, and the workers are involved in a delicate operation to remove one damaged wall of the rink.
Rescue workers are holding out hope that the woman, 35, and her three children, ranging in age from 12 to 16 years old, are still alive.
Authorities rescued 34 people in the aftermath of Monday afternoon's roof collapse in this town in the Bavarian Alps near the Austrian border. Eighteen of them were injured, three of them seriously, said police spokesman Fritz Braun.
A foot of snow fell in the 24 hours before the collapse.
About 200 miles (320 km) north of Bad Reichenhall, heavy snow caused the roof of a Lidl supermarket to collapse in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Tuesday night. The store was not open at the time, and the high shelves prevented the roof from crashing to the floor. One employee was slightly hurt.
After the collapse in southern Germany, it took hours for the cranes to be moved through the snow to the high-elevation area, where they began to lift heavy sections of the rink's roof.
Michael Posch, a state government spokesman, said six cranes were being used to shore up the roof in an effort to aid rescuers and to keep it from collapsing further. One person was rescued more than six hours after the accident, he said.
The delay in getting cranes to the site prompted stinging criticism from the press.
"Slackness, ignorance and ineptitude," screamed the headline in a local newspaper.
The local prosecutor said he had launched a criminal investigation into the collapse itself, looking for possible negligence.
There were reports that rink officials had begun evacuating the building shortly before the accident. But Posch said that was not the case.
"This is not true," he said. "The snow load on the roof was far below the limit that is given for evacuation. And so, the danger was unknown and it wasn't expected."
CNN's Chris Burns said that despite the cold, search teams believe those missing may still be alive in air pockets with snow forming an insulating layer.
Experts said an unusual mix of warmer weather -- with temperatures just above freezing -- and downfalls lasting for up to 30 hours had led to the chaos in an area used to snowy winters. Some 30 cm (12 inches) has fallen since Monday morning. (Freak weather)
About 50 people were inside the rink when the roof collapsed, police spokesman Fritz Braun told N-TV television.
The chairman of a local ice hockey club told German public television that local officials had warned his team at 3.30 p.m. to cancel a training session planned in the afternoon because of a risk the building could collapse.
"Ice skating for the public evidently still went on," Thomas Rumpeltes told ZDF television.
German media said local people had complained for years that the hall was in a poor state of repair.
CNN's Burns said it appeared that the rink had been approved for use during the daytime but was scheduled to shut in the evening.
Bayerische Rundfunk radio said a supervisor had ordered the last skaters off the ice seconds before the collapse. It also said loud creaking had been heard just before the accident.
Bavarian Gov. Edmund Stoiber said he was "deeply shaken" by the accident.
The accident came shortly after a separate incident nearby in which 10 skiers were caught by an avalanche. Two people, a woman and a man, were killed, while another person was missing, Reuters reported. Seven others escaped after being buried in the snow.
France lifts state of emergency
The French cabinet has passed a decree to lift a state of emergency imposed in November during the worst unrest in the country in nearly 40 years.
The measures - including powers to impose curfews and conduct police searches without warrants - will formally end on Wednesday.
Almost 9,000 cars were torched and 3,000 people arrested in three weeks of urban violence across France.
President Jacques Chirac said the state of emergency was "strictly temporary".
He chaired the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, having earlier announced his intention to lift the state of emergency.
"Given the situation of the past few weeks, I have decided to end it," he said.
The riots began when two boys of North and West African origin were electrocuted in a Paris suburb after running from police, believing they were being chased.
Residents of the country's poor, largely immigrant suburbs, where most of the unrest took place, complained of racism and heavy-handed policing.
The state of emergency is being ended six weeks earlier than planned.
It was introduced under a little-used law dating back to 1955, when France was waging a war - ultimately unsuccessful - against independence fighters in Algeria.
France to lift state of emergency
President Jacques Chirac says France will lift a state of emergency imposed in November during the worst unrest in the country in nearly 40 years.
Emergency powers are expected to be lifted on Wednesday, more than six weeks earlier than originally planned.
The laws allowed local authorities to impose curfews, conduct house-to-house searches and ban public gatherings.
Almost 9,000 cars were torched and 3,000 people arrested in three weeks of violence.
President Chirac took the decision following a meeting with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.
A government statement said the president's decision will be discussed on Tuesday by the cabinet, which has the power to lift the measure by decree.
The riots began when two boys of North and West African origin were electrocuted in a Paris suburb after running from police, believing they were being chased.
Residents of the country's poor, largely immigrant suburbs, where most of the unrest took place, complained of racism and heavy-handed policing.
Italians revel in hostage releases
(CNN) -- Italians rejoiced Sunday with the news that four of their countrymen had been released by separate groups of kidnappers in Yemen and Gaza.
One man, identified by The Associated Press as Alessandro Bernardini, was released in Gaza hours after he had been abducted, Palestinian security sources said.
The AP also reported that Palestinian security forces stormed a building where Bernardini was being held and rescued him after a shootout with the kidnappers, who escaped. (Full story)
Meanwhile, three Italian women were freed by their abductors in northern Yemen, the Yemeni state-run news agency Saba reported.
Two other hostages -- both men -- were still being held, a Yemeni official said.
Sheikh Dirham al Tham'a, secretary general of the council of Ma'rib province, in which the five were kidnapped, said "after three hours of negotiation, we managed to free three women, and we are trying to free the two men."
The kidnappers are tribesmen trying to pressure the Yemeni government to free relatives who are imprisoned, Tham'a said.
In a news release after kidnappings were reported, the Italian government said it was looking into the reported abductions and was in contact with the embassy at San'a, the Yemeni capital.
The reports come one day after five German citizens taken hostage in Yemen were freed. Juergen Chrobog, his wife, Magda, and their three adult sons were taken hostage in Shabwa province while on a guided tour, officials said. (Full story)
Gaza shootout
Bernardini, the Italian man freed in Gaza, told the media he was treated well by his captors, the AP reported.
"I'm not going to change my ideas about the Palestinians," he said.
A security official told the AP the kidnapping was the work of a small group of radicals affiliated with the Fatah party.
There were no reports of injuries in the shootout, said the AP, which quoted a Palestinian security official who said his forces "stormed the place after we surrounded it."
The incident came two days after a British national who works for a Palestinian aid agency and her parents were freed by kidnappers after they were held hostage for 48 hours. (Full story)
European revellers welcome 2006
Fireworks and huge street parties have been marking the start of 2006 across the world.
Crowds in Moscow, Paris and other cities are welcoming the New Year.
Earlier police in the Australian city of Sydney deployed in strength to prevent a repetition of the racial violence seen earlier this month.
For many Asian cities, it was their first such event for two years, after the Indian Ocean Tsunami caused celebrations for 2005 to be cancelled.
In Moscow, revellers welcomed the new year in Red Square without their favourite tipple, after the authorities banned alcohol from the historic plaza.
Paris is expecting half-a-million revellers to party near the Eiffel Tower and in the Champs-Elysees, to welcome the New Year.
France deployed thousands of extra police officers as a state of emergency remains after the rioting in suburbs across the country in the latter part of 2005.
The festivities in London, in the UK - which included a special lightshow featuring heroes of the past year in the centre of the city - were under threat from a 24-hour strike on the city's underground system.
In the US, New York's Times Square is preparing to welcome an estimated one million partygoers for an event that will include tributes to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the rescue workers involved in the New Orleans disaster.
Trumpet player Wynton Marsalis, a native of the southern US city, is scheduled to press the button triggering the descent of a half-tonne crystal ball to count down the last 60 seconds of the year.
US troops in Baghdad, Iraq, were treated to a special show from entertainers at Camp Victory.
And the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro says it is expecting more than two million party-goers.
Eta bomber jailed for 100 years
Spain's high court has sentenced an Eta member to 100 years and three months in prison for the murder of a socialist leader almost six years ago.
Fernando Buesa and bodyguard Jorge Diez died in a car bomb attack in the Basque capital, Vitoria, in February 2000.
The court said the case against Eta's Diego Ugarte Lopez de Arkaute had been proven beyond doubt, Efe reports.
Eta, which wants an independent Basque nation, has been blamed for more than 800 killings in the past four decades.
It has not carried out any fatal attacks for two years but has claimed responsibility for a series of small bombs set off in recent weeks.
Street protest
On top of the 100-year jail term, the court imposed an order banning Diego Ugarte from living near his victims' families or communicating with them in any way for five years after his release.
It is the first time such a penalty has been applied to an Eta member by the court, according to Spanish media reports.
Mr Buesa, a 53-year-old married father of three, was murdered three weeks before Spanish general elections were held.
He was head of the provincial chapter of the Basque Socialist Party, which had voiced its opposition to Basque separatism.
Three days before his death, Mr Buesa was among 10,000 people to participate in an anti-Eta demonstration in the nearby city of San Sebastian.
Mr Diez, a 26-year-old policeman acting as his bodyguard, was also killed when the 20kg bomb exploded as they crossed Vitoria's university campus.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Vitoria the night of the attack to protest against the killings.
The current Spanish Socialist government has offered to hold talks with Eta if it renounces violence.
The militants' planned Basque homeland encompasses areas of northern Spain and south-western France.
US to deport alleged Nazi guard
An 85-year-old man accused of having been a guard at a Nazi death camp is to be deported from the US to his native Ukraine, an immigration judge has said.
John Demjanjuk lost his US citizenship in 2002 after a judge said there was proof he had worked at Nazi camps.
He has denied the allegations and his lawyers argued he would be tortured if sent back to Ukraine.
Mr Demjanjuk migrated to the US in 1951 and was briefly deported to Israel amid a 30-year legal battle over his past.
At the time, he was suspected of having been a notorious concentration camp guard, known by the nickname "Ivan the Terrible".
But his name was eventually cleared in an Israeli court and he was spared the death penalty.
He returned to the US and his citizenship - which he had lost for allegedly lying to US immigration officials - was restored.
However, in 2002, an immigration judge ruled that there was enough evidence to prove Mr Demjanjuk had been a guard at several Nazi death camps and again stripped him of his citizenship.
He lost an appeal against the decision in 2004.
Mr Demjanjuk now has 30 days to appeal against the latest order for his deportation.
US immigration judge Michael Creppy said there was no evidence to prove his claim that he would tortured if returned to the Ukraine.
Mr Demjanjuk's lawyer had argued that deporting him to Ukraine would be like throwing him "into a shark tank".
Mr Demjanjuk has always insisted he was a prisoner of war with the Nazis, rather than a guard serving under them.
But his 2002 trial found that he had been an armed guard at the Sobibor, Majdanek and Flossenburg concentration camps where tens of thousands of Jews were executed in gas chambers.
Europe 'behind on Kyoto pledges'
The UK is almost alone in Europe in honouring Kyoto pledges to cut greenhouse gases, a think-tank claims.
Ten of 15 European Union signatories will miss the targets without urgent action, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found.
The countries include Ireland, Italy and Spain.
France, Greece and Germany are given an "amber warning" and will not reach targets unless they put planned policies into action, the IPPR said.
'Little time left'
Only Sweden would join the UK in meeting their commitments, the think-tank's study found.
IPPR associate director Tony Grayling said: "We are nearing the point of no return on climate change.
"We have very little time left to start reducing global greenhouse gas emissions before irreparable damage is done.
"It is vital that EU countries keep their promises to cut pollution," he said.
European countries needed to take action, including energy saving and investing in renewable energy.
"In the new year, EU countries will need to adopt tougher limits on emissions from power stations and heavy industry, in the second phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme," Mr Grayling said.
Under Kyoto commitments, the European signatories are supposed to cut their emissions to 8% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.
The Kyoto commitments have been undermined, critics say, because the US - the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases - has refused to sign up to the treaty.