WORLD BRIEFS

GREENLAND: Mystery of the Big Ice Melt

Nearly all of Greenland's massive ice sheet suddenly started melting a bit this month, a freak event that surprised scientists. Ice core records show it last happened in 1889 and occurs once every 150 years. Three satellites show what NASA calls unprecedented melting of the ice sheet that blankets the island, starting July 8 and lasting four days. Most of the thick ice remains. What was unusual was that the melting happened in a flash and over a widespread area. "You literally had this wave of warm air wash over the Greenland ice sheet and melt it," NASA ice scientist Tom Wagner said Tuesday. The melt area went from 40 percent of the ice sheet to 97 percent in four days, according to NASA. "When we see melt in places that we haven't seen before, at least in a long period of time, it makes you sit up and ask what's happening?" NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati said. It's a big signal, the meaning of which we're going to sort out for years to come."

GHANA

President dies; successor sworn

President John Atta Mills' election victory secured Ghana's reputation as one of the most mature democracies in West Africa, a position further solidified Tuesday when the vice president took over only hours after the Mills, 68, died, five months before finishing his first term. John Mahama's swift inauguration underscored Ghana's stability in a region known for coups.

FINLAND: Ramadan a problem in far north

How do you observe dawn-to-dusk fasting when there is neither dawn nor dusk? It's a question facing a growing number of Muslims celebrating the holy month of Ramadan on the northern tip of Europe, where the sun barely dips below the horizon at this time of year. In Rovaniemi, which straddles the Arctic Circle at 66 degrees north, the sun rises at 3:20 a.m. and sets about 11:20 p.m. Thus those who observe Ramadan could go without food or drink for 20 hours. "We have to use common sense," said Mahmoud Said, 27, who came from Kenya. That means following the nearest Muslim country, Turkey, with 14 or 15 hours of fasting.