Main News of December 2

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*At least three people were dead after a highway tunnel collapsed in central Japan, causing a fire.

*Israel is halting tax payments it collects for the Palestinians in response to their successful bid to raise their UN status, local media reported, citing Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz.

*Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court has halted its work “indefinitely” after protesters prevented justices from getting to their offices on Sunday morning.

 

RUSSIA

*A gigantic traffic jam on the snowbound main highway linking Moscow and St. Petersburg that began on Friday was still 34 miles long early in the evening on Sunday, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry’s State Automobile Inspectorate said.

*A mosque named in honor of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and able to accommodate 10,000 worshippers will be built in the Chechen town of Shali, the republic’s government said in a press release.

 

BUSINESS

*Russia’s GAZ Group, maker of the Volga sedan and GAZelle minivan, has launched a joint venture with Mersa Otomotiv to assemble and sell GAZ’s light commercial vehicles in Turkey, the companies announced.