The Ukrainian authorities have notified jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymo­shenko that she is a suspect in the murder of a businessman and politician in 1996.

The Prosecutor General’s Office said on its website that Tymo­shenko is suspected of “ordering and organising” the contract-style murder of Yvhen Scherban, his wife and two other people.

The move stops short of formally charging Tymoshenko, but indicates that charges are likely. Prosecutors have said for months that she was being investigated in the case. Tymoshenko denies the accusations and says it is part of a broader campaign by her enemy, President Viktor Yanukovych, to keep her in prison and bar her from politics.

Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year prison term for abuse of office while negotiating a gas deal with Russia in 2009.

Sudan talks are deadlocked

South Sudan and Sudan have failed to reach an agreement on security arrangements and oil exports after several days of talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, officials said yesterday.

The two sides were trying to negotiate the implementation of a safe demilitarised border zone, which called on both Juba and Khartoum to withdraw their armies at least 10 km from the contested border region.

South Sudan’s negotiating team said in a statement yesterday that a key sticking point has been the demilitarisation of a contested 22.5km strip of land bordering Sudan’s Darfur and South Sudan’s northern Bahr el Ghazal states.

Rebels besiege Syrian bases

Intense fighting between Syrian government troops and rebels trying to tighten their siege of two military bases in the northeast was reported by activists yesterday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Co-ordination Committees said rebels had destroyed at least one tank near the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province.

Rebels have been attacking the nearby bases of Wadi Deif and Hamdiyeh for weeks.

The Observatory said the rebels are trying to cut roads which supply the two bases.

Besieged government bases are a recent focus of fighting in Syria’s conflict, which according to the UN has killed more than 60,000 people since March 2011.

Spider named after Bono

It appeared Bono and arachnids didn’t mix when his Spider-Man musical had a rough Broadway run, but that did not keep a biologist from naming an actual spider species after the U2 frontman.

Jason Bond of Alabama’s Auburn University has identified 33 new species of trapdoor spider, including three of them in the California desert at Joshua Tree National Park. The park’s namesake is featured in the title and cover of U2’s 1987 album, The Joshua Tree.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise said Mr Bond named two of the spiders after Indian tribes and one, A. bonoi, after Bono.

The trapdoor spider, found in the south-western US, is so-named because it makes a hatch to hide from prey.

Judge pardons protesters

An Egyptian criminal court has invoked a presidential amnesty and dismissed charges against 379 people accused of taking part in deadly clashes with police. The charges stem from nearly two weeks of street fighting in Cairo in November 2011 which killed 42 people. Young protesters, mostly die-hard soccer fans known as Ultras, led demonstrations against police near the Interior Ministry and Tahrir Square, the hub of Cairo’s activist movement.

Judge Gamal Eddin Rushdi said yesterday his decision was based on the pardon issued by President Mohammed Morsi.