Print

Mail

wiki links

World News Quick Take

■ China
15 miners die in blast
At least 15 miners are now known to have been killed when a gas blast ripped through a coal mine in central China, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. Of the 26 men reported trapped below ground after Thursday's explosion at the private Shangyukou mine in Shaanxi Province, seven had been rescued, 15 confirmed dead and four were still missing, Xinhua said. This latest accident followed a blast and flooding at three Chinese mines earlier this week that killed at least 10 and trapped more than 30. China's mining industry is the world's biggest and most deadly despite regular government campaigns to enhance safety.

■ Sri Lanka
Senior journalist killed
Tamil Tiger guerrillas Saturday accused the Sri Lankan military and a breakaway rebel faction of murdering a senior Tamil journalist. "Sri Lanka military intelligence and para-militaries collaborating with the security forces are responsible for this murder which has shocked and angered the Tamil people and journalists," the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said in a statement. The LTTE said the journalist, Sivaram Dharmeratnam, was slain within a high security zone near the national parliament and that ultimately Sri Lanka's government must bear responsibility.

■ Indonesia
`Buffer zone' to be created
Indonesia will ban rebuilding along much of the coastline of tsunami-hit Aceh province to lessen damage in the event of a second giant wave, but will compensate people who lose their land, according to a government reconstruction blueprint seen yesterday. Most villagers say they want to return to their original settlements, regardless of the risk of a second tsunami. The document, which forms the basis of the government's plan for rebuilding in Aceh, acknowledges that the issue is "complex and sensitive." The blueprint envisages a 100m "buffer zone" along the west coast of Aceh on Sumatra island.

■ Japan
Plane lands on shut runway
All 18 air controllers on duty at Tokyo's Haneda airport forgot a runway was shut for construction and one of them told a plane to land there, officials said yesterday, but the aircraft was safe as the stretch was clear. The incident, days after Japan's worst train crash in 40 years killed 106 people, raised questions about safety in a country that prides itself for its efficient transport system. The Japan Airlines plane with 51 passengers and crew landed at the mainly domestic Haneda airport on Friday according to directions given by the controller, a Transport Ministry spokesman said. "The controller had not worked since the runway was closed for construction at the beginning of April, and forgot that it had been closed," the spokesman said.

■ Thailand
Alert system almost ready
A tsunami early warning system will be mostly installed by later this month and fully finished by late next year for the six coastal provinces affected by the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster, the prime minister said yesterday. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said about 80 percent of the system -- including technology to send alerts to mobile phones and television and radio stations as well as watchtowers equipped with sirens -- will be in place by the middle of next month. The full system, with special buoys off coastal areas considered vulnerable to tsunamis, will be completed by the end of next year, he said.

■ Italy
Injunction sought for site
Rome judicial authorities sought a temporary injunction Friday against an Internet site which carried doctored photographs of Pope Benedict dressed in a Nazi uniform. The crude photomontages of the head of former German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on the body of a man wearing a swastika armband and standing in front of a Nazi flag were posted 10 days ago on the Italian branch of the international news and opinion site, Independent Media Center (www.indymedia.org). Rome investigating magistrate Salavtore Vitello said in a statement the pictures violated a national law prohibiting defamation of the Catholic Church.

■ Liberia
UN staff abused locals
UN peacekeepers sexually abused and exploited local women and girls in Liberia and more accusations are expected, a UN spokesman said Friday. Stephane Dujarric said a preliminary investigation by the UN mission in Liberia indicated that some allegations against its personnel could be substantiated, while others could not. "The allegations range from the exchange of goods, money or services for sex to the sexual exploitation of minors. The peacekeeping department here in New York as well as the mission on the ground are taking appropriate follow-up action," he said.

■ Croatia
War criminal aiders nabbed
Croatian police on Friday arrested two men on suspicion they helped a top war crimes suspect flee the country by giving him a false passport. Police raided the homes of the two suspects in Zagreb and found them in possession of piles of counterfeit documents, illegal firearms and other explosive devices. Their identities were not disclosed. "We have placed two men in police custody on suspicions that they created fake documents enabling General Ante Gotovina to flee an arrest warrant," said police spokesman Zlatko Mehun.

■ Yemen
Official seeks asylum in UK
A Yemeni foreign ministry source confirmed Friday reports that Yemen's ambassador to Syria is seeking political asylum in Britain and dubbed him as a "mentally unstable." The source said that the move by ambassador Ahmad Abdullah al-Hasani, "is not surprising and demonstrates the mental disturbance that he has been suffering since a long time ago." "That could also be the result of his old links to foreign intelligence parties," said the statement. In remarks to the Dubai-based al-Arabiya broadcaster Friday, the diplomat said he is seeking political asylum in Britain because the Sanaa government discriminates against southern citizens.

■ Somalia
Vessel capsizes
US and German warships rescued 89 people when a vessel capsized 40.23km off Somalia's coast but five others were killed, the US military said yesterday. The warships, on anti-terrorism operations, found the vessel did not appear to be seaworthy and was taking on water when they investigated it on Friday after it failed to respond to routine queries, the military said in a statement. "In the process of providing assistance to the passengers, the vessel capsized and sank," said the military, adding the ship appeared to be a dhow. "The master of the vessel claims that there were 135 people on board."

■ Peru
Women trafficked to Japan
At least 1,700 women from Latin America and the Caribbean are lured each year into sexual slavery in Japan's in a US$83-billion-a-year industry sex industry, according to a research report by the Organization of American States. The study found most of the women come from Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico and Peru. The analysis, culled from interviews with victims, Japanese immigration records and crime data, claims that crime organizations, like Yakuza, Japan's second-largest crime syndicate, exploit tens of thousands of undocumented foreign women in Japan, mostly from other Asian countries.

■ Peru
Thousands of frogs rescued
Officials saved some 4,000 endangered frogs from being whizzed into popular drinks after they were found hidden in an abattoir. "We were checking the fridges when out jumped a frog. It had escaped, they were in big crates," an official said. Frog cocktails are popular in the Andes because of their supposed aphrodisiac qualities. Shops in Lima selling the drinks have tanks where customers can choose their frogs. The Telmatobius frogs -- which had been brought from the southern lakes in the Andes -- were taken to a fountain to splash around before being returned to their native lakes by ecological police.

■ Canada
Serb singer denied entry
Canada has refused entry to Serbian folk singer Svetlana Raznatovic, the widow of notorious warlord Arkan. Raznatovic, better known as Ceca, was denied entry because of her alleged association with members of the Belgrade underworld. The Canadian embassy in Belgrade, in denying her visa request, said in a letter that "information available indicates that you appear to have a lengthy history with a number of criminal elements." The 31-year-old Ceca had planned to give a concert in Toronto in May and meet with music producers. Her husband, Zeljko Raznatovic, or Arkan, was indicted by the UN war crimes court.

■ Brazil
President meets with Rice
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said his worries over rising tensions between the US and Venezuela were dispelled after meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez provoked Washington this week with a visit to Cuban President Fidel Castro and agreed to supply US$412 million worth of goods to Cuba, and to drum up support for an alternative trade pact. "The United States is Venezuela's largest importer of oil, therefore Venezuela needs the United States and the United States needs Venezuela," said Silva. "There is no reason for these two to be fighting." Silva said Brazil will press its demand to gain full membership to the UN security Council this year.

■ United States
Woman stabs own children
A Chicago woman, Tonya Vasilev, 34, was found holding a knife near the mutilated bodies of her two children and charged with two counts of first-degree murder Friday. The children, aged three and nine, had been stabbed more than 200 times. Vasilev's husband came home at about 9:20pm Wednesday to discover his nine-year-old son lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen. He picked the boy up and carried him to a phone, and called 911. He then went upstairs and found his wife covered in blood and holding a knife near the mutilated body of the three-year-old. Vasilev admitted to police that she had killed her children and was held without bond.

This story has been viewed 2224 times.