Print

Mail

wiki links

World News Quick Take

■ China
Terror warning repeated
Australia repeated a message yesterday from US officials warning of a possible terror attack against westerners in China, but stopped short of upgrading its advisory level. The US embassy in China on Friday issued a warning about a possible attack on US interests in the communist country, particularly in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. "American citizens in China are advised to be aware of their surroundings and remain alert to possible threats," it said. The Australian government then repeated the warning, which noted a strong threat in places where Americans were known to gather such as clubs, restaurants, places of worship and schools. "Westerners frequenting the areas mentioned in the US warden message, including Australians, could be caught up in any attacks," the Australian advisory said.

■ India
Hindus begin pilgrimage
An annual pilgrimage by thousands of Hindus to an icy cave shrine in revolt-hit Kashmir began yesterday under tight security, amid fears of possible attacks by Islamic militants, officials said. Authorities expect 500,000 Hindus to take part in this year's two-month event, which has been marred in the past by deadly attacks from separatist groups opposed to Indian rule in divided Kashmir. "In all some 1,347 pilgrims left for the cave shrine from Jammu [the winter capital of Indian Kashmir] this morning in 66 vehicles," a police officer said. "The police and paramilitary forces are escorting them," he said, adding the pilgrims will travel some 300km.

■ Hong Kong
Yearbook shows bad taste
A Hong Kong international school apologized to the Muslim community for publishing in its yearbook a cartoon that shows the Prophet Mohammed wearing a headdress shaped like a bomb -- an image that sparked violent protests across the Islamic world this year, a newspaper said yesterday. The picture was printed in a section of the book that had a news review for students in the junior and high schools at Hong Kong International School, where the children of many wealthy expats study, the Sunday Morning Post reported. The yearbook was compiled by students who were supervised by the staff, the paper said. The school's head, Richard Mueller, apologized to Muslims and said putting together the book was hectic and the cartoon was overlooked, the paper reported. "There was nothing malicious about it. The students were not insensitive. They just had a lack of understanding," Mueller was quoted as saying.

■ Malaysia
Badawi feels the heat
The long arm of the law has finally caught up with Malaysia's speeding prime minister, handing him 11 unpaid traffic fines. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, a devout Muslim on a political mission to fight corruption, told local media on Saturday he hadn't been aware of his 1,000 ringgit (US$273) bill for traffic offences until the deputy chief of police told him earlier that day. "I was informed about it just now," Abdullah was quoted as telling reporters. "I'll settle all of them on Monday." The fines were delivered by post and applied to several cars owned by the prime minister, who is usually driven around in official convoys with police escorts. Five were issued for speeding, four for traffic obstruction and two for parking on the wrong side of the road, the New Straits Times said.

■ Egype
Double the drumsticks
A poultry trader found a four-legged cock among chickens he bought from a farm, the official MENA news agency reported on Saturday. The cock, which also had two excretory tracts, weighed 2.5kg, said the man from Kafr Saqr in Al-Sharqiya Province, 86km northeast of Cairo. "Its behavior was normal," the man added. MENA quoted veterinarian Mohammed Abdul Aziz as saying the cock's extra attributes may have been the result of an incomplete fertilization of an egg to form a twin.

■ Netherlands
War crimes suspect arrives
Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Dragan Zelenovic was transferred to the UN court for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague from Sarajevo and put in custody, the court said in a statement released late on Saturday. Zelenovic, a former Bosnian Serb policeman, is charged with the rape and torture of teenage Muslim women in the town of Foca during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war. He had been on the run for almost 10 years. He was first arrested in Russia in August last year but the Russian authorities did not transfer him to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). They chose instead to expel him to Bosnia where he arrived on Thursday. On Friday a Bosnian court ruled he should be transferred to the UN court.

■ Bosnia
Wolves guard pot plantation
Police raided a huge marijuana plantation in northwestern Bosnia and found it guarded by a family of wolves and 150 dogs, Bosnian media said on Saturday. They seized 2,300 plants intended for the production of at least 800kg of the drug, as well as hunting guns and rifles on Friday, the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA quoted regional Interior Minister Stanislav Cadjo as saying. The dogs, and a pair of wolves with their cubs, were kept in cages, Srna reported.

■ Sierra Leone
Taylor trial plan angers
Anger is growing in Sierra Leone over a plan by Britain and the US to move the war crimes trial of the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, from Freetown to The Hague. Taylor is the first African "big man" to face such charges, and there were expectations that a trial would prove Africa capable of dispensing its own justice. But now London and Washington say security in this war-torn former British colony is too precarious. "Other trials have gone on peacefully here; why should the Taylor trial change that?" said James Matthew of Sierra Leone's Movement of Democracy and Human Rights.

■ United Kingdom
Top cop draws more fire
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was under fire again yesterday after a newspaper revealed police blunders from a leaked report into the mistaken shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in London last July. The dossier said senior officers knew De Menezes was not a suicide bomber just hours after he was shot dead by police on a subway train, the News of the World reported. But they failed to tell Blair until the next day, it said. A source linked to the Independent Police Complaints Commission told the paper: "The belief in Whitehall is that it's because Sir Ian is notorious for taking bad news very badly -- they just couldn't face telling him so they left it until Saturday morning."

■ Czech Republic
Naked bikers amuse Prague
Cyclists took to the streets of Prague on Saturday, wearing paint and in three cases not even that, to mark World Naked Bike Ride day. It was the first time Prague had joined the 50 cities worldwide where naked cyclists demonstrate against the overuse of oil and the growing number of cars. "Since [the event] isn't really known here, it was rather the tourists who reacted, laughing and waving," said organizer Filip Novotny, when he and his 10 colleagues returned to the starting point of the ride. All but one of the riders were male. The group encountered "no problems" when it pedaled through major tourist sites, Novotny said.

■ Ukraine
US reservists return home
About 200 US reservists, whose arrival in Crimea provoked anti-NATO protests, will leave by today, Ukraine's navy said. The Americans were preparing military manoeuvres aimed at strengthening ties between Ukraine and NATO. A navy spokesman said that the decision had been taken because the "reservists' contracts had expired" and that it did not mean the cancellation of the upcoming military manoeuvres. Pro-Russian forces dominate the population of Crimea which provided a home to the Russian Black Sea fleet at Sebastopol for more than two centuries. The US presence prompted bitter opposition from pro-Russian factions.

■ United States
Storm brewing in Caribbean
A tropical depression that formed on Saturday in the Caribbean Sea was the first of this year's Atlantic hurricane season, which scientists predict could produce up to 16 named storms, six of them major hurricanes. The depression was expected to become the year's first named storm -- Alberto -- as it veers toward Florida but was not expected to become a hurricane. There was still potential for it to reach tropical storm status by early yesterday, hurricane specialist Daniel Brown said. The depression had maximum sustained winds near 56kph, just below the 62kph threshold for a tropical storm, according to the National Hurricane Center.

■ Mexico
Marchers remember killings
Hundreds of people marched through Mexico City on Saturday to mark the 35th anniversary of the killings of at least a dozen student protesters. The attack on June 10, 1971, known as the Corpus Christi massacre because the date coincided with the Christian festival, was carried out by a group of men apparently recruited by the government to break up a pro-democracy student demonstration. There were also demands on Saturday to continue investigating the killings, despite an April decision by Mexico's Supreme Court not to reopen the case.

■ Argentina
Sovereignty claim reiterated
Buenos Aires on Saturday reaffirmed its claim of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands -- known in Argentina as the Malvinas -- and said it was ready for talks with Britain over the issue. The Argentine government "reiterates its claim of sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich and the maritime space around them," the foreign ministry said in a statement. President Nestor Kirchner's administration is permanently open to "renew talks with the goal of resolving in the shortest time possible and in a just and definitive manner the sovereignty dispute," the statement said. Argentina and Britain have disputed the sovereignty of the south Atlantic islands since 1833.

This story has been viewed 1222 times.