Print

Mail

wiki links

World News Quick Take

■CHINA

Parma hits Hainan

Tropical Storm Parma made landfall on Hainan island, after moving away from the Philippines where it crossed Luzon three times leaving almost 200 people dead. Parma reached the coast at about 10am yesterday, Xinhua news agency said. The storm was forecast to head toward Vietnam today, crossing the Vietnamese coast south of Hanoi after 7pm. The death toll in the Philippines rose to 199 as the bodies of more victims drowned in floods or buried by landslides were discovered. Fifty people remain missing, while about 92,000 are in evacuation centers, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said yesterday.



■AUSTRALIA

Afghans to be resettled

The government will resettle 42 Afghan men who were aboard a boat that had been intercepted by authorities when someone on board deliberately set off an explosion, killing five asylum seekers, an official said yesterday. The blast occurred aboard the wooden boat on April 16, a day after it had been intercepted about 600km northwest of Broome. Police said earlier this month that fuel was deliberately spilled across the deck of the boat and ignited, but that there was not enough evidence to charge any individual passenger. The government determined that the survivors were genuine refugees “because of the situation in Afghanistan and the potential threat to their lives,” Immigration Minister Chris Evans told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio yesterday.



■CHINA

Six sentenced for riots

Six people were sentenced to death yesterday for murder and other crimes committed during riots that killed nearly 200 people in Xinjiang in July and another defendant received life in prison. The cases were the first directly connected to the riots. State media did not immediately give any other details on the sentences. Police have said hundreds were detained following the rioting in Urumqi, which the government says killed 197 people and injured more than 1,700.



■AUSTRALIA

And twins make 11

A woman who made headlines by falling pregnant with quadruplets — twice — has added to her brood by delivering twins, reports said yesterday. Dale Chalk, 31, and husband Darren are now the proud parents of 11 children under the age of seven. “We’d love to have more children, but medically, that’s it,” Darren told the Courier-Mail. “We’d have to buy a bigger bus!” The first set — two boys and two girls — were born in August 2004. Dale became pregnant with her second set of quads in 2005. The babies were delivered in October of that year but only three survived. The couple also have a six-year-old daughter and another girl born in 2007. They are understood to have used a low-grade infertility treatment for the multiple births.



■MYANMAR

Hair used to fix bridge

Proceeds from hair donated by women worth 200 million kyat (US$180,000) have been used to repair bridges leading to one of the country’s most sacred pagodas, media reports said on Sunday. Some 100,000 women donated 2,400kg of hair to fund the rebuilding of 16 bridges along a 26km stretch of road leading in to Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park, home to the Alaungdaw Kathapa Pagoda, the Myanmar Times reported. So far, 11 out of 16 bridges have been repaired and the rest are expected to be completed by early next year, the pagoda’s abbot Sayadaw Damadaya Ashin Waryamarnanda told the newspaper.



■POLAND

Walesa opens a ‘Dojo’

Anti-communist icon and 1983 Nobel Peace laureate Lech Walesa symbolically wielded a samurai sword at ceremonies opening Europe’s largest Japanese martial arts center, or dojo, on Sunday. “During the second day of the August [1980] strike, reporters asked me what we were up to. Then I said: ‘We’re building a second Japan.’ A dojo in Stara Wies is proof that this idea is coming true,” Walesa joked at the ceremonies. Japan’s ambassador to Poland Yuichi Kusumoto and the president of the International Traditional Karate Federation Richard Jorgensen also attended the opening in the city. The dojo was opened as Poland and Japan mark the 90th anniversary of diplomatic relations.



■UNITED KINGDOM

Protesters scale parliament

Dozens of climate-change protesters climbed on to the roof of the Houses of Parliament on Sunday and unveiled banners, raising security concerns the day before lawmakers return from their summer break. Police estimated the number of protesters at 20 to 30, while environmental organization Greenpeace, which said it organized the action, said 55 volunteers had occupied the roof. “With just 60 days to go until the critical climate summit in Copenhagen — which faces a very real chance of failure as things stand — Britain has yet to show true commitment to making the process a success,” Greenpeace said.



■ITALY

Two injured in blast

A Libyan man set off an explosive device in front of an army barracks in Milan, seriously injuring himself and causing light wounds to another man, Italian police and news reports said. The Apcom news agency said the man shouted: “Out of Afghanistan,” before setting off the device, which was not very powerful. Italy has about 2,800 troops deployed in Afghanistan. Police said the man had tried to enter the army barracks, but was stopped at the entrance and set off his device. The man was taken to a hospital in Milan. A soldier who was standing guard at the police barracks was lightly injured.



■IRAN

President lauds nuclear talks

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that talks in Geneva on his country’s nuclear program had been positive and he saw no obstacle to continuing discussions with world powers. “We have a positive opinion of the meeting in Geneva,” Ahmadinejad told state television. “I don’t think there will be problems in the coming negotiations. If some people want to create problems, they will not succeed, and if they succeed, they will hurt only themselves,” said Ahmadinejad when asked about comments earlier by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton warned Tehran that the international community “will not wait indefinitely” for the Islamic republic to meet its obligations on its disputed nuclear program.



■GREECE

Activists protest beating

Hundreds of activists marched to a police station in Athens on Sunday to accuse officers of beating an illegal immigrant who died after being released from custody. Muhammad Kamran Atif, a Pakistani in his 20s, was arrested on Sept. 28 after attacking a Pakistani teenager with a knife, police said in a statement. Atif was released conditionally on Oct. 1 after being charged with attempted murder and was found dead on Friday by his brother Navit, police said. Atif’s relatives and friends claim police hit the suspect during his arrest and tortured him with clubs and electric shocks after taking him into custody.



■VENEZUELA

Chavez criticizes Nobel

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said President Barack Obama did not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize because he had not made any notable accomplishments and was continuing the warlike policies of his predecessor George W. Bush. Chavez and Obama had a cordial first encounter at a summit in April, but the Venezuelan leader has become increasingly critical of Obama. In a Sunday newspaper column, Chavez said the Norwegian Nobel committee “forgot about his determination to continue battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Chavez also criticized Obama for pursuing an agreement that would allow the US military to increase its presence at Colombian bases.



■UNITED STATES

Couple wins beer, cash

A Maine couple has taken the crown in the North American Wife Carrying Championship over a course that featured a muddy water hole and two log obstacles. Dave and Lacey Castro of Lewiston came in first among 41 teams to win Saturday’s competition at Sunday River ski resort in Newry. They covered the 254m course in 54.45 seconds. The couple won 44kg Lacey Castro’s weight in beer and five times her weight in cash US$485. Teams from 11 states competed in the 10th annual race in which a man has to carry a woman, or vice versa, over an obstacle course. As the North American champs, the Castros are eligible to compete in the world championships in Finland in July.



■HAITI

UN to return remains

A UN spokesman said the bodies of six Uruguayan and five Jordanian peacekeepers recovered from a plane crash in Haiti would be flown to their home countries. Everyone aboard the CASA C-212 twin-engine turboprop died when it crashed into a mountain on Friday during a surveillance flight. Mission spokesman David Wimhurst said the bodies were at a UN facility in Port-au-Prince. The wreck of the Spanish-made, Uruguay-owned plane is under 24-hour guard pending an investigation. A memorial is planned before the soldiers’ departure today.



■CANADA

Four dead in plane crash

Four people died when their light plane crashed in an isolated area of Ontario, police who found the wreckage of the aircraft said on Sunday. The plane, a Piper PA28, crashed late Saturday near Kingston, about 400km east of Sudbury. “It’s a wooded area known for people who go camping. There’s no road access, and it’s very isolated,” Constable Carolle Dionne of Ontario Provincial Police told the Toronto Star newspaper. Authorities were looking at bad weather and technical problems on the plane as possible causes for the crash.



■BRAZIL

Fire razes Sao Paulo slum

An intense fire broke out on Sunday in a slum in Sao Paulo, sending residents running across rooftops to escape the flames. There were no immediate reports of deaths in Diogo Pires, a small shantytown that is home to about 300 families. Two people sought medical treatment for smoke inhalation, fire officials said. TV broadcasts showed flames leaping 20m into the air as some residents fled and others helped firefighters battle the blaze with hoses and buckets of water. Fire officials said they did not know what caused the blaze, which began around 6pm. Firefighters kept it from spreading to neighboring industrial buildings containing drums of combustible chemicals.
This story has been viewed 724 times.