■SWEDEN
Noko Jeans hits stores
North Korea is making an unlikely foray into designer denim with the “Noko Jeans” label. The brand is Swedish, but the jeans are manufactured in North Korea. More than 1,000 pairs are going on sale online on Friday, while Stockholm’s PUB department store said it would start selling the brand this weekend. Two officials at North Korea’s embassy in Stockholm confirmed that the jeans are made in their country. The chances of seeing the brand on the streets of Pyongyang are small. Choi Eun-suk, a professor at Kyungnam University in Seoul, said jeans are banned in North Korea as they are considered a symbol of US imperialism.
■EGYPT
ElBaradei eyes presidency
The former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said he would consider running for Eygpt’s presidency but only if the election process were democratic. ElBaradei, who ended his 12-year stint as the UN agency on Nov, 27, said he had been closely following calls for him to stand, the independent daily al Dustur reported. But the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize winner conditioned the move on “guarantees of fairness,” and for the 2011 presidential and parliamentary elections to “follow the process in democratic countries.”
■NAMIBIA
SWAPO wins polls
The ruling SWAPO party won a resounding victory in parliamentary polls, giving it the chance to change the Constitution at will, final results showed on Friday. Results of 107 contested constituencies showed SWAPO won 75.27 percent of the vote — a clear two-thirds majority — and returned President Hifikepunye Pohamba for the second term in office. SWAPO’s nearest rival, the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), won 11.31 percent of the vote. Three African observer missions have declared the Nov. 27 to Nov. 28 elections transparent, peaceful and fair.
■SWITZERLAND
Polanski back at chalet
Filmmaker Roman Polanski settled down with his family at his snowbound chalet in Gstaad on Friday, after being placed under house arrest while he fights extradition to the US in a child sex case. Two cars with dark tinted windows swept into the chalet’s basement garage, just before authorities confirmed that the 76-year-old Oscar winner had been released on bail. Shutters were open at the chalet, which was bedecked with Christmas lights. Sources said Polanski’s actress wife Emmanuelle Seigner and their two children, Morgane and Elvis, were waiting to welcome him at the home. A court granted Polanski bail last week on condition that he surrender his passport and wear an electronic bracelet.
■SUDAN
Peacekeepers killed
Two Rwandan peacekeepers were shot dead and three wounded in an ambush by unidentified gunmen near a market in Darfur on Friday. The attack was a reminder of the vulnerability of the under-equipped joint UN and African Union UNAMID mission and brought the number of its personnel killed by hostile action in two years to 19. The attackers opened fire on a group of 20 Rwandan soldiers escorting a tanker to a water point on the outskirts of the north Darfur settlement of Saraf Omra at about 4:45pm, UNAMID said. The survivors were airlifted to a hospital in El Fasher. The attackers, armed with automatic weapons, escaped on foot, Saiki said.
■PHILIPPINES
Police station bombed
Suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants set off a powerful homemade bomb outside a police station and an adjoining building used for a US-funded peace-building project in the south, killing a janitor and wounding eight other people, police said. The pre-dawn blast yesterday destroyed the police station and severely damaged the adjacent building housing the Area Coordinating Center, which coordinates humanitarian projects on Jolo island, said Usman Pingay, the police chief of Jolo township. Regional military commander Lieutenant General Benjamin Dolorfino said the cell phone-triggered bomb left a crater 5m wide and 2m deep. He said a military bomb squad inspecting the site had not yet disclosed the type of explosives used. No group claimed responsibility.
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