IVORY COAST
War crimes to be probed
International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said forces loyal to ousted Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo as well as those backing his rival, Alassane Ouattara, committed war crimes in the post-election violence. Gbagbo refused to cede power to Ouattara following the Nov. 28 election, triggering months of violence and economic havoc before Gbagbo was captured in April in Abidjan. Moreno-Ocampo filed a request with ICC judges on Thursday for approval to start an investigation, saying at least 3,000 people were killed, 520 people were arbitrarily detained and there were more than 100 reported cases of rape, while the number of unreported cases could be much higher. He said would send a team to assess the security situation on Monday and to plan for his investigation, said it was not yet clear who was the most responsible for the crimes. The Ivory Coast has accepted the jurisdiction of the court and Ouattara wrote to Moreno-Ocampo last month asking the ICC to investigate reported abuses.
UKRAINE
Tymoshenko goes on trial
Former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko went on trial yesterday for alleged abuse of power in a case she has dismissed as a political vendetta orchestrated by her opponent, President Viktor Yanukovych. She narrowly lost to Yanukovych in last year’s presidential elections and is now the target of several investigations, including for abuse of power that allegedly caused severe financial losses for the country after its row with Moscow over Russian gas deliveries in early 2009. “This kangaroo trial will take place on personal orders of Viktor Yanukovych,” Tymoshenko said this week. “Everything that happens around me is an attempt by Viktor Yanukovych to eliminate me as his competitor.” She is accused of causing a loss of 1.5 billion hryvnia (US$190 million) when she signed a new energy contract with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin after a brief interruption of gas deliveries in early 2009. The charges carry a sentence of between seven and 10 years, jeopardizing her ability to take part in parliamentary polls next year and the next presidential elections in 2015.
EGYPT
Ancient boat ready to surface
Local and Japanese archeologists on Thursday began to unearth an ancient boat belonging to King Khufu and buried near the Giza pyramids for more than 4,500 years. A mission from Japan’s Waseda University, the Japanese Institute of the Solar Boat and the Egyptian antiquities ministry have been preparing to lift the boat from its underground pit for the past two years. It is one of two boats belonging to King Khufu, or Cheops, a fourth-dynasty ruler who built the Great Pyramid of Giza. The boat was first discovered in 1987 in a large pit covered by 41 limestone blocks, each weighing 16 tonnes.
SENEGAL
President backs down
President Abdoulaye Wade backed down on a proposed change to the election rules on Thursday, completely withdrawing a bill that sparked violent clashes between riot police and protesters in the capital. Wade’s rivals said the proposed change would have guaranteed his re-election against a fragmented opposition in a February poll and had threatened a popular uprising over it. By nightfall the violence had mostly eased, but the center of the city was scattered with rocks and burned-out cars. A police source said at least 12 policemen were among the more than 100 injured during the violence.
UNITED STATES
Quake strikes off Alaska
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake shook Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands late on Thursday, but US officials did not issue a tsunami warning for the Pacific Ocean. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The quake on the Fox Islands — 163km east of the tiny fishing port of Atka — struck at 6:09pm, the US Geological Survey said in a statement. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, based in Hawaii, said there was “no current warning, watch or advisory” after the quake, which struck more than 1,600km west of Anchorage.
UNITED STATES
Black awaits jail decision
Deposed media baron Conrad Black faced a possible return to prison yesterday, but was hoping to get away with time served on fraud and obstruction of justice charges. Black was released on a US$2 million bond nearly a year ago after the US Supreme Court tossed out the “honest services” law that formed the basis of his 2007 fraud conviction. After a series of appeals, Black was only able to get two of the four counts he was convicted of tossed out. Judge Amy St Eve was to determine if Black should go back to prison for the remaining charges. Black, 66, has already served 29 months of his original 78-month sentence and made restitution payments of US$30 million. Black once ran the world’s third-largest media empire.
MEXICO
Tomb secrets revealed
Researchers have lowered a small camera into a previously unexplored early Mayan tomb at the Palenque archeological site in the south, revealing an intact funeral chamber, apparent offerings and wall murals. Footage of the approximately 1,500-year-old tomb taken by the remote-controlled camera shows a series of nine figures depicted in black on a vivid, blood-red background. Vases and jade ornaments can be seen on the floor of the chamber. The National Institute of Anthropology and History said on Thursday that archeologists have known a tomb existed at the site since 1999, but had been unable to enter it.
UNITED STATES
Reggae artist sentenced
Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton, 37, was on Thursday sentenced in Florida to 10 years in prison for cocaine trafficking, federal court documents showed. Banton, whose real name is Mark Anthony Myrie, was found guilty of possession of more than 5kg of cocaine, with “intent to distribute,” by a jury on Feb. 22. After serving his sentence, he must also spend five years under court supervision. The musician was arrested in December 2009 after attempting to sell US$125,000 worth of cocaine to an undercover informant working for the US Drug Enforcement Agency, according to the court documents.
BRAZIL
Eight die in slum firefight
Eight people were killed on Thursday in an early hours police raid on a Rio slum aimed at cracking down on suspected drug traffickers, military police told reporters. A fierce firefight was triggered when the police special operations unit entered the Engenho favela in a northern Rio de Janeiro suburb, hunting the drug traffickers who had given police the slip from a nearby slum neighborhood. For several hours, the favela was rocked by gunfire as police battled the gang members. The eight suspected traffickers were killed in the shootout, at the end of which police seized a cache of rifles, pistols and grenades, police said. Officials said they also confiscated a large cache of cocaine, crack and the recreational drug oxycontin.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia