Fri, Oct 22, 2004 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ France

  Closer China ties urged

  French President Jacques Chirac, who has urged an end to an EU arms embargo on China, yesterday called for closer defense coopera-tion between Paris and Beijing at a meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan (曹剛川), a spokesman said. Presidential spokesman Jerome Bonna-font said Chirac had "expressed the wish that dialogue and cooperation between the French and Chinese [defense] ministries develop in the spirit of the global strategic partnership between the two countries." The meeting came 10 days after Chirac wrapped up a state visit to China, and was an unexpected addition to the president's schedule.

  ■ China

  Shanghai to sell booty

  Shanghai will auction off running shoes, a camera, a Rolex watch and other booty given to officials as bribes to promote clean government, the Shanghai Daily news-paper said yesterday. "The purpose of the auction is to show our transparency and to educate people not to try to bribe officials," the news-paper quoted the director of the Communist Party discipline office in the Shanghai district of Jingan as saying. The 248 gifts on auction, including expensive liquor, shirts, silk, a portable com-puter, jade bracelets, a gold necklace, ginseng, stamps and souvenir coins carried a total estimated value of US$12,000, the paper said. The bribery auction would become a regular event, the official said.

  ■ Afghanistan

  Four wounded in bombing

  A bomb attack injured three US soldiers and one Afghan interpreter in southeastern Afghanistan near the Paki-stan border, the US military said yesterday. One of the soldiers was in critical con-dition after the attack on Wednesday in Nika district of Paktika province, a military statement said. Two high mobility multi-wheeled vehicles were destroyed in the blast, caused by a homemade bomb, it said. All the wounded were taken to a US military base in neighboring Khost province, for medical treatment.

  ■ Indonesia

  Muslims kill Christians' pigs

  Muslims armed with machetes attacked several pig farms, slaughtering around 20 swine they claimed were giving of "offensive" odors, The Jakarta Post reported yesterday. Police did nothing to stop the attack on Wed-nesday in South Tatura, central Sulawesi province, the paper reported. The farms belonged to Chris-tians. "The farms give out a bad odor and this is offen-sive, especially during Ramadan," said local Muslim leader Abdul Haris. He said the farms were also polluting a local river, presumably with dung from the animals.

  ■ Malaysia

  Australian boy found

  A three-year-old boy who disappeared during a legal wrangle between his estranged parents in Austra-lia has been traced to his grandmother's house in Malaysia and is safe, police said yesterday. The boy, known only as Nicholas, was tracked down at the request of Australian diplomats after he reportedly was abducted by his Malaysian-born Australian father, Police Commissioner Talib Jamal said. However, there are no plans yet to send the boy back to his mother in Australia. Talib said the boy's mother must seek redress through the Malaysian legal system. ``If there is an order by a Malaysian court, then we can act,'' he said. It wasn't clear how the boy got to Malaysia.

  ■ United Kingdom

  Harry, cameraman scuffle

  Britain's Prince Harry was hit in the face with a camera during a scuffle with a photographer outside a London nightclub early yesterday, a royal official said. Clarence House, the office of Harry's father, Prince Charles, said the prince cut a photographer's lip after pushing a camera away during the incident. The 20-year-old Harry is third in line to the throne.

  ■ France

  Turkey to sign ICC pact

  Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced late Wednesday that his country would sign and ratify the Rome statute that created the International Criminal Court (ICC), which rules on war crimes and crimes against humanity. "Turkey will sign and ratify the Rome statute" that created the ICC, Erdogan said during a debate in Paris organized by France's Institute for International Relations. Almost 100 countries have ratified the Rome treaty, which established the court in July 1998, excluding the US, which opposes the court. The court, headquartered in The Hague, began operating in July 2002.

  ■ Iraq

  Husband pleads for hostage

  The Iraqi husband of kidnapped aid chief Margaret Hassan said yesterday he hoped she would be released quickly given her long years of service to the Iraqi people. "I do not know the party that kidnapped her, but they should know that my wife has given a lot to the Iraqi people and that she is Iraqi," Tahsine Ali Hassan told reporters. Margaret Hassan, the director of relief agency CARE International in Iraq, was taken hostage on Tuesday in Baghdad. Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday his country would not pay a ransom or withdraw its 300-troop contingent in Iraq to secure her freedom.

  ■ Belgium

  Court limits drugs law

  Belgium's Supreme Court has annulled parts of the country's controversial drugs legislation, ruling that a key element of the law decriminalizing the use of cannabis was too vague. The Belgian parliament last year voted to decriminalize the personal use of cannabis by adults, as long as it did not cause health or psychological problems or become an inconvenience for the public. But the Supreme Court said in a ruling released late on Wednesday that the exact amount of cannabis that could be used was not clearly defined. A police officer would also have to evaluate "the psychological, medical and social situation of the cannabis user," creating legal uncertainty, the court said.

  ■ Ethiopia

  Rebels sentenced to death

  An Ethiopian court has sentenced to death three members of the rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) for the mass murder of 207 people in 1993, the state-run Ethiopian News Agency reported. "The defendants were found guilty of torturing, throwing their victims alive in wells, cutting their throats and gunning them down," the agency said, quoting the court. The victims were accused of being spies for the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front in the eastern region of Hararghe. The death sentences, passed on Tuesday, need to be approved by President Girma Woldegiorgise before they can be carried out.

  ■ Haiti

  Aristide backers battle cops

  Gunshots rang out in a neighborhood loyal to ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Wednesday as police pleaded for help, citing a lack of weapons and problems with rogue officers who were allegedly tipping off suspected gangsters. Scattered violence has paralyzed parts of the capital since a demonstration on Sept. 30, marking the anniversary of Aristide's ouster in a 1991 military coup. At least 55 people have been killed since, and hospital officials say they've seen double the number of gunshot wounds. Much of the unrest has come from the capital's Bel Air slum, an Aristide stronghold.

  ■ Canada

  Deaths blamed on bacteria

  A bacterial infection is to blame for the death of some 600 people hospitalized in Montreal between April last year and April this year, a scientist said. Vivian Loo, a microbiology and infectious disease specialist at McGill University, said the clostrid-ium difficile bacteria can cause serious diarrhea and fever when it infects the human colon. The bacteria is often found in the stools of patients treated with antibiotics, she said. Some 7,000 patients in eight hospit-als in Montreal were infected with the bacteria in the same period -- four times more than in the previous year.

  ■ United States

  Hikers found dead in park

  Two Japanese climbers were found dead in Yosemite National Park, dangling from a 975m sheer climbing face in a snowstorm. Rescuers began search efforts Tuesday after seeing the stranded party on El Capitan, a granite monolith in the Yosemite Valley that is among the world's best-known rock climbing spots. The couple was not moving at the time. Heavy snow and winds initially made searching with a helicopter impossible, so a rescue team began an 17.7km hike in driving snow and extreme wind. A break in the weather Wednesday allowed the helicopter to fly close to the party and rescuers determined that the two climbers were dead.

  ■ Colombia

  Marquez' new book released

  The launching Wednesday of the latest novel by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez set off a frenzy in his native Colombia as well as other countries in Latin America. Hundreds of fans flocked to book shops in Bogota and Mexico City to get their own copy of the novel, called Memorias de mis putas tristes (Memories of My Sad Whores). Publication date had originally been set for Oct. 27 but had to be brought forward after bad quality bootleg copies appeared last week in the Colombian capital. One million copies of the book were printed for distribution in Spain, Latin America and the US Hispanic market.

  ■ United States

  Absentee ballots on Web

  The Pentagon will post on its Web site a federal write-in ballot for civilian and military US voters overseas who do not get their regular absentee ballot in time, a spokesman said on Wednesday. The spokesman said the ballot was being made available on the Web site for the first time at the request of both the Republican and Democratic parties. He said it was expected to be posted by yesterday. To qualify for the write-in ballot, the voter must have applied for a regular absentee ballot early enough that the request was received by the local election official at least 30 days before the election. The federal write-in absentee ballot can be found at www.fvap.gov/services/fwab.html.
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