Fri, Dec 21, 2007 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ PAKISTAN

  Derailment death toll drops

  Railway authorities yesterday lowered the death toll from a massive train derailment to 35, even after two people died of their wounds overnight. State-run Pakistan Railways had previously said at least 45 people were killed in the crash on Wednesday, when an express train came shooting off the rails and tumbled down an embankment. The military had put the death toll at 50. "The final death toll is 35," railways operations director Junaid Qureshi said, explaining the higher preliminary toll had been an estimate. He said around 250 people had been injured, most with minor wounds, and that 35 people were still in hospital -- 10 in critical condition.

  ■ CAMBODIA

  Protest over envoy's remarks

  The government has formally complained to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about his envoy's scathing appraisal of the nation's courts, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. Yash Ghai, the UN human rights envoy to Cambodia, ended a 10-day visit last week without obtaining a single meeting with any government officials. Before leaving, Ghai said that the nation's judiciary has failed to provide justice, leaving the population in fear of going to court and threatening the rule of law. "Anyone who supports his report is the vilest person," said Hun Sen, who has vowed never to meet with Ghai.

  ■ PHILIPPINES

  Arroyo frees mutineers

  Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the early release of 53 military officers involved in a failed mutiny against her four years ago, the armed forces chief said yesterday. The officers were among nearly 300 soldiers who seized a luxury apartment building in the heart of Manila's financial district in one of the country's many failed coup bids. Last month, one of the leaders of the 2003 mutiny took over a luxury hotel in the capital for around six hours in another unsuccessful bid to unseat Arroyo. The head of the military said Arroyo wanted the men, who had pleaded guilty to some offences to get a lighter sentence, to spend Christmas at home. They were scheduled for release on Jan. 27.

  ■ SRI LANKA

  Clashes kill 24 rebels

  Fresh clashes across the country's north have left at least 24 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels dead, the defense ministry said yesterday. "At least 24 terrorists were killed during the last 24 hours [ending yesterday morning] in clashes along Mannar, Vavuniya and Jaffna defenses," the ministry said, placing government losses at eight soldiers injured. There was no immediate reaction from the Tamil Tigers who are fighting for autonomy. According to the defense ministry figures, at least 351 rebels have been killed since the start of the month compared to just a tiny number of its troops.

  ■ AUSTRALIA

  Churchill descendent jailed

  A great-grandson of British prime minister Winston Churchill was sentenced to three years in jail yesterday for his role in a multimillion dollar drug scheme. Nicholas Jake Barton, 34, pleaded guilty to the charges last month. He was arrested in June last year at his Sydney apartment following a three-month undercover police investigation. Police found about 250,000 ecstasy tablets and drug-making supplies during the raids. Barton's sentence was backdated to the time of his arrest and he will be eligible for parole in February.

  ■ UNITED STATES

  'Time' picks Putin

  Time magazine named Russian President Vladimir Putin its "Person of the Year" for this year on Wednesday, saying he had returned his country from chaos to "the table of world power" though at a cost to democratic principles. Putin, a former KGB official picked from relative obscurity to be prime minister in 1999 by then-president Boris Yeltsin, will appear on the cover of a special issue of Time as the person the editors believe had the greatest impact on events, for better or worse. "He's not a good guy, but he's done extraordinary things," Time managing editor Richard Stengel said.

  ■ SAUDI ARABIA

  Police surprise pickpockets

  Police dressed as pilgrims seized around 100 pickpockets similarly disguised who were mingling with the 2 million Muslims performing the hajj, media said on Wednesday. "Around 100 pickpockets wearing ihram clothing [two pieces of white fabric traditionally to be used later as a shroud] were arrested by security services around Jebel ar-Rahma [Mount Arafat]," reported the Okaz daily. About 1,000 police also dressed in the traditional white robes and moving among the pilgrims on Tuesday arrested the thieves caught red-handed, the newspaper added.

  ■ UGANDA

  Toilet ignorers arrested

  Local authorities have arrested at least 100 people for failing to build toilets in their homes in the midst of a cholera epidemic that has killed eight people and infected 164, state media reported on Wednesday. "We cannot watch as people die [of cholera]," northwestern Bulisa district administrator Norbert Turyahikayo told the New Vision daily, justifying the arrest of Ugandans found to have huts with no pit latrines on Tuesday. Police spokesman Hassan Kasinje said the building of homes without proper toilets was forbidden in the country.

  ■ RUSSIA

  Pipeline agreement inked

  Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed a landmark agreement yesterday to build a natural gas pipeline along the Caspian Sea coast that would strengthen Moscow's monopoly on energy exports from the resource-rich region. The deal, which follows a preliminary agreement reached in May, ended months of tense arguments over the price of gas supplies. It reaffirms Russia's monopoly on gas supplies from Central Asia.

  ■ FRANCE

  Men arrested by DST

  The country's DST counter-espionage agency has arrested eight men suspected of links with al-Qaeda's branch in the Islamic Maghreb in the Paris region and the northern city of Rouen, the daily Le Figaro reported yesterday. It said the seven Algerians and one Frenchman were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of providing computer and telecommunications material to members of al-Qaeda's branch in the Islamic Maghreb.

  ■ UNITED STATES

  Tancredo to quit race

  Republican Representative Tom Tancredo, whose forceful opposition to illegal immigration vaulted him to national prominence, was to announce yesterday he was abandoning his long-shot bid for the presidency, a person close to Tancredo said on Wednesday. The five-term Colorado congressman planned to make the announcement at a news conference in Des Moines, Iowa, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for Tancredo or his campaign. Tancredo's campaign would only say he planned a ``major announcement'' yesterday.

  ■ BRAZIL

  Santa comes under fire

  A helicopter carrying a Santa Claus to distribute gifts at a Christmas party came under fire when it flew over a Rio shantytown, authorities said on Wednesday. The chopper was hit by two rifle shots on Sunday, but no one was injured and the aircraft returned safely to its base, police inspector Aldari Vianna said by telephone. Gang members apparently attacked the helicopter thinking it belonged to the police, Vianna said. The Santa Claus, who did not want to identify himself, was later transported by car to the party -- for children in another poor neighborhood -- where he distributed about 700 gifts.

  ■ COSTA RICA

  Man ordered slaying

  A court convicted a businessman of ordering the 2001 murder of a journalist who denounced fraud at a religious radio station, but acquitted a priest of the killing. Omar Chaves, was sentenced to 35 years for paying a gunman to kill journalist Parmenio Medina. Chaves ran Radio Maria with Father Minor de Jesus Calvo, who was acquitted in the murder case but convicted of fraud and sentenced to 15 years in jail. Chaves also got a 12-year prison sentence on the fraud count. Medina's reporting on the misuse of donations solicited by Calvo's radio station was believed to be the motive behind his killing. Chaves and Calvo misappropriated millions of dollars in donations made to the station, instead of spending the money on charitable works as promised, the court found.

  ■ UNITED STATES

  Teens charged in kid's death

  Two teens have been charged with killing the seven-year-old sister of one of them by beating her with imitations of moves from the Mortal Kombat video game, prosecutors said. Lamar Roberts, 17, and Heather Trujillo, 16, were charged as adults on one count each of felony child abuse causing death, Colorado state prosecutor Robert Miller said in court documents released on Wednesday and filed a day earlier. Margie Martinez, the sheriff's spokeswoman, said on Wednesday she did not know whether either teen had an attorney. The teens were being held at the Weld County jail, but were not permitted to accept phone calls, she said.

  ■ UNITED STATES

  CEOs think many overpaid

  With many CEOs taking home millions of dollars in pay, it is no shock that average workers regard them as overpaid. But that attitude extends to the corner office as well. Sixty-four percent of top executives view CEO compensation as excessive, a poll released on Tuesday showed. The survey of 1,572 readers of BNET.com, a business Web site, found that 77 percent of employees regarded CEOs as overpaid. The online survey was conducted from June 11 to June 18, with about 90 percent of respondents from the US.
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