Thu, Jun 24, 2010 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■PHILIPPINES

  Crash triggers deadly inferno

  A fuel truck crashed outside a restaurant in Carmona town south of Manila yesterday, setting off a fireball that killed at least eight people. Police said 6 tonnes of liquefied gas ignited after a cargo truck crashed into a post and parked car, spilling gas canisters onto a bonfire beside the roadside diner. Local TV news reports said at least four victims were members of the family that owned the restaurant and three others worked at the diner. Two workers on the cargo truck were arrested but the driver and one of his assistants fled the scene.

  ■PAKISTAN

  Terror trial concludes

  The trial of five Americans charged with terrorism wrapped up behind closed doors in the town of Sargodha yesterday and a verdict was expected in the next 24 hours, lawyers said. “We hope that they will be acquitted,” defense lawyer Hassan Katchela said. The Americans, aged 19 to 25, were indicted in March and face life in prison if convicted. All deny the accusations, saying they came to Pakistan to attend a wedding and intended to travel onto Afghanistan to do humanitarian work.

  ■CHINA

  Fake ATM pays off

  Thieves in Beijing set up a fake ATM that recorded bank details of users, China Central Television said yesterday. Having duped bank customers into revealing their account details, the thieves forged duplicate bank cards to drain their accounts, the report said. The machine was bought from a legitimate manufacturer, but was not affiliated to any bank. It was placed on a busy corner in central Beijing, with signs that it could accept many major credit and bank cards. However, all transactions would result in an error message.

  ■ISRAEL

  IDF vows to block Gaza aid

  Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi vowed on Tuesday to prevent Lebanese and Iranian aid ships from entering the Gaza Strip, saying the coastal enclave would not become an Iranian port, the Ynet news Web site reported. “We have the right to inspect and prevent the flow of arms into Gaza,” the site quoted Ashkenazi as saying. He spoke after Iranian Red Crescent officials said an Iranian aid ship is to leave for Gaza at the end of this week. Lebanese civilian groups are also planning to send two ships to the territory via Cyprus. “If a flotilla comes from Lebanon we will deal with it. If they are peaceful, we will deal with it peacefully, if not we will deal with it as we need to,” Ashkenazi said.

  ■ISRAEL

  New spy satellite in orbit

  The government has launched its latest military spy satellite, boosting its intelligence-gathering capabilities in the face of Iran’s nuclear program, finance minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel Radio yesterday. The Ofek 9 was blasted into orbit by an Israeli-made rocket on Tuesday from the Palmachim air base south of Tel Aviv, joining three other Israeli spy satellites in space. Brigadier General Nimrod Sheffer, deputy chief of the air force, said preliminary data had been received from Ofek 9 and it would transmit its first picture within days.

  ■SAUDI ARABIA

  Party leads to flogging

  Judicial officials say a court in the northern town of Ha’il on Tuesday convicted four women and 11 men for partying together and sentenced them to flogging and prison terms. The men, who are between 30 and 40 years old, and three of the women, who are under the age of 30, were sentenced to an unspecified number of lashes and one or two year prison terms each. The fourth woman, a minor, was sentenced to 80 lashes, but was not sent to prison.

  ■SUDAN

  Rebels say they won clashes

  Darfur’s Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebels said they clashed with the army on Monday and Tuesday. JEM said it defeated large government attacks in Uzban, 120km southeast of the capital of North Darfur state, El Fasher, on Monday, and another nearby settlement on Tuesday afternoon. The government-aligned Sudanese Media Center reported it was the army that beat the rebels in Uzban, saying seven government soldiers and 43 JEM fighters died in the fighting.

  ■MONACO

  Prince Albert engaged

  The royal palace announced yesterday that 52-year-old Prince Albert II is engaged to South African Charlene Wittstock, 32. Wittsock, a backstroke swimmer who competed in the 2000 Olympics, has been dating the prince since 2006. No wedding date was given. Albert acceded to the throne in July 2005.

  ■FRANCE

  Jackson portraits for sale

  A Paris auction house says it plans to put 12 never-before-published photographic portraits of Michael Jackson on the block in December. The portraits were shot by French photographer Arno Bani in 1999. One of them, called Michael Jackson’s Blue Eye, depicts Jackson with a sad expression and a blue ring around his eye. Jackson contacted Bani, only 23 years old at the time, after seeing his fashion photography in a newspaper.

  ■PERU

  Coca leaf production soars

  The nation has overtaken Colombia as the world’s leading producer of coca leaf, a UN Office on Drugs and Crime report said on Tuesday. Peru produced 119,000 tonnes of coca leaf last year, or 45.4 percent of the world total, while Colombia produced 103,000 tonnes (39.3 percent) and Boliva produced 15.3 percent, the report said. Colombia remains the largest source for processed cocaine, although its production has fallen dramatically from 600 tonnes in 2007 to 410 tonnes last year. Government figures show drug trafficking generated US$22 billion last year, nearly 17 percent of GDP.

  ■BRAZIL

  Flood death toll reaches 41

  Raging floods in the northeast have killed at least 41 people and left as many as 1,000 missing, officials said on Tuesday, while firefighters described entire towns being wiped off the map. Dramatic TV footage showed survivors scrambling to rooftops to avoid being swept away, clinging desperately to lines of rope as rescuers in helicopters rushed to pluck them from the muddy floodwaters. More rain was forecast for yesterday. “Up until the early afternoon we had 26 confirmed dead in Alagoas and more than 1,000 people missing,” Alagoas Governor Teotonio Vilela Filho told government news wire Agencia Brasil. “But we are worried because bodies are starting to appear on the beaches and the rivers.”

  ■CANADA

  Police probe Toronto shots

  Police were investigating after shots were fired near the G20 summit security perimeter in Toronto on Tuesday morning. Ontario Provincial Police Constable Michelle Murphy of the G8-G20 Integrated Security Unit said on Tuesday they don’t believe the shots were related to the summit. Several officers heard the shots near the security fence that surrounds the summit and spotted a black car speeding away. No one was hit, but a number of casings were found at the scene.

  ■CANADA

  Camels, tiger found safe

  Whoever stole a trailer in Quebec last week later abandoned it, leaving a tiger and two camels from an Ontario zoo safe inside. Quebec provincial police spokesman Ronald McInnis said Jonas the tiger and camels Shawn and Todd were recovered near Saint-Edmond-de-Grantham, about 90km east of Montreal and about 40km from the motel parking lot they were stolen from. A passerby saw the trailer on a rural road on Monday evening and called police. “They were in great shape. The veterinarian thinks that the people who stole the animals gave them something to eat and drink,” McInnis said. Officials at the Bowmanville Zoo had been concerned about the tiger becoming dehydrated, which could have been deadly.

  ■UNITED STATES

  Naked Cowboy snubs cowgirl

  New York City’s famous Naked Cowboy wants a bikini-clad woman who calls herself The Naked Cowgirl to stop ripping off his trademark. The Times Square cowboy, whose real name is Robert Burck, is known for strumming his guitar wearing only briefs and a cowboy hat. He has sent a cease-and-­desist letter to Sandy Kane, who wears a red, white and blue cowboy hat and matching bikini, the New York Post said. Burck says if Kane’s going to make money by posing for photos, he wants her to sign a “Naked Cowboy Franchise Agreement.” Most of his licensed franchisees are required to pay US$5,000 a year or US$500 a month and go through screening. Kane says she doesn’t owe Burck anything.
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