ISRAEL
Planes bomb Hamas base
Israeli war planes bombed a Hamas Islamist training camp in the Gaza Strip before dawn yesterday following a rocket launching from the enclave a day earlier, military sources and Hamas officials said. There were no casualties in the two raids carried out near Gaza City shortly after midnight, Hamas said. The strike came hours after Israel said a rocket fired from the coastal territory struck in an open area in its south, also causing no casualties.
IRAN
Drug traffickers hanged
Authorities hanged eight drug traffickers in a prison in the southeastern city of Kerman, Fars news agency reported yesterday. The agency, which published only the first names of the eight, did not say when the executions were carried out or if the condemned were all hanged at the same time. The latest hangings bring the number of executions in Iran to at least 125 this year, according to an AFP count based on media reports. At least 270 people were hanged last year.
AUSTRALIA
Two held over banknote firm
Two men were arrested in raids by Australian, British and Spanish police over alleged corruption involving a banknote-making firm part-owned by Australia’s central bank, officials said yesterday. British and Australian police said they carried out 15 coordinated swoops on Wednesday, with another two in Spain. Two men were arrested in Britain and are being questioned, Britain’s Serious Fraud Office said. “This action ... involves the activities of employees and agents of Securency International PTY Ltd and their alleged corrupt role in securing international polymer banknote contracts,” a statement said. Melbourne-based Securency is embroiled in a long-running investigation over claims its agents offered bribes to officials in countries including Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Nigeria to win contracts, media reports said.
BULGARIA
Panzer thieves sentenced
A military court convicted two Germans and a Bulgarian military officer on Wednesday of stealing a World War II-era German tank and trying to steal another one, court officials said. The court in the southern city of Sliven sentenced German Thomas Gmeiner, 36, and the Bulgarian officer, Alexey Petrov, to four years in prison. Military prosecutor Hristo Tinev said German Matheus Mayer, 67, was given a three-year suspended sentence and five years probation. The two Germans were tried in absentia because they left the country following their release on bail. Authorities do not know where the stolen tank and the Germans are. Petrov attended the trail and was granted bail. The defendants were found guilty of smuggling a MK IV Panzer tank out of the country. They were arrested in 2007 while trying to steal a second Panzer. Experts say the tanks are valued at up to US$70,000 as collectors’ items.
VENEZUELA
ETA claims to be probed
Caracas has informed Madrid that it will investigate claims that members of ETA were trained in the South American country, Spanish diplomatic sources said. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Wednesday called on Venezuela to help in investigating reports that Venezuela was used as an ETA training base. The Caracas government said it would “open an investigation” after Spain’s foreign ministry sent court documents on Tuesday in which presumed ETA members say they were given training in Venezuela, the sources said late on Wednesday.
UNITED STATES
Money topples into traffic
Money doesn’t grow on trees, but it seemed to fall from the sky in Indianapolis, Indiana. Police say three bundles of money fell off the back of an armored car on Wednesday near an intersection in the heart of downtown Indianapolis. A car hit one of the bundles and sent bills blowing into the breeze. Witnesses tell the Indianapolis Star about 10 people stormed through traffic into the intersection to fill their arms with cash. Two others stopped to help collect the money and guard it until police and the armored car company arrived.
UNITED STATES
Nobel winner calls it quits
American Richard Heck, who shared this year’s Nobel Prize for chemistry with two Japanese, said yesterday his laboratory days are over and he intends to pursue his low-key retirement in the Philippines. The 79-year-old pensioner said he did not know what to do with the prize money, except to save it and spend it on something “useful” in the future. “I’m not in a position to do any more laboratory work,” Heck told local television in a telephone interview. Heck has lived in the Philippines for the past several years after retiring in 1989 from the University of Delaware in the US. “There is no laboratory here for me. I think my days are over, I’m almost 80 years old, and I don’t feel I need to do anything more,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Ban on drink subsidies eyed
New Yorkers who receive government food vouchers would not be allowed to spend them on sugar-sweetened drinks under an obesity-fighting proposal being floated by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Governor David Paterson. Bloomberg and Paterson planned to announce yesterday that they are seeking permission from the US Department of Agriculture, which administers the nation’s food voucher program, to add sugary drinks to the list of prohibited goods for city residents receiving assistance. If approved, it would be the first time an item would be banned from the US federal program based solely on nutritional value.
VENEZUELA
Inmates go on hunger strike
A prison watchdog group said thousands of inmates in seven prisons are on a hunger strike demanding improved conditions. Humberto Prado of the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory said the hunger strike was organized by inmates in response to clashes last week in Tocoron prison that officials said left 16 dead and 35 wounded. Prado told reporters on Wednesday that many inmates began the protest in solidarity with prisoners in Tocoron and to press for various demands.
UNITED STATES
Actor’s death ruled accident
Police in Utah confirmed on Wednesday that Diff’rent Strokes actor Gary Coleman’s death has been ruled an accident. Santaquin Police Chief Dennis Howard said an autopsy found Coleman died of natural causes after an accidental fall. The 42-year-old actor died at a Provo, Utah, hospital two days after his fall. He was taken off life support after suffering a brain hemorrhage. Coleman became a star after Diff’rent Strokes debuted in 1978. For eight seasons, Coleman played Arnold Jackson, the younger one of a pair of African-American brothers adopted by a wealthy white man. The tiny 10-year-old’s “Whachu talkin’ ’bout?” became a popular catch phrase from the show.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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