SPAIN
Basque leader guilty of terror
A Madrid court convicted a prominent Basque separatist of terrorism on Friday and sentenced him to 10 years in prison for trying to resurrect the banned political wing of the militant group ETA. Arnaldo Otegi, former leader of the outlawed Batasuna party, can appeal the conviction handed down by the National Court. Four other suspects were also convicted, and three were acquitted. Otegi served 15 months for an ETA-related offense and was freed in 2008, then re-arrested in 2009 over the current case and has been in prison since then awaiting trial. Batasuna was banned in 2003 on the grounds it is part of ETA, which has killed 829 people since the late 1960s in a campaign of bombings and shootings aimed at achieving an independent Basque homeland.
LATVIA
Historic snap election held
Voting stations yesterday opened in a snap parliamentary election that could see a pro-Russia party emerge the winner for the first time in 20 years since the Baltic state restored independence. Polls indicate that the leftist Harmony Center representing the country’s large ethnic Russian minority could muster up to one-third of the seats in the nation’s legislature. However, two center-right parties in second and third place in pre-election surveys are likely to join forces to prevent the leftists from gaining the upper hand in coalition negotiations. The election was held after the previous legislature was dissolved in a nationwide referendum in July.
FINLAND
Two terror suspects arrested
Authorities in Helsinki have arrested two people on suspicion of financing terrorism and terror recruitment, police said on Friday. The detentions were the first known terror-linked arrests in the Nordic country. The two suspects were arrested on Sept. 7 and are in jail, the National Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. Security officials carried out “a lengthy investigation” prior to the arrests, the statement said. It did not specify where the suspects were picked up, but said that afterward officers uncovered evidence in the Helsinki metropolitan area.
KOSOVO
EU flies forces to border
EU police used helicopters to ferry staff sent to take charge of border crossings in the north after minority Serbs blocked main roads in anger over Kosovo’s efforts to take over customs posts, an EU official said on Friday. People and supplies were being flown in and out of the border area in the Serb-dominated north, EU rule of law mission spokesman Nicholas Hawton said, but trade is resuming between Kosovo and Serbia for the first time since violent border disputes in July that left a policeman dead.
UNITED KINGDOM
Airport unveils futuristic pods
Laser-guided travel pods that work without drivers or timetables were officially unveiled at London’s Heathrow airport on Friday. The system, which featured in an exhibition on the future of transport at London’s Science Museum in 2009, has become a reality, reducing the time it takes business passengers to move from terminal to car park by 60 percent. Traveling at speeds up to 40kph, after an average wait of just 34 seconds, the system looks like something straight from a science fiction film. The pods, which run along tracks and allow passengers to select their destinations, use laser sensors to ferry business passengers and their luggage along a 3.8km route.
JAPAN
Quake near ravaged area
A magnitude 6.6 undersea quake and a series of aftershocks hit off the coast of Honshu Island yesterday, not far from the area ravaged by a huge March quake and tsunami, geologists said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties and no widespread tsunami warning, although the initial earthquake was followed by five more quakes of magnitude 5 or above, one of them measuring 6.2. The US Geological Survey said the first, 36.2km deep quake, hit 108km east-southeast of the coastal town of Hachinohe, 574km from Tokyo, at 4:26am.
THAILAND
Troops ‘involved’ in death
An agency yesterday said troops were “involved” in the deaths of a Japanese cameraman and 12 civilians during an army crackdown on rallies in Bangkok last year and called for new inquiries. In a significant change in stance since saying in February that soldiers were not to blame for the death of Hiroyuki Muramoto of Reuters news agency, the Department of Special Investigation said it had sent the case back to police for investigation. This is the first department statement on the high-profile case since a new government allied to the “Red Shirts” came to power last month.
CAMBODIA
Leader welcomes Thaksin
Prime Minister Hun Sen welcomed fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra for talks yesterday, just two days after hosting Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister. Hun Sen and Thaksin hugged and addressed each other as “brother” when they met yesterday morning at the Cabinet’s office. Thaksin, who arrived late on Friday night, is also scheduled to deliver a lecture on economic development and play golf during his scheduled week-long stay. The warm relationship between the two men contrasts with frosty ties between their two nations since Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup.
CHINA
Hospital births cut deaths
The death rate of newborn babies has been slashed by almost two-thirds in 12 years by promoting hospital births, research has shown. Deaths fell from 24.7 per 1,000 live births in 1996 to 9.3 in 2008. Only half of women gave birth in hospital at the start of that period, whereas by the end almost all did so outside the most deprived rural areas. The study published in the medical journal the Lancet was based on data from 37 urban districts and 79 rural counties. According to UN figures, the country has met its goal to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. It is also on course to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters.
THAILAND
Dealers funded bombings
Authorities alleged yesterday that drug dealers had a hand in deadly coordinated bombings in the south that killed four people and wounded dozens. Police Colonel Jakraporn Thaenthong said the death toll from Friday night’s three bombs in the border town of Sungai Kolok climbed to four after a wounded victim died in hospital. “The attacks were in response to the authorities’ frequent crackdown on narcotics,” Jakraporn said. He said that since the new government took office last month, police have seized about 100,000 methamphetamine tablets in Narathiwat Province, where Sungai Kolok is located. He said the latest anti-drug crackdown in the area took place on Wednesday.
BRAZIL
Officials avoid Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama brought his message of global tolerance to Sao Paulo on Friday, but no government officials attended the meetings by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, whose trips are closely watched by China, the nation’s top trading partner. The Dalai Lama’s three-day visit to Sao Paulo, which was scheduled to finish yesterday after a public speech in a city stadium, was notable for the conspicuous absence of any officials. That was different from the Dalai Lama’s previous stop, in Mexico City, where he last week met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, to Beijing’s outrage.
HAITI
PM nominee approved
Lawmaker Saurel Jacinth said Garry Conille, a former aide to former US president Bill Clinton was approved as the nation’s next prime minister by an 89 to 0 vote in the Chamber of Deputies on Friday. The nomination now goes to the Senate for a vote which is expected on Tuesday. President Michel Martelly’s administration has been without a prime minister for four months. Martelly’s first two picks were rejected and many reconstruction efforts from last year’s earthquake have been on hold.
VENEZUELA
More chemo for Chavez
President Hugo Chavez said he would likely undergo a fourth round of chemotherapy to treat his cancer today, expressing confidence it would be the last before his “full recovery.” Chavez, who had a tumor removed on June 20 in Havana, Cuba, has insisted he is cancer-free and convalescing, but little information has been released about the type of cancer he has or his medical condition. Chavez underwent his first two rounds of chemotherapy in Havana, where doctors discovered the cancer after operating on him for an abdominal abscess. He concluded a third round at a local military hospital on Sept. 2. Chavez said he was confident he would be “fully recovered” to host a summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders on Dec. 2 and 3 in Caracas.
UNITED STATES
Museum hosts bug food
Which wine goes best with mealworms and crickets? The annual contest at a North Carolina museum may help answer the question. The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is hosting its annual BugFest Critter Cook-off on Friday. It marks the official start to BugFest 2011. Chef Jim Long, executive sous chef at the Angus Barn, will compete against chef Michael Lee, executive chef of Sono Sushi for the title of BugFest Critter Cook-off champion. The chefs will have 50 minutes to create an appetizer, entree, dessert and mystery dish using mealworms, wax worms, crickets, super worms and a “mystery” bug. Each dish will be judged on taste, originality and presentation.
VENEZUELA
Rights court nixes ban
Opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez said on Friday that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights had sided with him by ordering the nation to lift a decision barring him from running for the presidency. Lopez announced the decision on his Twitter account, saying “justice was done.” His allies celebrated the decision at a news conference. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said the authorities would study the court’s decision before responding. Lopez, a former Caracas district mayor, was barred from running for office in 2005 by the country’s top anti-corruption official, the comptroller general. He challenged the decision, arguing his rights were violated.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
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