Wed, Jan 22, 2014 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  CHINA

  Official fired over sex tape

  A senior official at a Communist Party school in a northwestern province has been dismissed from his post over a sex scandal, state media reported on Monday. Qin Guogang (秦國剛), the vice president of a party school in Shaanxi Province, was also expelled from the Communist Party, Xinhua news agency said, citing provincial disciplinary authorities. Stills from a video appeared online a week earlier purporting to show a naked Qin with a female postgraduate student from the school. State media reported that the student posted the photographs and submitted the hour-long sex video to provincial disciplinary authorities. She said Qin had falsely told her he was not married.

  FRANCE

  Suspected pirates arrested

  A navy ship intercepted a hijacked dhow off the coast of Oman, arresting five suspected pirates who had taken hostage an all-Indian crew, defense officials said on Monday. The operation took place after an aborted pirate attack on an oil tanker in the area, the joint defense staff said in a statement. The dhow’s 11-member Indian crew were freed. The dhow was suspected to have served as a rear base for the pirates, who launched a failed bid to take over the Nave Atropos, an oil tanker sailing under a flag from the Marshall Islands. A Japanese naval patrol and forces from international fleets patrolling the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean also took part in Saturday’s operation about 75km off Oman’s coast, the statement said.

  INDONESIA

  Bomb plot mastermind jailed

  A court yesterday jailed the mastermind of an Islamic extremist plot to bomb the Myanmar embassy for seven-and-a-half years, but the militant pledged to “continue fighting the enemies of Islam.” Sigit Indrajid confessed at an earlier hearing to leading a group that planned to attack the mission in Jakarta to avenge the killing of minority Rohingya Muslims in mainly Buddhist Myanmar. The plight of the Rohingya, many of whom have been killed or displaced in sectarian unrest in Myanmar, has caused widespread anger in the Muslim-majority country. The plan was foiled in May 2 last year, when police caught two of the plotters riding a motorbike in the capital, one of whom was carrying a backpack full of pipe-bombs. They had planned to launch the attack the following day.

  JAPAN

  ‘Mothers’ chairman arrested

  A man who runs a non-profit organization promoting motherhood has been arrested on suspicion of hospitalizing his wife by kicking and beating her, police said yesterday. Shinji Morimatsu, 49, the chairman of the Japan Mothers Society, is alleged to have hit his 51-year-old wife around the head and face then kicked her in the chest and abdomen as she lay on the floor on May 26 last year, a senior official at the Matsuyama Higashi police station said. The Japan Mothers Society holds seminars on child-rearing, as well as giving out a “Best Mother” award every year, usually to a high-profile actress with children, with its chairman presenting the trophy in a blaze of publicity. Morimatsu’s wife hinted that there had been previous incidents of domestic violence, the official said, adding that officers were investigating the allegations. Morimatsu, who was arrested on Monday, has told police that he and his wife had quarreled, but insisted there had been no violence, the official added. The couple, who have had no contact with each other since May last year, have no children, he said.

  ISRAEL

  Lawmakers heckle Harper

  Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was heckled by Arab lawmakers during a speech to parliament on Monday when he condemned efforts to boycott the Jewish state and denounced people who “disgracefully” call it an apartheid state. Lawmaker Ahmad Tibi screamed “settlements,” while a second lawmaker, Talab Abu Arar, then shouted and stormed out of the hall. After the outburst, Harper received a standing ovation from other members of parliament. Heckling is common in the parliament. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interrupted by Tibi earlier, he shrugged it off and told Harper that it was an example of the nation’s robust democracy.

  UNITED STATES

  Plant explosion kills two

  An explosion that brought down part of an animal feed processing plant in Omaha, Nebraska, on Monday morning killed two people and seriously injured 10, authorities said. The search for bodies in the crippled International Nutrition plant was suspended overnight. Omaha Police Lieutenant Darci Tierney said all 38 of the workers who were in the building at the time had been accounted for, so the death toll was not expected to grow. Search-and-rescue experts worked into Monday evening to stabilize the building and removed one victim, but the combination of strong winds, cold temperatures and a dangerous building forced rescuers to suspend operations before the second victim could be recovered. The search effort was scheduled to resume yesterday morning. The second and third floors of the plant collapsed on top of the first floor as key structural supports failed on Monday. Authorities do not know what caused the blast. International Nutrition makes products that are added to livestock and poultry feed to make them more nutritious.

  GUYANA

  Plane crew’s bodies found

  A Canadian pilot whose single-engine plane went down two days ago over thick jungle was found dead at the crash site on Monday along with a local coworker, officials said. Special forces troops found the bodies of Trans Guyana Aviation pilot Blake Slater and cargo loader Dwayne Newton on reaching the aircraft. “The pilot was found in his seat,” the Search and Rescue Coordination Center said in a statement. Slater reported engine failure shortly after takeoff Saturday from Olive Creek on a shuttle run to Imbaimadai, a gold mining area.

  SOUTH AFRICA

  Ransom fundraiser launched

  Supporters of a teacher held hostage in Yemen have launched a campaign to raise the US$3 million ransom his al-Qaeda kidnappers are demanding, according to a statement yesterday. Al-Qaeda members have threatened to kill Pierre Korkie, 56, unless the money is paid within three weeks. “This situation has prompted local businessmen and friends of the Korkies to commence with a fund-raising campaign for Pierre’s release,” his family said in a statement. Pierre and his wife, Yolandie, were abducted in May last year in the city of Taiz. At the time security officials said the couple was seized outside their hotel by gunmen loyal to a local chief, over a land dispute with the authorities. The couple had lived in Yemen for four years, along with their two teenage children. Yolandie Korkie, 43, was released on Jan. 10 and made an emotional plea for her husband’s safe return after she arrived back in South Africa. Their children returned home after their parents were seized.
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