World Scene


Sunday, January 11, 2009

PAKISTAN

Saeed's detention extended 60 days

LAHORE | Pakistan has extended the house arrest of the head of a charity thought to be a front for the militant group blamed in the Mumbai attacks, an official said Saturday.

Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, a founder of the now-banned militant group Jamaat-ud-Dawa, will remain detained for an additional 60 days, said Usman Anwar, a top government official in the Punjab province.

Mr. Saeed leads the charity that the United Nations recently declared a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant organization that India thinks masterminded the November slaughter of 171 people in its financial center.

VATICAN CITY

Vatican may join anti-terrorism body

VATICAN CITY | The Vatican is considering whether to join the European Union's anti-terrorism body, Eurojust, in a bid to increase security, an official said Saturday.

Vatican City's chief prosecutor, Nicola Picardi, said the increased threat of international terrorism required new forms of cooperation among countries. In October, the Vatican successfully joined Interpol, and the Vatican's Gendarmeria has been attending meetings of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe since 2006, he said.

While only 492 people live in Vatican City, about 18 million pilgrims and tourists pass through each year.

PERU

Bus crashes into ravine, killing 33

LIMA | Peruvian police say at least 33 people are dead and 23 injured after a bus ran off a remote, rain-slicked mountain road.

Police said rainy conditions made for poor visibility when the vehicle plunged into a ravine before dawn Saturday. Officials said the bus was traveling to the northern city of Querocoto.

There was no word on the condition of the injured, who were being taken to hospitals. Bus crashes are common in the mountains of Peru, where most roads are unpaved.

IRAN

Iran disputes report of ban on volunteers

TEHRAN | Iranian officials strongly disputed media reports Saturday that Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, has banned volunteers from leaving the country to carry out suicide bombings against Israel and stressed that the supreme leader meant only that practical obstacles remained for such attackers to get to Gaza.

The officials said the Associated Press misinterpreted Ayatollah Khameini's comments when he said Thursday that "our hands are tied in this arena."

The Iranian officials said the comments meant only that any Iranians would have great practical difficulty in reaching Gaza because of Israel's offensive.

SOUTH AFRICA

ANC launches election campaign

JOHANNESBURG | South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Saturday launched its campaign for an election that could see the party of the anti-apartheid struggle face a serious challenge from a breakaway group.

Jacob Zuma, the often-controversial ANC leader, rallied tens of thousands into a stadium that was a sea of yellow with people wearing the party's T-shirts. Elections are expected to be held in the first half of the year.

The ANC has been in power for 15 years, since the end of the country's white-minority apartheid rule. For the first time, the ANC faces a serious challenge from the Congress of the People, set up in December by disillusioned former ANC activists.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...cene-72623785/

PAKISTAN

Taliban integrates for cross-border strike

PESHAWAR | Hundreds of militants, many from Afghanistan, attacked a Pakistani paramilitary camp in a lawless northwestern tribal region early Sunday, sparking a major clash that left six security troops and 40 insurgents dead.

The brazen raid in Mohmand suggested sophisticated cross-border coordination among Taliban militants nesting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and underscored the continued strength of the militancy despite an ongoing Pakistani military offensive.

Insurgents attacked the Pakistani Frontier Corps' camp about 2 a.m. Saturday with mortars and rockets, then used small arms to fire on a checkpoint near the Mohammad Ghat camp, said a paramilitary official, who gave details on the condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to comment to the media.

The 600 or so attackers were eventually driven off, but scattered skirmishes continued, he said.

SOMALIA

Pirate's body found with cash

MOGADISHU | The body of a Somali pirate who drowned just after receiving a huge ransom washed onshore with $153,000 in cash, a resident said Sunday, as the spokesman for another group of pirates promised to soon free a Ukrainian arms ship.

Five pirates drowned Friday when their small boat capsized after they received a reported $3 million ransom for releasing a Saudi oil tanker. Local resident Omar Abdi Hassan said one of the bodies had been found on a beach near the coastal town of Haradhere and relatives were searching for the other four.

"One of them was discovered, and they are still looking for the other ones. He had $153,000 in a plastic bag in his pocket," he said Sunday.

The U.S. Navy released photos of a parachute dropping a package onto the deck of the Sirius Star, and said the package was likely to be the ransom delivery.

IRAQ

New crisis grips parliament

BAGHDAD | The Iraqi parliament faced a new crisis Sunday after members of the country's major Sunni Arab bloc fell out with one another over the nomination of a new candidate for speaker.

The dispute is over a successor for former parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni who resigned last month amid controversy over his behavior.

Under Iraq's sectarian-based political system, Mr. al-Mashhadani's successor must be a Sunni. But the main Sunni bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, has been unable to agree on a candidate.

Mr. al-Mashhadani's resignation came under heavy pressure from Shi'ite and Kurdish lawmakers after he tried to delay a vote on a security agreement to allow foreign troops to stay in Iraq past the end of last year, when a U.N. mandate expired. His resignation broke the impasse, and the agreement was eventually passed.

CHINA

Police arrest angry ax killer

BEIJING | Police in central China seized a man suspected of killing eight people, including a 2-year-old boy who was slain with an ax, state media reported Sunday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said authorities nabbed 35-year-old junk collector Xiong Zhenlin on Sunday in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province.

The report said Mr. Xiong confessed to police that he had killed eight people but did not say whether he had been arrested or charged.

Police were still investigating the motive behind the killings, but the report said neighbors told police that Mr. Xiong wanted to marry a widow - but she turned him down.

INDONESIA

Ferry capsizes; 250 feared dead

JAKARTA | A ferry capsized in a severe storm and crashing waves in central Indonesia on Sunday and officials said about 250 people were feared dead.

Eighteen survivors were rescued by fishing boats, but the fate of the others was not clear, said Taufik, a port official at Parepare on the island of Sulawesi, where the ferry began its journey. Taufik uses one name, as is common in Indonesia.

About 250 passengers and 17 crew are thought to have been onboard the ferry when it went down 30 miles off the coast off western Sulawesi. Indonesians generally don't know how to swim, and it was feared that most onboard would have drowned.

IRELAND

Voters warm to EU treaty

DUBLIN | A majority of Irish people would vote "yes" in a planned second referendum on the European Union's reform treaty, a poll showed Sunday.

Ireland's rejection last year of the treaty - a successor to the defunct EU constitution and aimed at improving decision making in Brussels - has slowed integration efforts just as EU backers say the 27-country bloc needs to show it can take quick, coordinated action to tackle the financial crisis.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said last month that he was prepared to hold another vote on the treaty on the basis of concessions Dublin has secured.

The Sunday Independent/ Quantum Research poll showed that 55 percent would back the treaty in a fresh referendum, up from 39 percent canvassed in the previous survey conducted in December.

The concessions include the retention of a permanent commissioner, and others in the sensitive areas of military neutrality, taxation policy and workers' rights. They were made as part of an effort to have all 27 member states ratify the treaty by Jan. 1, 2010.

RUSSIA

Medvedev presses Putin on economy

MOSCOW | Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has criticized his government led by close ally Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for being too slow to implement measures to tackle the economic crisis, local news agencies said Sunday.

They reported Mr. Medvedev as saying that only 30 percent of Russia's plans announced three months ago had been implemented. Mr. Medvedev's rebuke was unusual because he and Mr. Putin, the powerful former president, frequently boast of their close relations.

Russia has been hit hard by the crisis, with the stock market falling by almost 70 percent last year, the ruble 17 percent off against the dollar and euro basket, prices for major exports down sharply and many large companies laying off staff.

Mr. Medvedev was personally endorsed by Mr. Putin as a presidential candidate and went on to an easy win in the March election.

VATICAN

Former envoy on Iraq dies

VATICAN CITY | Cardinal Pio Laghi, a longtime Vatican diplomat who went to Washington to try to dissuade President Bush from launching the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has died, the Vatican said Sunday. He was 86.

Cardinal Laghi died Saturday evening at a Rome hospital, where he had been treated for some time, Vatican Radio said.

Pope John Paul II tapped Cardinal Laghi, a former envoy to Washington, in 2003 to meet with Mr. Bush on the eve of war. Cardinal Laghi was trying to prevent what he said was a morally and legally unjustified invasion.

Cardinal Laghi, who had been friendly with the Bush family, delivered a letter from John Paul and pressed Mr. Bush on whether he was doing everything to avert war.

FRANCE

Actor arrested in street stabbing

PARIS | French actor Samy Naceri, who starred in the World War II film "Days of Glory," was jailed Sunday after being charged with stabbing his ex-girlfriend's companion in a confrontation on a Paris street, judicial officials said.

Mr. Naceri, 47, was charged with armed voluntary violence. He also was charged with making repeated death threats, said the actor's attorney Francoise Cotta.

The preliminary charges, which could be dropped if an investigation fails to turn up clear evidence, followed a confrontation Thursday near Paris' Champs-Elysees Avenue.

Mr. Naceri and his ex-girlfriend were arguing, and her boyfriend was called to the scene, the judicial official said. The man was stabbed, but his injuries were not considered life-threatening.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...cene-27801451/

__________________
Marwatone.

World Scene


Wednesday, January 14, 2009

NORTH KOREA

U.S. asked to alter 'hostile' policy

SEOUL | North Korea refused Tuesday to give up its nuclear weapons until after the U.S. alters its "hostile policy" toward the regime and proves it does not pose an atomic threat to the wartime rival.

The cryptic statement from North Korea's Foreign Ministry is the first one to lay out North Korea's nuclear stance since the last round of international talks on disarming the North in December.

Analysts say the statement -- issued a week before President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration -- also sends a strong signal that Pyongyang is keen to forge diplomatic relations with the next U.S. administration.

In the statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, North Korea's Foreign Ministry reiterated its commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. But it said Washington cannot demand that Pyongyang bare its nuclear arsenal without revealing, and removing, its own rumored nuclear weapons in South Korea. U.S. and South Korea deny there are any nuclear weapons on the peninsula.

GUANTANAMO BAY

Terror recidivism exceeds 10 percent

Terror suspects who have been released from Guantanamo Bay are increasingly returning to the fight against the United States and its allies, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Sixty-one detainees who have been released from the U.S. Navy base prison in Cuba are believed to have rejoined the fight, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. That's up from 37 previously, he said.

About 520 Guantanamo detainees have been released from custody or transferred to prisons elsewhere in the world.

Mr. Morrell said the new numbers showed a "pretty substantial increase" of detainees returning to terror missions - from 7 percent to 11 percent.

JAPAN

Resignation rocks ruling party

TOKYO | A reform-minded former Cabinet minister quit Japan's ruling party Tuesday in a sign that unpopular Prime Minister Taro Aso's grip over his Liberal Democratic Party has weakened further ahead of an election this year.

With public support ratings below 20 percent, Mr. Aso is struggling to exert leadership in the face of an emboldened opposition, which controls parliament's upper house and has threatened to stall bills in a bid to force an early election.

Mr. Aso, 68, has ruled out a snap poll, but Yoshimi Watanabe, an ex-financial services minister, and other lawmakers in the Liberal Democratic Party are turning up the heat as anxiety grows within the party that it could lose power after more than 50 years of near-unbroken rule.

Mr. Watanabe has accused Mr. Aso of being too slow in responding to a deepening recession.

BRITAIN

Greenpeace buys Heathrow land

LONDON | Plans to build a third runway at London's congested Heathrow Airport hit a snag Tuesday when Greenpeace and other environmental activists announced they had purchased a substantial plot of land where the planned runway would be built.

The coalition, including actress Emma Thompson, comedian Alistair McGowan and environmentalist Zac Goldsmith, purchased property that is about half the size of a football field in the village of Sipson, where hundreds of homes will be razed if runway plans go ahead.

The property is directly on the site of the proposed runway, Greenpeace Director John Sauven said Tuesday.

The coalition announced its surprise purchase as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Cabinet were grappling with the issue of the proposed new runway, which business leaders say is vital if Heathrow is to maintain its status as Europe's busiest airport.

INDONESIA

Islamists on trial in Christian's killing

JAKARTA | Ten suspected Islamic militants went on trial Tuesday in an Indonesian court for reportedly killing a Christian schoolteacher and plotting to bomb a cafe.

The defendants, including a Singaporean who purportedly met al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, face sentences of up to life in prison if convicted on charges of illegal possession of explosives, murder, plotting a terrorist attack and harboring fugitives.

The men are suspected members of the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah, which is accused of carrying out several suicide bombings against Western targets in Indonesia since 2002, including bombings on the resort island of Bali, their indictment said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...cene-71618776/

__________________
Marwatone.

World Scene


Thursday, January 15, 2009

BOLIVIA

Morales, Chavez break ties with Israel

LA PAZ | Bolivian President Evo Morales announced Wednesday he was breaking relations with Israel over its invasion of the Gaza Strip and said he would ask the International Criminal Court to bring genocide charges against top Israeli officials.

Mr. Morales' ally, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, also broke off diplomatic relations with Israel on Wednesday.

Israel launched the onslaught in Gaza on Dec. 27, seeking to force the ruling Hamas militant group to stop rocket attacks on southern Israel. The offensive has killed more than 940 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, according to Palestinian officials.

Mr. Morales met Tuesday with visiting Iranian officials, who gave him a letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thanking Mr. Morales for his previously voicing supporting for the Palestinians.

INDIA

Pakistan dismisses terrorist evidence

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan | Pakistan's prime minister downplayed the significance of an Indian dossier on the Mumbai terrorist attacks, saying it is not evidence, and drawing an angry response from New Delhi on Wednesday.

India says the dossier shows that Pakistani militants staged the November slaughter of more than 170 people. India specifically blames Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group believed to have links to Pakistani intelligence.

Pakistan only recently acknowledged that the only surviving Mumbai gunman was Pakistani, but it insists none of its state agencies played a role in the attacks. Under international pressure, Pakistan has detained some suspects reportedly linked to the attacks, while repeatedly calling on India to provide evidence to allow legal prosecutions.

The dossier, handed over on Jan. 5, included transcripts of phone calls reportedly made during the siege by the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan.

INDIA

Militant leader arrested in Kashmir

SRINAGAR | Indian police arrested a senior guerrilla leader and founding member of Kashmir's largest militant group on Wednesday, dealing a blow to the insurgency in the disputed Himalayan region, police said.

Mohammed Ahsan Dar, former chief and founding member of Hizbul Mujahedeen was arrested in a raid near Sumbal area north of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital.

Hizbul Mujahedeen, the largest and most active militant group in Kashmir for almost two decades, wants Kashmir to become part of predominantly Muslim Pakistan.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan both claim the region in full, but rule it in part.

SRI LANKA

Government seizes Jaffna Peninsula

COLOMBO | Sri Lankan government forces seized a final strip of Tamil Tiger rebel-held land Thursday, securing total control of the key Jaffna Peninsula in the north, the military said.

Jaffna, the cultural capital of Sri Lanka's ethnic-minority Tamils, has long been seen as the symbolic heart of the 25-year-old separatist insurgency on the island.

Taking full control of the territory after nine years is a strategic and symbolic victory for the government.

Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said all of Jaffna was secured when soldiers captured Chundikkulam village. Last week, troops captured the Elephant Pass base, the insurgents' final stronghold on the peninsula.

Rebel officials could not be reached for comment.

FRANCE

Suspects acquitted in hormone deaths

PARIS | A court acquitted six people Wednesday in the deaths of at least 114 people who contracted a brain-destroying disease after being treated with tainted human growth hormones.

The verdict followed a 16-year investigation into the deaths from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD.

The case stemmed from a 20-year program that involved collecting hormones from the pituitary glands of human corpses to treat thousands of French children who suffered from a deficiency in the secretion of growth hormone.

The cases were not of the widely known mad cow disease variant of CJD.

SOMALIA

Russian warship halts pirate attack

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia | A Russian warship helped foil a pirate attack on a Dutch container ship in the dangerous Gulf of Aden, a maritime watchdog and the Russian navy said Wednesday.

Six pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades Tuesday at the cargo ship, which took evasive maneuvers while calling for help, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy-reporting center in Malaysia.

The pirates chased the vessel for about 30 minutes in the waters off Somalia but aborted their attempt to board after a Russian warship and helicopter arrived, Mr. Choong said.

Russian navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said a Ka-27 helicopter was sent from the Admiral Vinogradov warship on patrol off the Horn of Africa and fired at three suspected pirate speedboats that were trying to attack the Dutch ship.

SAUDI ARABIA

Brides at age 10 OK, cleric says

RIYADH | Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric was quoted Wednesday as saying it is permissible for 10-year-old girls to marry, and those who think they're too young are doing the girls an injustice.

The mufti's comments showed the hard-line clergy's opposition to a drive by Saudi rights groups, including governmental ones, to define the age of marriage and put an end to the practice of child marriages.

"A female who is 10 or 12 is marriageable, and those who think she's too young are wrong and are being unfair to her," Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al Sheikh said during a Monday lecture, according to the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper.

On Sunday, the government-run Human Rights Commission condemned marriages of minor girls, saying such marriages are an "inhumane violation" and rob children of their rights.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...cene-37795906/

__________________
Marwatone.

World scene


Friday, January 16, 2009

SOMALIA

Last Ethiopian troops leave capital

MOGADISHU | The last Ethiopian troops left Somalia's capital Thursday after a two-year deployment and Islamist militiamen took control of the bases, fueling fears they could try to expand their power in this lawless Horn of Africa nation.

Ethiopia's prime minister said he could not predict what would happen when the last of his troops leave Somalia, but he expected the extremist Islamic group, al-Shabab, and others to try to seize control.

Al-Shabab, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization with links to al Qaeda, says it wants to establish an Islamic state in Somalia.

IRAQ

Cabinet member escapes bomb

BAGHDAD | An Iraqi Cabinet member escaped injury Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded near his convoy in Baghdad.

Abed Theyab, minister of higher education, was traveling to work when the bomb went off as he passed through the Karradah district, police said. No one in the convoy was hurt but three civilian bystanders were wounded, police added.

In another attack, a government security guard was killed when a bomb exploded on Nidal Street near Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, police reported. The target was thought to have been a convoy carrying employees of the Housing Ministry to work.

Late Thursday, two rockets or mortars struck the Green Zone, injuring one person, the U.S. military said. Iraqi police said the projectiles were fired from a Shi'ite area of east Baghdad into the enclave, which includes Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy.

U.S. and Iraqi authorities fear an increase in violence ahead of the Jan. 31 elections, when voters in 14 of the 18 provinces choose members of regional ruling councils.

ZIMBABWE

Opposition leader to meet Mugabe

JOHANNESBURG | Zimbabwe's main opposition leader will return home this weekend after more than two months out of the country, and planned to meet with President Robert Mugabe in an effort to resolve the stalemate over a power-sharing agreement.

Morgan Tsvangirai, speaking to reporters in South Africa on Thursday, was under no illusions a simple conversation would be enough to persuade Mr. Mugabe to cede some of the power he has held for nearly three decades. And Mr. Tsvangirai said he would be bringing his own conditions to the meeting, among them a call for the release of supporters and peace activists being tried on what Mr. Tsvangirai called "trumped up" charges of plotting to overthrow Mr. Mugabe.

In the Zimbabwean capital Thursday, one of the most prominent of those accused sobbed on the stand as she told a judge she had been beaten by unknown men who took her from her home Dec. 3. Human rights activist Jestina Mukoko was held at an undisclosed location until Dec. 23, when she was taken to a jail.

AFGHANISTAN

Army general killed in chopper crash

KABUL | A top Afghan army general was killed Thursday in a helicopter crash in western Afghanistan, and two British troops died in a blast in the country's south, officials said.

Gen. Fazaludin Sayar was one of the Afghan army's four regional commanders, in charge of the entire west of the country. His Mi-17 helicopter hit bad weather in the morning and went down in the Adraskan district of Herat province, the ministry said. All 12 others aboard were also killed, the statement said. The helicopter had be


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...cene-16832751/

__________________
Marwatone.

IRAQ

Candidate assassinated

BAGHDAD | A Shi'ite candidate for provincial elections was assassinated Friday while campaigning south of Baghdad, officials said.

The killing of Hashim al-Husseini highlighted fears that political rivalries will lead to a spike in violence ahead of the Jan. 31 vote for local councils. Mr. al-Husseini was a member of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party and was running on the party's State of Law list for a seat on the Babil provincial council.

Meanwhile, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist jailed since throwing his shoes at President Bush, got a visit from his brother Friday and a birthday party from his guards as he turned 30.

KENYA

$406 million in food aid sought

NAIROBI | Kenya's president declared the country's food crisis a national disaster Friday and asked international donors to contribute $406 million toward emergency food aid.

Nearly a third of Kenya's 34 million people face food shortages because of crop failures after drought last year. Tens of thousands of farmers also were unable to plant crops last year when they were displaced from their land during post-election violence that saw more than 1,000 people killed, President Mwai Kibaki said.

VENEZUELA

Vote on term limit set for Feb. 15

CARACAS | Venezuelans will vote in a Feb. 15 referendum on whether to allow President Hugo Chavez to stay in office as long as he keeps winning elections, authorities said Friday.

Mr. Chavez has already been in power a decade but said he needs at least another 10 years to deepen popular social reforms. Under current rules, he must leave office in 2013 after serving his maximum of two six-year terms.

Polls conducted in December showed more than half of voters intend to oppose the rule change, with about 40 percent supporting the proposal.

CUBA

Chavez says Castro 'working, writing'

CARACAS, Venezuela | Fidel Castro is working, writing and staying on top of world affairs, his friend Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday amid speculation about the former Cuban leader's health.

The 82-year-old Mr. Castro has not appeared in public since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006, and a monthlong halt in his regular essays has raised renewed concerns about his condition.

Concern about Mr. Castro's health grew after he failed to send any message beyond a one-line salutation to the Cuban people on his revolution's 50th anniversary Jan. 1.


BRITAIN

Historian jailed for book damage

LONDON | A wealthy Iranian-born U.S. businessman was jailed for two years by a London court Friday for stealing pages from priceless books at two of Britain's most famous libraries.

Farhad Hakimzadeh, 60, a Harvard-educated historian, used a blade to cut out about 150 pages, plates and maps, which he later transferred to his own copies at home.

Hakimzadeh pleaded guilty to 14 charges of stealing illustrations from 10 books at the British Library in London and four from the Bodleian Library in Oxford. A British Library spokesman estimated that the damage would cost more than $596,600 to repair.

BRITAIN

John Mortimer, writer, dies at 85

LONDON | British lawyer and writer John Mortimer, creator of the curmudgeonly criminal lawyer Rumpole of the Bailey, died Friday. He was 85.

Mr. Mortimer's family said he died early in the morning at his home in the Chiltern Hills northwest of London, with his wife and children at his side. They did not disclose the cause of death.

Mr. Mortimer combined a career as a lawyer with a large literary output that included dozens of screen and stage plays and radio dramas. His most famous creation was Horace Rumpole, a cigar-smoking, wine-loving barrister who appeared in a TV series and a string of novels and stories.

Mr. Mortimer took up several high profile freedom of speech cases. He defended Penguin, the publisher of D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover," against obscenity charges in the 1960s, and later represented the radical magazine Oz at an obscenity trial and defended Gay News magazine against a blasphemy charge.

LITHUANIA

Angry protesters clash with police

VILNIUS | Violent political protests sweeping parts of Eastern Europe spread Friday to Lithuania, where police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a rock-throwing mob attacking Parliament.

Fifteen people were injured and more than 80 detained in several hours of street fighting between angry protesters and helmeted riot police.

The violence followed similar riots this week in Bulgaria and Latvia amid a wave of discontent over economic woes, difficult reforms and government corruption.

SOUTH KOREA

Court denies bail to jailed blogger

SEOUL | A popular South Korean blogger arrested on accusations of posting false economic information on the Internet has been denied bail, his attorney said Friday.

The 31-year-old blogger, who went by the handle "Minerva" after the Greek goddess of wisdom, and identified in court documents as Park Dae-sung, rocketed to fame in South Korea for his startlingly accurate predictions about the economy, including the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

But prosecutors said he went too far in saying on an online discussion site that the government had banned major financial institutions and trade businesses from purchasing U.S. dollars in an apparent move to shore up the local currency, calling it inaccurate information that disrupted the foreign exchange market.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...849690/?page=2

__________________
Marwatone.

World Scene


Sunday, January 18, 2009

IRAN

Court convicts 4 for plotting coup

TEHRAN | Iran's official news agency reported that four Iranians were convicted and sentenced to prison in what officials described as a U.S.-backed plot to topple the government.

IRNA said Tehran's Revolutionary Court sentenced the four to prison on charges of trying to overthrow the Islamic government with the support of the U.S. State Department and the CIA. The report did not provide any further details, including the length of the sentences or the men's names.

On Tuesday, a judiciary spokesman, Ali Reza Jamshidi, said the four had planned to recruit others to be trained in anti-Iranian activities abroad.

PHILIPPINES

Kidnapped workers check in by phone

MANILA | The Red Cross said Saturday that three workers kidnapped on a restive southern Philippine island have called colleagues and said they were unharmed.

Anna Nelson, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Philippines, said the three made the call Friday, a day after they were abducted by motorcycle-riding gunmen on southern Jolo island.

Miss Nelson said there was no further information on their whereabouts, and she declined to give other details regarding their phone call.

MALAYSIA

Islamists win decisive by-election

KUALA TERENGGANU | Malaysia's opposition Islamist party won a fiercely contested by-election Saturday in a vote that was cast as a referendum on incoming Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), one of three partners in Anwar Ibrahim's opposition alliance, won the seat in Kuala Terengganu by a more-than-expected 2,631 votes, overturning a government majority of 628 votes.

Analysts said the by-election results could raise political risk at a time when Mr. Najib, who heads the coalition that has ruled Malaysia for 51 years, has to confront the possibility of Malaysia's first recession in eight years.

THAILAND

Hundreds may have perished at sea

BANGKOK | Thailand will investigate reports that the Thai navy abandoned migrants on a barge in the ocean where hundreds of them may have drowned, the government said Saturday.

More than 100 Burmese and Bangladeshi workers were rescued last month by Indian authorities from a barge adrift near the Andaman Islands. It was the first reported incident of the Thai navy forcing a boat out to sea rather than detaining the migrants as was policy in the past.

The Thai Foreign Ministry also said it will reassess the overall situation of illegal immigration in light of the incident and would attempt to work with neighboring countries to better address the problem.

INDIA

Elephants kill 3 in northeast

GAUHATI | A herd of nearly 150 hungry elephants rampaged through a village in India's remote northeast, trampling to death a young family as they slept in their hut, a resident and a wildlife official said Saturday.

The Asiatic elephants destroyed four homes in Assam state's Karbi Anglong village Friday night, a resident said. A farmer, his wife and their 5-year-old daughter died in the incident.



http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...cene-16392786/

__________________
Marwatone.

World Scene


Monday, January 19, 2009

RUSSIA

Rights lawyer dies in Moscow shooting

MOSCOW | A human-rights lawyer who unsuccessfully fought the early release of a Russian colonel convicted of murdering a Chechen woman was fatally shot on a Moscow street Monday, law enforcement authorities said.

A journalist, who also was hit in the attack, later died in the hospital, according to the deputy editor of a Moscow newspaper.

The daylight slaying of Stanislav Markelov sparked anger and grief among Russia's beleaguered rights activists and Chechens already upset by the release last week of Col. Yuri Budanov.

Mr. Markelov, 34, was shot in central Moscow near a building where he had just held a news conference, about a half-mile from the Kremlin, said Viktoria Tsyplenkova, a spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee of the Moscow prosecutor's office.

AFGHANISTAN

Suicide attack targets U.S. base

KABUL | A suicide car bomb attack Monday near the gates of a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan killed one Afghan and wounded several more, officials said.

The attack targeted Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost City, near the border with Pakistan, said Lt. Cmdr. James Gater, a spokesman for the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

The Interior Ministry said one Afghan was killed and six were wounded in the attack.

A second suicide bomber was waiting for emergency officials to respond to the first attack, but he was detected by police and detonated his explosives early, killing only himself, the ministry said.

Late last month a bomb-laden truck exploded outside another U.S. military post in Khost province, killing 14 Afghan schoolchildren.

IRAN

AIDS doctors sent to prison

TEHRAN | Two internationally renowned Iranian AIDS physicians were among four men sentenced to prison over the weekend for participating in a purported U.S.-backed plot to overthrow Iran's Islamic regime, Iran's state news agency reported Monday.

The prosecution of Dr. Arash Alaei and Dr. Kamyar Alaei, who have been held in prison since June 2008, has raised an outcry among international human rights groups. The Alaei brothers and two others were tried in a closed-door trial last month.

The state-run Islamic Republic news agency said the men were convicted of recruiting dozens of others and planned to recruit more Iranian doctors, university professors and scientists to provide information to the U.S. on Iran's infrastructure and civil defense.

IRAQ

Top Shi'ite cleric tells people to vote

BAGHDAD | Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite cleric on Monday called on Iraqis to go to the polls in this month's elections but stressed he was not supporting any particular candidates.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani enjoys massive support among Iraq's majority Shi'ite Muslims, and his statement appeared designed to distance himself from religious parties trying to create the impression they have his support.

Iraqis are set to choose members of ruling councils in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces on Jan. 31. More than 14,000 candidates are running for 444 council seats. Iraqi Kurds have delayed the balloting in the three provinces of their self-ruled region.

CHINA

Tainted milk case goes to top court

BEIJING | More than 200 families whose babies fell ill after drinking tainted infant formula said Monday they are taking their case to China's highest court after being repeatedly ignored by lower courts.

The lawsuit involving 213 families poses a challenge to the government's attempts to end one of the country's worst food safety crises. The scandal over milk spiked with an industrial chemical has been blamed for the deaths of six babies and the sickening of nearly 300,000 others with kidney stones and kidney failure.

The 22 Chinese dairies involved have proposed a $160 million compensation plan, but many parents want higher compensation and long-term treatment for their children.

THAILAND

Australian jailed for insulting king

BANGKOK | An Australian writer was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for insulting Thailand's royal family in his novel, a rare conviction of a foreigner amid a crackdown on people and Web sites deemed critical of the monarchy.

Bangkok's Criminal Court sentenced Harry Nicolaides, 41, to six years behind bars but reduced the term because he had entered a guilty plea, the judge said.

Nicolaides, of Melbourne, was charged with insulting Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the crown prince in his 2005 book "Verisimilitude," a work of fiction that only sold seven copies.

BRITAIN

3 men deny plotting with transit bombers

LONDON | A prosecutor Monday accused three British men of scouting out potential targets on behalf of suicide bombers who killed 52 commuters on London's transit system in 2005.

The defendants - Waheed Ali, 25, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Mohammed Shakil, 32 - are being retried on a charge of conspiring to cause explosions with the bombers who blew themselves up on three subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005.

The three defendants denied the charge, pleading not guilty in front of jurors at London's Kingston Crown Court.

BULGARIA

Landmark 1989 breakfast re-enacted

SOFIA | Participants of a historic 1989 breakfast between Bulgarian dissidents and then-French President Francois Mitterrand that paved the way for democracy in communist Bulgaria re-created the event Monday.

France's former Foreign Minister Roland Dumas and five of the 12 Bulgarian dissidents who joined Mr. Mitterrand for breakfast at the French Embassy in Sofia on Jan. 19, 1989, reunited for the occasion, seating themselves in the same order and at the same table as they did 20 years ago.

Mr. Mitterrand's chair and those of seven dissidents now deceased were left empty as the survivors commemorated their "memory and contribution to democracy" with a minute of silence.

It would take another 10 months after the breakfast for the regime of hard-line communist leader Todor Zhivkov to fall.

"Mitterrand's visit encouraged those who wanted to stand up to the totalitarian regime," said 73-year-old former dissident Zhelyu Zhelev, who became Bulgaria's first democratically elected president after the fall of communism.

He was joined at the table by journalist Koprinka Chervenkova, painter Svetlin Rusev, film director Angel Vagenstein and historian Nikolay Vasilev.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...cene-12772902/

__________________
Marwatone.