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R/£ Word briefs - October 06, 2009
October 06, 2009 Edition 4
No house yet for Tsvangirai
HARARE: An aide to Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says President Robert Mugabe is refusing to provide state housing seven months after the appointment. Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, yesterday said Zanu-PF ministers are also unwilling to vacate their government-issued homes.
Taliban bomb UN office
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on an office of the UN World Food Programme. The Taliban said in a telephonic statement that the UN was a US slave. A suicide bomber dressed as a paramilitary soldier blew himself up in the Pakistan capital Islamabad yesterday, killing five of the staff, including an Iraqi.
Shadowy technique
LONDON: The shadows of visitors fall on a wall as they view part of Absuction Cardigan by Enrico David at the Tate Britain in London yesterday. David, one of four shortlisted artists for the annual Turner Prize, was born in 1966 in Ancona, Italy, and is based in London. He works in drawing, sculpture and installation, usually involving adaptations of traditional craft techniques. He often uses silhouettes of black with shockingly bright areas of colour and pattern.
Ivory traffickers arrested
LIBREVILLE: Police have detained two major ivory traffickers in the Central African Republic (CAR) as part of a joint operation with animal rights activists. The arrests were the first of their kind since the CAR passed a wildlife protection law in the 1980s. One trafficker had 157 ivory objects weighing 200kg in her home. The other was trying to sell 14 ivory objects, hippopotamus teeth and panther skin.
Israeli police out in force
JERUSALEM: Police flooded into Jerusalem's Old City yesterday after clashes with Palestinians near the Al-Aqsa mosque compound as tens of thousands of Jews attended a religious ceremony. Authorities restricted access to the compound to Muslim men aged 50 and over, with no restrictions for women, after Sunday's clashes in which seven Palestinian protesters were hurt and three arrested.
Islamic factions clash again
Mogadishu: Fighting erupted again yesterday between Somali Islamist factions in Kismayo, scuppering efforts to end the clashes that broke out last week in the southern port town, rebels said. Militiamen from the al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab group attacked Hezb al-Islam forces in a village close to Kismayo, a day after violence left eight people dead.
Deal with Iran on cards
MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Iran and six world powers have reached a preliminary deal for Russia to help enrich uranium for an Iranian reactor. The tentative agreement was reached at last week's talks in Switzerland. Yesterday, Lavrov said experts would have to work out specifics of the deal that will involve France, the US, Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Severe storms sink ship
MANILA: A ship carrying refrigerated goods sank in the South China Sea, killing one person and leaving 10 crew missing, as a powerful storm stalled off the Philippines's north-western coast yesterday. Parma, the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines since 2006, was gathering strength and was likely to bring more rains and possible floods and landslides in the next three days.
N Korea nuclear report
SEOUL: North Korea is in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities, a news report said today, as leader Kim Jong-il expressed a conditional willingness to end Pyongyang's boycott of international nuclear talks. South Korean and US intelligence authorities reached the conclusion after scrutinising about 10 atomic facilities in North Korea since April.
Ousted leader protests
TEGUCIGALPA: Deposed President Manuel Zelaya - kicked out of his country in his pyjamas in June - has called on the Honduran regime to restore civil liberties and withdraw soldiers surrounding his Brazilian embassy refuge as a precondition for talks aimed at solving the political crisis. Representatives of Zelaya and the military-supported interim Honduran regime agreed to restart talks this week.
Shroud of Turin 'man-made'
ROME: Italian debunkers are claiming they have proved the Shroud of Turin - revered as the cloth that covered Jesus in the tomb - was man-made. The Italian Committee for Checking Claims on the Paranormal said yesterday scientists had reproduced the shroud using materials and methods available in the 14th century. The group said this was more evidence the shroud was a medieval forgery.
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