World briefs - January 20, 2005
January 20, 2005
The Terminator
Los Angeles - A murderer has been executed by lethal injection in California after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger denied requests for clemency. Donald Beardslee (61), convicted of killing two women in 1981, was the first person executed in the state since the former action-movie hero took office, and the 11th since the death penalty was reinstated in California in 1978.
Tsunami toll tops 250 000
Banda Aceh, Indonesia - The death toll from last month's tsunami disaster has risen to a quarter of a million in 11 Indian Ocean countries. Yesterday the Indonesian death toll jumped to 166 320, more than 50 000 higher than the government's previous tally. About 240 have been confirmed dead in north Sumatra. About 3 500 cadavers are being removed each day from Banda Aceh's tsunami rubble.
Driven potty
Bangkok - Five-year-old Diew tests an oversized concrete toilet which has been fitted with equally jumbo-sized plumbing. Thai handlers are toilet-training seven elephants at a private camp in the city of Chiang Mai in an attempt to rid the tourist attraction of unsightly droppings. The giant white toilets can be flushed by pulling on a rope with a gentle tug of the trunk.
Millions throng to hajj
Arafat, Saudi Arabia - The annual hajj pilgrimage has culminated with about 2-million Muslims from around the world converging on Mount Arafat, near the holy city of Mecca. Yesterday, convoys of more than 20 000 buses carried the pilgrims from the Mina valley where they had spent the night. After performing the ritual symbolising the Last Judgment, pilgrims were to return to Mecca today.
Death row challenge
Kampala - Uganda's constitutional court is hearing an unprecedented legal challenge to capital punishment from the country's death row inmates. The 417 prisoners contended before the country's second highest court that the death penalty - carried out by hanging in Uganda - amounted to cruel and degrading treatment prohibited by the constitution. Prison authorities support the petition.
'Aids deaths can be stopped'
Lagos - Two million Nigerians have been orphaned by Aids and 900 people are dying from the virus every day. The international medical aid agency Doctors Without Borders said yesterday: "These deaths are not necessary. They can be stopped."
Of about 4-million infected by HIV, roughly 500 000 were in desperate need of anti-retroviral treatment, but only about 20 000 of those received treatment.
Yalta troika in stone
Moscow - A statue commemorating Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin along with fellow wartime leaders US President Franklin D Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill will appear on a Moscow hill to mark the end of World War 2. The three allies took part in the Yalta summit in 1945. An official said the monument was not a reminder of tyranny but of leaders who defeated Hitler.
Surgeons down scalpels
Paris - French railway and energy workers have kept up the pressure on President Jacques Chirac's government with strikes over working conditions that halted most trains and cut electricity. Hospital surgeons also downed their scalpels yesterday on the second of three days of stoppages signalling discontent with the government as it prepares for flexibility by relaxing the 35-hour work week.
Nuclear check on Nigeria
Lagos - The head of the UN atomic watchdog agency has inspected a nuclear reactor in northern Nigeria that officials said was designed for research on peaceful uses of atomic energy. Mohamed ElBaradei, leading a team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Nigeria on Monday to inspect radioactive centres and advise on safety and security.
Gay bill drops animal clause
Madrid - A clause likening gay marriage to a union between men and animals has been removed from a draft report compiled by a judicial oversight board that advises the Spanish government. The Socialist government last month approved a bill legalising same-sex marriages. If the bill passes parliament, Spain would join Belgium and the Netherlands in legalising gay marriage in Europe.
DRC media clampdown
Kinshasa - Two television channels and a radio station belonging to Democratic Republic of Congo Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba have been suspended for carrying a former minister's contentious comments about President Joseph Kabila. Information Minister Henri Mova Sakanyi said the head of state was inviolable and any press attack on him was punishable by law..
