|
SEOUL: A foreigner has been picked to join a presidential transition
team for the first time in South Korea, aides to future leader Lee
Myung-Bak said Thursday. Lee picked British financial expert David
Eldon as well as former finance minister Sa Kong-Il to jointly head
a committee to follow up on campaign promises including a
cross-country canal, they said. It is the first time a foreigner has
joined South Korea’s presidential transition team.
-- AFP
KUALA LUMPUR: Rescue officials have found the
body of another victim of a landslide that hit a squatter colony in
Malaysia’s eastern Sarawak state, a report said Thursday, bringing
the death toll to two. The victim’s grandmother was found dead
early Wednesday when the landslide occurred after two hours of rain,
the New Straits Times newspaper said, adding that another two
members of the family remained missing.
-- AFP
BOGOTA: Colombian civil defense officials
confirmed Wednesday that torrential rains have caused serious damage
in the central province of Tolima, leaving many houses destroyed and
people homeless. Three corpses have been found and many more people
were still missing, officials said.
-- Xinhua
TAWANGMANGU: Indonesian rescuers pulled corpses
from mud Thursday as they hunted for victims of landslides and
floods on Java island that have left more than 130 people feared
dead, officials said. Landslides hit two districts in Central Java
in the early hours of Wednesday morning, engulfing entire homes and
blocking key access roads, while floods swelling in East Java swept
away a bridge, leaving an estimated 50 missing.
-- AFP
KABUL: A United Nations official and an EU
diplomat ordered out of Afghanistan on allegations of posing a
national security threat left the country on Thursday, the two
organizations said. The UN employee, a British national, flew out on
a UN flight, his organization said. The European Union official, an
Irish national who is the institution’s second most senior
representative here, also left, the EU said. The United Nations did
not name its employee, a political advisor, or say where had gone.
-- AFP
CARACAS: Three hostages held by Colombian
leftist rebels could be freed as early as Thursday after the
Colombian government approved a handover plan devised by Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez and the guerrillas. Bogota gave its nod to the
plan Wednesday, hours after Chavez said it was the only thing needed
to launch the operation to pick up the two women and a child from
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
-- AFP
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka sent a crack commando unit
into the state-run television station Thursday to rescue a
government minister kidnapped by journalists for allegedly
assaulting a colleague. An antihijacking and hostage rescue squad of
army commandos was already at the Rupavahini state television
network to free Labor Minister Mervin Silva who had allegedly
stormed the studios and attacked journalists, officials said.
-- AFP
BAGHDAD: Two roadside bomb explosions rocked the
Iraqi capital on Thursday morning, killing a civilian and wounding
10 others, an Interior Ministry source said. “A roadside bomb
detonated near a minibus carrying passengers in Baghdad’s eastern
neighborhood of Baladiyat, killing a passenger and wounding nine
others, along with damaging the minibus and several nearby civilian
cars. Another roadside bomb went off near the Musa Bin Naseer fuel
station in the Karradah district in central Baghdad, injuring two
civilians, the source said.
-- Xinhua
SEOUL: A foreigner has been picked to join a
presidential transition team for the first time in South Korea,
aides to future leader Lee Myung-Bak said Thursday. Lee picked
British financial expert David Eldon as well as former finance
minister Sa Kong-Il to jointly head a committee to follow up on
campaign promises including a cross-country canal, they said. It is
the first time a foreigner has joined South Korea’s presidential
transition team.
-- AFP
KUALA LUMPUR: Rescue officials have found the
body of another victim of a landslide that hit a squatter colony in
Malaysia’s eastern Sarawak state, a report said Thursday, bringing
the death toll to two. The victim’s grandmother was found dead
early Wednesday when the landslide occurred after two hours of rain,
the New Straits Times newspaper said, adding that another two
members of the family remained missing.
-- AFP
BOGOTA: Colombian civil defense officials
confirmed Wednesday that torrential rains have caused serious damage
in the central province of Tolima, leaving many houses destroyed and
people homeless. Three corpses have been found and many more people
were still missing, officials said.
-- Xinhua
TAWANGMANGU: Indonesian rescuers pulled corpses
from mud Thursday as they hunted for victims of landslides and
floods on Java island that have left more than 130 people feared
dead, officials said. Landslides hit two districts in Central Java
in the early hours of Wednesday morning, engulfing entire homes and
blocking key access roads, while floods swelling in East Java swept
away a bridge, leaving an estimated 50 missing.
-- AFP
KABUL: A United Nations official and an EU
diplomat ordered out of Afghanistan on allegations of posing a
national security threat left the country on Thursday, the two
organizations said. The UN employee, a British national, flew out on
a UN flight, his organization said. The European Union official, an
Irish national who is the institution’s second most senior
representative here, also left, the EU said. The United Nations did
not name its employee, a political advisor, or say where had gone.
-- AFP
n CARACAS: Three hostages held by Colombian
leftist rebels could be freed as early as Thursday after the
Colombian government approved a handover plan devised by Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez and the guerrillas. Bogota gave its nod to the
plan Wednesday, hours after Chavez said it was the only thing needed
to launch the operation to pick up the two women and a child from
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
-- AFP
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka sent a crack commando unit
into the state-run television station Thursday to rescue a
government minister kidnapped by journalists for allegedly
assaulting a colleague. An antihijacking and hostage rescue squad of
army commandos was already at the Rupavahini state television
network to free Labor Minister Mervin Silva who had allegedly
stormed the studios and attacked journalists, officials said.
-- AFP
BAGHDAD: Two roadside bomb explosions rocked the
Iraqi capital on Thursday morning, killing a civilian and wounding
10 others, an Interior Ministry source said. “A roadside bomb
detonated near a minibus carrying passengers in Baghdad’s eastern
neighborhood of Baladiyat, killing a passenger and wounding nine
others, along with damaging the minibus and several nearby civilian
cars. Another roadside bomb went off near the Musa Bin Naseer fuel
station in the Karradah district in central Baghdad, injuring two
civilians, the source said.
-- Xinhua
|
