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ABOARD THE POPE’S PLANE: Pope Benedict XVI said
Saturday he will use his visit to Australia to apologize for sexual
abuse by priests and how the Church can “prevent, heal and
reconcile.” “We have to consider what was insufficient in our
behavior and how we can prevent, heal, reconcile. This is the
essential content of what we will say as we apologize,” Benedict
told reporters aboard his plane as he headed to Australia to lead
the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day celebrations.
--AFP
ABU DHABI: The latest estimates
of the global energy firm BP showed oil production of the United
Arab Emirates (UAE) will last 92 years at current production levels.
The UAE’s average crude oil output stood at 2.66 million barrels
per day for the second quarter of 2008, the latest data by the
International Energy Agency showed.
--Xinhua
JAKARTA: The Presidents of
Indonesia and Brazil agreed to strengthen their cooperation in
ethanol production. President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono of Indonesia
and his counterpart Luiz Lula Da Silva witnessed the signing of the
agreement on technical production of ethanol at the State palace. It
was reported that Brazil has been successful in developing
bio-ethanol. Indonesia will force manufacturers to shift some of
their energy consumption to bio-fuel in the near future.
--Xinhua
BEIJING: Red Cliff was reportedly
Asia’s most expensive film ever. It gained 27 million Yuan ($3.91
million) of box office on its first-day release, setting the highest
record among homemade movies. Its first-day box office was the
highest among all movies released in the mainland so far this year
and higher than last year’s Hollywood blockbuster Transformers
whose first-day box office was 22.41 million Yuan. The movie
directed by Hollywood-based Hong Kong director John Woo has several
leading Asian stars in its cast, including award-winning Hong Kong
actor Tony Leung, Taiwan supermodel Lin Chi-ling, Taiwanese-Japanese
heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro and mainland’s leading actor Zhang
Fengyi.
FRANCE: The head of the Lyon
branch of the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), Charles-Antoine Louet,
arrives for a press conference on July 11, 2008, in Lyon to speak
about the July 8, 2008, accidental spillage of uranium-ladden waste
at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Center in Bollene, southern France.
The leakage occurred when liquid was transferred from one container
to another on the site of the nuclear installation run by Socatri, a
subsidiary of French nuclear giant Areva.
--AFP
KABUL: Four Afghan border police
officers and eight Pakistani soldiers were injured when they engaged
with unknown militants’ fire from both sides last Thursday. It
occurred at about 8:30 p.m. when Afghan border police and a
Pakistani military unit each reported receiving indirect fire. This
year, more than 2,000 people with some 700 civilians died because of
militancy and conflicts in Afghanistan.
--Xinhua
SHANGHAI: A Chinese man was found
guilty and sentenced to two years in jail for hacking into a Red
Cross website and asking for relief donation. He stole the site of
administrator’s identity and password and then posted a fake
notice. The authorities caught him before any donations made it to
his account.
--AFP
SEOUL: North Korea said Saturday
it regretted the death of a female South Korean tourist shot by one
of its soldiers, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. The
53-year-old Seoul housewife was taking an early morning stroll at
the Mount Kumgang holiday resort in North Korea on Friday, when she
apparently strayed into a military zone and was shot dead. Pyongyang
announced its regret in a statement issued by the North Korean
partner of Hyundai Asan, the South Korean firm which manages the
resort, Yonhap said.
--AFP
WASHINGTON: Democratic White
House hopeful Barack Obama says in an interview that the Afghan
government of President Hamid Karzai has not “gotten out of the
bunker” to rebuild the war-torn country.
--AFP
WASHINGTON: Washington has warned
that global terror group al-Qaeda is rebuilding itself in
Pakistan’s tribal areas for a possible terrorist attack on US soil
while Kabul has accused Pakistan of backing Taliban insurgents
waging a bloody insurgency against international troops in
Afghanistan.
--AFP
TEHRAN: Military strikes against
Iran would be crazy after they contested a nuclear drive with a
broadside of missiles. Iran also dismissed the speculation that it
risked being attack by the United States because of its possible
devastating effects. They also insisted that launching the nuclear
programme only aimed to generate electricity and denied the
accusations that they will be using it to seek nuclear weapons.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned the United States
and Israel, their regional ally attacked them, they response would
be harsh.
--AFP
HAVANA: The 8th Chinese Cultural
Festival kicked off here on Friday with shows of China’s
traditional lion dance and shadowboxing. The festival, co-organized
by Cuba’s Ministry of Culture and the Chinese Embassy in Cuba, was
held in the Cuban Exhibition Center in suburban Havana. Cuba’s
Deputy Minister of Culture Fernando Rojas attended the opening
ceremony and said Cuba and China maintain good relations in the
political, economic and cultural fields, and the annual Chinese
Cultural Festival is testament to the ever-strengthening bilateral
relations. The three-day festival will also feature shows of Chinese
martial arts, Chinese cuisine exhibitions and kite-flying
competitions and other activities.
--Xinhua
JOHANNESBURG: The South African
government said that the dialogue between Zimbabwe’s rival
political parties would be spurred by the rejection of a new
sanctions resolution at the United Nations. The foreign ministry
said that imposing sanctions would have a negative impact on the
current dialogue process between Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF Party
and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. On the other
hand, second day of talks between Zimbabwe’s ruling party and
opposition were held in South Africa on Friday.
--AFP
JERUSALEM: Israeli police went on
high alert after a gunman opened fire on policemen standing outside
the walls of the Old City wounded two of the Israeli police. The
attack took place near the Lion’s Gate, one of several entrances
through the 400-year-old walls that surround the Old City. Police
returned fire before the attacker fled through a nearby Muslim
cemetery and they launched manhunt focused on the East Jerusalem and
Palestinian Villages.
--AFP
TOKYO: Japan’s Nissan Motor Co.
and its Chinese partner Dongfeng Motor Corp. plan to build a new
engine factory in central China. The two firms will jointly invest
more than 24 billion yen for the construction of the new plant while
the operation will begin in March next year. The factory will be
located near Zhengzhou Nissan Automobile Co. in Henan Province. This
expansion is part of the target raise in sales of the Nissan sales
of vehicles made with Dongfeng to one million units in 2012.
--AFP
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