|
QUNU, South Africa: Former South African President
Nelson Mandela, fresh from being feted at home and abroad on his
90th birthday, was to host a banquet for the new generation of South
African leaders as well as hundreds of friends. The celebrations
held in rural Eastern cape with a 500 expected guests including
Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, Desmond Tutu, Mandela’s fellow Nobel
peace prizewinner and former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda. The
event will give some of his legion of admirers an opportunity to
express their best wishes in the flesh at his homestead in the
village of Qunu.
BAGHDAD: British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown arrived in Baghdad, as an official visit for talks with
his Iraqi counterpart and other leaders in a bid to push economic
rebuilding in the violence-wracked country. Brown is expected to
discuss bilateral relations with the Iraqi leaders and also “study
the future of the British presence in Basra,” in southern Iraq. He
is expected to use his trip to push for reconstruction and
investment in the Iraqi economy.
SYDNEY: Cries of “Hallelujah”
and prayerful singing replaced the usual din of traffic on
Sydney’s Harbor Bridge on Saturday as masses of pilgrims walked
across for a vigil with Pope Benedict XVI. Tens of thousands of
young Catholics made the 9-kilometer (5.5 mile) pilgrimage walk from
the bridge to Royal Randwick Racecourse in the city’s east where
the pontiff is to lead a candlelit prayer session. The worshippers
waving national flags and playing guitars, drums and tambourines,
walked across the bridge under winter sunshine amid hymns sung in
several languages and the occasional cheer of “Aussie, Aussie,
Aussie.”
TEHRAN, Iran: The presidents of
Iran and Russia have expressed hope for a diplomatic solution to the
nuclear crisis on the eve of key talks aiming to break the deadlock.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Russian counterpart Dmitry
Medvedev held their first telephone talks late on Friday to examine
ways to make decisions in different fields and help resolve the
existing issues. Medvedev urged Iran to cooperate fully with the
International Atomic Energy Agency to clarify questions remaining
about the Iranian nuclear program.
SINGAPORE: An Australian
television reporter, Peter Gerard Lloyd, 41, who charged with drug
trafficking in Singapore has been moved from the Changi General
hospital to a prison medical facility. Lloyd who came from
Australian Broadcasting Corporation is charged with trafficking
about one gram (0.035 ounces) of methamphetamine to a Singaporean
for 100 Singapore dollars ($73.5) at a hotel early this month. He
also faces a second charge for allegedly being in possession on
Wednesday of about one gram of the stimulant methamphetamine, also
known as “ice,” at a local hospital.
HARARE: Zimbabwe introduces a new
$100-billion bank note in a bid to tackle rampant cash shortages as
it is grappling with a record 2.2 million percent inflation. The new
note will go on circulation on Monday as central bank joins about a
half dozen new high denominations notes already issued this year.
Zimbabwe’s chronic economic crisis has left at least 80 percent of
the population living below the poverty threshold and mass shortages
of basic goods in shops.
KABUL, Afghanistan: Illinois
senator and US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama
arrived in Afghanistan as the start of his major international tour.
His arrival in Kabul is in secrecy because of security threats
linked to a Taliban-led insurgency. The senator has been outspoken
about the need to do more to help Afghanistan and he promises to get
most US combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months.
JERUSALEM: Israeli security
forces opened fire at suspected drug smugglers along its border with
Syria early on Saturday killing one person and wounding another. The
incident came when a joint army and police patrol searching for drug
traffickers on the occupied Golan Heights identified a group of
suspicious people. A military official speaking on condition of
anonymity said the drugs were found at the site of the incident.
NEW DELHI, India: Indian mobile
phone group Reliance Communications and Africa’s largest cellular
firm MTN have called off talks for a tie-up because of “legal and
regulatory issues.” The companies have agreed to allow an
exclusivity agreement to lapse as they entered into exclusive
negotiations late in May after MTN’s talks with India’s biggest
mobile operator Bharti collapsed over an ownership structure
proposed by the South African firm. A partnership could have created
an emerging market powerhouse worth up to $70 billion and with a 116
million-subscriber base across the globe, eclipsing most Western
mobile phone businesses.
TOKYO: Hayao Miyazaki’s first
full-length film in four years hit screens across Japan putting
aside speculation that the Oscar-winning Japanese animator had made
his last picture. A 650-seat movie theatre at Tokyo’s shopping and
business district of Hibiya was filled with his fans, mostly
children and their parents, to watch “Ponyo on the Cliff by the
Sea,” which was directed by the 67-year-old writer and director.
Miyazaki is one of Japan’s biggest cultural exports because of his
box-office films.
NICE, France: Hollywood actress
Anglelina Jolie checked out of a maternity clinic in the south of
France on Saturday, a week after giving birth to twins, Knox Leon
and Vivienne Marcheline, a boy and a girl, according to a statement.
Jolie, 33, left before dawn on Saturday, avoiding photographers who
have been massed outside the Fondation Lenval clinic in Nice. The
Oscar-winning American actress and her children “were doing
perfectly well,” according to a statement issued by the clinic.
The twins, born last Saturday, brought the number of Jolie’s
children with 44-year-old American film star Brad Pitt to six.
Hollywood’s golden couple have adopted three children: Maddox,
six, born in Cambodia; four-year-old Pax, born in Vietnam; and
Zahara, three, born in Ethiopia.
TAIPEI: Thousands of workers
continued search and rescue operations Saturday after Tropical Storm
Kalmaegi wreaked havoc across Taiwan, leaving at least 18 people
dead and seven missing, officials said. Seven people, believed to
have been washed away by floods, or buried alive, remained missing
while eight others were injured. The casualties from floods and
mudslides were reported in worst-hit central and southern Taiwan,
where up to 1,000 millimeters (39 inches) of rain fell in less than
two days. The bodies of several missing people were found later
Saturday, including a 64-year-old woman who fell into a river when
riding her motorcycle in southern Pingtung county, said the National
Fire Agency. More than 60,000 government and civilian rescuers have
been mobilized, with some 90 people evacuated to safety.
SYDNEY: Pope Benedict XVI offered
a historic full apology for child sex abuse by predatory priests
Saturday, saying he was “deeply sorry” and calling for those
guilty of the “evil” to be punished. The Pope strayed from a
prepared speech to express his shame and make his first direct and
explicit apology to victims of corrupt clergymen in Australia,
during a mass for Australian clergy in Sydney. “I am deeply sorry
for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure
them that, as their pastor, I too share in their suffering,” Pope
Benedict said. His remarks to Catholic bishops, seminarians and
novices in Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral were the strongest he
has used in confronting the scourge, which has rocked the Catholic
Church globally.
NEW YORK: White House hopeful Barack Obama is still struggling to
convince some wary Jewish voters to close ranks behind his campaign
despite their traditional support for Democratic candidates. Obama
has taken steps to reassure American Jews of his steadfast support
of Israel in recent months, but polls show he has more work to do to
win over a large majority of the key electorate for the November 4
election. In May, a nationwide Gallup poll showed that 61 percent of
Jews supported Obama compared to 32 percent for Republican contender
John McCain.
--AFP
|
