LIBYA
Qaddafi son captured
Muammar Qaddafi’s son and heir apparent Saif al-Islam has been detained in the southern desert, the interim justice minister said yesterday. He said Saif al-Islam and several bodyguards had been captured near the town of Obari by fighters based in the western mountain town of Zintan. “We have arrested Saif al-Islam Qaddafi in the Obari area,” Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagy said, adding that the 39-year-old, who is wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court at The Hague, was not injured. Another senior official in the executive of the National Transitional Council said that the interim government was still checking the details of what had happened. There was no word of the other official wanted by the court, former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi.
CHINA
Factory workers strike
More than 7,000 workers went on strike at a factory in the south of the country making New Balance, Adidas and Nike shoes, clashing with police in a protest over layoffs and wage cuts, a rights group said. Dozens of workers were injured on Thursday as police tried to break the strikers’ blockade of the main road in the factory town near Dongguan in Guangdong Province, China Labor Watch said in a statement on Friday. The strike at the Yucheng factory in Huangjiang Township took place in the wake of the layoff last month of 18 managers, a move seen by workers as a preparation for the factory’s relocation, the New York-based group said.
CHINA
Crashed plane identified
A plane that crashed and exploded in the east of the country on Nov. 7 has been identified as a navy aircraft in a local television broadcast of a memorial for the pilot, a rights group said yesterday. The identification confirms that this was the second crash of a military aircraft in just under a month, after a fighter jet plunged to the ground and exploded at an air show last month, killing one of the pilots. The memorial for the pilot who died in this month’s crash in Zhejiang Province was broadcast on Wednesday by the local television station in his birthplace, Zouping City, Shandong Province, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
HONG KONG
Women face murder charge
Police charged two foreign women, believed to be Indonesians, with murder yesterday after they allegedly dumped a newborn baby girl in a garbage bin and left her to die. Police identified the women only as expatriates aged 26 and 32. Reports in the local media earlier in the week quoted police as saying they were Indonesian domestic helpers. “The 26-year-old woman, who gave birth to a baby on Nov. 16, dumped the baby at a refuse collection point at Ying Lung Wai with the help of her 32-year-old female friend,” police said in a statement. It said a search was still under way at an landfill in the West New Territories, but there appeared to be no hope the baby would be found alive. The woman delivered the girl at a house and stuffed her into a plastic bag before throwing her in a trash bin, the South China Morning Post reported earlier, quoting police. It said the friend told a third person, who alerted the mother’s employer, who in turn called the police. The employer reportedly told police he was not aware the woman was pregnant.
BRAZIL
Gunmen kill Indian chief
Gunmen executed a chief of the Kaiowa-Guarani Indian tribe and disappeared with his body on Friday, according to Funai, the country’s federal indigenous affairs agency. Funai spokesman Bruno Perez said in an e-mailed statement that more than 40 “hooded and heavily armed” gunmen raided the Tekoha Guaiviry village in Mato Grosso do Sul State and fatally shot chief Nisio Gomes. He said the gunmen fled into the surrounding jungle in two pickup trucks with Gomes’ body. Funai spokeswoman Simone Fernandes said it appeared the gunmen were hired by local ranchers seeking to intimidate and expel the tribe from land that both sides claim as their own. The Roman Catholic Church-backed Indian Missionary Council said Gomes was shot several times in the head, chest, legs and arms. The council said witnesses reported that the gunmen also kidnapped two youths and one child.
LEBANON
Qaddafi verdict delayed
A court on Friday delayed its verdict in a case alleging late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s involvement in the 1978 disappearance of a Shiite cleric, pending confirmation of Qaddafi’s death. In 2008, Lebanon issued an arrest warrant for Qaddafi and six others over the disappearance of Musa Sadr, a spiritual guide of Lebanon’s Shiite community. Two influential figures from Qaddafi’s entourage, Ahmed Ramadan and Abdel Moneim al-Honi, have confirmed the Libyan leader had ordered Sadr killed.
GAZA STRIP
Hamas orders bank payouts
Hamas has ordered two banks to pay out more than US$100 million following a lower court ruling, bank bosses said on Friday. A board member from the Islamic Bank of Palestine said that following the decision, US$6 million of his bank’s assets had been preventively frozen and US$100 million from the Bank of Palestine. The court decision also barred board members from either bank from leaving the territory, the source said asking not to be named. The banker denounced the decision, saying: “All banks in Gaza pay no taxes in accordance with an exemption extended in 2007 by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.” An official from the Bank of Palestine said his bank had been ordered to pay US$99.7 million and 50 million shekels (US$14 million) in unpaid taxes and late penalties. In March, most banks closed in protest after funds were seized with the approval of Hamas, which has controlled the territory since chasing out security forces loyal to Abbas. Monetary authorities under the control of Abbas’ West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, block any bank from dealing with Hamas.
UNITED STATES
Focus on economy: poll
Nearly nine out of 10 Americans say their government should focus more on domestic economic woes than on its global engagement, a survey released on Friday showed. The Ipsos survey of 18,682 adults in 24 countries found the same was true in other countries, but to a slightly lesser extent, with only eight in 10 focused primarily on jobs and their pocketbooks. “Most people want their nations to be engaged citizens of the world, but economic pressures prompt people to look inward,” said Peter Van Praagh, head of the Halifax International Security Forum, which commissioned the poll. Economics aside, about 80 percent of respondents support their governments in their efforts to help countries struck by natural disasters, nurture democracy or punish countries behaving badly by levying sanctions.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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