iWorld news briefing
ISRAEL
Bedouin teen killed in attack on police base
In the rare incident in southern Israel, the girl fired a pistol at a guard post and was shot dead, a police spokesman said.
In an earlier incident near the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, Palestinian medics said they recovered the bodies of two gunmen killed by Israeli troops.
SUDAN
Darfur situation is dire, envoy says
Chances are slim that all the aid groups expelled by the Sudanese government will return to Darfur, and alternative ways must be found to help millions of people, President Obama’s new envoy to Sudan said.
J. Scott Gration made his comments after touring Darfur’s fastest-growing refugee camp. The retired Air Force general said the basic needs of more than 70,000 people in the Zam Zam camp are barely being met, largely because of the expulsion of the aid groups.
Sudan made the move after an international court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for the counterinsurgency campaign in Darfur.
Gration said water could run out in the northern Darfur camp, which has received thousands of newly displaced people, in about two months and there could be an outbreak of preventable diseases.
Sudan has said its agencies will fill the gap, but Gration said they will not be able to meet all the needs.
AFGHANISTAN
Marriage law review ordered
President Hamid Karzai said he had ordered a review of a new law that critics say makes it legal for men to rape their wives, responding to criticism from around the world that included sharp comments from President Obama.
The law is intended to regulate family life inside Afghanistan’s Shiite community, which makes up about 10% of the country’s 30 million people. Under one article, Shiite husbands are given the right to demand sex every fourth night unless the wife is ill.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women has said the law “legalizes the rape of a wife by her husband.”
Obama described the law as “abhorrent,” and said the U.S. was conveying its views to the Afghan government. Even before Obama’s comment, Karzai said he ordered the Justice Ministry to review the law.
Eleven people were found shot to death around Mexico, some bearing signs of torture and left with threats emblematic of drug violence.
Four bodies were found in the southern Pacific coast state of Guerrero, including two men in the trunk of a car in the resort of Zihuatanejo. The two were blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs, a police report said.
VENEZUELA
President Hugo Chavez has said he hopes to “reset” relations with the United States at an Americas summit this month after nearly a decade of tensions.
Chavez has for months offered mixed signals about his attitude toward President Obama, sometimes praising his administration but at other times mocking him as the leader of an “empire” or calling him an “ignoramus.”
Both Obama and Chavez are expected to attend the meeting starting April 17 in Trinidad and Tobago.
CHILE
Llaima volcano spews lava
Llaima volcano, one of the most active in South America, spewed out a stream of lava about two-thirds of a mile long, prompting officials to order dozens of people to evacuate.
Llaima, which lies in the picturesque lake region about 400 miles south of the capital, Santiago, erupted on Jan. 1, 2008, and has belched rock and ash sporadically since then.
The lava and hot gases from the latest eruption are melting snow on the sides of the volcano, and authorities say some towns are in danger of being hit by mudslides.
CUBA
U.S. lawmakers visit Havana
U.S. lawmakers met with Cuba’s foreign minister and laid flowers at a Havana memorial to civil rights leader Martin Luther King during a visit aimed at improving relations with the communist nation.
The delegation is the first from the United States since President Obama took office in January. Congress is preparing to consider bills lifting most restrictions on U.S. travel to Cuba.
A White House official confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that Obama would abolish limits on family travel and cash remittances between the United States and Cuba, but the official said the move was not a policy shift or imminent.
Obama promised during his presidential campaign to lift the restrictions.
South African judge to head U.N. inquiry
Israel did not say whether it would cooperate.
Richard Goldstone, the former U.N. chief prosecutor for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, was named to head the investigation, ordered by the Human Rights Council in January. According to the mandate, the investigation should focus on Palestinian casualties in the three-week assault Israel launched against Hamas late last year.
Martin Uhomoibhi, the council president, explained the apparent contradiction by saying that the mission was always intended to evaluate the proportionality of Israel’s response, which requires that acts of both warring parties be examined.
THAILAND
10 years for royal Photoshopping
A Thai citizen was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of insulting the king and his family by posting edited photos of the royals on the Internet, a court said.
Suwicha Thakho, 34, a former oil worker, was detained in January and admitted altering the photos of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, and his family, the Bangkok Criminal Court said. It did not say in what way the photos were changed or where they appeared, although local news reports said that some appeared on YouTube.
The court found Suwicha guilty of violating the country’s lese majeste law, which prohibits insulting the king and his family, as well as the 2007 Computer Crime Act, which bars the circulation of material deemed detrimental to national security or that causes public panic.
MALAYSIA
New premier frees 13 detainees
Prime Minister Najib Razak, in his first act after taking office, freed 13 people being held under a law that allows indefinite detention and lifted a ban on two opposition newspapers.
“These decisions are timely as we move to enhance the confidence of our citizens in those entrusted with maintaining peace, law and order,” Najib said on national television hours after taking office.
Those freed are two ethnic Indian activists who were arrested in December 2007 for leading an anti-government campaign, three foreigners and eight suspected Islamic militants, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar announced.
SWEDEN
‘Ferrari guy’ faces assault charges
The fast-driving Swede who crashed a rare Ferrari on a Southern California highway three years ago has been arrested in his home country on suspicion of theft, assault and extortion.
Bo Stefan Eriksson was deported to Sweden last year after serving a prison sentence in the United States, where he had pleaded no contest to charges of drunk driving, embezzlement and illegal gun possession.
He became known as the “Ferrari guy” after crashing a $1.5-million Ferrari Enzo into a pole at 162 mph in Malibu in 2006.
Swedish prosecutors now say he’s suspected on seven counts, including attempted extortion and aggravated assault. The Uppsala district court granted a request Thursday to keep him in jail pending an investigation.
– times wire reports
