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news without borders
Israeli police seek fraud charges for foreign minister
JERUSALEM: Israeli police recom-
mended on Sunday that state
prosecutors charge Foreign Minister
Avigdor Lieberman for bribery, fraud
and money laundering.
Lieberman, whose ultranationalist
Yisrael Beiteinu party is a key partner
in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya-
hu’s ruling coalition, accused police of
briefs
Hundreds sickened
by chemical plant
BEIJING: More than 500 people
have been sickened by pollution
from a chemical plant in central
China that has also been blamed
for two deaths, Xinhua news
agency reported yesterday.
Health checks on nearly 3,000
people living near the plant in
Liuyang county, Hunan province,
revealed 509 had excessive
levels of cadmium, a toxic heavy
metal, Xinhua said, quoting Zhou
Mengde, a local official investi-
gating the incident.
“Among the sickened, 33 need
to be hospitalised. The govern-
ment will cover the medical cost
of their treatment.” – AFP
Italy expels
terror convict
ROME: Italy on Sunday ex-
pelled a Tunisian jailed on
terrorism charges, defying a
ruling of the European Court
of Justice by sending him
back to his country where he
fears he could face torture, his
lawyer said.
Ali Toumi, who is married to
an Italian and has three children,
had been fighting extradition
for fear of torture in Tunisia. He
was seeking to remain in Italy
on humanitarian grounds, his
lawyer Barbara Manama said.
The European Court of Justice
has on three occasions asked
the Italian authorities not to
proceed with Toumi’s expulsion
before deciding on his asylum
request. – AFP
South Sudan ethnic
clashes kill 160: UN
JUBA (Sudan): Clashes between
rival ethnic groups in south Sudan
killed more than 160 people, a UN
official said yesterday.
“We have reports of more than
160 dead, and many are believed
to be women and children,” the
senior official said, requesting
anonymity because he is not au-
thorised to speak to the media.
The attacks took place on
Sunday in the Akabo region of the
Jonglei state, the official said.
Initial reports indicated that
armed men from the Murele
ethnic group attacked people
already displaced by fighting
earlier this year. – AFP
No sign of missing
plane in Indonesia
JAYAPURA: Indonesian search
and rescue teams were scour-
ing the mountains of eastern
Papua province yesterday for
signs of a plane that went
missing with 16 people on
board, an official said.
Jayapura Air Base com-
mander Suwandi Miharja, who
is coordinating the search,
said two rescue aircraft were
looking for the Merpati Airlines
plane which disappeared on a
flight from Jayapura to Oksibil
on Sunday. – AFP
waging a “campaign of persecution”
against him and said their allegations
were unfounded.
In a statement, police said a nine-
year investigation found “a basis
of evidence” against Lieberman of
bribe-taking, fraud, violation of public
confidence and obstruction of justice
with regard to suspected money laun-
NZ votes on right
to smack children
WELLINGTON: A referendum
is under way in New Zealand
on whether it should remain
a criminal offence to smack
children, with polls showing
overwhelming support to again
legalise corporal punishment.
The three-week postal ballot,
which ends on Aug 21, seeks to
overturn a 2007 change to the
Crimes Act which divided the
country by making it illegal for
parents to use force against
children for correction purposes.
New Zealand is one of 24 coun-
tries to ban smacking. – AFP
Court to try officials
over aid scandal
HANOI: A Vietnamese court
will try two government of-
ficials on charges stemming
from a major development aid
scandal involving a Japanese
company, a court official said
yesterday.
Nguyen Duc Sau, chairman
of Ho Chi Minh City’s Criminal
Court, said Huynh Ngoc Si,
former vice head of the city’s
transportation department,
and his deputy Le Qua were
charged with “abusing power
while performing official du-
ties.” – dpa
dering. The investigation, conducted
mostly while Lieberman held other
government posts, focused on the
transfer of millions of Israeli shekels
to shell companies and accounts
belonging to people close to him, the
statement said.
Lieberman, in a statement released
by his spokesman, said there was “no
Khamenei
endorses Ahmadinejad
Jockeying
for
TEHERAN: Iran’s supreme leader
position Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday
pg 28 formally endorsed Mahmoud Ah-
madinejad as president for a new
four-year term amid intense politi-
cal turmoil in the Islamic republic.
“The supreme leader appointed
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the
president of the Islamic Republic
for a second term,” state-owned
Al-Alam television said.
Ahmadinejad’s confirmation
comes as Iran grapples with its
worst turbulence since the 1979
Final Farewell...
A truck carrying the casket of late former
Philippine president Corazon Aquino passes
thousands of people along the main street of
Makati’s financial business district of Manila
yesterday. Aquino, 76, who ousted Ferdinand
Marcos to become a global icon of democracy,
died on Saturday after a 16-month battle against
colon cancer. She will be buried tomorrow.
basis for the police recommendation”
and expressed confidence he would
not be indicted.
Police handed their recommenda-
tion to state prosecutors who have to
decide whether to charge Lieberman,
the latest in a line of Israeli public
figures to face police questioning.
Ehud Olmert was forced to resign
Islamic revolution, with deadly
street protests, a raft of political tri-
als and an escalating feud between
rival factions.
Ahmadinejad, 52, is due to be
sworn in before parliament tomor-
row following his June 12 election
win, but is under fire from his own
hardline camp, which questions
his loyalty to Khamenei.
The announcement of Ah-
madinejad’s landslide victory was
met with a vast outpouring of anger
from opposition supporters who
claim their votes were stolen.
Massive street protests left at
least 30 people dead and saw sev-
eral thousand protesters rounded
up, among them prominent pro-
reform figures and journalists.
Mir Hossein Mousavi and Me-
hdi Karroubi, who stood against
Ahmadinejad, have accused the
authorities of massive vote rigging
and branded Ahmadinejad’s presi-
dency illegitimate.
His re-election has also cre-
ated a rift among the clergy, with
several senior clerics siding with
the opposition and condemning
Karzai turns to
spiritual leaders
KAYAN (Afghanistan): While his elec-
tion challengers pound the campaign
trail, Afghan President Hamid Karzai
is pursuing his own strategy for the
looming polls: woo one powerful local
leader and win one million votes.
In the small hamlet of Kayan, deep
in the central highlands of Afghani-
stan, men in turbans and women and
children in sparkling dresses – all
members of the Ismaili sect of Shia
Islam – camped out in the shade of
mulberry trees on Sunday.
They have gathered for a glimpse
of their spiritual leader Sayed Mansoor
Naderi and a frenzy breaks out when
the silver-haired, moustachioed man
swaggers through the crowd, cutting
a regal figure dressed all in black.
“If he tells them to kill themselves,
they will. If he told me to shoot myself,
I would because he is our spiritual
leader,” said teacher Gulam Sakhi, 40,
as he heads past dusty, mud-bricked
houses plastered with Karzai’s im-
age.
Such fervent support comes in
handy in during election season.
Naderi has come out in favour of
Karzai, who is tipped to win another
term in Afghanistan’s second presi-
dential elections on Aug 20.
The incumbent has come under fire
for largely eschewing campaigning but
in a country of fierce local allegiances
REUTERSPIX
and ethnic divisions, analysts say
canny deal-making with kingmakers
may bring Karzai a victory.
theSun | TUESDAY AUGUST 4 2009
as prime minister a year ago over a cor-
ruption probe, though he has denied
any The Moldavan-born Lieberman
has been denounced by Israeli Arabs
as a racist for his party’s introduction
of legislation to curb the liberties of
citizens deemed as disloyal to the
state, moves widely seen as targeting
Israel’s Arab minority. – Reuters
the post-election violence and the
regime’s treatment of its critics.
The authorities hit back with
a heavy-handed crackdown on
protesters, whom they accuse of
seeking to overthrow the regime.
On Saturday, around 100
people were put on trial in a Te-
heran revolutionary court, a move
slammed by opposition leaders
but welcomed by hardliners who
accused Mousavi and former
president Mohammad Khatami of
treason. Another 10 went on trial
on Sunday.
In a keynote speech on June
19 after a week of bitter protests,
Khamenei strongly backed Ah-
madinejad and dismissed the
vote-rigging allegations, accusing
Western governments, Britain in
particular, of instigating the un-
rest.
Although key policy issues are
decided by Khamenei, critics point
the finger of blame at Ahmadinejad
for three sets of UN Security Coun-
cil sanctions over Iran’s refusal
to suspend uranium enrichment.
– AFP
“As Sayed Mansoor is our leader
and he selected Karzai, we will also
vote for him,” said 32-year-old Abdul
Shafiq.
“If he told us to give our vote to
Ashraf Ghani, then we would give our
vote to Ashraf Ghani,” he said refer-
ring to one of Karzai’s main rivals.
Leaders of the sect headed by the
Aga Khan say there are one million
Ismailis in Afghanistan, and although
that figure is impossible to verify as
there has been no census here, it
translates to handsome support for
Karzai.
It was in Kayan that Karzai held his
first rally outside Kabul, more than six
weeks into the official campaigning
period. Ghani and other top contender
Abdullah Abdullah have held rallies
across the country almost every
week.
“Power today is with people. If
Karzai wants votes, he must come to
Aga Sahib... Aga Sahib will order his
tribe to give their vote to Karzai,” the
president told a rapt crowd, using a
respectful term to refer to Naderi.
It is not the first deal Karzai has
struck with local strongmen, warlords
and tribal leaders, who will guide the
votes of legions of their supporters. In
late May, Karzai secured the significant
backing of warlord General Abdul
Rashid Dostam, leader of the Uzbek
minority, and Mohammad Mohaqiq,
his Hazara counterpart – coups on the
Afghan political chessboard. – AFP