generalspeaking

News of the World, March 2009

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting a desperate battle for survival, seeing their twenty-six-year rebellion against the government of Sri Lanka face its end, hold an estimated 150,000 ethnic Tamils as virtual human shields. These are the Tamils for whom they have waged their bloody rebellion, and they are considered expendable to the larger cause. Now those Tamil civilians have lost their trust in their defenders: "The people do not like the Tigers any more. They are trapped by them and they are scared. They want the Sri Lankan army to rescue them", according to one elderly escapee from the Tigers' unwilling human protective shield.

A gunman opened fire inside a nursing home in a small North Carolina town yesterday, killing eight people, including elderly patients in wheelchairs. A 45-year-old local man was arrested and faces eight counts of first-degree murder after the shooting in Chartage. "There are eight dead", Moore County District Attorney told a news conference. Officials were unable to offer a motive for the killings, in what was the third major shooting incident in the southeastern U.S. this month. The dead included seven patients in their 70s, 80s and 90s, and one 39-year-old staff member.

Fans eager to view top soccer stars, stampeded in an Abidjan stadium during a World Cup qualifier yesterday, killing at least 19 people and leaving hundreds injured, many in critical condition. Scores of fans with tickets forced their way into the Houphouet-Boigny Stadium in Ivory Coast's largest city after the match against Malawi started. Police were said to have fired tear gas to control crowds and the stampede was followed by a wall collapse. Many casualties were treated at the stadium as the match proceeded.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators crowded central Madrid yesterday, waving banners and chanting slogans against government plans to liberalize the country's abortion laws. Protesters massed outside the Equality Ministry, which is drafting a new abortion-access law, and marched through the streets with signs proclaiming: "There is no right to kill, there is the right to live", and "Women yes, abortion no".

A Colombian man accused of raping his daughter from a young age and fathering eight children with her was arrested on Saturday, causing an outcry over the lack of child protection in the Andean nation. Arcebio Alvarez, 58, informed a judge he was innocent, claiming his accuser was not his biological daughter. Alba Nidia Alvarez, the 35-year-old woman who claims to be his biological daughter, informed police he had abused her since she was under the age of ten. Alba Nidia's mother died when she was five, leaving her under the care of Alvarez, who has been branded "the monster of Mariquita" by the local press.

Police in parts of Northern Ireland have begun wearing flak jackets and carrying rifles for the first time in years following three high-profile killings. The Police Service of Northern Ireland has returned to arming some of its officers after the fatal shootings of two British soldiers and a police officer within 48 hours of each other. "Regional commanders will decide where it is appropriate to carry Heckler and Koch rifles" a police spokesperson advised.

North Korea is preparing to launch a close- to mid-range ballistic missile separately from the long-range rocket that Pyongyang has said it will launch next month, the Sankei Japanese daily newspaper reported yesterday. The report comes as Pyongyang is poised to launch a communications satellite between April 4 - 8 that regional powers believe will in reality be a test of a long-range missile, the Taepodong-2, which is already believed to be on its launch pad. North Korea has given international agencies notice that the rocket's planned trajectory should take it over Japan, dropping booster stages to its east and west. Any attempt to shoot the rocket itself down would be construed as an act of war, it has warned. Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday that Japan's Air Self-Defense Force had started to deploy units capable of shooting down the rocket to the norther prefectures of Akita and Iwate.

Labels: World News

posted by Pieface @ Monday, March 30, 2009