Publicité
Round the globe
<B>MUMBAI</B> - Six persons were killed and 12 injured when a section of a wall of a building, which is under construction, collapsed at Kopar Khairne in Navi Mumbai yesterday. Fire brigade personnel and police rescue teams were assisting in the rescue operations, police added. It was not clear whether any more persons were trapped under the debris, police also said.
<B>LONDON</B> - British Prime Minister Tony Blair, mired in a sleaze row over his Labour Party’s conduct, suffered a new blow yestersday when his deputy admitted an affair with a secretary.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said he regretted the relationship, which ended some time ago. His admission is an embarrassment for Blair ahead of local elections on May 4.
PALESTINE </B>- Leader Mahmud Abbas called today for an international conference to be held ?immediately? to negotiate a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“An international conference should be summoned immediately, in which direct negotiations take place, on the basis of international UN resolutions and signed agreements,” Mr Abbas said in a speech at the Nobel Institute in Oslo.
“The international group, whether it is the Quartet (the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations), or any other international framework, would play the role of the broker and arbitrator at the same time.”
“I believe that to resolve the conflict, both sides should not be left alone with this imbalance of occupier and occupied.”
The Palestinian leader, currently on a tour of Europe, encouraged the international community to “move fast” to secure a negotiated settlement to the conflict and stop a unilateral solution being imposed by acting Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert.
JERUSALEM</B> - Israel launched a highly accurate imaging satellite yesterday that will enhance its ability to spy on Iran, officials said. The launch took place in the Russian Far East.
Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz as saying: “It will strengthen capabilities to gather quality intelligence far from Israel’s borders.”
The Eros B satellite has a camera that can decipher objects on the ground as small as 70 centimetres across and can differentiate between objects that are at least that distance apart.
The Eros satellites are effective only in daylight and in clear visibility but a report in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily said Israel is planning to launch another spy satellite that can view objects in all weather conditions and in darkness.
ALEXANDRIA </B>- Jurors weighing the death penalty for Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in the United States in connection with the September 11 attacks, adjourned for the day on Tuesday without reaching a verdict.
The jury of nine men and three women had only one public question during their first full day of deliberations — whether they could have a dictionary in the jury room. US District Judge Leonie Brinkema refused their request, saying she did not want to give them “extraneous” reference material. Brinkema also told jurors not to conduct any type of independent investigation in relation to the case.
The jury has spent nearly 10 hours deliberating since they got the case on Monday afternoon. They resumed yesterday morning.
Moussaoui, 37, has pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy in connection with the hijackings. The jury will decide if he is executed or sentenced to life in prison.
Defense lawyers have asked the jury to sentence Moussaoui, an admitted al Qaeda member, to life in prison so he would not become a martyr.
Publicité
Publicité
Les plus récents
