The Sunday Times


A 6


news SUNDAY D e cember 5, 2010


disrupted transport in Britain and serious flooding forced thousands of people to be evacuated in the Balkans.


Seventeen people died from the cold in Central Europe in the past 24 hours, bringing the total this week to 45. A further 11 died in Russia, plus three in France and one in Ger- many, according to local authorities. At least 30 people, mainly home- less men, have died in Poland in the past week and temperatures


At least 60 dead in Europe as snow, floods cause havoc L


ONDON: A cold snap across Europe has claimed at least 60 lives, authorities said Friday, as snow


dropped to minus 15 degrees Cel- sius overnight. Temperatures plunged to minus


20 degrees Celsius in Braemar, Scot- land, while Britain struggled to get back to its feet after days of trans- port chaos caused by bad weather. London’s Gatwick Airport reo- pened on Friday after a two-day


shutdown because of snow, but other airports including London Heathrow and Glasgow warned of more cancellations and delays. Many trains were cancelled be- cause of snow and travel by road was slow going, while about 2,000 schools remained closed. “It is likely to take a few days be- fore flight schedules return to nor- mal,” it said. A Downing Street spokesman said there were “no major con- cerns” over supplies of food, pet- rol, diesel or gas despite the con- tinued freezing conditions, even though there were warnings of shortages in some newspapers. Temperatures in Moscow hit a


US, South Korea clinch new free trade agreement


WASHINGTON, D.C.: The United States and South Korea broke through a three- year deadlock Friday to seal a sweeping free trade agreement, which President Barack Obama hoped would renew US leadership in Asia. The agreement lifts tariffs on 95


percent of goods between the countries within five years, in what would be the largest US trade pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in 1994. After nearly four days of talks in suburban Washington, negotiators


‘Salvage policemen’ placed under custody


SANTA CRUZ, Laguna: The two police- men charged in the attempted murder of a female police inform- ant were removed from their posts and were placed under a re- strictive custody, awaiting sum- mary proceedings that could lead to their dismissal from duty. Police Officer 1 Antenor Mari- quit, who was formerly as- signed in Cainta and Police Of- ficer 2 Mario Natividad, who had been recently transferred to the Rizal police office, were placed under a police holding unit at the provincial headquar- ters in Taytay, Rizal.


Calabarzon regional director Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao said this means, “they will be ac- counted from time to time and must ask permission first before leaving the camp.” He said the two policemen


however could not be detained after they posted bail amount- ing to P210,000 each and were released from the Pagsanjan po- lice station in Laguna, where they were charged with the criminal offense.


Mariquit and Natividad were suspects in the attempted murder of Grace Capistrano, who was four months pregnant when abducted from her home in Angono, Rizal two weeks ago. Capistrano sur- vived 24 stab wounds and a gun- shot wound in the leg, before she was left for dead in a ravine in Pagsanjan. She survived, but lost her child. Meanwhile, Laguna police pro- vincial director Senior Supt. Gil- bert Cruz identified the third sus- pect as Wilfredo Montellola, who had remained in hiding after Capistrano surfaced and identi- fied him as the one who stabbed her with an ice pick as they were on their way to Laguna. “There are possibilities that Montellola could be killed by the two cops” to prevent him from testifying against the policemen, Cruz said.


cleared a key hurdle by letting the United States move more slowly on lifting tariffs on South Korean cars after US automakers feared a flood of imports. The deal still needs ratification by


the two countries’ legislatures. Obama won early support from a labor- backed congressman and the Ford Motor Co., former staunch opponents of the deal. In Seoul, President Lee Myung-Bak said the agreement would bring “huge benefit” to South Korea, which has


embraced free trade deals as a strategy to promote an economy long in the shadow of economic giants Japan and China. Obama had hoped to finish the deal in time for his visit to Seoul last month for the Group of 20 summit, believing the agreement would boost close ally Lee, who is facing down soaring tensions with North Korea. Under the renegotiated agreement,


the United States will be allowed to keep its 2.5-percent tariff for five years, while South Korea would immediately


cut its tariff in half to four percent. Both sides would eliminate tariffs after five years.


US officials said South Korea would also ease car safety and environmen- tal standards that US automakers contend are a thinly disguised way to stifle foreign competitors through arbitrary requirements. The revised agreement would let each US automaker export 25,000 cars per year that meet only US safety requirements—four times the current level.


AFP Looking for Lacson


Sweden issues new arrest warrant vs. WikiLeaks chief


low of minus 24 degrees Celsius, the lowest for the season in decades, weather authorities said.


More than 7,000 people were


moved to safer areas in Albania, where Prime Minister Sali Berisha described the situation as “very serious.” In Bosnia authorities declared a state of emergency after some 1,000 homes were flooded around the town of Bijeljina along the Drina river, the natural border between Bosnia and Serbia.


In Serbia, at least 1,400 people


were evacuated from the town of Loznica. More than 3,000 more peo- ple were at risk from the flooding of the Drina in the area of Loznica, Ser- bia’s interior ministry said.


LONDON: The WikiLeaks website was fighting to stay online Saturday af- ter Sweden issued a new arrest war- rant for its elusive chief and it bat- tled cyber attacks and government attempts to silence it. The whistleblowing website’s founder Julian Assange briefly broke cover to say he had boosted his se- curity after receiving death threats amid the storm unleashed by his site’s publication of some 250,000 US diplomatic cables.


In Stockholm, Swedish prosecu- tors issued a new international arrest warrant for Assange—who is be- lieved to be in Britain—on sex assault allegations that incorporated missing elements requested by British police. “They were asking for additional information concerning the maxi- mum penalty for all the crimes and infractions on the file. We usually only include the most severe offense,” which was rape in this case, prosecu- tion office spokesman Karin Rosander told Agence France-Presse. Reports in Britain said Assange could be arrested within 10 days. The website was forced to turn to Switzerland for a new domain name after its original wikileaks.org address was shut down by an American pro- vider, while Paris tried to ban French


servers from hosting it. The latest cables released by the


site showed US officials suspected that Yemen had a secret cache of shoulder-fired missiles that could have threatened US forces if the weapons fell into the wrong hands. Assange’s lawyer in London, Mark Stephens, said that neither Scotland Yard nor he had received the new arrest warrant released by Sweden. Stephens linked the warrant to “sophisticated” efforts to take down the website, suggesting that a “state actor” was behind efforts to silence Assange.


US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has described the leaks as “an attack on the world” and has expressed her regret to Argentine President Cristina Kirchner and Pa- kistani President Asif Ali Zardari over their content. Russia has also been upset by leaks branding it a virtual “mafia state” and President Dmitry Medvedev de- rided as a “Robin” to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s “Batman.” The White House told govern- ment agencies Friday to take meas- ures to prevent employees without proper authorization from access- ing classified US diplomatic cables on WikiLeaks.


worldinbrief


US UNEMPLOYMENT SURGES TO 9.8 PERCENT WASHINGTON, D.C.: The US jobless rate surged to 9.8 percent in November, a hammer blow to the economic recovery and to President Barack Obama’s hopes for a quick end to high unemployment. The world’s largest economy created many fewer jobs than expected and the unemployment rate rose from 9.6 percent to its highest level since April, the Labor Department reported.


US PREVENTS TROOPS IN IRAQ FROM VIEWING WIKILEAKS BAGHDAD: The US military in Iraq is trying to prevent soldiers from viewing WikiLeaks documents and has posted a web advisory suggesting they could be breaking the law, a spokesman said on Saturday. The warning, posted Friday, pops up on the US military’s unclassified network, NIPRNet, before soldiers can access news and other websites and tells troops they should not view, download, or forward the secret releases.


S.KOREA TO RETALIATE WITH FORCE – DEFENSE MINISTER SEOUL: South Korea will swiftly and strongly respond with force until North Korea surrenders if the communist state launches another assault, the South’s new defense minister said Saturday. Meanwhile, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak on Saturday approved a new free trade deal with the United States, saying the agreement would bring “huge benefit to both countries.”


GUNFIRE RATTLES ABIDJAN AMID ELECTION STANDOFF ABIDJAN: Exchanges of gunfire were heard through the night in Abidjan, residents said Saturday, amid high tensions in Ivory Coast with rival candidates both claiming victory in presidential elections. Shooting was heard in the Abobo and Anyama areas in the north of the city, the country’s economic capital, until 7 a.m., residents told Agence France-Presse. The source of the gunfire was not immediately clear.


PHOTO BY MIGUEL DE GUZMAN


The National Bureau of Investigation makes a thorough search inside the house of businessman Tony Halili, a close friend of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, in Tanauan, Batangas on Saturday.


Cargo ship with 24 Chinese crew sinks


A CARGO ship with 24 Chinese crew sank off the waters of the Phil- ippines’ Batanes province on Friday afternoon, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Saturday. Quoting a report from the Batanes provincial police office, PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz said Saturday the Panama cargo vessel MV Hong


Wei met the accident about 120 nautical miles off Itbayat island at about 3:22 p.m. Friday. Cruz could not immediately say what caused the vessel to sink or the vessel’s destination. A passing vessel, MV Shun Tong, and a ship from Taiwan’s coast guard rescued 12 crew and two pas- sengers, respectively, said Cruz, add-


ing that at least three ships from Tai- wan’s coast guard are currently at the scene to conduct search and rescue operations for the 10 still missing crew members. A rescue vessel from China is


expected to arrive at the site any- time Saturday to join the search and rescue operations, said Cruz.


XINHUA Rep. Biazon pushes for maritime code ROSELLE R. AQUINO


A MARITIME code that is ex- pected to upgrade the country’s shipping laws has been proposed in the House of Representatives over the weekend. Rep. Rodolfo Biazon of the Lone District of Muntinlupa City made the proposal under his House Bill 1155 which seeks to upgrade the laws dealing with registration of ships, maritime liens and ship mort- gages, maritime fraud, accidents at sea and ship owner’s liability. The said measure provides for a separate common carrier provision to apply specifically to ships or


vessels transporting passengers and/or goods, domestically or in- ternationally. It also aims to up- date the marine insurance provi- sions found in the Insurance Code of 1978 and conveniently differ- entiates such provisions alongside other provisions of admiralty and maritime laws. As it is, Biazon noted that laws


governing the relations between and among parties and interests in mari- time commerce and trade to and from the Philippines are dispersed in various codes, laws, decrees, ex- ecutive orders and treaties despite the Phil- ippines’ heavy re- liance on w ater transport as a ma- jor, con- venient and, oftentimes afford- able means of trans-


porting passengers and goods to and from the major islands. “Not only are these laws scattered; they are more than two decades old already. There is a compelling need to codify and upgrade the Philippine Admiralty Law in order to keep in tune with current situations, circum- stances and business practices of the maritime industry,” Biazon said. The veteran lawmaker cited the


Admiralty or Maritime Law in other countries which has become one of the most dynamic, complex and rapidly changing areas of law as both the courts and the legislature have sought to fashion new laws to meet social, economic and human needs resulting from the ever ex- panding maritime industry. “Because of its geographic location and strategic position, Philippine ports are considered useful and vital to international commerce and trade. There is now a need for all stake- holders, particularly admiralty law- yers, ship owners and those who are involved in the shipping industry to help reform and update the country’s shipping laws,” Biazon said. LLANESCA T. PANTI


US URGES IRAN TO BE CONSTRUCTIVE AT NUCLEAR TALKS MANAMA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday urged Iran to be constructive at talks on its controversial nuclear program due to take place with world powers in Geneva next week. Meanwhile, Iran will never use force against its Muslim neighbors, its foreign minister told a conference on Middle East security on Saturday, after the United States said Arab states were worried by Tehran’s suspected attempts to acquire nuclear weapons.


OBAMA VISITS AFGHANISTAN BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan: President Barack Obama paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Friday and assured cheering US troops they are winning the war against the Taliban despite “difficult days ahead.” The president landed in Kabul under cover of darkness, with aides announcing nothing of the trip beforehand due to security concerns.


BULLET TRAIN LINE EXTENDED IN NORTHERN JAPAN TOKYO: Japan extended the nation’s bullet train system in northern Japan on Saturday, but the latest extension was marred by a suspension of services because of strong winds and technical troubles. Meanwhile, Japan’s Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara on Saturday flew near islands bitterly disputed with Russia, in an apparent demonstration to underscore his country’s territorial claims.


QANTAS CLAIMS A380 ‘UNCOMMERCIAL’ FOR LA FLIGHTS SYDNEY: Australia’s Qantas on Saturday said new rules imposed after an A380 engine blast meant the 470-seat superjumbo could carry just 80 passengers to Los Angeles and was “uncommercial” on the key route. The regulations, which direct lower engine thrust, made the A380 commercially unsuitable for the trans-Pacific trip, according to legal documents filed in the carrier’s case against engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce.


SARKOZY TO PUSH DEFENSE, NUCLEAR DEALS IN INDIA BANGALORE, India: French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in India Saturday, the latest in a line of global leaders beating a trade-focused path to the door of the world’s second fastest growing economy. Sarkozy, who will lobby on behalf of French companies chasing multi-billion-dollar Indian contracts for fighter jets and nuclear technology, is being accompanied on the four-day trip by his pop star wife Carla Bruni.


UN CHIEF SAYS HAITI RIVALS MUST END VOTE CRISIS UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that “irregulari- ties” in Haiti’s presidential election were worse than first reported and called for urgent action to avoid a new crisis in the country.


FIVE TAIWAN FIRMS BID FOR AIG’S UNIT TAIPEI: Five Taiwanese companies are bidding for US insurance giant American Internationl Group (AIG)’s local unit, Nan Shan Life, with offers of between $2 billion and $3 billion, the bidders and media said Saturday.


THAI TECH PIONEER CONVERTS WASTE INTO WEALTH BANGKOK: Paijit Sangchai drops a small piece of laminated paper into a jar of cloudy liquid, which he hopes will transform his start-up into a multi-million dollar company and help revolutionize recycling.


AFP


AFP


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