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WEDNESDAY MAY 13, 2009
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NEWS IN
Families of those who died in quake remember the victims
GERMANY
BRIEF
Girl tried
Apology for
Mourning the loss
to set fire
to school
expenses Chinese President Hu Jintao German police have arrested
led the nation in a minute’s a 16-year-old schoolgirl sus-
UNITED KINGDOM: British silence yesterday at the epi- pected of having tried to burn
Prime Minister Gordon centre of the powerful down her school using molo-
Brown has apologised after Sichuan earthquake that flat- tov cocktails and of having
days of embarrassing tened homes and communi- attacked a fellow student.
revelations about ties one year ago. “We’ve got her,” a police
lawmakers’ expenses, as a At 2.28pm, the exact spokesman said, without giv-
poll yesterday suggests moment the disaster struck ing further details.
public support for the main the southwest province, a The teenager turned up at
parties is taking a hit. grim-faced Hu presided over her the school, near the west-
On the fifth day of the ceremony broadcast live ern city of Bonn, on Monday
newspaper disclosures, on state television from the morning wearing a mask and
opposition Conservative town of Yingxiu. armed with several knives, an
MPs were revealed to have He and other leaders laid a air gun and a rucksack full of
claimed taxpayers’ money white chrysanthemum - a bottles of flammable liquid,
to maintain swimming symbol of mourning - at a prosecutors said.
pools and housekeepers. commemorative wall. After an argument with
The details emerged after Nearly 87,000 people died in another girl, who apparently
revelations about the expen- the 8.0-magnitude earthquake wanted to stop her, she pro-
ses of lawmakers from or remain missing after a disas- duced a knife and cut the
Brown’s ruling Labour party. ter that galvanised the nation girl’s hand - half-cutting off her
A new Populus poll for The but left deep emotional scars. thumb, according to reports.
Times newspaper indicated “Gradually, the reconstruc- The school called in police,
that both main parties were tion efforts have had impor- who evacuated the school’s
suffering from the scandal. tant results, and the people in 800 students and carried out a
The Labour party fell four the disaster-hit areas are TORN APART: Thousands flocked to the devastated town of Beichuan to mark the anniversary thorough search of the prem-
points on last month to 26 striding toward a new life,” Hu ises, but the suspect had fled.
per cent, while the opposing said in a speech after the Many lit incense or burned “I have come to mourn Police said it was hard to cal-
Conservatives were down Chinese flag was hoisted over paper money as offerings to the loss of my two brothers culate how many people had
four, to 39 per cent. the ruins of Yingxiu. the dead. Roads to the town of and their wives,” said Wu arrived yesterday, although
Across the mountainous Beichuan, which was one of Guangjun, a stocky 46-year- one official estimated up to
INDIA
region, mourners wept as they the worst hit, were jammed old construction worker. 100,000 were walking among
knelt before collapsed build- with vehicles as survivors and “They are still in the rubble. the ruins of the town which is
Homemade
ings and set off firecrackers to tourists alike arrived to We have not found their bod- to be preserved as an earth- Strike to
ward off evil spirits. remember the lost. ies,” he said. quake museum.
bomb blast
boycott
Torture items set to go under the hammer
SPAIN: A small homemade elections
bomb went off overnight in It may hurt, but an auction The 252 items which will go the devices date to the 17th Germany as far back as the
Spain’s Basque Country house is offering a collection under the hammer in new century or earlier, and come 18th century, he said. Shops, schools and offices in
near a mobile telephone of what it says are centuries- York include gruesome with rare books showing According to Ettinger, the parts of Kashmir closed yester-
tower in an act blamed on old torture instruments. instruments such as a “early engravings of scenes collection “disappeared at day in line with a strike called
Basque nationalist youths. “These are devices created tongue clamp, a chair of torture”. the turn of the century until by Muslim separatists who
“There appears to be no to cause pain... very covered in spikes and an The bizarre collection was after World War II when a have demanded a boycott of
damage,” a Basque interior diabolical devices,” said iron glove that Ettinger said well known in the 19th Norwegian gentleman who India’s general elections.
ministry spokesman said. Arlan Ettinger, president of was used to “burn the flesh century, touring Europe and was persecuted by the The fifth and final stage of
The bomb, made up of a Guernsey’s Auctions. of your hand”. exhibiting in New York in Germans for harbouring the vote takes place across
camping gas canister, “There is one pretty much to Ettinger, estimating the 1893. There is even a Jews acquired the India today, with Kashmir’s
firecrackers and an aerosol cause pain to any part of the collection to be worth register of visitors to collection and brought it to sensitive border segment of
can, exploded in the town of body,” he said. $3 million to $4 million, says exhibitions in England and the states.” Baramulla-Kupwara and the
Mendibil near the Basque Buddhist-dominated Ladakh
capital Vitoria, he added. region going to polls.
It went off just four days Separatists argue that the
after Socialist Patxi Lopez, Plane sucks up container Drunk minister offers to resign polls legitimise Indian rule in
who has vowed to make the disputed territory of
fighting the armed Basque A Japan Airlines jetliner JAL Flight 61 had been leaving Ukrainian Interior Minister cabinet figures - finance, Kashmir, which is held in part
separatist group ETA his preparing to depart Los the gate at around 1.30pm Yuri Lutsenko has offered to foreign and interior ministers. by India and Pakistan but
top priority, was sworn in Angeles was grounded after when the unidentified object quit after he was detained “I have asked the prime claimed in full by both.
as the first non-nationalist one of the plane’s jet engines blocked one of the engines, last week at Frankfurt airport minister and the speaker of “The strike is to register our
head of the Basque apparently sucked up a cargo according to Los Angeles for being drunk and disord- parliament to consider anger at these elections,”
region’s government. container, officials said. World Airports, the agency erly as he tried to board a without delay the question of hardline separatist leader
Last week a bomb went off Television footage showed the which operates the airport. plane for an official trip. my resignation at a session Syed Ali Geelani said.
near a TV relay station in large object wedged into an The 245 passengers on board His resignation, which must of parliament,” he said. Prominent separatists have
Cantabria. A note with an engine as the plane sat on were taken to safety. be approved by Ukraine’s “I have become the victim of been placed under house
ETA symbol was left nearby. the tarmac at Los Angeles No one was injured and an parliament, will leave the a banal situation blown up arrest to prevent any attempt
International Airport. investigation is underway. country without three major into a political scandal.” to incite anti-election violence.
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