12  theSun | THURSDAY APRIL 16 2009

news without borders

Sunday school
teacher charged
with rape, murder
SAN FRANCISCO: A Sunday school teacher ar-
rested for the murder of an eight-year-old girl in
northern California faced an additional allegation
of rape on Tuesday as she appeared in court for
the first time.
A shackled Melissa Huckaby, 28
(pix), shuffled into a packed court-
room in San Joaquin County to
face arraignment on kidnap-
ping and murder charges
stemming from the killing
of Sandra Cantu.
Prosecutors say Huck-
aby kidnapped, raped and
murdered Cantu before
stuffing her body into a
suitcase and dumping it in
a pond in Tracy, east of San
Francisco.
Prosecutors on Tuesday add-
ed three “special circumstances” of
kidnapping, lewdness with a child and rape with
a foreign object to the murder count which could
make Huckaby eligible for the death penalty if
convicted. She did not enter a plea on Tuesday as
she appeared at Superior Court in Stockton.
Cantu disappeared on March 27, sparking a
massive hunt. Security camera video footage of
the girl showed her skipping gaily through her
neighbourhood shortly before her disappearance.
The suitcase containing her body – which
Huckaby claimed had been stolen from her – was
recovered from an irrigation pond on April 6.
Huckaby had previously told local media that
her five-year-old daughter had been playing with
Cantu on the day of her disappearance.
Huckaby is the grand-daughter of a pastor at
Tracy’s Clover Road Baptist Church, which was
the subject of a search by police earlier in the
investigation. – AFP
Sekolah Sri KDU
Malaysian Hearts, Global Minds
Nurturing the heart, the mind and the soul
Second officer suspended
over G20 demo footage
LONDON: British police suspended a Bank of England on April 2 during the use force is made by the individual po-
sergeant from the London Metropoli- London summit of the Group of 20, lice officer, and they must account for
tan force yesterday after video footage appeared to show the officer drawing that.” It said it had referred the incident
showed him lashing out at a woman his baton and hitting the woman on to the Independent Police Complaints
in a demonstration during the G20 the legs moments after he had struck Commission (IPCC) – a police watch-
summit in the capital. The footage, her face. dog which is already investigating the
aired on the website YouTube, showed When the film first came to light death of a man caught up in the G20
a woman protester taunting an officer, late on Tuesday, the Metropolitan protests on April 1.
who appeared to retaliate by striking Police said the officer’s actions raised Last week a police officer was sus-
her across the face with his hand. “immediate concerns”. pended pending further investigations
It is the second incidence of ap- “Every officer is accountable under after being caught on camera pushing
parent police violence during the G20 law, and fully aware of the scrutiny newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson to
protests to be caught on camera. that their actions can be held open to,” the ground. Tomlinson, 47, died of a
“The officer has been identified it said in a statement. “The decision to heart attack after collapsing later in a
and suspended pending further inves- nearby street. He was not involved
Freespace: tigation,” police said in a statement. It in the demonstrations but was on his
29,000 said the officer was a sergeant in the The officer has way home at the time. The incident
and
Territorial Support Group – a police
team trained to deal with public order been identified and was captured on video taken by a New
York fund manager and later aired on
counting events and potential violence.
The statement described the video
suspended pending a newspaper website. Additional video
footage from Channel 4 television also
pg 15 as one which showed a “police officer further investigation.” appeared to show an officer striking
using force against a protester”. – Metropolitan Police him with a baton in the moments
The footage, filmed close to the before he was pushed. – Reuters
Woman guilty of imprisoning
daughters-in-law in Britain
LONDON: A 63-year-old “I was not allowed
woman was convicted on to go out of the
Tuesday of falsely impris- house without the
®
oning her three daughters-
in-law, who moved from
permission of my
mother-in-law.
Pakistan with hopes of a “Literally I
happy life in England but lived in a prison,
were treated like “slaves and not a house. I
dogs”. was so fright-
Prosecutors said Nasee- ened of her, I
bah Bibi (pix) would not let would do as I
the women leave the family was told.”

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KDU Smart School Sdn Bhd (556354-A)
A Corporation Company
www.srikdu.edu.my
D r i v i n g
home in Blackburn, north-
west England, and made
one of them work on an
industrial sewing machine
day and night between 1993
and 2006.
The women were brought
to Britain following arranged
marriages to Bibi’s three sons
in Pakistan, but the court
heard they were subjected
to beatings and abuse from
their mother-in-law after
they arrived.
“They were treated like
OPEN DAY S children, slaves or dogs by a
PECIAL regime of threats of force or
RM 100 off
Registration actual force,” said prosecutor
for 2009 & 20 Fee Philip Boyd during the trial.
Registration
10 In a police statement,
(*terms & co s* Nagina Akhtar, who mar-
nditions ap
ply) ried Bibi’s son Fahim and
Door gifts fo was held in the house in
r
first 200 fam the Blackburn for 13 years, said:
(1 gift ilies
per family)
North Korea expels nuclear inspectors
SEOUL: An unrepentant
North Korea yesterday hailed
its rocket launch as a historic
victory, a day after vowing to
restart its nuclear weapons
programme in response to UN
censure of the exercise.
No. 5 & 7, Jalan Teknologi 2/1, Seksyen 2,
The communist North has
ordered UN atomic inspectors
Kota Damansara, 47810 Daerah Petaling,
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia to leave the Yongbyon complex,
Tel: 03-6157 8123 / 03-6145 3888 which produced weapons-
Fax: 03-6156 9011 / 03-6145 3838 grade plutonium until it was
Email: info@srikdu.edu.my shut down under a six-nation
nuclear disarmament deal.
D r e a m s TM Incensed by the Security
Nagina said
Bibi struck her
with a brush han-
dle and slapped her
across the face whenever
she disobeyed her orders.
She worked on sewing
material that was delivered
to the house, and when that
work ran out did household
chores.
She was only released
when her three-year-old son
told nursery staff that his
grandmother was to blame
for the bruising on his moth-
er’s hands.
Nagina later retracted her
police statement and told the
court she had a “happy life”
in Blackburn. She now lives
in nearby Halifax with her
husband, although they have
no contact with Bibi.
Council’s condemnation of its
April 5 blast-off, Pyongyang
pledged never to rejoin six-party
talks. It vowed to restore and
reopen Yongbyon and to reproc-
ess spent reactor fuel rods.
North Korea “informed IAEA
inspectors in the Yongbyon facil-
ity that it is immediately ceasing
all cooperation with the IAEA”,
said Marc Vidricaire, spokes-
man for the UN’s International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“It has requested the re-
moval of all containment and
Nagina’s sisters, Nisbah
and Tazeem – who like their
sibling did not speak English
– told the court their lives
were “made hell”.
Tazeem was held be-
tween 2001 and 2003, when
she was left behind when the
family went to a wedding in
Pakistan. Nisbah was held
from 2005 and 2007, only
escaping when Bibi was
distracted. The court heard
that Tazeem’s husband,
Nahim, had no intention of
living with Tazeem because
he already had two children
with a white woman, with
whom he lived locally. He
had tried to run away on the
eve of their wedding. – AFP
surveillance equipment, follow-
ing which IAEA inspectors will
no longer be provided access
to the facility. The inspectors
have also been asked to leave
the DPRK (North Korea) at the
earliest possible time.”
The White House said North
Korea was making a big mistake.
“We call on North Korea to
cease its provocative threats and
to respect the will of the interna-
tional community and to honour
its international commitments,”
spokesman Robert Gibbs. – AFP