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news without borders
White House battles Cheney on national security
WASHINGTON: The White House
fought back fiercely on Monday
against former vice-president Dick
Cheney’s charges that President
Barack Obama has hurt US national
security, as a feud over CIA interroga-
tions deepened.
US national security adviser Jim
Jones, a gruff retired US Marine Corps
general, said Obama’s approach
had fostered better cooperation
worldwide and resulted in capturing
briefs
Designer gets
59 years for rape
LOS ANGELES: An Indian-born
fashion designer convicted of
sexually abusing a string of
teenage girls and women was
on Monday sentenced to a
minimum of 59 years in jail by
a Los Angeles judge. Anand Jon
Alexander, 35, whose clothes
had reportedly been worn by
celebrities including Paris Hilton
and Mary J. Blige, was found
guilty of 16 sex crimes, including
forcible rape and sexual battery,
at a trial in November.
Alexander represented
himself at Monday’s sentencing
hearing, where he broke down in
tears as he requested a new trial.
The judge rejected his request.
Nine women testified against
Alexander during his trial. Most
of the designer’s victims were
aspiring models lured into meet-
ings with Alexander and forced
into sex, prosecutors said. – AFP
Strong quake
hits New Zealand
WELLINGTON: A strong earth-
quake measuring 6.0 on the
Richter scale struck off the
east of New Zealand’s North
Island yesterday but there
were no immediate reports of
damage, seismologists said.
The earthquake that struck
at 12.18pm (8.18am in Malay-
sia) was centred 60km north
of White Island, off the east
coast of the North Island, at a
depth of 250km, government-
owned GNS Science said. The
quake was felt throughout
the lower North Island and
the north of the South Island,
GNS Science said. – AFP
World’s first
cloned wolf dies
SEOUL: One of the world’s first
two cloned wolves has died
from an apparent infection, a
professor who produced the
clones almost four years ago
said yesterday. Snuwolf (Seoul
National University wolf) was
found dead on Aug 26 at Seoul
Zoo, Professor Shin Nam-Shik of
the university told journalists.
Snuwolf apparently died of
an infection and had no other
health problems, Shin said.
He denied the death might be
linked to a faulty cloning tech-
nique. “Sudden deaths among
dogs and wild animals always
happen. This death must not be
blown out of proportion,” Shin
stressed. – AFP
MPs back minister
wanted by Argentina
TEHERAN: Iran’s parliament
signalled support yesterday
for the hardline president’s
choice of new defence minis-
ter, a man Argentina says was
involved in the 1994 bombing
or killing more terrorists than under
George W. Bush. “This type of radical
fundamentalism or terrorism is a
threat not only to the United States
but to the global community,” Jones
told ABC television.
“The world is coming together
on this matter now that President
Obama has taken the leadership on
it” to foster better teamwork among
governments and notably national
and international law-enforcement
of a Buenos Aires Jewish cen-
tre that killed 85 people.
One MP, Hadi Qavami, inter-
rupted a speech by defence
minister-designate Ahmad
Vahidi to say he had initially
opposed Vahidi’s nomination
but he changed his mind after
“the Zionists’ allegations”.
Buenos Aires has formally
accused Iran of masterminding
the bombing and is seeking
the arrest of high-ranking gov-
ernment officials. – Reuters
Indonesian satellite
misses orbit
BEIJING: An Indonesian com-
munications satellite launched
from China failed to enter a
preset orbit, state media re-
ported, in another setback in
China’s efforts to market its
space launch capability. China is
rapidly expanding its own space
capability and plans to land a
vehicle on the moon in 2012.
The Palapa D satellite, owned
by Indonesian satellite commu-
nications company Indosat, was
launched by a Chinese-made
Long March 3B rocket from the
Xichang launch site in Sichuan
province, southwestern China
on Monday. “The first and sec-
ond stages of the rocket entered
space normally, but the third
stage failed during its ignition,”
Chinese news agency Xinhua
reported. – Reuters
North Korea lifts
curbs on border
SEOUL: North Korea yester-
day lifted tough restrictions
on cross-border traffic with
South Korea, the government
here said, its latest apparent
goodwill gesture after months
of hostility.
As of yesterday the North
was allowing 12 northbound
crossings and 11 return trips
a day, the unification ministry
said, compared to just three
daily crossings each way un-
der curbs imposed last Decem-
ber. Pyongyang, protesting at
the tougher policy of Seoul’s
conservative government,
last December also expelled
hundreds of South Korean
staff from a joint industrial
estate at Kaesong just north
of the frontier. They have now
been allowed to return. – AFP
Hurricane hones in
on Mexico resort
LOS CABOS (Mexico): Hurricane
Jimena, an extremely dangerous
Category Four storm, barrelled
toward Mexico’s Baja California
peninsula yesterday, forcing tour-
ists to flee the Los Cabos resort.
Carrying winds of nearly 250
kph, Jimena was due to brush
past the tip of the peninsula,
home to world class golf courses
and yachting marinas, later in
the day before making landfall
in a sparsely populated area.
Residents huddled into shelters
and US tourists sought early flights
EPAPIX
home to avoid the howling winds
and torrential rain. – Reuters
agencies, said Jones. “We are seeing
results that indicate more captures,
more deaths of radical leaders and
a kind of a global coming-together by
the fact that this is a threat to not only
the United States but to the world at-
large and the world is moving toward
doing something about it,” he said.
Jones’s comments came after
Cheney told Fox News Channel on
Sunday he had “serious doubts” about
how much Obama “understands and
Libya’s biggest bash
TRIPOLI: Military bands, 400 danc-
ers, aerobatic planes and fireworks
began to electrify a hot and drowsy
Tripoli yesterday as Muammar
Gaddafi (pix) threw Libya’s biggest
party to mark four decades since
taking power.
The six days of celebrations
across the north African country
were designed to get the message
across to the world that the long-
isolated oil exporter was open again
From the for business after years of heavy
sanctions, organisers said.
fires of But controversy still stalks Gadd-
adversity afi, with the United States and Brit-
pg 16 ain angry at the “hero’s welcome”
that Tripoli gave a former Libyan
agent who was freed by Scotland
last month from a life sentence for
the Lockerbie bombing that killed
270 people.
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the
only person convicted of the 1988
bombing of a Pan Am airliner, was
released on compassionate grounds
because he is dying of cancer.
Libya has invited dozens of
Western heads of state but Eu-
ropean leaders are expected to
stay away, including Italy’s Silvio
Berlusconi who visited Libya on
Sunday to mark the first anniver-
sary of a Libyan-Italian friendship
agreement.
President Hugo Chavez of Ven-
ezuela will attend and a bevy of Af-
rican leaders including Zimbabwe’s
Robert Mugabe and Sudan’s Omar
Hassan al-Bashir, are expected to
be in town for an African Union
Thousands flee as fierce
California fire spreads
LOS ANGELES: A giant white cloud
Fire crews engulfed Los Angeles yesterday as a
work to deadly massive wildfire spread above
contain the the city, and authorities warned it could
Station fire take two weeks to bring under control.
in California The huge blaze has already killed
on Monday. two firefighters and emergency serv-
theSun
is prepared to do what needs to be
done to defend the nation.”
Cheney notably slammed US At-
torney-General Eric Holder’s decision
to open an investigation into whether
CIA interrogators may have broken
US law in using tactics widely seen
as torture on “war on terrorism”
detainees.
Cheney charged that the probe
was an “outrageous political act” that
would demoralise intelligence officers
summit. “Libya is opening up to the
world – that is the basic message,”
said Philippe Skaff, who heads the
team coordinating the centrepiece
celebration event. It includes com-
panies from France and Britain.
“This is the first time they
actually received thousands of for-
eigners with open arms. They are
granting visas for this like they’ve
never done before,” he said.
Libya has cut support for armed
revolutionary groups around the
world and made peace with Wash-
ington by scrapping a programme
to build nuclear weapons and
paying compensation for bombings
and other attacks for which it was
blamed by the West.
At home, political parties remain
banned and Gaddafi staunchly
defends his system of grass roots
government by town-hall commit-
tee, rejected by critics as a cloak for
authoritarianism.
But foreign companies are
back searching for oil or vying for
contracts to build roads, railways,
phone networks and schools as
Libya tries to make up for lost
time.
As Tripoli counts down to its
six-day party, lasers beam
out into the Mediter-
ranean through the
hot, humid night air
from the roofs
of new hotels
built to cater
for the
influx of
ices fought scorching heat to rescue
five people trapped by flames. About
10,000 people have already been
evacuated from their homes.
Flames have ripped through
42,612ha of tinder-dry forest north of
Los Angeles and were still spreading.
| WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 2 2009
and is fearful that today’s legal ques-
tioning could turn into tomorrow’s
criminal jeopardy – a warning that
Jones flatly rejected.
“People that were acting within
the law don’t have anything to worry
about,” said Jones, who described
himself as “surprised and disap-
pointed” when the harsh CIA practices
came to light, adding that the United
States isn’t “known as a country that
tortures people.” – AFP
foreigners. Lights adorn buildings
across the city, walls in the old town
have been freshly whitewashed and
rows of green Libyan flags flutter
over its dusty streets.
Portraits of Gaddafi adorn bill-
boards and buildings across the city,
his features sometimes traced out
in colourful neon lights. Two new
oil tankers loom over the corniche
in a statement of Libya’s growing
might as an energy producer.
The organisers say hundreds
of thousands are expected in the
capital for a three-hour show trac-
ing Libya’s history and offering a
glimpse of the future. They say its
scale will rival an Olympic opening
ceremony.
In the following days, hot air
balloons will rise over the desert
and there will be a festival featur-
ing 1,000 camels. The coastal cit-
ies of Leptis Magna and Sabratha
will come right up to date
with sound and light
displays. Gaddafi has
made Africa the focal
point of his return to
the international stage,
giving generous aid to
poorer African
countries.
– Reuters
More than 3,655 firefighters bat-
tled the fire in the Angeles National
Forest, which sent a huge mushroom
cloud of smoke billowing across the
city and east toward Las Vegas.
The inferno threatened communica-
tions antennas for numerous television
and radio stations, cell phone providers
and law enforcement agencies on Mount
Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains.
A squadron of aircraft, including eight
air tankers and 13 helicopters, have
been deployed to bombard the blaze, al-
though vast plumes of smoke hampered
the aerial attack, officials said.
As the fire showed no sign of easing,
authorities pushed back an estimate for
when it would be contained, saying the
blaze was now unlikely to be brought
under control before Sept 15.
Police went door to door ordering
residents to leave affected areas as
some 12,000 homes were threatened
by the roaring blaze.
Officials revealed they were trying
to reach five people who ignored an
evacuation order. Fire captain Mark Sav-
age said no firefighters would be risked
if conditions surrounding the trapped
people were too dangerous. – AFP