Month: September 2009

Paris, September 29: The fate of the Franco-Polish film director Roman Polanski became an international cause célèbre yesterday as Paris, Warsaw and an extensive cast of figures from world cinema demanded his immediate release from a Swiss jail.

The French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, protested formally to both the US and Swiss authorities against Mr Polanski’s arrest in Zurich on Saturday for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in California in 1977. Mr Kouchner described the circumstances of the arrest, on an American warrant, as “a little sinister”.

Colombo, September 29: At least two persons from a government-run relief camp for war displaced in Vavunia were injured on Saturday evening when security forces opened fire on a group that was trying to escape.

According to the Media Centre of National Security, the troops tried to prevent a group of IDPs trying to escape from Zone I to Zone II of the Manik farm camps.

“The IDPs in the camps reportedly attacked the sentries with clubs and stones. According to reports, one of the persons also threw a hand grenade.”

Manila, September 29: One U.S. soldier was killed and another was wounded in a landmine explosion in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, a Philippine army spokesman said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Romeo Brawner said three Filipino soldiers were also wounded when the vehicle they were riding in struck an improvised landmine near Indanan town on the island of Jolo, a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf militants.

It was the first reported casualty among U.S. soldiers deployed in troubled areas in the southern Philippines since 2002.

—Agencies

sydney, September 29: Plastic bottles were ceremoniously removed from shelves in the sleepy Australian town of Bundanoon at the weekend as a ban on commercially-bottled water – believed to be a world first – came into force.

The ban, which is supported by local shopkeepers, means bottled water can no longer be bought in the town in the Southern Highlands, two hours from Sydney. Instead, reusable bottles have gone on sale, which can be refilled for free at new drinking fountains.

Manila, September 29: When the river near his Manila home burst its banks, Muelmar Luz Magallanes tied a rope around his waist and ferried his three younger siblings to safety.

Then he went back for his parents, then for his neighbours, trapped on rooftops. Finally, Mr Magallanes rescued a six-month-old baby who was being swept away on a polystyrene box. But the young man paid for his heroic deeds with his life.

Kenya, September 29: When does planting a tree become a revolutionary act – and unleash an army of gunmen who want to shoot you dead? The answer to this question lies in the unlikely story of Wangari Maathai.

She was born on the floor of a mud hut with no water or electricity in the middle of rural Kenya, in the place where human beings took their first steps.

There was no money but there was at least lush green rainforest and cool, clear drinking water. But Maathai watched as the life-preserving landscape of her childhood was hacked down.

Venezuela, September 29: Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi called on Monday for a new global definition of terrorism.

Meeting a day after the end of a summit of African and South American leaders in Venezuela, the two men signed a declaration urging a global conference be held to sketch out new terms defining terrorism.

Neither spoke publicly about the document, which rejects “attempts to link the legitimate struggle of the people for liberty and self-determination” with terrorism, according to a Venezuelan government website.

Stockholm, September 29: Uranium mining in northern Sweden is a possibility in the future, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Monday after a meeting with university students. Reinfeldt said that although Sweden was to phase out its current 10 nuclear reactors, the date has been extended, suggesting the need for more fuel.

“I have not ruled it out and I think it is logical” given the extension, he told broadcaster SVT during a visit to Umea University, 650 kilometres north of Stockholm.

Local councils may however veto mining plans, local radio said.

New York, September 29: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told her Afghan counterpart that President Hamid Karzai’s government must earn its people’s trust by tackling charges of election fraud, a US official said.

Clinton told Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta during a meeting yesterday in New York that he is “a strong voice for the need for the rule of law and good governance,” the State Department official told reporters.