Month: April 2010

Seoul, April 28: South Korean media hailed one of the country’s climbers on Wednesday after she claimed to have become the first woman to scale the world’s 14 highest peaks, ignoring controversy surrounding her bid.

All major newspapers ran a front page photo of Oh Eun-Sun holding a national flag at the snow-covered summit of the 8,091-metre (26,545-foot) Annapurna in Nepal.

Oh’s claim to be the first female climber to have conquered all the world’s mountains over 8,000 metres is under scrutiny, however.

Washington, April 28: Israel and the US repeat their claims about the enormity of arsenals owned by Hezbollah and Syria’s alleged arms transfer to the Lebanese resistance movement.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak in Washington on Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates claimed Hezbollah currently wields “more missiles than most governments in the world.”

He renewed Washington’s accusations against Iran and Syria of providing the Lebanese movement with military aid.

Beijing, April 28: A mentally-unstable doctor who stabbed eight schoolchildren to death was executed Wednesday in China’s Fujian province, a media report said.

Zheng Minsheng, 41, who murdered the eight children March 23 at the gate of the Nanping Experimental Elementary School, had admitted in court that he “intentionally” killed them.

He was put in front of the firing squad Wednesday, Xinhua reported.

Zheng had asked the court April 8 to pay more attention to what prompted him to commit the crime, rather than to the crime itself.

SEOUL, April 28: Climbing on all fours after 13 grueling hours, a diminutive South Korean woman, Oh Eun-sun, reached the summit of one of the Himalayan giants on Tuesday to lay claim to being the first woman to scale the world’s 14 highest mountains.

In keeping with her country’s intense pride in its athletes, she pulled out a South Korean flag, raised her arms and shouted: “Hurray! Hurray!”

“I would like to share this joy with the South Korean people,” Oh, who is 5 feet 1 inch, said after reaching the summit of Annapurna in central Nepal.

Somalia, April 28: At least 14 civilians were killed Tuesday during a prolonged battle between government soldiers and Islamic insurgents that followed a separate suicide car bomb attack in Somalia’s capital, officials and a witness said.

Four people were wounded, including two African Union troops, in the suicide attack outside an AU base earlier Tuesday.

After the attack, Islamic insurgents attacked government soldiers and Islamic militiamen allied to the government as they moved between bases in southern Mogadishu.

United Nations, April 28: The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution that seeks the creation of a special body to prosecute pirates caught off the Somali coast and asks all countries to criminalise piracy.

Berlin, April 28: The state parliament of Lower Saxony has sworn in Ayguel Oezkan as minister of social affairs for the northern state, making her the first female Muslim minister in Germany.

The 38-year-old, who is a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), was born in Hamburg to Turkish immigrants.

She was the party’s economic policy spokeswoman for the regional parliamentary group in Hamburg before being appointed as the first Muslim woman in Germany to be elected to a ministerial post on the state level, Deutsche Welle reported.

Washington, April 28: China is all set to export two nuclear power plants to Pakistan in violation of the guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group that require NPT signatory states to supply such equipment only with comprehensive IAEA safeguards, a US think tank said Wednesday.

But the Obama Administration is unlikely to openly criticise such a deal, given its overwhelming dependence on Islamabad for its Afghan operations even though it might object to it inside the NSG, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in its report released on Wednesday.

Washington, April 28: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says the world cannot afford to wait too long to see if Iran halts its nuclear program.

At a press conference with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Washington on Tuesday, Barak said Israel supports the United States’ efforts to impose tougher economic sanctions on Tehran.

But only time will tell if sanctions have an impact on Iran’s nuclear stance, he added.

Paris, April 28: A Delta Airlines flight en route from French capital Paris to the US city of Atlanta has been diverted to Maine after a passenger claimed he had explosives and made threats to detonate them.

The passenger, identified as Derek Stansberry of Apollo, Florida, was subdued by US air marshals on Tuesday before being taken into custody upon landing.

London, April 28: Suntanned women and girls who are like “walking mannequins” will be arrested in Iran, Tehran’s police chief has warned.

The warning comes close on the heels of a hardline Iranian cleric claiming that immodestly dressed women disturbed young men and caused earthquakes.

“The public expects us to act firmly and swiftly if we see any social misbehaviour by women, and men, who defy our Islamic values. In some areas of north Tehran we can see many suntanned women and young girls who look like walking mannequins.