Month: June 2010

London, June 03: An auction of memorabilia of British wartime leader Winston Churchill, including a cigar and a letter in which he rejects making terms with Adolf Hitler, fetched 577,063 pounds ($844,700) on Wednesday.

The collection was assembled over 30 years by Malcolm S. Forbes Jr., a descendant of the Forbes magazine founder, and is due to be sold in three parts, the first at Christie’s in London on Wednesday.

“It’s great to see that Churchill’s legendary status still remains and continues to grow,” said Christies’ spokesman Matthew Paton.

United Nations, June 03: The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on a draft sanctions resolution against Iran over its nuclear program soon, possibly within the next 10 days, Mexico’s U.N. ambassador said on Wednesday.

Mexican envoy Claude Heller, who is president of the council this month, said experts from the 15 member nations have been discussing the U.S.-drafted text and the panel’s 10 non-permanent members are awaiting annexes that list the names of individuals and firms to be placed on a U.N. blacklist.

London, June 03: Friends and neighbours of Derrick Bird, who killed 12 people on a shooting spree in northern England, have expressed shock that a “normal bloke” could wreak such devastation.

But there were reportedly some prior warnings of the killings, which media reports suggest could have been caused by a family feud or a row at work — and which caused the normally conposed Bird to explode.

The 52-year-old taxi driver drove through the picturesque Lake District on Wednesday morning on a terrifying rampage that only ended when he turned the gun on himself.

Guatemala City, June 03: The death toll from tropical storm Agatha’s passage over Central America has reached 184, with all but 28 of the deaths registered in Guatemala.

In its latest bulletin, issued Wednesday, Guatemala’s Conred emergency management office said casualties stood at 156 dead, 87 injured and 90 missing.

The official report also notes that 135,394 people were evacuated, including 36,149 who are being housed in more than 300 shelters. Besides, 24,472 homes were damaged and another 5,872 were declared “high-risk” structures in danger of collapse.

New York, June 03: The court case for Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-born American accused of planting a car bomb in Times Square, will be postponed by three weeks to allow him time to speak with authorities, a judge said Wednesday.

At the prosecutors’ request, endorsed by the Shahzad, Judge Theodore Katz put off the first hearing until June 21.

“The granting of such a continuance best serves the ends of justice and outweighs the best interests of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial,” he said in a statement.

Washington, June 03: India and the United States were seeking to reassure each other on Thursday about their warming relationship as they lay the groundwork for a visit by President Barack Obama later this year.

US policymakers across the political spectrum spectrum support developing a broad alliance with India, which had uneasy relations with Washington throughout the Cold War.

Singapore, June 03: Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are expected to dominate an Asia-Pacific security forum in Singapore this weekend to be addressed by South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young and other top officials will attend the Shangri-La Dialogue organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Seoul, June 03: South Korea’s ruling party won the key Seoul mayoral poll but suffered upsets in several other crucial races in local elections held amid tensions over North Korea’s alleged torpedoing of a navy ship, officials said on Thursday.

Before Wednesday’s vote, opinion polls and analysts said outrage over the ship’s sinking, which killed 46 South Korean sailors in March, would give a boost to the conservative ruling Grand National Party, which favors a tough North Korea policy.

Pre-election public surveys had suggested Lee’s party would win nine of the 16 key races.

Ankara, June 03: Hundreds of activists from the Gaza-bound aid flotilla seized by Israeli commandos arrived in Turkey Thursday, as Israel’s prime minister denounced some of them as “violent supporters of terrorism.”

A crowd of about a thousand people, some chanting anti-Israeli slogans, welcomed the three planes carrying 488 activists at Istanbul airport as they arrived in the small hours of the morning.

Washington, June 03: Taking the Indo-US ties to a new high, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna is set to hold the first ever Strategic Dialogue with his counterpart Hillary Clinton Thursday during which the two sides are expected to discuss the Af-Pak situation and bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation.

The Strategic Dialogue would formally open with a joint meeting between the two countries at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department, co-chaired by Krishna and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Canberra, June 03: The US Geological Survey says a magnitude 6.2 earthquake has rattled the South Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea.

No casualties or damage was immediately reported.

The US Geological Survey statement said the quake struck today evening under the northwest island of New Britain.

Simon Allen, senior meteorologist from Australia’s National Meteorological and Oceanographic Center, said the quake was too small to trigger a tsunami.

—-PTI