Protest to ambassador over Gibraltar oil spill after stricken ship sinks
MADRID Spain summoned the British Ambassador, Denise Holt, yesterday to complain about an oil spill from a cargo ship that spent six months aground in the Strait of Gibraltar and sank at the weekend, the Spanish Environment Minister said.
Cristina Narbona said that Spain wanted to talk about how the incident was handled by authorities in Gibraltar. The British colony had agreed to take responsibility, Ms Narbona told reporters in Seville.
Authorities in the southern Andalusia region called the spill from the sinking on Sunday minor and said that most beaches affected near Algeciras had been cleaned up or would be soon. The New Flame, a Panamanian-registered cargo ship carrying 27,000 tonnes of scrap metal, had been partly submerged, left, since colliding with a Danish tanker on August 12.
The tanker was able to dock at Algeciras, while the New Flame split in two and began sinking. Its stern could be seen above the surface until Sunday.
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Manuel Chaves, the president of the regional government of Andalusia, said that if his people had been handling the case the New Flame would have been removed from the strait months ago. (AP)
London tip-off frees spy after 35 years
ISLAMABAD An alleged Indian spy who has been on death row in Pakistan for 35 years is to be freed after a tip-off from the Indian community in London.
Kashmir Singh, an Indian citizen, was arrested in 1973 on espionage charges and sentenced to death by a court martial, Ansar Burney, the Minister for Human Rights, said. Mr Singh, a father of three, had become “mentally disabled” after spending 35 years in a cell under a secrecy act without ever seeing the sky or receiving a visitor, Mr Burney said.
Mr Singh was found in the central jail in Lahore after a search of prisons around the country. He was being kept under the Official Secrets Act.
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“He, like other condemned prisoners, was locked in an overcrowded death cell for 23½ hours a day, only allowed out for 30 minutes to stretch his legs.”
Mr Burney, a prominent rights activist who is part of a preelection caretaker government, said President Musharraf had expressed “shock and disbelief” and agreed to grant Mr Singh his freedom in the coming days.
“Kashmir Singh has gone through hell during the last 35 years. He has suffered more than enough for his alleged crime,” Mr Burney said.
He added that he was now trying to trace Mr Singh’s family in India.
Pakistan and India have recently held prisoner exchanges, mainly of fishermen who strayed into each other’s territorial waters and were detained. (AFP)
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Thousands flock to Maharishi’s funeral
ALLAHABAD Maharaja Adhiraj Rajaraam, the successor to the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, accepted greetings from devotees at the Maharishi’s ashram at Arail before his funeral.
Thousands of mourners from around the world gathered for the funeral on the banks of the River Ganges. Followers showered flower petals on the Maharishi’s body before the funeral pyre was lit by his nephew Swami Girish Chandra Verma to the chants of hymns from the Veda scriptures.
Mr Rajaraam announced that 48 “towers of invincibility” would be built in 48 countries to continue the teachings of the Maharishi, a former guru to the Beatles, who died in the Netherlands. (AFP)
Russian bombers buzz US carrier
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WASHINGTON US fighter planes intercepted two Russian bombers flying unusually close to an American aircraft carrier in the western Pacific. One Russian Tupolev 95 buzzed the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz twice at about 2,000 feet (600 metres), while a second circled about 50 nautical miles (90km) away, a US official said. They had taken off from a base in central Russia. (AP)
Gold-digging threat
CAMOPI France is to send 1,000 troops on an “exceptional operation” to rid French Guiana, its largest overseas territory, of illegal gold diggers. President Sarkozy, on his first visit there as head of state, said they would stay as long as is necessary. (AP)
Gunmen attack ships at energy terminal
PORT HARCOURT Gunmen attacked two energy industry ships en route from Bonny Island to Port Harcourt in Nigeria yesterday, killing a sailor on an escort vessel. Bonny Island exports 22 million tonnes a year of liquefied natural gas to the West. It is also home to a 400,000-barrel-a-day oil export terminal operated by Royal Dutch Shell. (Reuters)
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Okinawa rape arrest
TOKYO Authorities in Okinawa were expecting widespread protests after a US Marine stationed on the southern Japanese island was arrested on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old schoolgirl. Okinawa is the base for 50,000 US troops.
Taleban leader shot
QUETTA Pakistan security forces wounded and captured a senior Taleban figure fighting US and Nato forces in Afghanistan. Mansoor Dadullah, the brother of the late military commander Mullah Dadullah, was shot and arrested entering Pakistan. (AP)
Ship death fines
SAINT NAZAIRE Les Chantiers de l’Atlantique, the French builder of the giant cruise ship Queen Mary 2, and Endel, a subcontractor, have each been fined €177,500 (£132,000) over the collapse of a walkway in 2003 that killed 16 people. (AFP)
Editor released
BEIJING China has freed Yu Huafeng, the former deputy editor of the Southern Metropolis Daily, based in Guangdong, who was jailed for 12 years in 2004 on a corruption charge that colleagues and critics say was made up. (Reuters)
Congressman dies
WASHINGTON Tom Lantos, 80, the Democrat chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, has died. He had cancer of the oesophagus diagnosed last month. (AP)