THE PRESS, Christchurch
IN BRIEF
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 WORLD B3
SYRIA
Head1
Threat artwork
❯❯ A mock movie poster warns
that terrorist group al Qaeda
will return to New York City,
but United States authorities
say there’s no evidence of an
actual threat. The online
graphic shows the Manhattan
skyline at sunset with ‘‘Al
Qaeda’’ in bold type followed
by ‘‘Coming Soon Again in New
York’’. New York Police
Department spokesman Paul
Browne says an overseas,
Arab-language internet site
posted the graphic on its
‘‘artwork and design’’ page. He
says the NYPD has been
monitoring the site.
Jobs-worthy
❯❯ He’s already a titan of social
media, so it only makes sense
that Ashton Kutcher would
play the late Apple founder
Steve Jobs in a coming
biography. Kutcher’s publicist
confirmed yesterday that the
independent film Jobs will
begin production next
month.Kutcher, 34, who has
more than 10 million Twitter
followers, will portray Jobs
through his rise from hippie to
technological entrepreneur as
the co-founder of Apple. Jobs
died last October from cancer.
Porn gaffe
❯❯ The Catholic Church in
Ireland is investigating how a
priest offering a presentation
to parents on their children’s
upcoming confessions instead
showed them a computer
slideshow of gay porn. Cardinal
Sean Brady said the priest
involved insists he did not
know how the explicit images
got on the memory stick he
intended to use for his
PowerPoint presentation to
families at St Mary’s Primary
School in the Northern Ireland
village of Pomeroy. Brady said
the priest is helping an
internal church investigation.
Judge digs in
❯❯ One of Papua New Guinea’s
top judges has refused to
remove himself from
constitutional hearings into
the legitimacy of the
government, amid allegations
of bias. Justice Nicholas
Kerriwomsaid yesterday he
saw no reason to step down
after a memo calling on judges
to band together against
attacks from the government
was leaked online.
Government lawyers argued an
apprehension of bias existed
because the document bore
his signature and had been
seen by members of the public.
Croc attack
❯❯ A two-metre crocodile has
attacked a car north of Mackay
in North Queensland.
Environment department
officials said the reptile
lunged at the vehicle as it was
driving down Neills Rd at
Habana on Monday night, in
what was likely to be a
defensive action. Police said
the croc returned to a creek of
its own accord.
Hostages freed
❯❯ FARC rebels yesterday freed
10 members of the Colombian
armed forces held hostage in
jungle prison camps for more
than a decade, the last of a
group the drug-funded rebels
had used to pressure the
government. The release could
signal that the FARC is moving
Agencies
toward talks.
Assad accepts peace plan proposal
United Nations-Arab League
envoy Kofi Annan says Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad has
accepted an April 10 deadline
to start implementing a peace
plan, as more than 30 people
died in new clashes.
Annan said Syria had
agreed to ‘‘immediately’’ start
pulling troops out of protest
cities and complete a troop
and heavy weapon withdrawal by April 10, United
States ambassador Susan Rice
said after Annan briefed the
UN Security Council.
The news came as Red
Cross chief Jakob Kellenberger launched a fresh
mission to Syria – his third
since
last
year,
when
Damascus
launched
a
crackdown on anti-government protests that the UN
says has left more than 9000
dead.
Syria’s UN envoy, Bashar
Jaafari, confirmed the April
10 date had been agreed ‘‘by
common accord’’ between
Annan and his government.
Annan – who briefed the
15-member Security Council
by videoconference from
Geneva – said that ‘‘no progress’’ had been made on
reaching a ceasefire, diplomats said.
Rice said the US and other
countries doubted that Assad
would carry out the new
commitments.
‘‘Past experience would
lead us to be sceptical and to
worry that over the next
several days, rather than a
diminution of the violence we
Desolate: Damaged buildings in Syria’s city of Homs, and Syrian refugees, right, at the Boynuyogun refugee camp in Turkey’s Mediterranean Hatay province just over the border from Syria.
might yet again see an
escalation of the violence. We
certainly hope that is not so,’’
Rice said.
The partial implementation of Annan’s six-point
peace plan would include a
full cessation of hostilities
within 48 hours of the
deadline, diplomats said.
Besides a humanitarian
ceasefire, former UN chief
Annan’s plan also calls for an
inclusive Syrian-led political
process, the right to demonstrate, and the freeing of
people detained arbitrarily.
US State Department
spokeswoman Victoria Nuland also said Washington
would
prefer
quicker
implementation of the plan.
‘‘We all want to see this
happen immediately,’’ she
told reporters, as she repeated
Rice’s scepticism to ‘‘judge
him [Assad] by his actions’’
on whether the plan holds.
Annan said the Security
Council had to start considering the deployment of an
observer mission with a broad
mandate to monitor events in
Syria.
The Britain-based Syrian
Observatory of Human Rights
said yesterday that 10,108
people had been killed since
the uprising, inspired by Arab
Spring protests that toppled
long-time dictators in Tunisia
and Egypt, erupted in March
2011.
The group said at least 34
people, including 16 civilians,
were killed on Monday as
Syrian forces pressed their
crackdown
on
dissent,
UNITED STATES
Co-workers claim share of lottery jackpot
A Baltimore woman is claiming one-third of the US$656
million (NZ$796m) Mega Millions jackpot, but colleagues
at the McDonald’s restaurant
where she works say Mirlande Wilson bought the
tickets for a workplace pool –
and that they are winners too.
All of which may be irrelevant if Wilson doesn’t produce
the winning ticket.
Maryland Lottery officials
say someone bought a winning ticket on Saturday at a
Baltimore County 7-Eleven
store, but so far, no-one had
come forward.
Lottery director Stephen
Martino said he hadn’t heard
from Wilson, and that no-one
had showed up at his Baltimore offices.
Although he didn’t call
Wilson’s story a fabrication,
he said, ‘‘We don’t have any
reason to believe right now
that it’s true. I will say that I
tend to be really skeptical of
all these claims.’’
He said he had heard at
least half a dozen names of
people who claim to have
won.
Wilson told the New York
Post she planned to claim her
US$105m share yesterday, but
declined to show the ticket to
a reporter. She was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Co-workers said they
pooled their cash to buy
several tickets.
Maryland Lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett said
yesterday: ‘‘I never expected,
Who won? The United States’
biggest lottery has started a mega
squabble over the winnings.
Photo: REUTERS
based on that story, that this
is the actual winner. We
really won’t believe anybody
till they walk in with a ticket
and the ticket is valid – and
they have identification.’’
Everett said false claims
were part of the process,
especially when a jackpot
reached stratospheric heights.
‘‘Lots of people claim that they
won. They want a piece of the
excitement.’’
In New Jersey in 2010, a
group of asphalt workers who
regularly played Mega Millions sued a co-worker who
disappeared after a November
2009 prize draw.
The co-worker said he
needed foot surgery, but crew
members found his name on a
list of Mega Millions winners:
He had claimed US$38.5m. A
jury last month ordered him
to share the jackpot.
Such cases were enough to
persuade Karen Pugh, of
Bandini Elementary School in
Commerce, California, to
draw up an agreement for her
group of 11 lottery players.
‘‘My secretary and I just had a
feeling that we needed to be
wise in this, because we had
heard the stories of office
pools gone bad.’’
By January 2010, they had
been playing the lottery
together for a 11⁄2 years and
said they needed to bring
some precision to the process.
The agreement covered
how much each member put
in and what would happen if a
member chose not to play one
week (no prize).
Three weeks later, they
USA Today
won US$12m.
pounding rebel bastions and
clashing with insurgents near
the Turkish border.
Russia has rejected the
idea of a deadline for
implementation of the peace
plan, with Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov saying ‘‘ultimatums
and
artificial
deadlines
rarely
help
matters.’’
Moscow, a Soviet-era ally
Former drug kingpin Benjamin Arellano Felix was sentenced yesterday to 25 years
in a United States prison.
His Tijuana-based ring
raised Mexico’s drug violence
to a new level and tried to hide
understanding of local communities in that regard.’’
All but one of Japan’s 54
reactors have been shut,
mostly for maintenance
checks, since the disaster at
Tokyo Electric Power Co’s
Fukushima plant, triggered
by a huge tsunami in March
last year. The remaining
reactor is due to be closed for
maintenance on May 5.
Kansai Electric Power Co’s
No 3 and No 4 reactors at Ohi
nuclear plant in Fukui prefecture, western Japan, are the
first to have passed government-imposed, computer-simulated stress tests, a necessary
step before any restart.
Energy markets are keen
to know when the Ohi
reactors will go back on line.
Their restart could reduce
the bloodshed by dissolving
bodies in drums of chemicals
or burning them in the desert.
US District Judge Larry
Burns said Felix, 58, deserved
a life sentence for harming the
AP
US and Mexico.
restaurant
Decision on restarting nuclear reactors postponed
make any immediate decision, Trade Minister Yukio
Edano, who holds the energy
portfolio said.
‘‘Safety should be ensured
to avoid massive leaks of
radioactive materials as
occurred in the Fukushima
crisis even if an earthquake
and tsunami that exceed past
expectations occur,’’ he said.
‘‘We should also obtain the
of the Assad regime, said only
the UN Security Council,
where it wields veto power,
could
put
any
time
restrictions on Syria’s compliance with the Annan plan.
Diplomats said yesterday
that the US, Britain and
France were working on a
Security Council statement
putting a formal stamp on the
AFP
April 10 deadline.
Druglord gets 25 years
JAPAN
Japan needs more time to
decide whether to restart two
offline nuclear reactors, its
trade minister said yesterday,
as concerns about a summer
power crunch vie with safety
worries after last year’s
Fukushima crisis.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko
Noda will meet three Cabinet
members to discuss restarting
the reactors, but would not
Photos: REUTERS
imports of liquefied natural
gas by about 2 million tonnes
a year.
To make up for the lost
nuclear power, Japan’s utilities burned 25 per cent more
imported liquefied natural gas
– equivalent to 51.8 million
tonnes – and 150 per cent more
crude oil in the year to
February, according to power
Reuters
industry data.
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