Sunday, February 17, 2008
DENMARK
Sixth Night of Youth Violence
Groups of youths torched schools and cars in a sixth consecutive night of violence across Denmark, mostly in immigrant neighborhoods, police said Saturday. Forty-three people were arrested.
Police said they weren't sure what triggered the spate of vandalism in cities including Copenhagen, Aarhus, Ringsted and Slagelse. Some observers said immigrant youths were protesting perceived police harassment but suggested that reproduction of a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers Wednesday may have intensified the unrest.
More than a dozen newspapers reprinted a cartoon that sparked massive protests in Muslim countries two years ago -- a gesture of solidarity after police revealed an alleged plot to kill the cartoonist.
On Saturday, 10 Danish lawmakers canceled a trip to Iran after its parliament demanded an apology for the reprinting.
Gaza StripHamas Fighter Killed in Clash
Israeli troops killed a Hamas fighter during clashes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the radical Islamic group and medical workers said.
Six other gunmen and a civilian were wounded as Israeli troops, backed by aircraft, clashed with Palestinian militant groups in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, Hamas security sources said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said she was looking into the report.
Israel frequently carries out airstrikes and ground raids against fighters in the Gaza Strip in what it says is an effort to stop them firing rockets into southern Israeli towns.
SOMALIAPresident Survives Attack
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf escaped unhurt from a mortar attack by Islamic insurgents on his official residence in Mogadishu on Saturday, his spokesman said.
"The president was at the palace when several mortars landed near the house. The president is safe," said spokesman Hussein Mohamud Hubsired.
The attack took place hours after Yusuf, 73, arrived in the coastal capital from a trip abroad for medical treatment.
The interim government and its Ethiopian allies are battling gunmen loyal to an Islamic movement that ruled Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia for six months in 2006 before being ousted by the allied forces.
Meanwhile, a local human rights group reported that nearly 292 civilians were killed and 385 wounded last month in fighting in Mogadishu. The Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization obtains its figures from medical institutions.
HONG KONGBank Chief Quits Cabinet
David Li, the Hong Kong banker and lawmaker who is paying $8.1 million to settle a U.S. probe into alleged insider trading, resigned from the city's Executive Council.
Li, chief executive of the Bank of East Asia, "regretted that the matter had caused public concern and thus wished to resign," Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang said in a statement posted Saturday on the government's Web site.
The announcement follows pressure on Li to quit after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 5 said he and three others would pay a combined $24 million in fines after an investigation into share trading during News Corp.'s takeover of Dow Jones. Li, who also represents Hong Kong's banking industry in its parliament, agreed to pay the fine without admitting or denying wrongdoing, the Bank of East Asia said Feb. 6.
INDONESIA2 Bird Flu Deaths Confirmed
A 3-year-old Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, the Health Ministry said Saturday, making its second announcement of a bird flu death in one day.
The two cases, which were apparently unrelated, brought Indonesia's death toll from the H5N1 strain of the bird flu to 105.
The latest victim was from the capital, Jakarta, Elshinta radio reported. Earlier, the ministry announced that a 16-year-old Indonesian youth from Central Java province had died of bird flu last week.
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Afghan Winter Death Toll Exceeds 900The death toll from Afghanistan's harshest winter in recent memory has hit 926, an official with the national disaster management commission said, adding that the count could rise as access to remote areas improves with the thawing of snow.
Woman Killed at Egyptian-Israeli BorderEgyptian border guards shot and killed an Eritrean woman and arrested her two daughters south of Aouja after they tried to cross illegally into Israel, security officials said. Mervat Mer Hatover, 37, and her daughters, ages 8 and 10, were among a group of Africans who paid human traffickers to help them cross into Israel, a security official said. On Jan. 30, two people from Ivory Coast were fatally shot in similar circumstances.
Maoists Attack Police Facilities in IndiaHundreds of Maoist rebels stormed six police compounds in eastern India in coordinated attacks Friday night, killing 13 police personnel and one civilian, a police official said. The attacks -- on four police stations, one training academy and an armory -- were scattered across the Nayagarh district, about 750 miles southeast of the capital, New Delhi.
From News Services
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