About 70 Former Afghan Hostages Flying Home By Ralph Gowling
LONDON (Reuters)
Seventy-three Afghans, more than half of the hostages from last week�s plane hijack, were flying home on Monday on a chartered aircraft.
Britain was examining political asylum requests from 69 other hostages freed from the Afghan plane, while 19 men were under arrest in connection with the hijacking. Some were due to appear in court on Monday.
The chartered aircraft took off from a British air force base west of London shortly after midnight on Sunday after the former hostages, some smiling and waving, were taken by coach under police escort from a nearby temporary immigration center.
Indonesian president suspends
Wiranto, wins military backing
JAKARTA, Feb 14 (AFP)
In a dramatic midnight about-face, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid suspended General Wiranto from his cabinet and by early Monday had won the unequivocal support of the armed forces and the parliment for his tough stand.
Wiranto, who just hours earlier had appeared to have won his 16-day-long standoff with the president, said he too would accept the ruling.
�He has the right,� to dismiss me, Wiranto said, before leaving the presidential palace for a meeting with lawyers defending him and five other generals implicated in human rights abuses in East Timor.
�For the stability of the government, as well as for ... Wiranto�s own interests, the president has decided to suspend General Wiranto effective today as the coordinating minister for political and security affairs,� spokesman Marsilam Simanjuntak said earlier.
Tiger eats Hindu worshipper in eastern Indian zoo
BHUBANESHWAR,
India, Feb 13 (AFP)
A Royal Bengal Tiger sneaked out of its cage in a state-run zoo here and on Sunday killed a Hindu who had come to pray at a shrine within the complex, the police said. The fully-grown male tiger attacked the 60-year-old man and after killing him instantly began eating the body when zookeepers spotted the gory scene in the closed Nandankanan Zoological Park, the police said.
The tiger had escaped from its cage late Saturday night after the iron doors were left unlocked by mistake, a source from the zoo said.
Tiger eats Hindu worshipper in eastern Indian zoo
BHUBANESHWAR,
India, Feb 13 (AFP)
A Royal Bengal Tiger sneaked out of its cage in a state-run zoo here and on Sunday killed a Hindu who had come to pray at a shrine within the complex, the police said. The fully-grown male tiger attacked the 60-year-old man and after killing him instantly began eating the body when zookeepers spotted the gory scene in the closed Nandankanan Zoological Park, the police said.
The tiger had escaped from its cage late Saturday night after the iron doors were left unlocked by mistake, a source from the zoo said.
PERTH, Australia
Feb 14
(AFP)
A cyanide spill blamed for poisoning a river system in Eastern Europe was caused by freakish weather and not inadequate infrastructure, a government minister said here Monday.
But Western Australia�s state resources minister Colin Barnett admitted he was concerned about the longer term implications for Australia�s minerals industry of the environmental disaster in Romania and Hungary.
Perth-based mining company Esmeralda Exploration Ltd., half-owner of the Aurul goldmine at Sasar, Romania, has been warned it faces a massive damages action over the cyanide leakage which has poisoned life in Hungary�s Tisza river, the largest tributary of the Danube.
Hungary has warned it will take all legal and diplomatic steps to secure compensation.
More than 100 tonnes of dead fish have already been removed from the river, the drinking water of millions of people has been poisoned and the cyanide solution was floating towards Yugoslavia at the weekend.
Barnett told reporters here the incident was nothing more than an accident and not the fault of inadequate infrastructure.
�From my knowledge of that, I think that the mine was developed to a high standard. I think we need to not jump to conclusions here, they clearly had quite freakish weather conditions that caused the problem,� he said.
�But I think it is better to get it from a scientific and technical point of view.�
Barnett said as far as he was aware, the Aurul SA tailings retreatment plant in Baia Mare, which is 50 percent owned by Esmeralda, was built to the same specifications required for any Australian operation.
�I have no reason to believe that the mine wasn�t developed to the highest standard, the sort of standard you would see in the Australian mining industry for Australian projects,� he added.
Esmeralda shares have been suspended from the Australian Stock Exchange since they slumped by almost 40 percent as news of the incident became known in Australia on February 10.
Its shares fell 12 cents to 20 cents on volume of 6,000 before trading was suspended.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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