Speed leads to crashes - Oman Daily Observer

6 THE WORLD
OMAN DAILY Observer
SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012
A STUNTMAN pretends to play the piano in the air as he and his cardboard instrument are lifted by a hot air balloon over Vilnius, Lithuania,
yesterday during the piano summer festival. Vilnius remains one of the few European capitals allowing hot air balloons to fly over the city. — AFP
South Korea president
lands on disputed islets
SEOUL — South Korean
President Lee Myung-Bak
paid a surprise visit yesterday
to islands at the centre
of a decades-long territorial
dispute with Japan, which recalled
its ambassador from
Seoul in protest.
Lee was making the firstever
visit by a South Korean
president to the rocky volcanic
outcrops in the Sea of Japan
(East Sea), roughly midway
between South Korea and its
former colonial ruler Japan.
Disregarding Tokyo's
warnings that the visit would
strain already prickly relations,
Lee toured the main
island and shook hands with
coastguards as a South Korean
flag fluttered in the breeze.
"Dokdo is indeed our territory
and a place worth staking
our lives to defend. Let's
make sure to safeguard it with
pride," pool reports quoted
him as saying.
TV footage showed him
posing for a photo in front of
a rock painted with the slogan
"ROK (South Korean) territory".
The South has stationed
a small coastguard detachment
since 1954 on the islands
known as Dokdo in Korea and
Takeshima in Japan.
Japan reacted angrily, recalling
its envoy indefinitely
and calling in Seoul's ambassador
to Tokyo to receive a
strong protest. Prime Minister
Yoshihiko Noda said the trip
was "extremely deplorable".
Foreign Minister Koichiro
Gemba upbraided his South
Korean counterpart by phone
and said the visit "would have
a major negative impact on
our people's sentiment".
"Our side has no choice but
to take proper measures in response,"
he said.
The trip was made just before
the men's bronze medal
Olympic soccer match between
Japan and South Korea,
and days before the August 15
anniversary of Japan's World
War II surrender, which ended
its 35-year rule over Korea.
Lee's conservative party
faces a presidential election in
December, although he himself
is constitutionally barred
from a second term.
Many older Koreans have
bitter memories of Japan's
brutal rule. Historical disputes
such as Dokdo still mar their
relationship, despite close
economic ties and a shared
concern at North Korea's missile
and nuclear programmes.
South Korea last week
summoned a senior Japanese
diplomat to protest his country's
renewed claim to the
islands in its latest defence
white paper.
Earlier in July it was Tokyo's
turn to protest when a
South Korean rammed his
truck into the main gate of Japan's
embassy in Seoul.
One analyst said Lee's trip
was an over-reaction to diplomatic
strains and should have
been considered more thoroughly.
— AFP
PRESIDENT Lee Myung-Bak with a police guard during a visit to remote islands. — AFP
Kin of drug cartel boss held
MADRID — Spanish police
said yesterday they had arrested
a cousin of Mexico's most
notorious drug cartel leader,
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman,
along with three other cartel
members.
In a joint operation with the
FBI, police swooped on the
four suspects near their hotels
in central Madrid, they said.
"Four members of the Sinaloa
cartel were arrested in
central Madrid, including a
cousin of the world's biggest
drug trafficker, who had chosen
Spain as a launch pad for
his operations in the old continent,"
police said.
"Our country was going to
be used a gateway for major
consignments of narcotics,"
they said in a statement.
Police arrested Jesus Gutierrez
Guzman, first cousin
of the cartel boss; Rafael
Humberto Celaya Valenzuela;
Samuel Zazueta Valenzuela;
and Jesus Gonzalo Palazuelos
Soto. Aged between 37
and 52, they are all Mexican
citizens and are wanted in the
United States for drug trafficking
and money laundering
among other crimes, the police
statement said.
Spain's National Court ordered
their imprisonment.
Since escaping from a
western Mexican prison in
2001, "El Chapo" — which
translates as "Shorty" — has
become one of the world's
most powerful drug traffickers
and richest men.
During his decade on the
run, his Sinaloa cartel has
moved from relatively lowkey
drug trafficking operations
to controlling large swathes
of Mexican territory while it
wages bloody turf battles with
rival gangs.
But while Guzman has
eluded capture or death, one
of his brothers was killed in
a Mexican jail in December
2004 and a son was killed in
a Culiacan shopping centre in
May 2008. His organization's
reach extends deep into Latin
America and Europe.
The FBI's Boston office
began its 'Dark Waters' investigation
into the cartel in May
2009, and they started meeting
Spanish police in October
2010 after discovering the
expansion plans, the Spanish
police statement said.
The FBI ran the bulk of
the investigation, tipping off
Spanish police about cartel
members' plans to travel to
Spain in March 2011. — AFP
Australia rescues over Doubts over
200 from asylum boat nuke reactor
BRUSSELS — The head of
SYDNEY — Australia rescued more than 200 asylum-seekers
from a boat off Indonesia, officials said yesterday as they confirmed
that some navy ships are literally cracking under the
strain of their work.
Authorities raced to help a vessel in Indonesian waters
north of the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island
late Wednesday, transferring the 211 people on board to naval
ships. "This boat was rescued by the Australian navy," said Immigration
Minister Chris Bowen, adding that those on board
included Sri Lankans, Iranians, Afghans and Pakistanis.
"It had reported difficulty," he told ABC Radio. It is believed
to be the largest number of people on a single vessel
seeking asylum in Australia since Labor was elected in late
2007, with more than 7,000 boatpeople arriving in the country
this year. Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said he had no details
about the state of the boat but said the sea was sufficiently
rough that the navy initially towed the craft until those onboard
could be safely transferred.
The rescue came as the defence department ordered a detailed
structural analysis of the patrol ships it uses to intercept
boatpeople, after major cracking was found on three vessels.
"We've found cracking in the engine room of HMAS Armidale,"
Clare said. "This is the part of the ship, the part of
the boat that comes under the most strain, the most pressure,
particularly in rough weather.
"And we've identified minor cracks in two others of our
navy patrol boats." Clare would not explicitly link the damage
of the vessels to the rescue of asylum boats. But he conceded
there had been an increase in asylum-seeker boats in recent
months after the government failed to pass the so-called "Malaysia
Solution" they had hoped would deter people from making
the dangerous sea voyage. — AFP
Two airlifted to safety
from sharks’ attack
SYDNEY — Two men were plucked from the ocean yesterday
as sharks circled after being spotted by a television helicopter
in a dramatic rescue involving five aircraft and five boats.
It came after three men failed to return on Thursday after
setting out in a fishing boat from Leeman, 270 kilometres north
of Perth, sparking a search that covered 320 square kilometres
of ocean. One of the men later died after being taken ashore,
while the other man was being treated for unspecified injuries,
West Australian police said. The third man remains missing.
"We haven't spoken to the survivor yet and until then we
don't know what happened," a police spokesman said. A helicopter
for Channel Seven television spotted one of the men
first, with the reporter on board, Grant Taylor, dramatically
relaying the action as it happened.
"When we first spotted him, one of the scariest things was
there was a massive hammerhead shark not 20 metres away
from him, just slowly circling around him," he told ABC radio.
"He's... just struggling to swim and float on his back and try
and keep his head out of the water," he added of the man.
Taylor said an inflatable rescue raft was dropped but it drifted
more than 100 metres away from the man. Taylor said the
man was finally picked up by a search and rescue vessel and
survived the ordeal. A second man was later found but died
after being rescued. — AFP
Algorithm to source
online rumours found
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Rumours on the Internet,
terrorist attacks and epidemics can all be tracked to their
originating points with a new mathematical formula developed
by researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology
at Lausanne, the school said yesterday.
"Using our method, we can find the source of all kinds
of things circulating on a network, just by 'listening' to
a limited number of members," said Pedro Pinto, who
worked on the algorithm with a team of scientists.
For example, if a story spreads to 500 users of the online
social network Facebook, investigators would need to look
at messages from only 15 or 20 people to find out who
started the rumour. Pinto's team was also able to identify
the brains behind the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"By reconstructing the message exchange inside the
9'11 terrorist network extracted from publicly released
news, our system spit out the names of three potential suspects
— one of whom was found to be the mastermind of
the attacks, according to the official enquiry," Pinto said.
The method can also be used to find out where epidemics
start, by making models of rivers and human networks
through which a disease spreads. — dpa
Prince quits
politics for
second time
PHNOM PENH — Cambodian
Prince Norodom Ranariddh
yesterday announced
that he was quitting politics
for a second time after he
was perceived as an obstacle
to a merger between royalist
parties.
The son of former king
Norodom Sihanouk agreed
in May to combine his eponymous
Norodom Ranariddh
Party with Funcinpec in a
bid to reinvigorate the royalist
movement ahead of next
year's general elections.
"I would like to announce,
from now on, that I stop doing
politics and will not take
responsibility for any work
and decisions made by the
Norodom Ranariddh Party
any more," Ranariddh said
in a statement. The prince
did not provide the motive
behind his decision to leave
politics but it comes after
senior officials from both
parties accused him of standing
in the way of a smooth
merger. — AFP
Belgium's federal agency for
nuclear safety AFCN said
yesterday he was "sceptical"
that an ageing reactor closed
over fears of cracks could be
re-started.
"I'm fairly sceptical for
the moment," Willy de Roovere
told RTBF public radio,
even if "the possibility remains
that I am wrong."
According to French-language
daily Le Soir, a crack
of between 15 and 20 millimetres
was discovered during
a test in June. There has
been no denial of this report.
According to the agency,
repairs to the reactor are
"practically impossibly" and
are "not an option" for fear
of creating new tensions in
the reactor, "which we must
avoid at all costs."
The AFCN revealed on
Wednesday that the Doel 3
reactor, located 25 kilometres
north of Antwerp, would
remain closed at least until
August 31 after the discovery
of possible cracks during
routine June testing. — AFP
Evicted from
Spain farm
OSUNA — Spanish police
evicted left-wing activists
from a sprawling, government-owned
Andalucian
ranch yesterday, a day after
some of the activists looted
supermarket food to hand
out to the needy.
The activists had for the
past 18 days occupied a
1,200-hectare farm belonging
to the defence ministry
to demand a more equal distribution
of land in Andalucia,
which has a tradition of
large landholdings.
A spokesman from the
civil guard said a man was
arrested on suspicion of involvement
in the supermarket
thefts and about 40 to 50
people present at the farm
were in the process of being
evicted. The major political
parties condemned the raids.
Wildfire
controlled
LISBON — Portuguese firefighters
yesterday managed
to contain a wildfire that
killed one of their colleagues,
civil protection authorities
said. The firefighter died on
Thursday when his vehicle
was surrounded by flames in
the area of Figueiro dos Vinhos,
in central Portugal.
Hundreds of firefighters
were also battling another
blaze in Vimioso in the
north. More than 30 districts
were at risk of fires, mainly
in the north and centre of the
country, the Meteorological
Institute said.
Nearly 14,000 wildfires
erupted in Portugal in the
first half of this year. They
devastated about 67,000 hectares
of terrain, according to
official figures. — dpa
VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez waving to
supporters during a campaign rally 30 km away from
Caracas, in view of next October election. — AFP
MEXICO’S president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto (L)
and congressman Manlio Fabio Beltrones attend a
meeting in Mexico City. — Reuters
ARGENTINE President Cristina Fernandez de
Kirchner attend the inauguration of a new diesel
hydrodesulfurisation unit in La Plata. — AFP
LIBERIAN President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf upon her
arrival in Accra, where she came to attend the funeral
of Ghanian President John Atta Mills. — AFP
RUSSIA’S Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attends
a meeting with members of the United Russia party
at the Gorki residence outside Moscow yesterday.