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news without borders
briefs
Man gets death
penalty for killing lover
SINGAPORE: A Singapore court yester-
day sentenced a man to hang for killing
his Chinese lover after their relationship
went sour in June 2006, media reports
said. Eu Lim Hoklai, 55, a seafood stall
boss and father of three, was found
guilty of strangling Yu Hong Jin, 29, the
owner of a massage parlour.
Eu claimed that he paid for her trips
to China and moving her business,
and that she tried to press even more
money out of him, threatening to tell
his family about their affair, the online
edition of Straits Times newspaper
reported. He told the court he decided
to end the relationship after he saw a
man leaving her flat just days before
the crime.
Eu said Yu slapped him and stabbed
him with a knife after he refused
to compensate her with S$30,000
(RM72,000) for breaking up with her.
Eu then stabbed and strangled Yu, the
report said. – dpa
China delays
internet filter plan
BEIJING: China will delay a contro-
versial plan to force manufacturers
to bundle Internet filtering software
with new personal computers sold
in the country, in an abrupt retreat
announced hours before the policy
was due to start.
The climbdown was reported last
night by the official Xinhua news
agency, which said the Ministry of
Industry and Information Technol-
ogy would “delay the mandatory in-
stallation of the controversial ‘Green
Dam-Youth Escort’ filtering software
on new computers”.
The plan, which officials said
was to stamp out internet por-
nography, was to start today, but
had been assailed by critics of
censorship, industry groups and
Washington officials as politically
intrusive, technically ineffective
and commercially unfair. – Reuters
Australians warned of
refugee boat armada
SYDNEY: Up to 10,000 asylum-seekers
are waiting in Malaysia and Indonesia
for a passage to Australia, news reports
said yesterday. A boat that arrived last
week carried 194 emigrants. It was the
15th vessel to arrive in Australia this
year, against a total of only seven last
year, and represented the largest group
to make landfall in almost 10 years.
The Sydney Morning Herald es-
timated 3,000 asylum-seekers had
arrived in Indonesia by boat from
Malaysia. Most of the refugees are
from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar
or Iraq, officials said.
Aegile Fernandez, coordinator of
the Malaysian immigration support
group Tenaganita, told the paper that
Malaysia had become the key staging
post for groups who pay smugglers for
passage to Australia. – dpa
Prisoner cuts
throat in court
WELLINGTON: A 29-year-old pris-
oner cut his throat with a smuggled
knife as he was sentenced to six
months in prison in the Wellington
District Court yesterday, news
reports said. He was filmed by the
TV3 channel being led from the
court by police officers with blood
streaming down his bare torso.
The 29-year-old, whose name
was suppressed by the court, ap-
peared for sentencing on charges
of publishing objectionable mate-
rial. He had hidden the knife in his
sock, according to reports.
The prisoner was reported to be
in stable condition in Wellington
Hospital. – dpa
Yemeni plane crashes off
Comoros with 153 aboard
MORONI: A Yemeni Airbus jet car-
rying 153 people crashed into the
Indian Ocean as it came in to land in
the Comoros islands early yesterday
but rescuers pulled a child from the
sea alive, officials said.
Witnesses said they saw the A310
jet abort a landing attempt and veer
out to sea before it disappeared.
It was the second time in less
than a month that an Airbus has
crashed into the ocean. This time
French authorities said the Yemeni
carrier had been under surveillance
and that the 19-year-old jet had been
banned from French airspace.
Bodies and wreckage from the
Yemenia airline flight were spotted in
the sea near the archipelago’s capital,
Moroni, aviation officials said.
But a five-year-old boy among
the 142 passengers and 11 crew
on Flight IY 626 was rescued alive,
Yemeni Transport Minister Khaled
al-Wazir told AFP.
Italian gas train derails
and explodes, killing 16
VIAREGGIO: At least 16 people
were killed and dozens more injured
in an Italian seaside resort town
when a train carrying liquid petro-
leum gas exploded after derailing,
engulfing nearby homes in flames,
officials said yesterday.
Witnesses spoke of terrifying
scenes as many of the injured in
Viareggio were left with extensive
burns. The driver told of his “mira-
cle” escape after his cabin filled with
the liquid gas.
The local health service gave the
latest toll of 16 dead and 36 injured,
of whom 14 were in critical condi-
tion. Two of the dead were children.
Hundreds of firefighters from
across the region rushed to help
with the rescue operation and ensure
remaining tankers did not catch fire.
More than 1,000 people were
evacuated because of the danger of
more explosions, said Luca Lunardini,
mayor of the city of 50,000 people,
Arfachad Salim, a rescue coordi-
nator for the Comoros Red Crescent,
said the child was brought ashore
and added that local fishermen had
also found wreckage, passengers
handbags and other effects.
There were no reports of other
survivors. Officials said the plane
crashed into rough seas in darkness,
after disappearing from control
tower radar screens at 1.51am yes-
terday (6.51am in Malaysia).
“I saw the plane approach and
then go away again, I just could not
understand it,” said former defence
minister Houmed Msaidie, who
went to Moroni-Hahaya airport to
pick up his mother-in-law.
The flight left Paris on Monday
for Marseille and Sanaa, where pas-
sengers switched to the older Airbus
to continue to Djibouti and Moroni.
France’s Transport Minister
Dominique Bussereau said French
inspectors had in 2007 found
adding before the latest toll was issued
that five people were still missing.
Authorities declared a state of emer-
gency and Transport Minister Altero
Matteoli set up an official inquiry.
Pope Benedict XVI sent a tel-
egramme expressing his “deep com-
passion for the pain which has touched
the whole town”, while Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi visited Viareggio to
“take control of the situation”.
One of the drivers told of his
scramble to escape the inferno just
before midnight on Monday.
“The drivers’ cabin filled with the
gas, we managed to escape. We are
alive, it is a miracle.”
“There are several bodies in the
streets thrown out of the buildings
by the explosion,” Guido Bertolaso,
the chief of the civil protection serv-
ices, said, adding many corpses were
charred beyond recognition.
Another witness told of finding a
burnt body in the street.
numerous faults on the A310 and
that the airline was being closely
monitored by EU authorities.
“The plane had not since then
reappeared in our country.”
According to an EU legal docu-
ment, other inspections in Germany
and Italy had shown up “deficien-
cies” with the airline, and in July last
year the EU commission had insisted
Yemenia provide an “action plan”
to address safety concerns to avoid
being placed on an EU blacklist.
A commission spokesman said
the company had complied with its
obligations, without elaborating.
The document also showed that
Airbus had undertaken to monitor
maintenance and engineering work
and operation of Yemenia’s aircraft.
Yemenia’s deputy managing
director for operations Mohammed
al-Sumairi told France 24 TV that the
plane was “technically sound” when
it left Sanaa, “and it departed without
Rescue workers search
for victims after a
freight train exploded
in Viareggio yesterday.
“I heard the explosion and I went
out into the street to find myself
faced with flames and a motionless
charred body lying on the ground,”
the witness, who works at a nearby
pharmaceutical company, told Italian
news agency Ansa.
He called it a “terrifying scene that
I will never forget”.
A young girl caught in the blast
on her scooter threw herself to
the ground to put out her burning
clothes, another witness said.
One wagon in the 14-carriage train
transporting liquefied petroleum gas
(LPG) came off the rails in the town,
which is just northwest of Pisa.
Witnesses reported hearing three
explosions: a violent initial blast and
two others just after.
“The cars flipped over on their
sides on the rails and the gas spread
out among the nearest houses before
exploding,” senior firefighter Antonio
Gambardella said. – AFP
theSun | WEDNESDAY JULY 1 2009
any technical problems at all”.
He said three bodies had been re-
covered from the sea early yesterday.
French civil aviation officials said
66 passengers were French. Many
of the passengers were likely to hold
dual nationality, however. Three
small babies were also among the
passengers, officials said.
France sent two navy ships and a
plane from its nearby Indian Ocean
territories to help the rescue.
“Bodies were seen floating on
the surface of the water and a fuel
slick was also spotted about 16 or 17
nautical miles from Moroni,” senior
Yemeni civil aviation official Moham-
mad Abdel Kader told reporters.
“Weather conditions were bad,”
he said. “The sea was rough.”
Airbus, which is still reeling from
the crash of an Air France A330-320
into the Atlantic on June 1, imme-
diately set up a crisis cell and sent
investigators to the Comoros. – AFP
Jackson
leaves
estate to
mother,
children
WASHINGTON: A 2002 will
by Michael Jackson divides his
estate between his mother,
three children and one or more
charities, the Wall Street Journal
reported yesterday.
But his father, Joseph
Jackson, apparently does not
feature, said the story.
A lawyer for Jackson could
submit the will, which was
believed to be his last, to Los
Angeles Superior Court as soon
as tomorrow, said the Journal. It
names lawyer John Branca and
a music executive John Mclain,
a friend of Jackson, as execu-
tors, according to the Journal.
EPAPIX
Branca, who worked for
Jackson from 1980 to 2006 and
was rehired by Jackson a week
before his death last Thursday,
wrote the will in 2002, accord-
ing to the newspaper account.
The singer’s parents have
not seen the will, their lawyer
said in an e-mailed statement
to the Journal. The report said
Joseph Jackson, with whom the
singer reportedly had a troubled
relationship, was not believed
to be included in the will.
It was not known what
custody provisions the 2002
will sets out for Jackson’s three
children. A Los Angeles court
on Tuesday gave the singer’s
mother temporary custody of
the children until a hearing in
July. The size and complexity of
Jackson’s assets and debts is
expected to pose a challenge
in unwinding his estate, the
Journal said, estimating his
debt at US$500 million (RM1.75
billion).
His assets, which include a
50% stake in Sony/ATV Music
Publishing, could exceed his
debts by as much as US$200
million (RM700 million), it said.
– AFP