Tag: InternationalNews

{{A prisoner at Welikada jail in Colombo, Sri Lanka, got into trouble last week, after he attempted to hide a smuggled cell phone in his rectum.}}

The Agence France-Presse reports that the 58-year-old convict had concealed the phone, along with a hands-free headset, in his body cavity.

The items were discovered when prison guards heard a suspicious ringing.

“Guards knew he had a phone at the wrong end,” an unidentified guard told media.

An X-ray taken of the prisoner in a local hospital reveals the phone and handset in all their glory. No word on what happened to the phone in question.

Other prisoners at Welikada also seem to take their cell phones seriously. In November, at least 27 people were killed when prisoners rioted during a search for illegal phones and drugs.

Apparently, Brazilian prisoners are pretty passionate about their phone, as well. In January, a prisoner apparently tried to smuggle in a cell phone, earphone, memory card, charge, drill and saw on the back of a cat.

According to media reports, the hapless, duct-taped feline was “detained” by authorities, who quoted a prison spokesperson as saying, “It’s tough to find out who’s responsible for the action as the cat doesn’t speak.”

{wirestory}

{{Seventeen jailed Omani cyber activists have begun a hunger strike in protest against delays in their appeals, local media reported on Sunday.}}

The activists in Samayl central prison launched a hunger strike on Friday “to protest against what they claimed to be a delay in reviewing their appeal by the Supreme Court,” Times of Oman quoted their lawyer Yaqoob al-Harthi as saying.

“The activists will only drink water until their demands are met,” Harthi said, adding that the activists’ families had submitted a letter to the Supreme Court demanding a speedier hearing in their cases.

The hunger strikers are accused of “unlawful assembly and violating the Cyber Law and are serving jail terms from six to 18 months,” the daily said.

Several groups of activists are on trial on charges of defaming or using Internet social media networks to insult Sultan Qaboos, who has ruled the Gulf sultanate for 42 years.

The appeals court has so far upheld the jail terms of many activists.
Many others have been tried after taking part in protests demanding political reforms that shook usually calm Oman in 2011.

Riot police used force to disperse the demonstrations, but Sultan Qaboos responded to the unrest by reshuffling the cabinet and increasing the powers of the consultative assembly.

Agencies

{{A Kashmiri man convicted in a 2001 attack on India’s Parliament that left 14 people dead was hanged Saturday after a final mercy plea was rejected, a senior Indian Home Ministry official said.}}

Home Secretary R.K. Singh told reporters that Mohammed Afzal Guru was executed early Saturday morning at New Delhi’s Tihar prison.

“It was the law taking its course,” Singh said.

Guru was given a Muslim burial in the prison compound, Press Trust of India news agency reported. His family in the India’s Jammu-Kashmir state has demanded that his body be handed over, but that seems unlikely given the highly sensitive nature of the execution.

Guru had been on death row since first being convicted in 2002.

Subsequent appeals in higher courts were also rejected, and India’s Supreme Court set an execution date for October 2006. But his execution was delayed after his wife filed a mercy petition with India’s president.

AP

{{Boeing Co completed what it called an uneventful flight on Saturday of a test 787 Dreamliner, its first since the airplanes were grounded more than three weeks ago after a series of battery-related problems.}}

The test flight to gather detailed information on the airplane’s lithium-ion batteries lasted two hours and 19 minutes, taking off from and returning to Boeing Field in Seattle, Boeing said.

“The crew reports that the flight was uneventful,” Boeing said in a statement.

The 50 Dreamliners in commercial service were grounded worldwide on January 16 after a series of battery-related incidents including a fire on board a parked 787 at Boston’s Logan International Airport and an in-flight problem on another airplane in Japan.

The groundings have cost airlines tens of millions of dollars, with no solution yet in sight.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Thursday it would allow 787 test flights, under more stringent rules, to monitor the batteries in flight.

Boeing said the information gathered during the flight was part of the investigations into the battery events that occurred in January and that additional details could not be shared.

The airplane is Boeing’s fifth 787 flight test airplane, marked as ZA005, and the only member of the test fleet in service. The flight had a crew of 13, including pilots and testing personnel, Boeing said.

Boeing said no flights of the airplane were planned on Sunday, but it planned to resume flights early in the coming week. Boeing does not provide advance flight schedules.

The test flight departed Boeing Field at 12:32 p.m. Pacific time (3:32 p.m. ET/2032 GMT) and landed at 2:51 p.m. (5:51 p.m. ET/2251 GMT), the company said.

{{Iran’s English-language channel Press TV says that it has been dropped by the satellite that had broadcast its signal to North America.}}

The Saturday report says that the Galaxy 19 satellite serving audiences in the United States and Canada has removed both the state-owned news channel as well as a movie channel, iFilm.

It said the move was part of sanctions imposed on Iran as part of broader efforts to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.

Iran denies that it is developing weapons, saying its nuclear activities are aimed at peaceful purposes.

The Luxembourg-based company Intelsat, whose website says that Galaxy 19 is part of its satellite fleet, could not immediately be reached for comment.

{{United Russia deputy Boris Reznik has proposed that journalists be obligated to wear identical uniforms at public events and in war zones, a news report said Friday.}}

“Press members …wear a variety of ponchos and jackets with “Press” written on them. This lack of coordination creates complications for both press members and law enforcement officials. For the latter, it is very difficult to orientate oneself among the great variety of outfits and distinguish between similar vests worn by employees of other agencies like utility workers and so on,” the deputy said, Izvestia reported.

The Communications and Press Ministry reportedly agrees with Reznik on the matter and is in the process of developing a common standard.

“We surveyed people in the media industry about this. On the whole, there are no problems with equipping journalists with the apparel; most newspapers already do that. But we support the idea of having a common standard,” Alexei Volin, deputy head of the Communications and Press Ministry, said in comments carried by Izvestia.

Reznik, a former investigative reporter for Izvestia, proposed issuing blue uniforms to match the color of UN peacekeepers’ uniforms.

The ministry is currently consulting media executives on the matter and says it might include the new requirements in the Labor Code.

Moscow times

{{Secret Defense Department studies cast doubt on whether a multibillion-dollar missile defense system planned for Europe will ever be able to protect the U.S. from Iranian missiles as intended, congressional investigators say.}}

Military officials say they believe the problems can be overcome and are moving forward with plans. But proposed fixes could be difficult. One possibility has already been ruled out as technically unfeasible.

Another, relocating missile interceptors planned for Poland and possibly Romania to ships on the North Sea, could be diplomatically explosive.

The studies are the latest to highlight serious problems for a plan that has been criticized on several fronts.

Republicans claim it was hastily drawn up in an attempt to appease Russia, which had opposed an earlier system. But Russia is also critical of the plan, which it believes is really intended to counter its missiles.

A series of governmental and scientific reports has cast doubt on whether it would ever work as planned.

At a time that the military faces giant budget cuts, the studies could prompt Congress to reconsider whether it is worthwhile to spend billions for a system that may not fulfill its original goals.

The classified studies were summarized in a briefing for lawmakers by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ nonpartisan investigative and auditing arm, which is preparing a report.

The GAO briefing, which was not classified, was obtained by media.

Associated Press