A round-up of other world news in brief
Al-Qaeda frees Spanish aid workers after nine months
MADRID/OUGADOUGOU – Two Spanish aid workers held by al Qaeda’s north African wing were freed yesterday, ending a kidnapping ordeal in the Sahara Desert that lasted nearly nine months.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb seized Albert Vilalta and Roque Pascual while they were travelling through Mauritania with a relief aid convoy last November. It was the latest in a string of abductions claimed by the group. “We are happy, this is a big day for us, Mr Vilalta told reporters after they were transferred to the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou, in a Burkinabe military helicopter. A witness said the pair were smiling and appeared in good shape. – (Reuters)
Anne Frank tree falls in storm
AMSTERDAM – A giant chestnut tree that comforted Dutch diarist Anne Frank as she hid from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic during the second World War collapsed in wind and rain yesterday.
No one was hurt as the 150-year-old tree fell across a fence, missing the Anne Frank House, now a museum, which was full of tourists. “It broke off like a match. It broke off completely about one metre off the ground,” a house spokesman said.
The tree was one of the few signs of nature visible to the Jewish teenager from the attic she hid in for more than two years. It is mentioned in the diary, which became a worldwide bestseller after her death in a concentration camp in 1945. “Our chestnut tree is in full blossom. It is covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year,” she wrote in May 1944, not long before she was betrayed to the Nazis. – (Reuters)
Tusks and horns found in shipment
NAIROBI – Kenyan authorities have intercepted more than two tonnes of elephant tusks and rhino horns disguised as fruit destined for export to Malaysia.
Most of the tusks seemed to have been collected from natural deaths of about 150 elephants. The Kenya Wildlife Service said it was yet to determine their origin.
The cargo was falsely declared as containing only fresh avocados. – (Reuters)
Man wants spine of attacker severed
RIYADH – Saudi officials are trying to persuade a man paralysed in a fight to accept compensation for his injuries and drop a demand that his attacker have his spinal cord severed, a judicial spokesman said yesterday.
Amnesty International said the court, in the province of Tabuk, approached hospitals about the possibility of paralysing the attacker in a medical setting. Amnesty urged the state not to carry out such a penalty. – (Reuters)