Other world news in brief
Seven killed in car bomb attack in northern Iraq
KIRKUK – A car bomb in a restive region of northern Iraq killed seven people and wounded 61 yesterday, police said, underscoring tensions simmering since an inconclusive March election.
The bomb in a parked car detonated near the home of a provincial official from the Turkoman minority in the town of Tuz Khurmato, southeast of the city of Kirkuk in a region wrestled over by Iraq’s majority Arabs and minority Kurds.
It was the worst of several attacks yesterday that killed seven other people, including four Iraqi soldiers who died when their patrol left base and was hit by three roadside bombs in Qaim, near Iraq’s western border with Syria, a police source said. Six were wounded. – (Reuters)
5,000 protest headscarf ban
PRISTINA – Around 5,000 people protested in Kosovo yesterday against a government decision to ban pupils from wearing Muslim headscarves in public schools.
Around 90 per cent of Kosovo’s population are Muslims, but the former Serbian province, which declared independence in 2008, remains a largely secular country.
Protesters, who came to the capital from all over the country, urged the government to withdraw its decision and not to “discriminate” against Muslims. Angry protesters with banners that read “Dont use our state against us” and “Communism is over” marched to the ministry of education, which had approved the ban. – (Reuters)
Ex-priest to stand trial for sex abuse
ROME – Former priest Pierino Gelmini, one of Italy’s most high-profile and politically well-connected Catholics, has been ordered to stand trial on charges of sexual abuse at a drug rehabilitation centre.
Twelve men who were residents of one of his drug rehabilitation centres have accused him of sexually abusing them, some when they were teenagers.
Mr Gelmini, who has denied all charges, was defrocked by the Vatican at his own request two years ago, a move he said would allow him to defend himself better. The trial of Mr Gelmini (86), who has often appeared on national television, is expected to start next year in the central city of Terni, near one of his drug rehabilitation centres. – (Reuters)
Utah murderer executed by firing squad
SALT LAKE CITY – A Utah firing squad shot to death a convicted killer early yesterday in the third US execution by that means since 1976.
Ronnie Lee Gardner (49) was pronounced dead after being shot in the chest by a five-man firing squad at the Utah State Prison in Draper, a suburb of Salt Lake City.
Gardner was condemned to die for the 1985 courthouse shooting of attorney Michael Burdell during an escape attempt. Gardner had been in court to face a charge of murdering a bartender.
He chose the firing squad as his means of execution before it was banned by the state and replaced by lethal injection. – (Reuters)