A round-up of today's other world news in brief.
UN condemns North Korean missile launch
UNITED NATIONS – The UN Security Council has condemned North Korea's latest ballistic missile launches both as a violation of council resolutions and as a threat to regional and international
security.
Pyongyang fired seven missiles into the Sea of Japan on Saturday – Independence Day in the US – in an apparent act of defiance of Washington.
The US government has cracked down on companies suspected of helping the North in its arms and missiles trade. – (Reuters)
Warning on terror trial statements
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said yesterday that only voluntary statements by foreign terrorism suspects at the Guantánamo Bay prison should be used as evidence at their military trials or else convictions could be reversed on appeal.
US assistant attorney general David Kris said yesterday that a serious risk existed that the courts would declare unconstitutional the admission of involuntary statements by the accused at their military commission proceedings. – (Reuters)
Call to ban Liberia leader from office
MONROVIA – Liberia’s truth and reconciliation commission yesterday said the president, Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf, should be banned from public office for 30 years for backing a rebellion led by Liberia’s former president Charles Taylor.
Ms Johnson-Sirleaf is Africa’s first female head of state.
She has previously admitted providing Taylor, a warlord during Liberia’s 1989 to 2003 civil war, with money but said she had been misled into supporting him. – (Reuters)
Yemeni air crash bodies spotted
DAR ES SALAAM – Tanzanian authorities have spotted some 13 bodies and aircraft wreckage believed to be from a Yemeni airliner that crashed into the sea off the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros last week, an official said yesterday.
“We have a report from the district commissioner in Mafia, sent to the prime minister, saying that they have discovered about 13 bodies,” said Saidi Nguba, a spokesman for Tanzania’s prime minister.
He added that aircraft wreckage had also been found. – (Reuters)
Visits to grave of Saddam banned
BAGHDAD – Iraq’s government has ordered authorities in Saddam Hussein’s home town to ban schoolchildren from visiting the grave of the former dictator after a video showed a group of schoolgirls singing his praises.
The order from the cabinet on Monday was accompanied by other orders that called for some signs and monuments dating back to before the 2003 US-led invasion to be dismantled because they “glorified the past regime”. – (Reuters)