A round-up of today's other world news in brief
UK government accused of role in rendition
LONDON – Human rights lawyers took legal action against the British government yesterday, accusing it of involvement in the illegal transfer of a terrorism suspect from Indonesia to Egypt, where they say he was tortured.
Reprieve, a British-based rights group, says Britain knowingly allowed Mohammed Saad Iqbal Madni to be transferred from Jakarta to Egypt via a US airbase on Diego Garcia, a British-ruled island in the Indian Ocean, in 2002.
In Egypt, Mr Madni says he was tortured with cattle prods for three months and then sent to Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, where he was held for six years before being released last August without charge. – (Reuters)
Wage deal averts SA mining strike
JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s biggest union agreed a wage deal with gold and coal producers yesterday, averting a strike in the mining industry and easing labour pressure on South African president Jacob Zuma.
The agreement averts a strike in the 150,000-strong sector, a main foreign exchange earner. But council workers stayed away for a second day yesterday, calling for higher pay in the latest stand-off between Mr Zuma and the unions who helped bring him to power. – (Reuters)
Call for release of Ronnie Biggs
LONDON – The son of Ronnie Biggs (79) made a plea to the British government last night to release the Great Train Robber, who is seriously ill.
Michael Biggs said he feared his father was at his lowest ebb after being readmitted to hospital from prison with severe pneumonia.
Legal representatives made an emergency application to UK justice secretary Jack Straw to request his release on compassionate grounds.
The appeal came just four weeks after Mr Straw refused to release Biggs on parole, saying he remained “wholly unrepentant” for his crimes. – (PA)
Senator resigns over graft inquiry
MADRID – A leading senator from Spain’s opposition resigned as party treasurer yesterday over a corruption inquiry, just as his conservatives had moved ahead of the Socialist government in the polls.
The right-leaning Popular Party and Senator Luis Bárcenas said in a joint statement he would stop serving as treasurer until he had fully established his innocence in an investigation into alleged kickbacks from businessman Francisco Correa. – (Reuters)
Competition over vineyard jobs
PARIS – Winemakers in France’s Beaujolais region hired 10,000 grape-pickers in a mass recruitment session yesterday, as unemployed or cash-strapped locals crowded out migrant workers.
Beaujolais, best known for its light red wines, is the only French region outside Champagne where grapes are still hand-picked, a low-paid, back-breaking job that used to be done by foreigners but now attracts more and more crisis-hit French. Job-seekers crowded into a gym in Villeurbanne to meet growers who welcomed the local hires since they relieved them of the hassle of having to provide accommodation for workers. – (Reuters)
Man dies as fires spread in Spain
MADRID – One man has been killed and a woman is missing after a wildfire swept across woodland near the central Spanish city of Avila.
Regional environment ministry spokeswoman Maria Jesus Ruiz said the man died after his home in Arenas de San Pedro was engulfed by flames.
She said the missing woman may be related to him. – (Reuters)