Today's other world news stories in brief.
Iran detainee dies in jail after ‘beatings’
TEHRAN – The son of an adviser to a defeated Iranian presidential candidate died after being beaten in jail, a semi-official news agency reported yesterday, citing a report from the coroner’s office.
A reformist website last month said Mohsen Ruholamini, son of adviser Abdolhossein Ruholamini, was killed in a Tehran prison after being detained in post- vote unrest. Officials have said he died of meningitis.
“According to [the coroner’s] report, the main causes of his death were physical stress, frequent beatings and hitting a solid object on his head,” Mehr news agency quoted a source as saying. – (Reuters)
Latvians protest at spending cuts
RIGA – Hundreds of people blocked a main highway artery in Latvia yesterday in a rare protest against the impact of tough spending cuts forced on the financial crisis-hit nation.
The protest was in the southern town of Bauska, where people stopped traffic on a bridge which is on the main road from Latvia to neighbouring Lithuania. An anti-riot squad was sent to get the people off the road.
“At the peak of the action there were about 250 to 300 people, but now about 60 to 70 people remain on the bridge,” said a police spokeswoman. – (Reuters)
Hurricane puts the wind up OECD
MEXICO CITY – The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has moved an international meeting on tax havens to Mexico City from the Pacific resort of Los Cabos due to an approaching hurricane.
Delegates from about 70 OECD and non-OECD countries had already started arriving in Los Cabos, on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, for the talks today and tomorrow, but dangerous Hurricane Jimena was forecast to hammer the resort on those days. – (Reuters)
Armenia and Turkey near deal
YEREVAN – Armenia and Turkey said yesterday they would begin “internal political consultations” on establishing diplomatic ties after almost a century of hostility. “The political consultations will be completed within six weeks, following which the two protocols will be signed and submitted to the respective parliaments for ratification on each side,” the foreign ministries of Turkey and Armenia, and mediator Switzerland, said.
The states announced in April they had agreed a plan to normalise ties. – (Reuters)
Stalin grandson sues for libel
MOSCOW – Josef Stalin was in the dock yesterday when a Russian court held a preliminary hearing in a libel case brought by his grandson over a newspaper story which said the tyrant had ordered the killings of Soviet citizens.
Rights groups say the case shows a creeping attempt in modern Russia to paint a more benevolent picture of the Soviet Union’s most feared leader. Stalin’s grandson, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, is seeking €208,348 from the Novaya Gazeta and €11,000 from the author of an article published last April. – (Reuters)
Death of Rolling Stone reviewed
LONDON – British police are to re-examine the death of former Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones after receiving new information.
Jones, a founding member of the band, was 27 when he was found dead in a swimming pool at his home in southern England 40 years ago. An inquest recorded a verdict of death by misadventure. A Sussex police spokesman said yesterday the force had received new information about his death. “These papers will be examined but it is too early to comment at this time on what the outcome will be.” – (Reuters)