A round-up of other world news in brief
Chavez calls off marathon chat show
CARACAS – Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez had promised a four-day marathon edition of his widely watched weekly television talk show, but unspecified technical problems threw the plans awry this weekend.
In a three-line statement, the information ministry said yesterday’s Alo Presidente show had been cancelled for technical reasons. Saturday’s show was called off without explanation.
To mark its 10 years on air, Mr Chavez last week announced an extended edition of the programme he frequently uses to criticise the United States and announce major policies like nationalisations in South America’s top oil exporter.
He planned to do one or two hours-long broadcasts a day. – (Reuters)
Kansas abortion doctor shot dead
KANSAS CITY – A Kansas doctor who was a controversial provider of so- called “late-term” abortions was shot and killed at his church yesterday, local media reported.
The Wichita Eagle newspaper reported that George Tiller (67), a longtime target of anti-abortion activists, was shot to death as he walked into services at at Reformation Lutheran Church. Police are searching for a white male who fled the scene. – (Reuters)
Last survivor of ‘Titanic’ dies
SOUTHAMPTON – Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the Titanic, died early yesterday at the age of 97, according to sources. Ms Dean was just nine weeks old when the historic liner sank in 1912.
She died at a Southampton nursing home. – (PA)
Saddam aides may be executed
BAGHDAD – Former members of Saddam Hussein’s government on trial for ordering poison gas attacks on Kurdish villages will be executed if found guilty, Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed yesterday.
Mr Maliki made the pledge in a speech in the capital Baghdad to relatives of the victims of a 1988 chemical attack in the Kurdish town of Halabja, in which about 5,000 Kurds were killed. – (Reuters)
TV channel to promote Islam
CAIRO – Egypt’s seat of Islamic learning, al-Azhar, will launch a satellite channel to give the world a better understanding of Islam and counter some Islamic outlets preaching “extremist dialogue”, its architects said yesterday.
Sheikh Khaled Al-Guindy, a scholar at al-Azhar mosque and university, said the new channel would reach out to the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims and non-Muslims alike. – (Reuters)