World 12 Ashburton Guardian
www.guardianonline.co.nz
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
■ UKRAINE
In brief Train, truck collide A commuter train collided with a truck hauling gasoline in Indonesia’s capital yesterday, killing at least seven people and sending a fireball of orange flames and black smoke shooting skyward. The collision in southern Jakarta killed the train engineer, a technician and at least five others, said Jakarta police spokesman Col. Rikwanto. More than 70 people were injured, according to Budi Satriyo, chief of Suyoto Hospital. “The engineer attempted to brake, but then a fuel truck ran onto the railroad tracks and the brakes could not stop it from hitting the truck. It exploded and bounced off,” said Imron, a passenger who escaped from a vehicle nearby. “It happened so fast!” - AP
Deal with rebels
Pro-European Union activists gather behind barricades next to the Ukrainian Government building in Kiev, Ukraine. Anti-government protesters have toppled the statue of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in central Kiev amid huge protests gripping Ukraine. -AP
Police off to Kiev amid protests A column of police buses headed toward the Ukrainian capital yesterday, and opposition activists have begun evacuating a government building they have been occupying for days. Kiev regional police said that buses carrying interior troops are moving toward Kiev, where
thousands of protesters are blocking entrances to key administrative buildings and have seized the city administration. Meanwhile, police sealed the entrances to a subway station near the city administration building, according to an AP reporter on the scene.
Police said there had been a bomb threat, the Interfax news agency said. President Viktor Yanukovych has faced weeks of protests after shelving a treaty with the European Union last month to focus on ties with Moscow. A rally on Sunday drew hun-
dreds of thousands of protesters calling for Yanukovych’s ouster. The reported troop move comes a day after hundreds of thousands joined protests in Kiev and toppled a statute of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin. - AP
■ SOUTH AFRICA
Members of all faiths pray for Mandela In death, Nelson Mandela unified South Africans of all races and backgrounds yesterday on a day of prayer for the global statesman — from a vaulted cathedral with hymns and incense to a rural, hilltop church with goat-skin drums and barefoot dancing. Mandela was remembered in old bedrocks of resistance to white domination as well as former bastions of loyalty to apartheid. “May his long walk to freedom be enjoyed and realised in our time by all of us,” worshippers said in a prayer at the majestic St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, where the first white settlers arrived centuries ago aboard European ships. South Africa’s reflection on Mandela’s astonishing life was a prelude to a massive memorial in a Johannesburg stadium that will draw world leaders and luminaries.
They will gather to mourn, but also to salute the achievements of the prisoner who became president and an emblem of humanity’s best instincts. The extended farewell — a bittersweet mix of grief and celebration — ends December 15, when Mandela is to be buried in his rural hometown of Qunu in Eastern Cape province. The anti-apartheid campaigner wanted to die in those modest, traditional surroundings; instead, he died Friday at age 95 in his home in an exclusive Johannesburg area. He was surrounded by family after months of a debilitating illness that required the constant care of a team of doctors. Family friend Bantu Holomisa told The Associated Press that Mandela wasn’t on life support in his final hours. He appeared to be sleeping calmly but it was obvious that
he was finally succumbing, added Holomisa, who said he saw Mandela about two hours before his death. “I’ve seen people who are on their last hours and I could sense that he is now giving up,” said Holomisa, who is the leader of the United Democratic Movement in parliament. “You could see it is not Madiba anymore,” Holomisa added, using Mandela’s clan name. The government and Mandela’s family have revealed few details about Mandela’s death. Ahmed Kathrada, who was sentenced to life in prison with Mandela in 1964, said he was informed shortly before Mandela’s death that his old friend had little time left. Kathrada said Graca Machel, Mandela’s wife, conveyed the message to him through another person that Mandela “will be leaving us that night” and “the doctors have said,
‘Anytime.’” The death still came as a shock to many South Africans, so accustomed to the enduring presence of the monumental fighter, even when he retired from public life years ago and became increasingly frail. “He was more than just an individual soul. He was the exposition of the African spirit of generosity,” said the Rev. Michael Weeder, dean of St. George’s Cathedral. But he cautioned that the country still has so much to do. “The strength of the new South Africa will be measured in the distance that the poor and the marginalised travel from the periphery to the center of our society,” Weeder said. In Johannesburg, hundreds swayed and sang at the Regina Mundi Church that was near the epicenter of the Soweto township uprising against white rule in 1976. - AP
Philippine officials have signed a power-sharing accord with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group and expect to sign a final peace pact with the insurgents next month to end a decades-long rebellion in the volatile south. The accord, which outlines the powers of a Muslim autonomous government in a region to be called Bangsamoro, was signed by negotiators for the government and the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Malaysia, which has been brokering the talks, officials said. - AP
Car bomb kills 8 Iraqi authorities say a car bomb outside a cafe in a town north of Baghdad has killed at least eight people. Police officials say the explosion in the town of Buhriz, about 60 kilometres north of the capital, also wounded some 20 people. A hospital official confirmed the casualty figures. Insurgent groups frequently target civilians in cafes and public areas in an attempt to undermine confidence in the Shiite-led government and stir up Iraq’s already simmering sectarian tensions. - AP
Kim’s uncle purged North Korea announced yesterday it had sacked leader Kim Jong Un’s uncle, long considered the country’s No. 2 power, saying corruption, drug use, gambling, womanising and generally leading a “dissolute and depraved life” had caused Pyongyang’s highestprofile fall from grace since Kim took power two years ago. The removal of Jang Song Thaek is the most significant in a series of purges the young leader has conducted in an apparent effort to bolster his power since his father’s 2011 death. - AP
Crucifix approved A Polish court has rejected a complaint by non-believing lawmakers against the presence of a Roman Catholic crucifix in parliament. Warsaw’s Appeals Court disagreed with the views of some members of the Your Movement party, who said the crucifix violates their rights. Earlier this year the lawmakers appealed a similar verdict by a lower court. The controversy illustrates a rising tendency to remove religion and its symbols from the public space. - AP