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ASHBURTON GUARDIAN, Tuesday, June 25, 2013
WORLD
www.guardianONLINE.co.nz
Mandela critical Nelson Mandela is in a critical condition in hospital, 16 days after the anti-apartheid icon was admitted with a recurring lung infection. “The condition of former president Nelson Mandela, who is still in hospital in Pretoria, has become critical,” Mac Maharaj, the South African presidential spokesman, said in a statement yesterday. The condition of 94-year-old who entered the hospital on June 8 was said to have deteriorated over the weekend. President Jacob Zuma broke the news after visiting Mandela yesterday and was told by doctors “that the former president’s condition had become critical over the past 24 hours”. Mandela, who became South Africa’s first black president in 1994, is due to celebrate his 95th birthday on July 18. He has been hospitalised four times since December, mostly for the pulmonary condition that has plagued him for years. Zuma moved to assure the country that medics were doing all they could to save his life. “The doctors are doing everything possible to get his condition to improve and are ensuring that Madiba is well-looked after and is comfortable. He is in good hands,” Zuma said, using the revered leader’s clan name. “The doctors also dismissed the media reports that Madiba suffered cardiac arrest. There is no truth at all in that report,” said Zuma. Zuma was accompanied to the hospital by the ruling ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa. The two also met with Mandela’s wife Graca Machel at the hospital and discussed the condition of the Nobel Peace laureate.
• Sweet comeback Hostess is betting on a sweet comeback for its Twinkies snack cakes when they return to store shelves next month. The company that went bankrupt after an acrimonious fight with its unionised workers last year is back up and running under new owners and a leaner structure. It says it plans to have Twinkies and other snack cakes back on shelves starting July 15. Based on the outpouring of nostalgia sparked by its demise, Hostess is expecting a blockbuster return next month for Twinkies and other sugary treats, such as CupCakes and Donettes. – AP
• Street protests
photo ap
Supermoon wows stargazers
Nelson Mandela Zuma appealed to South Africans and people worldwide to pray for Mandela, his family and the medical personnel attending to him “during this difficult time”. With the latest hospitalisation, many South Africans have come to terms with the much-loved hero’s fragility. The announcement come after unconfirmed media reports that Mandela’s condition was worse than what authorities and relatives had been saying in recent days. US news channel CBS had at the weekend given details of failing organs and said that Mandela was “unresponsive” and “has not opened his eyes for days”. But authorities had refused to comment on the speculation. – AFP
Stargazers are still abuzz over the biggest and brightest full moon of the year, which graced the skies over the weekend. The so-called supermoon appeared up to 14 per cent larger than normal as our celestial neighbour swung closer to Earth.
Snowden lands in Russia, reports show US whistleblower Edward Snowden has landed in Moscow, WikiLeaks and the Interfax news agency say. Wikileaks said Snowden was travelling “to a third country” and that he was accompanied by diplomats. It was unclear if he would wait in the airport’s transit zone. Russian media reports citing sources within Aeroflot said he
would fly to Cuba and then board a flight to the Venezuelan capital Caracas. “Russian law enforcement agencies have nothing against him and we have no orders to detain him,” one law enforcement source told the state news agency Ria Novosti. A photo of a black limousine with diplomatic licence plates at the airport published by the RT
television channel fuelled speculation that Snowden might stay the night in Moscow under diplomatic protection. Snowden was not among the passengers on the Aeroflot flight who emerged into the public area of Terminal F at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport after the flight from Hong Kong arrived. But some passengers said they saw a car parked next to the
plane after it taxied to the terminal building, leaving the possibility he may have been taken away separately from the other passengers. “They were getting luggage straight from the plane into the car. It seemed a little strange. I saw three pieces of luggage,” Aeroflot passenger Jason Stephens from the United States said. – DPA/AFP
Panda gives birth to twins in China
Bomb found outside mosque
A giant panda has given birth to twins, the first pair of the endangered species born in the world this year, according to a wildlife centre in south-west China. The China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda in Sichuan province said the panda named Haizi gave birth to the two cubs 10 minutes apart at the weekend. Staffers at the centre, which is part of the Wolong Nature
A suspicious object found near a mosque in central England was a small home-made explosive device, police have confirmed. West Midlands Police also said a loud bang heard by residents in the Caldmore area of Walsall at the weekend “appeared to be consistent” with the device exploding. No-one was injured and minimal damage was caused around the device, which was found on Sunday in an alleyway adjoining the Aisha Mosque and Islamic Centre.
photo ap
A worker cleans a newly-born younger cub of the twin pandas born at the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda at the Wolong Nature Reserve in south-west China’s Sichuan province.
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Police were called to the mosque following the discovery of the bomb. Assistant Chief Constable Sharon Rowe said police have recorded the incident as a hate crime. Zia Ul-Haq, a spokesman for the mosque, said remnants of the exploded device were initially taken home on Sunday by a worshipper and an imam who failed to realise its significance. About 80 people were evacuated from the area as a precaution overnight. – PA
• Daredevil’s walks US daredevil Nik Wallenda has become the first person to walk a tightrope across the Grand Canyon. The 34-yearold, who was the first person to walk across the Niagara Falls last year, was wearing no safety harness for the stunt taking him 457 metres above the Little Colorado River in eastern Arizona. Wallenda had been planning the walk for about four years, homing in on a remote location at the eastern end of the mighty geological chasm, on land operated by Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation. He began final training in Florida weeks ago, boosting stamina by walking repeatedly along a 305 metrelong rope and using wind machines to simulate gusts of – AFP up to 80km/h.
• Deer deterrent Transport operators in northern Japan are sprinkling wolf urine near roads and broadcasting the roar of lions near train tracks in a bid to keep deer away and reduce accidents. Nexco East, an expressway operator, imports wolf urine from the United States to spray on the highways it operates in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s four main islands. “Even though we have increased the height of fences to 2.5 metres from 1.5 metres, fences sometimes break because of heavy snow, so we need this stop-gap measure while mending them,” a company official said yesterday. – AFP
Aussie protester loses right to stay in UK
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Reserve, say one cub is a female and weighs 79.2 grams (2.79 ounces). Haizi has yet to release the other cub from her embrace. Giant pandas have difficulty breeding, with females fertile for only two or three days a year. Pandas number about 1600 in the wild, where they are critically endangered due to poaching and development. More than 300 live in captivity, mostly in China’s breeding programmes. – AP
A new wave of street protests has swept Brazil amid mounting popular support for demands for wide-ranging institutional reform and investment in crumbling public services. Many are frustrated that, after years of under-investment in Brazil’s sagging infrastructure, billions of dollars are being poured into ensuring next year’s World Cup is a tourist extravaganza. Brazilians mostly still want the country to host the competition for the first time since 1950 – but not at the expense of living standards, something protesters say politicians do not care about. – AFP
Australian boat race protester Trenton Oldfield is appealing a decision by the UK Home Office to kick him out of the country. The Home Office has decided Oldfield’s presence is not “conducive to the public good”. “Those who come to the UK must abide by our laws,” a Home Office spokesman said yesterday. The former Sydneysider, who disrupted last year’s University Boat Race by swimming into the path of the crews, was jailed for six months for his actions.
But Oldfield, whose British wife Deepa Naik is expecting a child, told The Guardian he had appealed against the decision. He says his lawyer said he would have nothing to worry about because his sentence was less than a year. “It feels to me that this is a very vindictive decision, very political and very much an over-reaction.” He added: “Before bringing their verdict, the jury asked the judge if she could be lenient. The probation officer recommended a non-
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custodial sentence. “The sentence was excessive, but the judge also said I have contributed positively to life in this country.” Oldfield, who was watched by millions of television viewers as he halted the annual race on the Thames between Oxford and Cambridge universities, was found guilty at London’s Isleworth Crown Court of causing a public nuisance. Sentencing him last October, Judge Anne Molyneux said he had ruined the race for everyone.
Snapper defends Lawson photos
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“You caused delay and disruption to it and to the members of the public who had gone to watch it and to enjoy the spectacle of top athletes competing,” she said. Adding that Oldfield’s actions had endangered his life and those of others, the judge said: “Your offence was planned. It was deliberate. It was disproportionate. It was dangerous.” During his trial, Oldfield told the jury the race was a symbol of elitism and that London was blighted by inequality. – PA
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The photographer who took pictures of Nigella Lawson being assaulted by her husband says the attack lasted for “27 minutes of madness” but he didn’t intervene because he feared being arrested himself. Snapper Jean-Paul says the incident outside a London restaurant shouldn’t be brushed under the carpet and the celebrity chef Lawson was “properly abused” by art collector husband Charles Saatchi. “What I witnessed was 27 minutes of madness,” Jean-Paul wrote in the British tabloid Sunday People, which first published his shocking pictures last weekend. “That’s how long the abuse lasted from start to finish so it was most definitely not a fleeting moment.” Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg came under fire last week for suggesting Saatchi’s clutching of his wife’s throat could have been “just a fleeting thing”. Jean-Paul said people had asked why he didn’t intervene but the answer was simple. “I would have been arrested,” he wrote yesterday. “I’m paparazzi so everyone hates you to begin with. “The best thing I could do was carry on taking the pictures because now everyone can see that Charles Saatchi is an abuser.” – AAP