theSun | MONDAY APRIL 6 2009 7

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Obama sets out plan for nuclear-free world

PRAGUE: President Barack Obama
set out his vision for ridding the world
of nuclear arms yesterday, declaring
the United States ready to lead steps
by all states with atomic weapons to
slash their arsenals.
Delivering a speech given new ur-
gency by North Korea’s rocket launch
hours earlier, Obama said the United
States would go ahead with plans
to build a missile defence shield in
Europe as long as Iran posed a threat
with its nuclear programme.
On a visit to the Czech capital, once
a focal point in the Cold War between
the West and the Soviet Union, Obama
pledged to cut the US nuclear arsenal,
to bring the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty into force and to seek tough
penalties for those that broke rules
on non-proliferation.
“The US will take concrete steps
towards a world without nuclear weap-
ons,” he told a cheering crowd of more
than 20,000 in Hradcanske Square
outside the medieval Prague Castle.
“To put an end to Cold War think-
ing, we will reduce the role of nuclear
weapons in our national security strat-
egy and urge others to do the same.
We will seek to include all nuclear
weapons states in this endeavour.”
He acknowledged the goal of a
nuclear arms-free world might not
be reached in his lifetime and added:
“Make no mistake: as long as these
weapons exist, we will maintain a safe,
secure and effective arsenal to deter
any adversary”.
Obama said he would host a summit
within a year on global nuclear secu-
rity, covering issues such as preventing
the smuggling of nuclear material and
keeping atomic weapons out of the
hands of terrorists. – Reuters

Karbovanec, 27, pleaded guilty

North Korea rocket launch

to second-degree murder and

briefs
conspiracy to commit murder.
– AFP

Egyptian Suicide bomber

swingers jailed kills 22 in Pakistan

provokes global outcry

CAIRO: A Cairo court has sen-
tenced a man to seven years and
his wife to three years for setting
up a swingers’ club, the press
reported yesterday, in a case
that has angered conservative
Egyptian society.
Tolba Abdel Hafez, a 48-
year-old civil servant, and his
wife Salwa Higazi, a 37-year-old
schoolteacher, were sentenced
by the Agouza Criminal Court
on Saturday, the state-owned
Al-Gomhuria reported.
The Cairo couple, who have
children, used the pseudonyms
Magdy and Samira on a website
and in e-mails to organise wife-
swapping parties and orgies.
They were arrested in Octo-
ber on prostitution charges and
confessed to having sexual rela-
tions with three other couples,
although at least 44 couples
signed up for Cairo swinging
sessions via the website. – AFP
300 arrested
during Nato summit
PARIS: French police arrested
300 anti-NATO protesters dur-
ing a summit in Strasbourg
marking the 60th anniversary
of the alliance, Interior Minis-
ter Michele Alliot-Marie said
yesterday.
Thousands of protesters
took to the streets on Satur-
day – police said they num-
bered 10,000 but organisers
put turnout at 30,000 – with
some radicals setting fire to
a hotel, a pharmacy and a
former customs office.
Alliot-Marie said police
had been tracking hardcore
protesters for the past days
and “we prevented them from
committing a certain number
of acts of violence.”
“We carried out 300 ar-
rests,” she told RTL radio.
– AFP
Three charged
with murder in
Vancouver slayings
VANCOUVER: Canadian police
battling a spike in gang violence
in Vancouver ahead of the Winter
Olympics said on Saturday three
members of the Red Scorpion
gang were charged with murder
in a notorious 2007 mass shoot-
ing. The three suspects were
arrested on Friday, as a fourth
gang member pleaded guilty to
second-degree murder in the
October 2007 mass murder
dubbed the “Surrey Six Slayings,”
said police.
The four suspects are linked
to the so-called Red Scorpion
gang, which has been embroiled
in a drug war with rival gangs in
Canada’s westernmost province.
James Kyle Bacon, 23, Mat-
thew James Johnston, 24, and
Cory Ray Haevischer, 24, were
charged on Saturday with first-
degree murder, while on Friday
their associate Dennis Richard
ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber
blew himself up at a Shiite reli-
gious gathering in the north of
violence-wracked Pakistan yes-
terday, killing at least 22 people
and wounding 40, police said.
The attacker struck at the
gates of a Shiite mosque where
some 1,200 people were at-
tending a religious gathering.
Provincial police chief
Shaukat Javed said the sui-
cide bomber appeared to be
15-year-old boy whose legs
and head, with damage to
the face, had been found at
the blast site.
Provincial law minister
Rana Sanaullah said the
bomber could not enter the
mosque and blew himself up
at the entrance in the town of
Chakwal, some 60km south of
Islamabad. – AFP
Tragedy hits
Tsvangirai again
HARARE: Tragedy has struck
again at Zimbabwean Prime Min-
ister Morgan Tsvangirai with the
death of an infant grandson, just
days after Tsvangirai returned
to work after grieving the recent
death of his wife.
According to an official from
Tsvangirai’s Movement for
Democratic Change party, Tsvan-
girai’s infant grandson died in a
drowning accident on Saturday
at the family’s Harare home. The
property has a swimming pool.
The official, who did not want
to be named, said the boy, whose
name he gave as Sean, died while
Tsvangirai was away at a political
retreat in Victoria Falls. Tsvangirai
was due to cut short his stay in
Victoria Falls, where he and other
government members, including
President Robert Mugabe, had
been meeting since Friday to
plan a political programme for
the next 100 days. – dpa
Woman in coma,
100 others ill from
food poisoning
SINGAPORE: A Singapore
woman fell into a coma and
at least 28 others were hos-
pitalised while more than 100
other people sought hospital
treatment after eating a
popular local savory, the New
Paper said yesterday.
The Health Ministry said it
was investigating a food stall
named Rojak Geylang Serai,
which makes and sells an In-
dian-style deep-fried mixture
of meat and vegetable in the
eastern district of Geylang.
After patronising the stall,
Aminah Samijo, 57, fell sick and
went into coma on Friday, while
her husband is in the regular
ward of the same hospital.
Abdul Latiff, 44, and his four
children, aged 7 to 16, as well a
pregnant woman also suffered
food poisoning by eating from
the same stall. – dpa
TOKYO: North Korea fired a long- and the European Union strongly Both Russia and China have
range rocket yesterday, provoking condemned Pyongyang’s step. Nato made clear they would block new
international outrage and prompt- condemned it as “highly provoca- sanctions by the Security Council,
ing the UN Security Council to call tive”. where they have veto power.
an emergency meeting. “This is a regime that has placed Chinese Foreign Minister Yang
The reclusive communist state itself outside international law,” Jiechi called officials in the United
said a satellite was launched into French President Nicolas Sarkozy States, Russia, Japan and South
orbit and circled the earth transmit- said. “There is only one response Korea to discuss the launch, the
ting revolutionary songs. But both possible: the union of the inter- Foreign Ministry said.
the US military and South Korea national community must punish “All sides ought to look at the big
said it had failed to enter orbit. a regime that doesn’t respect any picture (and) avoid taking actions
Analysts say the launch was international rules.” which may exacerbate the situa-
effectively a test of a ballistic mis- China, the nearest the North has tion further,” a Chinese statement
sile designed to carry a warhead to a major ally, and Russia called said.
potentially as far as Alaska. on all sides for calm and restraint. The North Korean launch
It was the first big challenge The UN Security Council will was unsuccessful but that did not
for US President Barack Obama hold consultations on the launch change the response the United
in dealing with the North, whose later on Sunday. UN diplomats said States is seeking at the United Na-
efforts to build a nuclear arsenal no country was considering impos- tions, a US official said.
South
Korean
have long plagued ties with Wash- ing new sanctions but a resolution Washington, Seoul and Tokyo
activists
ington. on stricter enforcement of earlier had said before the launch that in
“With this provocative act, North measures could be discussed. reality it would be a test of the Tae-
burn a flag
Korea has ignored its international The United States, Japan and podong-2 missile, which is designed
of North
Korea
obligations, rejected unequivocal South Korea see the launch as to fly an estimated 6,700 km.
calls for restraint, and further iso- a violation of a Security Council The US Northern Command
during a
rally against
lated itself from the community of resolution passed in 2006 after said stage one of the missile fell into
nations,” Obama said, speaking on Pyongyang’s nuclear test and the Sea of Japan and the remain-
North Korea
in Seoul
a European tour. other missile tests. That resolution, ing stages along with the payload
South Korea branded the launch number 1718, demands North Ko- landed in the Pacific Ocean. No
yesterday.
of the rocket a “reckless” act, Japan rea “suspend all activities related to debris fell on Japan.
said it was “extremely regrettable” its ballistic missile programme”. The command assessed the
launch vehicle was not a threat to
North America or Hawaii and took
no action in response.
South Korea earlier said the
rocket appeared to be carrying a
satellite but Defense Minister Lee
Sang-hee later told parliament
that it failed to orbit, Kyodo news
agency reported.
Japan said it stopped monitor-
ing the rocket after it had passed
2,100km east of Tokyo. In the only
previous test flight of the Taepo-
dong-2, in July 2006, the rocket blew
apart 40 seconds after launch.
Analysts said the rocket launch
may bolster North Korean leader
Kim Jong-il’s authority after a
suspected stroke last August raised
doubts about his grip on power.
It wins North Korea the attention
it has sought as the new US admin-
istration wrestles with recession and
the war in Afghanistan, and it could
strengthen Kim’s hand in using
military threats to win concessions
EPAPIX from global powers. – Reuters
200 Mecca mosques ‘face wrong direction’
RIYADH: Muslim worshippers at about 200 the black-shrouded cubic building, or have mosques, thanks to modern techniques.
old mosques in Mecca have been praying indicators of its direction. In any case, it does not affect the prayers,”
in the wrong direction for decades because The discrepancy was only realised after the newspaper quoted Sudairy as saying in
the mosques were not built correctly, a looking at the old mosques, some built its Saturday edition.
Saudi newspaper said yesterday. more than 50 years ago, from atop the new Mecca residents and experts have
The mosques were not built precisely skyscrapers being constructed in Islam’s suggested that the errant mosques install
based on the qibla, the official alignment holiest city in western Saudi Arabia, the inside a correct indicator of the qibla, or
with the holy Kaaba shrine at the centre of report said. orient their prayer rugs more exactly in the
Mecca’s Al-Haram mosque, according to According to the pan-Arab Al-Hayat direction of the Kaaba, Arab News said.
the report in Arab News. newspaper, Islamic affairs ministry deputy Another suggestion is that laser beams
Hundreds of millions of Muslims secretary, Tawfik al-Sudairy, downplayed be installed in the tall minarets of the Al-
around the world are bound to orient their the problem. Haram mosque built around the Kaaba to
daily prayers toward the ancient Kaaba, “There are no major errors, but cor- help mosques and worshippers establish
and mosques everywhere are built to face rections have been made for some old the correct qibla direction. – AFP