Today's other world stories in brief
Zuma in final bid to get graft case dropped
JOHANNESBURG – Jacob Zuma, leader of South Africa's ruling ANC, will go to the constitutional court in a final bid to have corruption charges against him dropped, his lawyer said yesterday.
The appeals court on Monday overturned a lower court ruling in September dismissing the graft charges against Mr Zuma.
This opened the way for prosecutors to pursue charges against him only months before he is expected to stand for election as president. – (Reuters)
Urgent medical care for activists
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s chief justice yesterday ordered urgent medical care for human-rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and other activists who say they were tortured in police custody.
Ms Mukoko, described by the attorney general as a threat to society, is accused with the others of plotting to topple president Robert Mugabe. – (Reuters)
‘Prisoner’ star McGoohan dies
LOS ANGELES – Patrick McGoohan, the creator and star of cult classic The Prisoner, has died aged 80.
He died yesterday after a short illness, his son-in-law film producer, Cleve Landsberg, said in LA.
McGoohan played the title character Six in the surreal 1960s show filmed in Portmeirion, Wales. – (PA)
At least 21 killed in Somali fighting
MOGADISHU – Somali Islamists fired mortars at the presidential palace and ambushed departing Ethiopian soldiers yesterday, starting battles that killed at least 21 people and wounded 48, witnesses said.
The violence underlined fears of an upsurge in bloodshed after Ethiopia's military exit began in earnest this week. – (Reuters)
Court clears six over CJD deaths
PARIS – Six people were cleared yesterday over the deaths of at least 114 people in France who contracted CJD after being treated with tainted human growth hormones.
The verdict followed a 16-year investigation into the deaths. The Paris court threw out charges including manslaughter against the six doctors and pharmacists. – (AP)
Brazil and Italy at odds over fugitive
RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil's government risked a diplomatic row with Italy yesterday after granting political asylum to an Italian former left-wing activist wanted for four murders in the 1970s. Italy said it deeply regretted the decision about Cesare Battisti and called on Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to revise it. – (Reuters)
Havel ‘serious but stable’
PRAGUE – Former Czech president Vaclav Havel is in a serious but stable condition in a Prague hospital with respiratory problems, doctors said yesterday.
They said he had throat surgery on Monday and doctors were battling to halt the spread of an inflammation. "His condition has stabilised, his life is not in a direct danger, a doctor said. – (Reuters)
Girls warned not to marry Muslims
LISBON – Portugal’s Cardinal José Policarpo has warned young women in the predominantly Catholic nation against marrying Muslims.
"The advice that I give to young Portuguese girls is: be careful with relationships, think twice about marrying Muslims," he said. "It is getting into a pile of troubles, that not even Allah knows where would end." – (Reuters)