A round-up of other world news in brief
Israel pays UN $10.5m for losses
UNITED NATIONS – Israel has paid the United Nations $10.5 million (€7.4 million) for property losses and injuries the United Nations suffered during Israel’s attack on Gaza a year ago, the world body and Israeli diplomats said yesterday.
“With this payment, the United Nations has agreed that the financial issues relating to those incidents . . . are concluded,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told a news briefing.
A senior Israeli diplomat at the UN, who asked not to be named, said, “We have decided to make an ex gratia payment to the United Nations and we have indeed done it.
“It has to do specifically with damages done to the United Nations,” the diplomat said, adding that Israel did not take legal responsibility.
A UN inquiry last year put the cost of damage to UN property in Gaza during the December 2008-January 2009 conflict at just over $11 million. – (Reuters)
Court seizes £30m Trafigura compensation
A LANDMARK deal under which the oil trading company Trafigura paid £30m in compensation to 30,000 Ivory Coast nationals over toxic waste dumping was in chaos last night after a court in the African country ordered the seizure of the money.
A judge in Abidjan ruled that the cash should be taken from a bank account where it is awaiting distribution and transferred instead to a community group which, lawyers acting for the claimants insist, has no authority to receive it.
The judgment – which makes it uncertain whether the intended beneficiaries will receive anything at all – raises troubling questions for lawyers taking on similar cases on behalf of people allegedly injured by multinational operations in developing countries.
Martyn Day, senior partner of Leigh Day, the lawyer for the Ivorians, said his firm’s phone lines had been “absolutely humming” since the ruling. – (Financial Times)
120 al-Qaeda suspects detained
ANKARA – Police detained 120 suspected members of al-Qaeda in Turkey possibly including senior members, the state Anatolian news agency reported yesterday.
The raids in 16 provinces including Istanbul followed the arrest earlier this week of 25 suspected al-Qaeda members.
Devices to make explosives, fake identity cards and passports, and camouflage smocks were seized in the raids.
Turkish media said one of those detained was believed to be the head of al-Qaeda in Turkey, Serdar Elbasa, known by the codename Abu Zer.
Another suspect was the chief of al-Qaeda network in Gaziantep province bordering Syria. One suspect was trained in Afghanistan, Anatolian said.
Police carry out sporadic operations against militant groups in Turkey including Kurdish separatists, far left and extreme nationalist groups. – (Reuters)
Biden in Iraq to mediate on poll row
BAGHDAD – US vice-president Joe Biden arrived in Iraq yesterday to try to mediate in a squabble over a decision to bar candidates from March elections because of suspected links to Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath party.
Mr Biden was expected to discuss with prime minister Nuri al-Maliki the move to exclude more than 500 politicians from the vote, which has threatened to reopen sectarian wounds.
The list drawn up by a panel charged with preventing high-ranking Baathists from returning to public life included popular Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlaq, triggering protests from minority Sunnis who complained that majority Shias were trying to marginalise them.
The panel’s ruling was upheld by Iraq’s independent electoral commission but still faces a court challenge.
– (Reuters)