A round-up of other world news in brief
Karzai seeks assistance for Afghanistan at Russian summit
SOCHI, Russia – Afghan president Hamid Karzai sought Russian president Dmitry Medvedev’s help for his country yesterday – two decades after Moscow ended a disastrous conflict there that cost the lives of about 15,000 Soviet troops.
Russia’s foreign minister said Moscow was in talks with Nato and Afghanistan on a plan to send helicopters to help fight insurgents, but no firm deals emerged from the summit with Mr Karzai and Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari. “Afghanistan will need the support of friends and from great countries like Russia,” Mr Karzai told his host. – (Reuters)
Asian women most trafficked in UK
LONDON – Almost 10 per cent of women working in brothels in England and Wales are victims of human trafficking and are mainly Asian, police said yesterday.
A report by the Association of Chief Police Officers found 17,000 of the estimated 30,000 women who work in brothels were migrants. Of these, 2,600 were deemed to have been trafficked, with 2,200 originally from Asia, mainly China. – (Reuters)
UN peacekeepers killed in Congo
KINSHASA – Three Indian UN peacekeepers were killed yesterday in a surprise attack on their base in Democratic Republic of Congo by 50 fighters armed with machetes, spears and traditional weapons, the UN mission Monusco said.
About a dozen UN peacekeepers battled some 50 unidentified attackers in the early hours at their base in Kirumba, in North Kivu province. – (Reuters)
Boys convicted of trying to rape girl (8)
LONDON – Two 11-year-old boys, convicted of trying to rape an eight-year-old girl near her home last year, were given supervision orders yesterday.
The boys, believed to be the youngest children to stand trial for rape in Britain, were found guilty of assaulting the girl near her home in Hayes, London, last October, when aged 10. A jury at London’s Old Bailey rejected defence claims the boys were just being naughty or playing a game. The judge said a custodial sentence would be “counter-productive”. – (Reuters)
Critic Kermode dies at age of 90
LONDON – Literary critic Sir Frank Kermode died yesterday at the age of 90, it has been announced.
Sir Frank, born in 1919 and widely acclaimed as Britain's foremost literary critic, died in Cambridge, the London Review of Bookssaid. – (PA)
Body of abducted mayor found
MONTERREY – Mexican security forces found the body of slain mayor Edelmiro Cavazos near Monterrey city yesterday, days after he was abducted by drug hitmen.
President Felipe Calderon expressed regret about the “cowardly” killing. – (Reuters)