A round-up of the rest of today's world news in brief
Somali teen faces piracy charge in US
NEW YORK – A Somali teenager involved in taking the American captain of a cargo ship hostage off the coast of Somalia was due to appear in court in New York yesterday on piracy charges.
Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, believed to be 16, will be the first person in more than a century to be tried in the US for piracy. He was captured and taken aboard the USS Bainbridge shortly before US snipers killed three of his fellow pirates holding Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama.
– (Reuters)
Sarkozy vows new gang laws
PARIS – French president Nicolas Sarkozy promised new security laws yesterday, turning to a favourite campaigning theme at a time when he is unpopular and European elections are coming up.
In a televised speech on security, Mr Sarkozy said he would introduce new legislation banning gangs, making it a crime to intrude on a school, and forbidding street demonstrators from wearing balaclavas.
These measures follow two high-profile incidents in which youths attacked people in schools, and riots on the fringes of a Nato summit involving masked vandals. – (Reuters)
Doctor ‘beaten by kidnappers’
MOGADISHU – A Belgian doctor kidnapped in Somalia has refused food since he was seized on Sunday, and was beaten yesterday by captors trying to force him to eat, a mediator negotiating for his release said.
Separately, a UN official in Mogadishu confirmed the Belgian fainted but had recovered consciousness.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) denied this and said its sources said its kidnapped staff were in good health.
Somali gunmen captured three MSF-Belgium aid workers on Sunday and demanded a $1 million ransom. – (Reuters)
Communists win Moldova recount
CHISINAU – Moldova’s ruling Communist party was again declared the winner yesterday in the ex-Soviet state’s disputed parliamentary election, in a recount ordered after violent protests against the initial result.
Iurie Ciocan, secretary of the Central Election Commission, said the results differed little from the original figures issued after the April 5th election, which gave the Communists just short of 50 per cent of the vote.
Mr Ciocan gave no percentages for the votes of either party – (Reuters)