A round-up of today's other world news in brief
Father of jailed journalist fears for her health
TEHRAN – The father of an Iranian-American journalist jailed by Iran on charges of spying for the United States says he fears for her life almost a week after she went on hunger strike.
Reza Saberi (68) and his wife Akiko visited their daughter Roxana in Tehran’s Evin jail on Sunday, taking flowers for her 32nd birthday.
"She is very, very weak and frail . . . she is in a bad condition. She can hardly stand up. I’m worried about her health. I’m worried about her life.”
His daughter did not want to discuss her action during the 20-minute visit. She started refusing food last Tuesday, he said. – (Reuters)
Abbas rejects call to define Israel
RAMALLAH – Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed calls by the new right-leaning Israeli government to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, an issue emerging as a main obstacle to peacemaking.
“I do not accept it,” Mr Abbas said. “It is not my job to give a description of the state. Name yourself the Hebrew Socialist Republic – it is none of my business.”
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said last week it would be impossible to make diplomatic progress reach a peace agreement without Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. – (Reuters)
Prince Charles meets pope
VATICAN CITY – Britain’s Prince Charles has taken his campaign to save the world from climate change to Pope Benedict with his first meeting with the pontiff.
Prince Charles met the pope yesterday shortly after making a major speech on the environment to Italy’s parliament, where he said that unless the international community acted together to tackle climate change, a “new Dark Age” could hit the world.
The prince and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, spoke to the pope privately for about 15 minutes. – (Reuters)
Policeman shoots three people dead
MOSCOW – An off-duty Russian police officer has killed at least three people in a shooting spree in a Moscow supermarket after a family row at his birthday party.
Russian news agencies yesterday said that Maj Denis Yevsyukov, chief of a Tsaritsyno district police station, began firing at random shortly after midnight in a supermarket after having a violent argument with his wife and father-in-law at his party. – (Reuters)
Paedophile flees island prison
REUNION – The paedophile leader of an outlawed sect and two accomplices have escaped by helicopter from a prison on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion.
Juliano Verbard (27), founder of the outlawed Christian Painful and Immaculate Heart of Mary sect, was jailed for 15 years last year for raping two children. Three people posing as tourists chartered a helicopter yesterday and forced the pilot to fly to the jail in the island’s capital, Saint-Denis.
Verbard and two men imprisoned for being his accomplices jumped aboard when it landed in the prison’s courtyard. – (Reuters)