Other world news in brief
Flawless diamond sells for €6.9m
GENEVA – A flawless vivid blue diamond weighing 7.03 carats has sold for a record 10.5 million Swiss francs (€6.9 million), the highest price paid per carat for a gemstone at auction, Sotheby’s said.
The rectangular stone, the rarest to enter the international market this year, went to an anonymous telephone buyer after hectic bidding see-sawed between two callers for 15 minutes. – (Reuters)
1,400 terror arrests since 9/11 attacks
LONDON – More than 1,400 people have been arrested in Britain under the Terrorism Act since 9/11, but only a third have ended up facing charges and even fewer were convicted, government data showed.
The data, for the period from the Twin Towers attacks to the end of March 2008, showed that of 1,471 people arrested, 196 were convicted, and only 102 of these were found guilty under terrorism legislation. – (Reuters)
US elected to United Nations Human Rights Council
The US has been elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council, a body it shunned since its creation three years ago, in a further step along President Barack Obama's path of global re-engagement
Its membership was unopposed after New Zealand stepped aside to give the US a clear run at one of three seats on the 47-member council reserved for western states in a vote at the UN General Assembly. The council is the successor body to the UN Commission on Human Rights, widely criticised as a forum for anti-western and anti-Israeli attacks that often came from states whose own human rights records were questionable. The US and Israel voted against a General Assembly resolution in 2006 that established the body. – (Copyright Financial Times Ltd 2009)
Russia vetoes deal on Georgia monitors
VIENNA - Russia yesterday vetoed a plan for keeping security and human rights monitors in Georgia.
Moscow sent in troops to repel Georgia's move to retake South Ossetia in a war last August, then blocked an extension of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's observer mandate on its December 31st expiry. The OSCE must leave Georgia by June 30th. – (Reuters)
War crimes MP arrested in Bosnia
SARAJEVO - Bosnian police have arrested a Croatian member of parliament who fled there shortly before being sentenced to jail for war crimes against Serb civilians, and handed him over to the Bosnian state prosecutor. Branimir Glavaswho was sentenced by Croatian court last week to 10 years in prison for the torture and killing of Serb civilians during Croatia's 1991-95 war of independence. - (Reuters)