A round-up of other world news in brief
Baghdad market bomb kills 72 people
BAGHDAD – A bomb killed 72 people yesterday at a market in eastern Baghdad’s volatile Sadr City slum, police said, six days before US combat troops are due to withdraw from Iraqi towns and cities.
About 127 people were wounded by the blast in the mostly Shia Muslim area, in one of Iraq’s worst attacks this year. A witness said the explosion tore through a part of the Mraidi Market where birds are sold, setting stalls ablaze. The bombing came just four days after the US military formally handed control to local forces.
– (Reuters)
Tattooed girl admits to lying
BRUSSELS – The Belgian teenager who made headlines across the globe after claiming a tattoo artist had drawn 56 stars on her face, rather than the three she asked for, has admitted that she lied.
Kimberley Vlaeminck from the city of Kortrijk, northwest of Brussels, said she fell asleep during the procedure, and woke up in pain when her nose was being tattooed.
But the 18-year-old was caught off camera on Dutch television when she said she quite liked the tattoo, but lied about asking for all 56 stars when she saw her father’s furious reaction. – (Reuters)
Cheney gets $2m book deal
WASHINGTON – Former US vice-president Dick Cheney has signed a publishing deal for about $2 million (€1.4m) to write a memoir of his life in politics, the New York Times said.
The book will be published in the spring of 2011 by Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon Schuster, where Mary Matalin, a former aide of Cheney’s, is editor-in-chief, the newspaper said. – (Reuters)
MPs face house repossession
LONDON – Husband and wife MPs Alan and Ann Keen have not been living at the home they designate as their main residence for expenses purposes, it was revealed yesterday. The Labour couple are being threatened with repossession by their council because the west London house has been empty for seven months. – (PA)
Nostalgia for Stalin in Russia
MOSCOW – Russian communists have put up giant billboards of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in a southern city, promoting his tough methods as the best remedy for the world economic crisis.
Stalin killed millions of people during his 30-year rule until his death in 1953, but many in recession-hit Russia have grown nostalgic for his strong leadership, and he was voted the third most popular historical figure in a nationwide poll. – (Reuters)
Thief tries to sell mower to owner
BERLIN – A thief in Germany was arrested after he tried to sell a garden mower online to the man he had stolen it from, police said yesterday.
“The owner went to inspect the goods and recognised the mower as his own,” said a spokesman for police in the southern town of Tuebingen.
“Then he left and told police.” Officers confronted the 46-year-old suspect, who confessed to stealing the mower from a shed in February. He later put it for sale on eBay, the spokesman said. – (Reuters)