Mandela still ‘critical but stable’
Johannesburg: The South African Government said on Tuesday that ailing icon Nelson Mandela remains in a “critical but stable” condition after more than one month of intensive hospital treatment. In a statement, President Jacob Zuma thanked members of the public for their “dignified gatherings outside the hospital” in Pretoria where he was rushed June 8.
Snowden accepts Venezuelan offer: Russia
Moscow: The head of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee says Edward Snowden has accepted Venezuela’s offer
of political asylum. Alexei Pushkov made the statement on his Twitter account on Tuesday. The message did not clarify how he learned of Snowden’s purported acceptance, but Pushkov has acted as an unofficial point-man for the Kremlin on the Snowden affair.
Corruption at all-time high in India: Survey
london: A global survey to gauge the extent of worldwide corruption has pegged India high up on the world scales and sent out a harsh message to the country’s political parties over their inability to curb the problem. Transparency International’s annual ‘Global Corruption Barometer 2013’, which surveyed 114,270 people in 107 countries, found a whopping 70 per cent of those surveyed in India believed that corruption had increased in the last two years, compared to the global average of 53 per cent.
Man who battled Fukushima disaster dies
Tokyo: The former boss of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, who stayed at his post to try to tame runaway reactors after the 2011 tsunami, died of cancer on Tuesday, the operator said. Masao Yoshida, 58, was at the power station on March 11, 2011, when towering waves swamped cooling systems and sparked meltdowns that released plumes of radiation.
India, lanka, Maldives sign tripartite pact
Colombo: India, Sri lanka and the Maldives have entered into a tripartite agreement on maritime cooperation to secure sea routes in the Indian Ocean region. National Security Advisor Shivshanker Menon, lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Maldives’ Minister of Defence Mohamed Nazim signed the agreement on Monday at the end of Meeting on Trilateral Cooperation on Maritime Security.
‘Chinese Cops fire on Tibetans’
Beijing: Chinese police opened fire on Tibetans marking the Dalai lama’s 78th birthday, shooting at least one monk in the head and seriously wounding several other people, two overseas groups said on Tuesday. Security forces disrupted Tibetans in Sichuan province’s Daofu county as they carried out rituals to honour their exiled leader, whom Beijing denounces as a separatist, said the US-based International Campaign for Tibet and India-based phayul.com.
2nd ‘Prisoner X’ held secretly in Israel
Jerusalem: A second ‘Prisoner X’ was being held in top-secret conditions in the same jail where an Israeli-Australian spy took his his own life in 2010, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Court documents cited by Haaretz newspaper said the prisoner was being held in another wing of Ayalon prison at the same time as Ben Zygier, an alleged Mossad spy whose mysterious arrest and subsequent suicide shocked Israel and Australia when it hit the headlines in February.
‘Britain life terms inhuman, degrading’
Strasbourg: Europe’s rights court on Tuesday ruled that whole-life prison terms imposed in Britain amounted to “inhuman and degrading” treatment, in a case brought by three of the country’s most notorious murderers. The European Court of Human Rights said the sentences against Jeremy Bamber, jailed for murdering five members of his family in 1985, serial killer Peter Moore and multiple-murderer Douglas Vinter should include the possibility of review.
Trial of ‘Captain Coward’ opens in Italy
Grosseto (Italy): Captain Francesco Schettino, dubbed Italy’s ‘most hated man’ by tabloids over the spectacular crash of his cruise ship in 2012 with the loss of 32 lives, went on trial on Tuesday charged with manslaughter. The 52-year-old, also dubbed ‘Captain Coward’ over accusations that he abandoned ship while terrified passengers were still trapped onboard, looked tense as he arrived for the trial.