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Rapist guru jailed for 10 years

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:16:00 -0400

A MAN who claimed to be an internationally revered spiritual guru in order to rape and sexually assault potentially hundreds of women has been jailed for 10 years by a British judge. London's Wood Green Crown Court was told yesterday that Michael Lyons, 52, known as Mohan Singh, drugged and sexually assaulted women he had "groomed" with lies that he was a spiritual leader who had treated the Queen and counted the Dalai Lama and Hollywood actor Steven Seagal among his friends. Jamaican-born Lyons, who was raised in Manchester, northern England, was convicted on one count of rape and another of sexual assault by penetration, and placed on the sex offenders register for life as police were investigating further claims against him. The court was told Lyons also regularly extracted hundreds of pounds from each of his 40 female followers, using the money to buy cars and apartments in London, Los Angeles and Miami, all the while claiming that he was funding lamas to teach in the U.K. For more details, click here.

GRN correspondents Chris Walker and Larry Miller in London are available for coverage.

North Korea minister visits Burma amid nuclear fears - BBC

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:42:00 -0400

BBC: North Korea's foreign minister has arrived in Burma for talks with top leaders, reports from the region say. It is thought to be the first visit by Pak Ui-chun since the two countries resumed formal ties in 2007. Mr Pak will travel to the capital, Naypyitaw, for talks with counterpart Nyan Win, officials said. Analysts have raised concerns in recent months that Burma is co-operating with North Korea to develop nuclear technology. Burma denies this.

Last week US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was concerned about military ties between the two authoritarian states.

Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Ramstad is available in Seoul.

Greece orders striking lorry drivers back to work - BBC

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:40:00 -0400

BBC: The Greek government has used a rare emergency order to force lorry drivers back to work after a three-day strike. The drivers have until later on Thursday to return to the roads or face arrest and the loss of their licenses. Most petrol stations in Athens are out of fuel and shops and factories are running low on supplies. The drivers oppose government plans to open the industry to more competition as part of austerity measures agreed with the IMF and the EU.

GRN correspondent Louis Economopolous is available in Athens.

Saudi king heads to Syria - Al-Jazeera

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:36:00 -0400

Al-Jazeera: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is scheduled to arrive in Damascus, the Syrian capital, on the second-leg of his four-nation "Arab unity tour". King Abdullah was in Egypt on Wednesday and held talks with its president Hosni Mubarak on the Arab-Israeli peace process. He is scheduled to meet Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, on Thursday.

King Abdullah is to travel to Lebanon and Jordan after wrapping up his Syria visit. He is expected to travel with al-Assad to Beirut for joint talks with Saad al-Hariri, the Lebanese prime minister. If al-Assad does visit Lebanon, it will be his visit since the 2005 assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, Saad's father and the former prime minister of Lebanon.

GRN correspondents George Baghdadi in Damascus and Caryle Murphy in Riyadh are available for coverage.

Smog chokes Moscow amid record heat wave - LA Times

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:32:00 -0400

LA Times: As peat fires raged on the outskirts of town, shrouding Moscow in a thick cloud of smog, residents Wednesday sought to cope with a record-breaking heat wave that is expected to intensify further. Public health officials urged workers in non-essential jobs to stay home and people not to drive their cars as weather forecasters predicted temperatures exceeding 102 degrees Thursday, in a city more used to icy spells than such heat.

With more than 1,480 fires in two weeks, the smog level had soared to as high as 10 times the safe level in parts of Moscow.

Moscow Times correspondents Kevin O'Flynn and Carl Schreck are available in Moscow.

Floods wash chemical barrels into China river - AFP

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:31:00 -0400

AFP: Floodwaters have washed 3,000 barrels of explosive chemicals into a major waterway in northeastern China, state media said Thursday, much more than originally reported.Water supplies to the nearby city of Jilin were cut after the incident, leaving 4.3 million people dependent on bottled water, but the local government said the move was unrelated and caused by an electricity maintenance project. The chemicals were among 7,000 barrels washed into the Songhua River in Jilin province on Wednesday after days of heavy rain, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the local government. The barrels came from the Xinyaqiang chemical plant near the city and contained more than 510 tonnes of combustible chemicals, reports said. Xinhua has said the chemical was methyl chloride, a highly explosive colourless gas. It said Thursday that 7,000 barrels were swept into the river, with 3,000 barrels containing the chemical while the rest were empty.

GRN correspondents Henry Morton and Margret Ward are available in Beijing.

Mitsui OSK hires military specialist for tanker check - Reuters

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:28:00 -0400

Reuters: Japanese shipper Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd said on Thursday it has hired a specialist on military attacks to help it investigate the cause of damage to a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. The supertanker was diverted to a UAE port on Wednesday where officials said the damage, which stirred fears of an attack in the strait, was caused by a freak wave.

Forty percent of the world's seaborne oil passes through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, gateway to the oil-producing Gulf, where Al Qaeda has threatened to attack shipping.

Masahiko Hibino, Mitsui O.S.K.'s general manager of tanker safety, told a news conference that reports of earthquake-related waves were difficult to believe.

Daily Telegraph correspondent Julian Ryall is available in Tokyo.

Netanyahu: Israel's government will fall if settlement freeze continues - Haaretz

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:44:00 -0400

Haaretz - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has conditioned upgrading to direct negotiations with Israel on a continued halt on West Bank construction. Continuing the construction freeze in West Bank settlements after it expires on September 26 would be impossible politically and would bring down the coalition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Moratinos told Netanyahu that the European Union's position was that Israel should continue the freeze. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has conditioned direct talks with Israel on a continued construction freeze. Jerusalem will be closely monitoring the deliberations of the Arab League foreign ministers meeting today in Cairo. A subcommittee on the Arab peace initiative is expected to announce its continued support for indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians, giving Arab League backing for Abbas' decision not to begin direct talks with Israel. The Palestinian position is that as long as no progress is made in the indirect talks there is no point in beginning direct talks.

Orly Halpern and Sami Sockol are available in Jerusalem, Tamer Hassan AlMisshal ia available in Gaza.

Catalonia's bullfight ban provokes emotional response - BBC

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:40:00 -0400

BBC - The Catalan parliament voted to ban bullfighting in an emotional session packed full of deputies, activists and observers, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Barcelona.

In the end the vote passed by an absolute majority - a wider margin of victory than animal rights campaigners had dared hope for. Sixty-eight deputies voted in favour of the ban; 55 were opposed. Related stories In pictures: The last bullringBullfighting ban: Your reaction "We had three different speeches prepared, and in the end we could read out the one for a big victory," laughed Jordi Casamitjana, who was heavily involved in pushing for this vote.He admits he had expected a closer call. "It means the politicians here actually get it. Bullfighting has no place in the 21st Century. I could not hold back my tears," he said.

He was not the only one. As the result was announced, those supporting the ban leapt and shouted for joy. Alongside them, some of the losers cried too - in frustration.

But activists collected 180,000 signatures in order to get this initiative off the ground and into parliament - and they were determined to enjoy the moment. Continue reading the main story “Start QuoteThey are trying to get independence and they think if they highlight differences it will help” End Quote Albert Rivera Pro-bullfight Catalan deputy "I'm over the moon!" enthused Deborah Parris, who worked with the campaign group Prou (Enough, in Catalan), to ban the corrida, as the bullfight is known."There is incredible suffering in a bullfight. Six bulls are killed each time, not one, and they are tortured for 20 minutes," she said. "It's not right to pay money to go and watch that kind of cruelty."

Graham Keely is available in Barcelona.

Couple arrested after the bodies of EIGHT newborn babies found hidden in their home and garden - Mail

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:36:00 -0400

D.Mail - A couple have been arrested in northern France after eight newborn babies were discovered hidden in their house and buried in their garden. Police in Villers-au-Tertre, near Douai, made the gruesome discovery using sniffer dogs. All of the children are believed to have been born to the man and woman, who are aged around 45, said a source close to the inquiry. ‘We searched the premises and the garden following a tip-off,’ saida detective. ‘What is certain is that the new born babies all had thesame parents. ‘They were stuffed inside plastic bags and thenburied. Six babies were found very quickly around the house, and theother two were discovered in the garden.’ The detective said that the parents were being held in Douai on suspicion of failing to report a crime, and the concealment of corpses. The Douai prosecutor has opened a judicial investigation, and bail has been refused. Charges were expected this week.

Daily Telegraph correspondent Henry Samuel is available in Paris