World News Desk – June 27, 2008
Posted/Updated: 2008-06-27 14:11:29
INTERNATIONALThe World in Review
A snapshot of events around the world | Updated each Friday
1. Canada:
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In a high-profile terrorism trial, an Ottawa court was told that Mohammad Momin Khawaja, a software developer, designed a remote bomb detonator to be used in planned bombing attacks in the United Kingdom. Mr. Khawaja, who was said to have met with terrorist cell members in 2003 and 2004 during visits to the UK, is the first to be charged under Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act.
More than one in four Canadian births are delivered through C-sections, increasing the risk of bleeding, scarring, infection, anesthesia, obstetrical wounds, cardiac arrest and other complications.
2. United States:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one in every 100 newborns is a “test-tube baby,” conceived via in-vitro fertilization. Half of such births are twins, triplets, or of a higher number of multiple births.
The Associated Press learned that upgrading security standards for at least 150 U.S. embassies abroad to secure against future terrorist attacks will cost American taxpayers $8 billion.
Nearly 8,000 lightning strikes sparked more than 800 wildfires in Northern California, from Mendocino County to Monterey County, burning over 100,000 acres.
At a plastics plant in Henderson, Kentucky, 25-year-old Wesley N. Higdon fatally shot his supervisor and four other coworkers before committing suicide.
Authorities arrested 345 people, including 290 adult prostitutes, and rescued 21 children in “Operation Cross Country,” a five-day, 16-city roundup that cracked down on organized networks of pimps who force children into prostitution.
3. United Kingdom:
Unison, Britain’s largest public sector union, voted to go on strike July 16 and 17 over pay restraint policies. With 600,000 council workers—including school dinner servers, teaching assistants, cooks, care workers, housing benefit staff, cleaners, architects, traffic wardens and refuse collectors—in England, Wales and Northern Ireland implementing a two-day strike, Britain could plunge into chaos, as garbage collections, car parks and some toll tunnels would be shut down.
Government figures in Northern Ireland revealed a disturbing increase in knife attacks against youth, with more than 450 young people threatened or hurt with knives in the last five years.
In Scotland, where 24,000 homes on average are built each calendar year, officials fear that building output will be down between 10% and 20% this year.
4. Germany:
A study commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation: 37% of the nation’s population believes that immigrants come to Germany “to exploit the welfare state”; 39% think Germany “is dangerously over-run with foreigners”; and 26% prefer “a single, strong party that represents the German community.”
Politicians from opposing sides called for the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear arms stored in German military bases after a U.S. Air Force report concluded that most sites used for deploying nuclear weapons in Europe failed to meet the minimum U.S. Department of Defense security requirements.
5. Israel: French President Nicolas Sarkozy, along with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, visited Israel and the Palestinian territories earlier this week. His visit appeared to project support for U.S. President George W. Bush’s peace plan, while also pushing European interests. (See related news brief)
6. Zimbabwe:
The withdrawal of Morgan Tsvangirai from Zimbabwe’s presidential elections has raised serious concerns regarding the nation’s future. Mr. Tsvangirai said his decision came as a result of the violence committed against his party’s members by the ruling ZANU-PF government, which has led to the deaths of 86 people and displaced more than 200,000. (See related news brief and article)
The UK Foreign Office revoked President Robert Mugabe of his honorary Order of the Bath knighthood.
7. North Korea:
The government handed over long-awaited nuclear program declaration to China, prompting the White House to announce moves to remove North Korea from the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism.
International television crews witnessed the North Korean government demolish a cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, in a symbol of its commitment to talks on ending its nuclear program.
8. Philippines: Hope of finding more survivors of the ferry that sank due to Typhoon Fengshen is fading. The Philippine Navy and Philippine Coast Guard divers managed to enter the capsized ship, but found only dead bodies, the number of which rescuers could not determine due to darkness. (See related news brief)
9. Australia:
Each year, child protection workers are overwhelmed with nearly 310,000 notifications and 58,000 substantiated cases of child abuse or neglect.
Of the estimated 12,000 foreign ships that visit Australia each year, most are equipped with anti-terror warning systems costing thousands of dollars, yet useless in preventing terrorist attacks.
Called “the blackest day in Australia’s agricultural history” by farmers, lawmakers approved legislation that effectively ended the nation’s 60-year-old monopoly of selling bulk wheat overseas.
International:
Global oil prices rose, despite Saudi Arabia’s pledge to produce another 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day in July if the market needed it.
According to technology analyst Gartner Inc., more than one billion personal computers are now in use worldwide, with two billion expected to be in use by 2014.
