China executed on Wednesday the disgraced former chief justice of the country’s most populous metropolis, Cho-ngqing, a sentence meted out as part of a crackdown on organised crime laun-ched by the city’s top official. Chongqing’s flamboyant Communist Party boss, Bo Xilai, has gained popularity nationwide with the clampdown, in what some analysts saw as a bid to shoehorn himself into the nation’s top political body during the 2012 leadership reshuffle.
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Russia pianist charged with Thai boy rape
Bangkok, July 7: Famed Russian conductor Mikhail Pletnev has been charged in Thailand with raping a boy aged under 15, a crime that carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, the Thai police said. Pletnev, artistic director of the acclaimed Russian National Orchestra, was released on Tuesday after he posted $9,300 bail following his arrest the same day in the Thai resort of Pattaya.
“He was initially charged with raping a boy under 15 which carries a jail term of four to 20 years,” Lieutenant Colonel Omsin Sukkanka said. —AFP
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Netanyahu guard’s guns go missing
Jerusalem, July 7: Israeli security officials say four pistols disappeared from the suitcase of a bodyguard accompanying Israel’s Prime Minister in the US.
The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, says the luggage was checked in for a flight from Washington to New York but ended up in Los Angeles — without the four 9mm Glock handguns. A Shin Bet spokesman said on Wednesday it is not clear whether the guns disappeared before or after the luggage was put on the wrong flight. —AP
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Pak student held for US extradition
London, July 7: Pakistani student Abid Naseer, who in May won a long battle against his deportation to Pakistan, was on Wednesday held by the UK police after the United States issued a warrant for his arrest, reports our London correspondent. Twenty-four-year-old Naseer had been arrested in an anti-terrorism operation in April 2009 but eventually was not charged. He was one of 12 alleged terrorist suspects arrested in coordinated raids across northwest England in April 2009.
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UK to hand over Afghan area to US
London, July 7: British troops will hand over control of the violence-wrac-ked Sangin area of southern Afghanistan to US forces by the end of the year, defence secretary Liam Fox said. He said the ISAF will restructure its forces in southern Afghanistan “so that it can consolidate a US Marine brigade in northern Helmand which will assume responsibility for security in Sangin.” Mr Fox added: “This will simplify current command arrangements and enable UK troops to be redeployed to reinforce progress in the key districts of central Helmand.” —AFP