Thesun 2009-04-21 Page07 Pirates Release Ship As High-seas Chase Intensifies

theSun

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| TUESDAY APRIL 21 2009

news without borders

Jamaica police capture plane hijacker

briefs Mooning law lecturer off to jail for contempt SYDNEY: An Australian law lecturer was jailed yesterday for contempt of court after pulling down her trousers and baring her buttocks to the presiding judge. Megumi Ogawa, 41, was sentenced to four months’ jail in a Brisbane court for what Judge Stuart Durward said was “disgusting behaviour” at an earlier trial where she was found guilty of harassing court officials. During the earlier trial, the court was told the Southern Cross University staff member threatened court officials with death and sent them 83 e-mails and made 176 phone calls. Ogawa, a Japanese national, conducted her own defence at both trials. – dpa

Egyptian girl contracts bird flu

MONTEGO BAY: Police stormed a hijacked airliner in Jamaica yesterday and captured a mentally troubled gunman without firing a shot, ending a harrowing airport standoff in which 182 people had initially been taken hostage. Six shaken crewmembers – the last remaining hostages – were rescued in what Jamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz called “a clean operation”. “It has ended the best way it could, which is no fatalities, no injuries. Everybody is unharmed.” “And the six crew members have actually disembarked the plane and are now in the actual

CAIRO: An 18-month old Egyptian girl has contracted the highly pathogenic bird flu virus after coming into contact with infected birds, the latest case in a growing spate of infections in Egypt, state media said on Sunday. The new infection brings to 66 the number of bird flu cases in humans in Egypt. Egypt has seen a surge in human cases in recent months, with 15 confirmed since the start of the year, compared to seven cases between Jan. 1 and April 17 last year. The girl, from the north Egyptian province of Kafr el-Sheikh, was being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu, state news agency Mena reported, citing the health ministry. – Reuters

Surgeon faces trial over patient deaths SYDNEY: An Indian-born surgeon extradited from the United States was committed for trial in Australia yesterday on charges of manslaughter over the deaths of three patients. Jayant Patel, 59, will also face 10 other charges, including causing grievous bodily harm, relating to his time as director of surgery in a Queensland state hospital between 2003 and 2005. Asked whether he had anything to say at the end of a committal hearing in a Brisbane magistrates court, Patel replied: “No thank you, your honour.” The surgeon, who is a US citizen, is at the centre of a scandal which has brought procedures for recruitment of foreign doctors under intense scrutiny in Australia. He will remain free on bail until his trial in the Supreme Court, which is expected next year. The manslaughter charges relate to the deaths of three patients from surgery that prosecutors allege Patel either botched or was not qualified to carry out. – AFP

The signs to look out for in women with cardiac arrest MUNICH: The symptoms of a heart attack in women are usually different to those in men. Among men, the typical indicators of a myocardial infarction are chest pains that radiate to an arm, claustrophobia, anxiety and dizziness. Women are more likely to complain of pressure in the upper abdomen, sweat attacks, nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath, back pain or pain between the shoulder blades, in the jaw bone or facial area. An affected person or bystander should call a physician immediately if those symptoms appear, advises Dr Bertel Berendes writing in Germany’s HausArzt-Patienten magazine. – dpa

Race talks... Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures as he arrives for a meeting with Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz in Geneva on Sunday. He later caused a walkout by EU delegates when he addressed a conference on racism.

airport terminal,” he told CBC. The armed youth, identified by officials as a troubled 20-year-old man named Stephen Fray from the Montego Bay area, had earlier allowed all passengers and two crew to leave the chartered CanJet Boeing 737. Canjet said the plane had been due to depart Montego Bay for Cuba with 174 Canadian passengers and eight crew when it was hijacked. The intruder managed to pass security and sneak into the plane shortly before midnight local time during a layover. A flight stewardess was able

to reason with Fray as he threatened passengers with a gun to allow hostages off the plane, according to passenger Jamie Spear, who described the scene to his mother after the drama ended. The hijacker had demanded cash from passengers, and the stewardess “seemed to be able to calm him and tried to ... reason with him into letting them off if they left their money”, Cheryl Spear told CBC. “That seemed to have worked for him and that seemed to be the way they were able to get off the plane,” she said.

Pirates release ship as high-seas chase intensifies NAIROBI: Somali pirates have released one more ship but still held 19 others yesterday, as foreign navies chased sea brigands around the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean at the height of the “hijacking season”. The Togo-flagged Lebanese-owned cargo ship MV Sea Horse, captured a week ago as it was on its way to pick up food for the World Food Programme (WFP), was released on Friday, said a spokesman for the UN agency. “We have heard from the operators that it was released on Friday,” Peter Smerdon said, adding that the exact whereabouts of the vessel were not

immediately clear. Nato naval ships on Sunday foiled a pirate attack on a Norwegian tanker, catching up with the would-be hijackers after a sevenhour pursuit. The dramatic overnight chase in the Gulf of Aden came after seven pirates on a skiff tried to board the 80,000-tonne MV Front Ardennes but fled when foreign ships approached. First on the scene was a British Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel, the Wave Knight, but it was a Canadian frigate, the Winnipeg, which then gave chase. “The pirates who initially had weapons and what appeared to be climbing gear threw all of that

China’s Great Wall far longer than thought BEIJING: The most comprehensive and technologically advanced survey of China’s Great Wall has discovered the ancient monument is much longer than previously estimated, state media reported yesterday. The wall stretches for 8,851.8km, much further than common estimates of 5,000km, according to the findings of the survey. The two-year mapping project, carried out by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, involved using global positioning systems and infra-red technology. – AFP EPAPIX

Asked about the hijacker’s mental condition, Vaz later told CBC: “Put it this way, (he is) definitely a troubled young man and, of course, the evaluations will tell exactly what the challenges were.” Vaz said the youth’s family had been at the airport helping in efforts to negotiate an end to the standoff, but those negotiations broke down. The Jamaican police and military then made the decision to go in, Vaz said, adding the police stormed the plane, but giving no details on how the operation unfolded. – AFP

overboard,” said Nato maritime spokesman Commander Chris Davies. “When the Winnipeg finally caught up and stopped them... I am told there was sufficient evidence that these were pirates.” The suspects were held and questioned but could not be charged with any offence because doing so was not within Canada’s jurisdiction. The MV Sea Horse’s quick release still left 19 foreign vessels and more than 300 seamen in the hands of Somalia’s growing fleet of ransomhunting pirates. The latest addition to the pirates’ haul was a Belgian stone-carrier seized on Saturday north of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. A reconnaissance flight by a Spanish naval helicopter revealed that the MV Pompei was towing a much smaller vessel – thought to be a pirate boat – and was heading towards the Somali coast. The MV Pompei would likely arrive there tomorrow, said Belgian officials. “Like all hostage cases, there are several possibilities that will be examined in the coming days,” said Jaak Raes of Belgium’s crisis management centre. Government ministers would discuss the matter on Monday, he added. The captain of the vessel is Dutch, and the rest of the crew comprises two Belgians, three Filipinos and four Croatians. It is the first Belgian ship to be seized by Somali pirates. Dutch marines, meanwhile, thwarted a pirate attack on a Greekowned tanker in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, freeing 16 Yemeni fishermen in the process. A Dutch defence ministry spokesman said a British naval vessel intervened, keeping its guns trained on the pirates until Dutch commandos arrived under Nato orders to board. “The marines found 25 people on board, nine of them suspected pirates,” said spokesman Robin Middel. The remaining 16 were Yemeni fishermen. They seized and destroyed seven AK47 assault rifles and a rocket launcher, but the suspected pirates were later released. The Law of the Sea Convention gives foreign warships the right to prevent, deter and respond to acts of piracy, but does not apply to territorial waters and does not properly address the issue of transfer ashore. – AFP

Iran president triggers racism conference walkout GENEVA: An international conference on racism fell into disarray yesterday as Iran’s president launched a verbal onslaught against Israel, triggering a mass walkout and a furious rebuke from the head of the UN. The meeting which had already been boycotted by several Western countries such as the United States and Australia, as well as Israel, was plunged into further controversy as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took to the stage.

Several demonstrators were ejected as the Iranian president began his speech in Geneva and soon afterwards representatives of 23 European Union delegations quit the conference room after he labelled Israel cruel and racist. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who had earlier berated countries for boycotting the meeting, accused the Iranian leader of incitement while other world leaders lined up to condemn his remarks.

Ahmadinejad criticised the creation of a “totally racist government in occupied Palestine” in 1948, calling it “the most cruel and racist regime”. “They sent migrants from Europe, the United States... in order to establish a racist government in the occupied Palestine,” he added. But while the speech was shunned by Western powers, other delegates who stayed to hear him speak greeted his words with applause.

After Ahmadinejad’s speech, Ban said the Iranian had undermined the aim of the conference by sowing divisions. “I deplore the use of this platform by the Iranian president to accuse, divide and even incite,” he said in a statement. “This is the opposite of what this conference seeks to achieve.” Even before the speech, the diplomatic fallout from Ahmadinejad’s presence in Geneva was spreading. Israel recalled its ambassador in

protest at the Swiss president’s decision to meet the Iranian leader – Ahmadinejad’s first formal meeting with a Western head of state since taking office in 2005. Four EU nations were among nine countries which boycotted the meeting. The remaining 23 EU countries that did attend the event had warned they would walk out if Ahmadinejad made “anti-Semitic accusations” during the event. – AFP