World News: April

In an attempt to address the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against China Pro-Tibet, protesters tried to break through a police line guarding the Chinese embassy.  Approximately 12 activists charged the barrier line during a march from Parliament House in support of Tibetan independence.  During the incident there was a heated argument between demonstrators and an embassy official as he attempted to take pictures of the group.  Police arrested four people for disrupting the peace, including a man who threw his shoes at the building.  Around 150 people converged on Parliament House in a peaceful rally bearing flags and banners and were joined by representatives from Australia’s major political parties.  Greens leader Bob Brown asked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to declare Australian support for Tibetan autonomy.

Pope Benedict XVI, while visiting Africa, said a responsible and moral attitude toward sex—and not condoms would help fight the AIDS disease. 

Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwean Prime Minister said the car crash that killed his wife Susan was an accident.  His statement helped override speculation among Zimbabweans that political intent motivated the driver in the truck that hit their vehicle.  Mr. Tsvangirai had just returned from Gaborone, Botswana where he received follow-up medical care for injuries to his head and neck sustained in the crash. The driver, Chinoona Mwanda (35) was charged with culpable homicide, but his attorney, Chris Mhike said the accident was caused by poor road conditions.

Three Doctors Without Borders’ aid workers kidnapped in Sudan have been released unharmed.

Iraqi’s famous shoe thrower, who launched a foot attack at President Bush when he visited the country, got sentenced to three years in jail.  The journalist pleaded not guilty, saying that he was overcome by passion.

Referred to as the “Swiss gigolo” Helg Sgarbi (44) was deemed a master of his craft by wooing Germany’s richest woman into an illicit affair and talking her out of nearly all her money.  He confessed to defrauding Susanne Klatten, a billionaire whose family controls BMW, and was sentenced to six-years in prison.  In a country where old-money families down play their wealth, Klatten decided to go to the police even though as a rule people of her status keep scandal a secret.  Three other women fell victim to Sgarbi’s charms. Sgarbi extorted millions of pounds out of rich European women using a blackmail plot involving mafia hit men and a mysterious sect.  Klatten’s fortune (she is the 68th wealthiest person in the world) is estimated at $9.6 billion.  Sgarbi told the women he was a secret agent working for the Swiss government in hostage situations. Not quite James Bond, he was instead an accomplished predator.  

The election of Salvadorean President Mauricio Funes of F.M.L.N. is a turning point after two decades of rule by the right wing

Andry Rajoelina, Madagascar’s chief opposition leader came up for air, after hiding for two weeks, and stated that he was taking charge of the Madagascar nation.

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir threatened to expel even more aid groups, diplomats and peacekeepers on his first trip to Darfur since the International Criminal Court ordered his arrest on charges of war crimes.  Sudan had previously expelled 13 of the largest aid groups operating in Darfur in protest to the warrant issued by the court in The Hague.  According to the Sudan Media Center, the Sudanese Army announced that it was mobilizing three-quarters of its troops and preparing for full alert. Waving a sword in defiance, Bashir told thousands of cheering supporters that other foreign groups could also be forced to leave if they (Bashir and his supporters) banned together and got involved in dealing with his war crimes case. 

The Pakistani government agreed to reinstate the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after a weekend of protests to the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif.

The U.S. made a formal protest with the Beijing government after five Chinese ships harassed an American surveillance vessel in international waters, in actions the Pentagon described as illegal, unprofessional and dangerous.  The incident took place off the coast of Hainan Island, south of the Chinese mainland. Pentagon officials have stated that the American vessel, USNS Impeccable, was carrying out a surveillance mission involving towing sonar equipment designed for anti-submarine warfare. Two Chinese ships blocked the Impeccable when it requested safe transit and Chinese sailors dropped pieces of wood in its path and tried to hook the cables towing the sonar equipment.  USNS Impeccable’s crew sprayed some of the Chinese sailors with a fire hose. 

Thousands of American Marines went into South Korea to kick off an annual joint military exercise that the U.S. describes as routine. North Korea disagreed with a statement calling it a preparation to invade.  North Korea plans to send a satellite into orbit, but neighboring governments believe it actually will be testing its Taepodong-2 missile, which theoretically can reach as far as Hawaii and Alaska.  North Korea put a 1.1 million member armed force on standby and cut off a military hotline, the only remaining channel of direct communications between the Koreas. North Korea’s statement reinforced that it might resort to military provocations to vent anger at South Korea, who stopped sending North Korea free food.  North Korean missile and nuclear threats act as the impoverished country’s main tool of extracting foreign aid.

Japan condemned North Korea’s plan to launch a rocket next month, warning that it can legally shoot down a rocket if it falls toward its territory.

Mohammad Khatami, a reformist former president of Iran, withdraw from the presidential race to support a political ally.

A deal between Israel’s conservative Likud Party and the nationalist Yisrael Beitenu Party appointed Avigdor Lieberman as the nation’s foreign minister.

Josef Fritzl received a life sentence for keeping his daughter in a self-built prison beneath his own home in Amstetten, Austria for 24 years.  Reports say he raped her some 3,000 times, fathered her seven children and contributed to the death of one son.  A jury of five women and three men convicted Fritzl of incest, rape, enslavement, coercion and murder by neglect. Fritzl waived his right to appeal saying, “I regret from the bottom of my heart what I have done to my family.” The trial raised questions as to why authorities failed to question Fritzl’s behavior over the years.  Fritzl was a convicted rapist investigated for many other sex crimes, but not questioned when his daughter went missing in August 1984 at the age of 18. He claimed she had joined a sect. Fritzl kept his emotions to himself as the verdict was read.