12 
news without borders
briefs
Great Train Robber
Biggs back in prison
LONDON: Ronnie Biggs, one
of Britain’s most notorious
criminals who took part in the
1963 “Great Train Robbery”, has
returned to jail after having been
hospitalised with pneumonia, his
son said on Monday.
“He has been taken back
(to prison),” Michael Biggs, 34,
said by telephone. “I’ve been
informed by the authorities that
he’s been taken back.”
The 79-year-old Biggs, who
spent more than three decades
on the run before turning himself
in 2001, had been taken from
prison to a nearby hospital in Nor-
wich, eastern England, over the
weekend. The Great Train Robbery
holds legendary status in Britain
as one of the most audacious in
the country’s criminal history. A
15-strong gang held up a London
to Glasgow mail train, making off
with £2.6 million (RM13.5 million)
in used banknotes. – AFP
11 Israelis nabbed
on sex-drugs tour
BOGOTA: Police have arrested
11 Israelis for allegedly taking
part in sex tourism in the Car-
ibbean port city of Cartagena,
authorities said on Monday.
“The way it works is that
they contact these foreigners
from Bogota, pick them up and
then send them to Cartagena
where they are given drugs
and women ... but the worst
part is that they are involving
underage girls,” said Colonel
Carlos Mena.
The Israelis were arrested
at a posh home in Cartagena
allegedly while on hallucino-
genic drugs and with pros-
titutes, including one minor,
authorities said. – AFP
Philanthropist
reported missing
LONDON: Fears are growing for
the safety of British business-
man and philanthropist Peter
Lampl, after police reported him
missing on Monday. Lampl, who
made his fortune with his own
private equity firm, is chairman of
the Sutton Trust, an educational
charity aimed at providing op-
portunities to young people from
non-privileged backgrounds.
The 61-year-old went miss-
ing from his Wimbledon home in
south west London on Sunday
morning. Lampl had not taken
his medication with him. – AFP
‘No kissing,
we’re British’
LONDON: It must have been
one of Britain’s most passion-
ate places but now the rule in
Warrington Bank Quay’s station
is: “No kissing, we’re British.”
No-kissing signs were put
up at the station’s taxi and
drop-off zone designated for
rail travellers, as outbreaks of
passion appeared to threaten
the punctuality of traffic at
the station operated by – yes
– Virgin Rail.
The company declared
on Monday that the signs
were “a light-hearted way” of
encouraging travellers not to
clog the often crowded sta-
tion, which is located on the
rail lines between London and
Glasgow as well as Birming-
ham and Scotland. – dpa
GM to get RM14b
aid tranche: Official
WASHINGTON: The US govern-
ment will release US$4 billion
(RM14.6 billion) in additional
aid to General Motors Corp as
planned, a White House aide
said on Monday, ahead of the
deadline for the automaker to
submit a new survival plan.
The aide said GM’s smaller
rival Chrysler LLC’s request for
additional aid would be treated
as a new request and dealt with
separately.
GM is seeking concessions
from the United Auto Workers un-
ion and creditors under the terms
of its US$13.4 billion (RM49 billion)
federal bailout. It must submit a
restructuring plan to US officials
showing how it can cut costs and
pay back the loans.
President Barack Obama has
decided to launch a government
task force for restructuring the
US auto industry instead of nam-
ing a “car czar” with sweeping
powers. – Reuters
theSun | WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 18 2009
‘Killing Fields’ trial starts
in Cambodia
hearing. Duch, now a born-again
Christian, expressed remorse on
the eve of his trial by the “Killing
Fields” court set up to prosecute
“those most responsible” for the
1975-79 reign of terror, one of the
darkest chapters of the 20th cen-
PHNOM PENH: The chief Khmer into court, but the proceedings are tury.
Rouge torturer went on trial for mostly procedural, with the main “He said to the victims, ‘I ask
crimes against humanity yesterday, trial starting in March and a verdict your forgiveness, I ask your for-
Cambodians
line up at the first case involving a senior Pol due by September. giveness’,” French lawyer Francois
Pot cadre three decades after the Vann Nath, an artist, managed Roux told Reuters Television after
the entrance
of the end of a regime blamed for 1.7 mil- to get a seat near Duch. He was visiting his client at a detention
lion deaths in Cambodia. one of only a handful of people to centre near the specially built court
Extraordinary
Chambers in Kaing Guek Eav (inset), known survive S-21, saved because he was outside the Cambodian capital.
as Duch and ex-commandant of the chosen to paint portraits of Khmer The trial marks a turning point
the Courts
of Cambodia notorious S-21 prison, sat impas- Rouge leader Pol Pot. for the strife-torn country where
sively in a blue shirt as a judge read “This is the day we have waited nearly every family lost someone
(ECCC)
yesterday. the opening statements in court. for for 30 years. But I don’t know under the Khmer Rouge.
Hundreds of victims of Khmer if it will end my suffering,” he told It ends a decade of delays at
Rouge atrocities lined up to get reporters during a break in the the Cambodian-UN tribunal due
to wrangling over jurisdiction and
cash, but critics say the court’s in-
tegrity is threatened by allegations
of corruption and political interfer-
ence over who to prosecute.
A bid to go after other suspects
was brushed aside last month by
the tribunal’s Cambodian co-pros-
ecutor, who said it would not help
national reconciliation.
“Any hint of political manipula-
tion at the tribunal will undermine
its credibility with the Cambodian
people,” said Sara Colm, Cambo-
dian-based senior researcher at
Human Rights Watch.
Cabinet spokesman Siphan
Phay denied any meddling. “We
don’t want to see this trial fail,” he
told reporters. – Reuters
EPAPIX
Israel engaged in covert war inside Iran: Report
LONDON: Israel is involved in a covert don’t realise what’s happening,” the paper plant who died at home from apparent gas
war of sabotage inside Iran in an effort quoted a former CIA operative as saying. poisoning in 2007.
to delay Tehran’s attempts to develop a “The goal is delay, delay, delay until you Meir Javendafar, an Iran expert at Meepas,
nuclear weapon, Britain’s Daily Telegraph can come up with some other solution a Middle East analysis group, said there were
newspaper reported yesterday. or approach. We certainly don’t want the also reports Iran was being sold faulty equip-
Quoting intelligence experts and an current Iranian government to have those ment for its nuclear programme on interna-
unnamed former CIA agent, the report said weapons. It’s a good policy, short of taking tional markets, and that there were attempts
Israel’s “decapitation” strategy had targeted them out militarily, which probably carries to disrupt the electricity supply to Natanz, a
members of Iran’s atomic programme, unacceptable risks.” uranium enrichment facility in central Iran.
hoping to set back the country’s nuclear As evidence of Israel’s reported strategy, He said there were also indications that
ambitions without resorting to war. Iran watchers have pointed to events such several more countries other than Israel were
“Disruption is designed to slow progress as the death of Ardeshire Hassanpour, a involved in attempting to infiltrate Iran to
on the programme, done in such a way they nuclear scientist at the Isfahan uranium disrupt its nuclear programme. – Reuters