10  theSun | THURSDAY MARCH 19 2009

news without borders

Army-backed leader cements grip in Madagascar

ANTANANARIVO: Madagascar’s new
president, Andry Rajoelina (pix inset), cel-
ebrated and consolidated power yesterday
after being appointed by the Indian Ocean
island’s military in a move drawing interna-
tional disapproval.
Rajoelina, a 34-year-old former disc
jockey who is now the youngest and newest
president in Africa, partied with supporters
in the street after meeting his ministers to
plan strategy.
His priorities are anti-poverty pro-
grammes expected by locals, handling
international concern at his ascent to
power and controlling some dissent in the
armed forces.
“We will bring about the return to a
normal life, to security and above all na-
tional reconciliation, which is at the heart
of democracy,” he told several thousand
supporters celebrating in the capital Antan-
anarivo’s May 13 square.
In a boost to Rajoelina’s legitimacy,
Madagascar’s Constitutional Court issued
a statement endorsing the takeover.
He is to be formally sworn in on Satur-
day.
Marc Ravalomanana, 59, resigned as
president on Tuesday after most of the
military backed his rival, who had led weeks
of anti-government strikes and protests.
The outcome was a slap in the face
for the African Union, which has censured Supporters
recent violent transfers of power that have of Andry
damaged the continent’s reputation with Rajoelina
investors. celebrate in
While the military was crucial in install- the centre of
ing the opposition leader, analysts say he Madagascar’s
also has the backing of exiled former presi- capital on
dent Didier Ratsiraka and his allies. Some Tuesday.
analysts said former colonial ruler France
gave him tacit support too. – Reuters

Fritzl ‘born to rape’: Psychiatrist

SANKT POELTEN (Austria): Josef Fritzl felt he was
“born to rape” and so should be placed in psychi-
atric care because of the risk he would re-offend, a
psychiatrist told the court in Austria yesterday.
Fritzl, who held his daughter as a sex slave for
24 years and yesterday changed his plea to admit
all the charges against him, was aware of his evil
side, psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner told the court.
“The danger is still very much there that he will
reoffend if he is not treated. It is necessary that he
continue being treated until he can no longer be
classified as dangerous. Thus, the conditions are in
place for him to be put in a psychiatric institute.”
The prosecution has demanded that Fritzl serve
any sentence in a facility for mentally abnormal
offenders.
In a 130-page report, Kastner had concluded
before the trial that Fritzl suffered serious per-
sonality problems, but was responsible for his
actions during the 24 years he raped and abused
his daughter Elisabeth.
Fritzl, she said, felt he was “born to rape”.
“On the surface, everything functions smoothly.
But deep down, his unfulfilled needs are simmer-
ing,” she told the court.
“He is aware – he says so himself – that he has
an evil side. He is aware that he was born to rape.
He has that partly under control. But as soon as he
AIG CEO defends bonuses
as public fury mounts
loosens his grip, everything erupts out.”
Kastner said she had asked why he had chosen
Elisabeth out of his seven legitimate children as
his victim.
“He replied: because she was most like me.
She was as stubborn me, as strong as me. The
stronger your opponent, the bigger the victory.
That may very well have been the reason.”
Kastner spoke after Fritzl dramatically changed
his plea to guilty on all charges, having previously
denied murder and slavery.
The 73-year-old said his change of heart had
come after seeing the video testimony of Elisabeth
about her ordeal in a dark, damp bunker where
the court was told Fritzl raped her at will.
“I plead guilty to the crimes I’ve been charged
with,” Fritzl told the court. “I’m sorry.”
The three judges later withdrew to start their
deliberations and draw up a list of questions to
put to the jury. The eight-strong jury then makes
its verdict on the basis of those questions. The
verdict and sentencing is expected today. – AFP
WASHINGTON: The head of AIG said
yesterday the “cold realities of competition”
compelled the insurer to pay US$165 million
(RM610 million) in bonuses, and acknowl-
edged that bailout-weary Americans’ patience
was running thin.
American International Group Inc has come
under intense fire from the public, politicians
and President Barack Obama for accepting up
to US$180 billion (RM660 billion) in govern-
ment aid and then handing out multimillion-
dollar bonuses, but Edward Liddy said the
best hope for recouping taxpayer money was
to keep running AIG as a business.
“No one knows better than I that AIG has
been the recipient of generous amounts of
government financial aid,” he said in remarks
prepared for delivery to a congressional com-
mittee.
“We have been the beneficiary of the
American people’s forbearance and patience.
And we are acutely aware not only that we
must be good stewards of the public funds we
have received, but that the patience of Ameri-
ca’s taxpayers is wearing thin,” he said.
Fury over the bonuses threatens to under-
mine Obama’s efforts to solve the credit crisis
and pull the economy out of a deep recession.
Many voters view the financial rescues as free
handouts to wealthy executives who made
bad decisions, and the fat bonuses – although
relatively small compared to the government’s
US$700 billion bailout fund – have fueled that
anger.
The situation has put Obama in a tight spot
as he tries to strike the right balance between
sharing the public’s outrage and keeping his
focus on the bigger issue of repairing the
economy. Some economists have warned that
the bonuses could become a distraction that
delays recovery efforts.
AIG has argued that the payouts were nec-
essary to retain top employees with the special-
ised knowledge to dispose of US$2.7 trillion in
complex securities that ended up dragging the
company to the brink of collapse last year.
Liddy, who took over as chairman and chief
executive six months ago when the govern-
ment first stepped in to try to stabilise AIG, said
the company had made mistakes “on a scale
few could have ever imagined possible”.
That stark admission did little to dull the
anger directed toward him yesterday. Senate
Republican leader Mitch McConnell called the
bonus situation “an offense to the taxpayers,
and we’re going to get to the bottom of it, even
if the Department of the Treasury hasn’t”.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
said late on Tuesday that AIG would have
to promise to compensate taxpayers for the
bonuses as a condition for receiving a planned
US$30 billion expansion of its bailout.
But Geithner said anger toward Liddy was
“unjustified” because he had joined AIG at the
government’s behest and the problems there
predated him.
Meanwhile in NEW YORK, an account-
ant for jailed swindler Bernard Madoff was
charged with fraud for failing to conduct au-
dits in what was the biggest investment fraud
on Wall Street.
US prosecutors filed criminal charges
against accountant David Friehling, and the
US Securities and Exchange Commission
leveled civil charges against the 49-year-old,
the first person to be prosecuted other than
Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq
stock market.
The SEC alleged that Friehling’s fraud ran
from 1991 to 2008 and that he “essentially sold
his license to Madoff for more than 17 years
while Madoff’s Ponzi scheme went undetec-
ted”. In a Ponzi scheme, early investors are
paid with money from new clients. – Reuters

“The number of reports of US citizens being

briefs
Prisoner cleared of murder
after 27 years
LONDON: One of Britain’s longest cases of wrong-
ful imprisonment came to an end yesterday when
the appeal court cleared a man who has spent 27
years behind bars for a murder he did not commit.
The Lord Chief Justice and two other judges ruled
that Sean Hodgson’s conviction for the murder of a
22-year-old barmaid was unsafe in the light of DNA
evidence unavailable at the time of his 1982 trial.
Outside court, a frail-looking Hodgson, 57, said
he was “ecstatic” to have been cleared.
Hodgson had denied the charge in court at
the time and has always since insisted on his
innocence. Teresa De Simone was found in 1979
raped and strangled in her car. – Reuters
US warns of drink-spiking
in Tokyo bars
TOKYO: The US embassy in Japan has advised its
citizens to avoid bars in Tokyo’s Roppongi enter-
tainment district, popular with tourists, warning
of a sharp rise in drink-spiking incidents.
drugged in bars has increased significantly in
recent weeks,” the embassy warned online
and in a rare email alert after similar warnings
by the British and Australian embassies.
“Typically, the victim unknowingly drinks a
beverage that has been secretly mixed with a
drug that renders the victim unconscious for
several hours,” the embassy said.
The alert said commonly “large sums of
money are charged to the victim’s credit card
or the card is stolen outright” before the victim
wakes up in the bar or on the street. – AFP
France attacks pope’s condom
comments
PARIS: France yesterday slammed Pope Benedict
XVI’s claim that condoms are worsening the AIDS
epidemic, saying it would harm global efforts to
tackle the spread of the disease.
“Such comments are a threat to public health
policies and the duty to protect human life,” foreign
ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier told reporters.
Benedict XVI began his first visit as pope to
AIDS-ravaged Africa on Tuesday, telling reporters
that AIDS was a tragedy “that cannot be overcome
through the distribution of condoms, which even
aggravates the problems”. – AFP