8 theSun | MONDAY MAY 25 2009

news without borders

briefs Royal chauffeur suspended over security breach

Brazil plane crash death toll
climbs to 14
RIO DE JANEIRO: Fourteen people were killed in
the crash of a small executive jet at a luxury beach
resort in northeastern Brazil, authorities said on
Saturday, raising the death toll from 11.
Brazil’s Aeronautics Command and the Legal
Medical Institute said there were no survivors of
Friday’s crash in the state of Bahia. Firefighters
and soldiers recovered the bodies of 14 people
from the wreckage, they said.
On Friday, police said 11 people had been killed.
The passengers included US businessman
Roger Ian Wright, founder of a Sao Paulo-based
investment company, his wife and two children,
as well as three crew members.
The King Air 350 jet crashed on Friday while
attempting to land in a heavy storm at an airfield
at the Terravista Condominio, Resort and Golf, a
private resort complex near the seaside town of
Trancoso in Bahia. – AFP
LONDON: Buckingham Palace said yesterday
it had suspended a royal chauffeur alleged to
have let undercover journalists enter Queen
Elizabeth’s London residence and sit in her
car in return for a bribe.
The tabloid News of The World said two
of its reporters posing as Middle East busi-
nessmen paid 1,000 pounds (RM5,700) to
the chauffeur to evade security checks at the
palace. The paper said the story exposed lax
security at the palace. “We could have been
al-Qaeda, we could have had a bomb or at
least a tracking device,” it said.
It said the chauffeur took them to a garage
storing Bentley and Rolls-Royce limousines
used by the royal family and even let a re-
porter sit in one of the vehicles. The palace
said it took security matters very seriously.
“An individual has been suspended pend-
ing an investigation into allegations by a
newspaper,” a royal spokeswoman said.
Royal residences have suffered a number
of high-profile security breaches in recent
years, prompting the appointment of a secu-
rity supremo after Daily Mirror reporter Ryan
Parry spent two months in 2003 working
undercover at Buckingham Palace.
He was employed as a footman, walking
the queen’s corgi dogs and serving her drinks,
despite having applied for the job with a false
reference.
An official security report following that
incident concluded that the most likely
threats came from the press or individuals
trying to test security measures. But it warned
that weaknesses could also be exploited by
terrorists.
Earlier the same year Aaron Barschak had
evaded security at Windsor Castle west of
London wearing a pink dress and an Osama
bin Laden-styled beard to gatecrash the 21st
birthday party of Prince William, second-in-
line for the throne.
In 1982 unemployed labourer Michael
Fagan scaled a Buckingham Palace drainpipe
to enter the queen’s bedroom. He sat chatting
with her for 10 minutes before she was able
to summon help. – Reuters

Teenager held over young

footballer’s murder
South Koreans pay last
LONDON: A 13-year-old boy was arrested on
Saturday in connection with the murder of a
teenager in east London, Scotland Yard said.
Officers found the victim, named locally as
17-year-old Jahmal Mason-Blair, with a stab in-
jury to his neck on Amhurst Road in Hackney
shortly before 1 am. An air ambulance doctor
respects to former leader
SEOUL: Thousands of South Korean
pronounced the boy dead at the scene. mourners paid their last respects yesterday Supporters
Mason-Blair was a talented footballer who to former president Roh Moo-Hyun, whose of deceased
had no involvement with gangs, his elder shock death by apparent suicide came as he former
brother Shaun told Sky News. faced a massive corruption scandal. president
“He didn’t have a bad bone in his body ... Roh’s body lay in state in his hometown Roh Moo-
everyone is just shocked,” he said. of Gimhae, a day after the man once known hyun (above)
Friend Connie Drew told BBC TV he was a as “Mr Clean” leapt from a mountain, leav- cry as they
“lovely young boy ... he lived for football”. ing behind a suicide note on his computer. mourn
More than 900 people had signed up to Thousands of people, many bursting into during the
a Facebook tribute website by Saturday tears, thronged the altar in his native village, funeral
evening. – Reuters laying flowers and burning incense. Some service at his
collapsed as they approached his coffin, as hometown
30 wounded by gunfire at hundreds of Buddhist monks offered prayers. Bonghwa
“Life and death are all part of nature,” Roh village in
Sikh temple in Vienna wrote in his note. Gimhae,
VIENNA: About 30 people were wounded, nine “Don’t lay any blame. It’s fate.” 450km
of them seriously, as rival factions in the Sikh Mourners also packed the streets around southeast
community clashed inside a Sikh temple in the an altar outside a heavily guarded palace in of Seoul,
Austrian capital Vienna, police said yesterday. Seoul, as a shocked nation tried to come to yesterday.
Fighting broke out at around 1.30pm (7.30pm terms with the first such event in the history
REUTERSPIX

in Malaysia), when a group of Sikhs opposed to of modern Korea.

the sermon given by Shri Guru Ravidas Sabha, a World leaders, including US President
guru visiting from India, produced knives and a Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister
gun inside the temple. Taro Aso, offered their condolences
“Six people did not agree (with the sermon),” to Roh’s family and the
police spokesman Michael Takacs told Austrian South Korean people. credited with striving to had not admitted personal wrongdoing.
public radio. But some at home make South Korea more But he acknowledged being tormented by
“One drew a firearm, the others knives. The six were critical of Roh, democratic, apparently the probe.
people were overpowered by members of the saying he should have jumped to his death off “It is truly hard to believe what hap-
community” he said. – AFP stayed alive to face jus- a cliff near his retire- pened. It is a sad, tragic incident,” Presi-
tice as the third former ment home early on dent Lee Myung-Bak’s spokesman said.
South Korean leader to Saturday. Roh, a former human rights lawyer,
be questioned on corrup- Police have yet to doggedly pursued reconciliation with
tion charges after leaving formally confirm it communist North Korea despite its 2006
office. was a suicide. nuclear and missile tests, holding a land-
“That the lawyer- The investigation mark summit with leader Kim Jong-Il in
turned-president has into Roh centred Pyongyang in 2007.
chosen such an extreme around a payment Critics said the South gave the North too
way in the face of ques- worth US$1 million much for too little in return. A relatively
tioning leaves something to his wife from sluggish economic performance, high
to be desired,” the Dong-A a wealthy shoe youth unemployment and soaring property
Ilbo newspaper said in an manufacturer, and prices also undermined Roh’s popularity.
editorial. a payment by the North Korea’s official media high-
“We’re concerned that same man worth lighted the pressure he faced from the
the way the former presi- US$5 million to the investigation.
dent died may damage the husband of one of “Local and foreign media were relating
nation’s image and affect the Roh’s nieces. the motives of his death to the psychologi-
young negatively.” He had apolo- cal burden caused by prosecutors’ coer-
Roh, 62, who was in office gised for his family’s cive investigation,” the Korean Central
from 2003 to 2008 and was involvement but News Agency said. –AFP

Tamil Tigers admit death of Prabhakaran

COLOMBO: The Tamil Tigers yester-
day admitted for the first time that
their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran
(pix), was killed a week ago by Sri
Lankan government troops.
“We announce today with inex-
pressible sadness and heavy hearts
that our incomparable leader, the
supreme commander of the Libera-
tion Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),
attained martyrdom fighting the Sri
Lankan government,” the rebels’
chief of international relations,
Selvarasa Pathmanathan said.
“His final request was for the
struggle to continue until we
achieved the freedom for his peo-
ple,” the statement added.
On Tuesday, Pathmanathan had
told the pro-rebel website Tamilnet
that Prabhakaran, the founder and
leader of the Tigers, was “safe and
well,” prompting the government to
broadcast footage of his corpse.
Yesterday’s statement from the
rebels said Prabhakaran was killed
on May 17, a day before the govern-
ment said he died. The military an-
nounced Prabhakaran, 54, was shot
on Monday, when trying to escape
a final government assault and that
his body was formally identified the
following day.
The Sri Lankan authorities have
not published a post-mortem
examination report or officially
confirmed how or when he died.
A government spokesman said
yesterday Prabhakaran’s body
would be given to an undertaker but
army chief General Sarath Fonseka
told the privately-run Sunday Rivira
that the body had been cremated
and the ashes thrown into the sea.
– AFP