A round-up of other world news in brief
Up to 50 killed in Pakistani bomb blasts
Two bomb blasts have ripped through a busy market in the centre of Pakistan’s second largest city, Lahore, killing at least 36 people, police and medics say.
The attack, which injured some 100 people, sparked a huge blaze at the city’s Moon Market yesterday evening local time.
The toll may rise further as fire-fighters battle to control the blaze.
The blasts came just hours after a suicide bomber on a rickshaw killed at least 10 people in Peshawar when he blew himself up near the courthouse.
One official said the Lahore bomb blasts happened in quick succession and that dozens were injured when the blast struck the market, crammed with shoppers and traders. “The fire engulfed a building and shops. There were two blasts with an interval of about 30 seconds.”
Bell for cabinet of Geoghegan-Quinn
BRUSSELS – Incoming EU commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has chosen John Bell to be her chef de cabinet, writes Arthur Beesley.
Ms Geoghegan-Quinn was nominated last month to the research and innovation portfolio. She faces a confirmation hearing in the European Parliament next month.
Mr Bell currently works as chef de cabinet for Meglena Kuneva, the outgoing Bulgarian commissioner in the consumer affairs portfolio.
He worked previously in the cabinet of former Irish commissioner David Byrne and was head of Polish desk in the commission’s enlargement division.
Spanish trial over sharia sentence
MADRID – Nine men are awaiting trial in eastern Spain after allegedly sentencing a woman to death for adultery in an unofficial court held under Islamic sharia law, a police spokeswoman has said.
The woman walked into a police station in March saying she had escaped captors who had taken her to a remote house in Catalonia where they “tried” and “convicted” her for adultery, the spokeswoman from the Catalonia regional police force said.
“According to the victim, she was taken against her will and sentenced to death by a group of men,” the spokeswoman added.
“The men may have formed a court to apply sharia law.” – (Reuters)
Abstract painter wins Turner prize
LONDON – A painter of abstract designs who wants none of his work to survive his death was awarded one of the worlds top contemporary art prizes yesterday.
Scottish-based Richard Wright beat the bookmakers favourite, Roger Hiorns, to win Britains Turner Prize, an annual award that normally stirs a hornets nest of controversy over what is art and what is not.
Best known for his intricate, precise wall frescoes, Wright seems an oddly sedate choice for the often controversial prize. Damien Hirst won the Turner in 1995 with a pickled cow and Chris Ofili caused a stir in 1998 for works that incorporated lumps of elephant dung. – (Reuters)
SA police charged with stealing drugs
JOHANNESBURG – Three South African police officers have been arrested after a woman complained that they had stolen her marijuana, Sapa news agency has reported.
Police said the 37-year-old woman came to a police station in a Pretoria township to complain about the missing drugs.
She alleged that the suspects were police officials of which one of them was known to her and was spotted by a witness taking it [the marijuana] from the womans shack, Sapa quoted an inspector as saying.
The police officers denied any knowledge of the drugs, but some 60 kg of marijuana, worth about 60,000 rand (€5,400), was found at one of their homes. – (Reuters)