Sampling World News: May 2012

United States:  Controversy over the "birther" movement hung over a meeting Tuesday between Mitt Romney and Donald Trump.  Mr. Trump has again raised doubts about whether Mr. Obama was born in the United States.  Mr. Romney has said he believes Mr. Obama was born in the United States, but he has drawn fire from Democrats for not distancing himself from Mr. Trump.  National Post news services

London:  The parents of six children killed in an arson attack on their home were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murder.  Mick Philpott, 55, and his wife Mairead, 31, were detained over the house fire in Derby, central England.  The victims, whose ages ranged from 13 to 5, died after the fire, which police said was started with gasoline.  Agence France-Presse

Cairo:  Egypt's Islamist presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi sought Tuesday to reassure Coptic Christians and women, who fear a conservative Islamist in power could threaten their freedoms.  "Our christian brothers, let's be clear, are national partners and have full rights like Muslims", he said.  Mr. Mursi is to face Ahmed Shafik on June 16-17.  Agence France-Presse

United States:  A Texas teenager has been jailed for 24 hours and fined $100 because she missed school to work at two jobs to support her family.  Diane Tran, 17, a straight-A student, breached the state's truancy law.  "She goes from job to job from school", said Devin Hill, a classmate.  An online campaign to support the teen has raised $28,000.  The Daily Telegraph

Italy:  The death toll stood at 17 with several people still missing, in the wake of the second deadly earthquake in nine days to strike a section of Italy that had not considered itself particularly quake-prone.  One of the victims was a priest in the small town of San Felice Sul Panoro, who reportedly ran back to his church to retrieve a Madonna statue.  Reuters


United States:  The nude assailant who almost killed another man over the weekend by biting his face off was identified by Miami police.  The aggressor, Rudy Eugene, 31, was shot dead by police who said he had devoured almost the entire face of his victim.  The unidentified homeless man, who also was naked during the attack, remains hospitalized and fighting for his life.  Police ordered Eugene to stop the assault, then fatally shot him when he continued to gnaw at the face of his victim.  Reports suggested Eugene was likely under the influence of the synthetic stimulant "bath salts", which produces an often aggressive, chaotic experience for users, coupled with intense hallucinations.  Agence France-Presse

Italy:  When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took his new wife to lunch during their Rome honeymoon he spent just $40 - and did not leave a tip.  The owners of the kosher restaurant Nonna
Betta in the city's Jewish Ghetto were surprised when Mr. Zuckerberg, and Priscilla Chan walked away without leaving a gratuity.  The Daily Telegraph


Britain:  British MPs have suggested that calling someone "fatty" or "obese" should be considered a hate crime on a par with racism or homophobia.  A report by an all-party parliamentary group on body image has recommended that the government investigate putting "appearance-based discrimination" on the same legal basis as race and sexual discrimination.  The Daily Telegraph


Syria:  Houla massacre: "When I regained consciousness I looked around and I found my daughters dead.  One of them - her hand was cut off.  My cousin and her four sons were killed.  My sister and her six-week-old daughter were killed.  I want someone to save us.  Where can I go, where in the world is there anyone to protect us?  What is the guilt of a six-week old child?"  The Daily Telegraph



United Nations:  Zimbabwe's tyrannical leader on whom there is a travel ban as part of sanctions relating to his oppressive rule that has ruined his country's economy, left its agricultural sector in tatters, his people on the cusp of starvation, fuelled crime, brought the country to a 95% unemployment rate with massive inflation and epidemic medical emergencies, has been named by the United Nations as its co-ambassador of its tourism branch. 



Palestinian Territories, West Bank:  Israel will hand over the remains of scores of Palestinians killed during anti-Israeli attacks.  "There will be an official ceremony and funeral prayers", said Palestinian prisoner affairs minister Issa Qaraqaa.  Among them are eight members of a seaborne squad which took over a Tel Aviv hotel in 1975 before being killed by Israeli commandos in a raid in which seven hostages were also killed.  The return of the bodies was announced May 14 by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office as "a gesture to President Abbas." Agence France-Presse

Thailand:  A Thai court handed an 8-month suspended sentence to a website editor for failing to quickly remove posts deemed offensive to the monarch in a case that adds to growing debate over Thailand's royal censorship laws.  The Bangkok Criminal Court ruled posts on the Prachatal news website were offensive to the royal family and its editor, Chiranuch Premchaiporn, failed to remove them promptly, as requested by the court.  Thailand has some of the world's toughest laws to penalize insults against the king, queen and crown prince, but critics say the legislation is used to discredit activists and politicians opposed to the royalist establishment.  Agence France-Presse

Russia:  A Russian court jailed an activist Wednesday for 15 days after finding him guilty of spitting on a portrait of President Vladimir Putin.  Magistrates in Cheboksary, about 680 kilometres south of Moscow, found Dmitry Karuyev guilty of minor hooliganism, after he "deliberately spat at a portrait of Vladimir Putin", according to the local advocacy group Shield and Sword.  It posted the magistrate's court statement condemning the 20-year-old for "breaching public order, expressing clear disrespect for society", while taking part in a protest on the eve of Mr. Putin's inauguration as president on May7.  Agence France-Presse

Poland:  "When someone says 'Polish death camps', it is as if there were no Nazis, no German responsibility, as if there were no Hitler", Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, said in strenuously objecting to President Barack Obama's speaking of "Polish death camps" in the Second World War, during a White House ceremony honouring a Polish resistance hero among the first to warn the Allies of the systematic slaughter of Jews in the Nazi concentration camps.  "We cannot accept such words even if they are spoken by the leader of a friendly power ... since we expect diligence, care and respect from our friends on issues of such importance."  The Daily Telegraph

Washington:  The massive earthquake and tsunami that hit Fukushima, Japan, last year wreaked havoc in the skies above as well, disturbing electrons in the upper atmosphere, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration reported.  The waves of energy from the quake and tsunami that were so destructive on the ground reached into the ionosphere, a part of the upper atmosphere that stretches from about 80 to 805 kilometres above Earth's surface.  Images released by NASA showed how the earthly disturbances from the March 11, 2011, quake and tsunami were echoed in the movement of electrons far aloft.  Reuters