CLUSTER BOMBS KILLED, MAIMED MORE THAN 400 IN 2015 - STUDY
PARIS: Cluster bombs killed or injured more than 350 people in Syria and Yemen last year and evidence is growing that Russian forces are using the munitions in Syria, a report said on Thursday. Handicap International, which compiled the study, said there was “compelling evidence” that Russian forces were using cluster munitions in Syria, a claim denied by Moscow. The non- government organization said almost all the victims around the world were civilians and in a third of the cases, children bore the brunt of their devastating effect. The group urged signatories to the 2008 Oslo Convention on Cluster Munitions to demand that the warring sides to stop using them. The Oslo signatories are to meet in Geneva next week. A total of 248 people were killed or wounded by the munitions in Syria in 2015, the report said, with civilians making up the vast majority of the victims. Around the world, a total of 417 victims, dead or injured, were recorded in 2015.
GUNMAN IN JAPAN SHOOTS SELF DEAD AFTER STANDOFF WITH POLICE
TOKYO: standoff with police, news reports said. Yasuhide Mizobata fled into an apartment building on Tuesday afternoon after firing repeatedly at officers who challenged him, a force spokesman said. About 17 hours later the suspect shot himself in the abdomen, public broadcaster NHK and Jiji Press reported. NHK footage showed police storming the building after hearing a gunshot as an ambulance apparently carrying the suspect sped off. The broadcaster said police arrested him. He was then treated in hospital but later confirmed dead, NHK said.
ANCIENT EGYPTIANS USED METAL IN WOODEN SHIPS
CAIRO: A piece of wood recovered at a dig near the Great Pyramid of Giza shows for the first time that ancient Egyptians used metal in their boats, archaeologists said on Wednesday. Circular and U-shaped metal hooks were found in one of the components of a boat, discovered the same year as Khufu’s “solar boat,” buried near the Great Pyramid. Solar boats, buried in pits next to royal burial chambers, may have been used for a pharaoh’s funeral procession, while others were intended for travels in the afterworld. The piece of wood measures eight meters (25 foot) in length, 40 centimeters (almost 16 inches) wide and four centimeters in thickness. From the boats found across Egypt, “we have not found the use of metals in their frames like in this boat”, Mohamed Mostafa Abdel-Megeed, an antiquities ministry official and expert in boat-making in ancient Egypt, told Agence-France Presse on the sidelines of a Cairo press conference.