NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Globe
Body parts case: Canadian police investigating the grisly killing of a Chinese student said Wednesday that mailed packages containing the man’s body parts also included notes. The case was discovered last week when Jun Lin’s left hand and left foot were mailed to Canada’s top political parties. The investigation spread to the other end of the country this week as more body parts were mailed from Montreal to two schools in Vancouver, British Columbia. Lin’s lover, porn actor Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29, was arrested in Berlin on Monday and could be extradited to Canada by the end of the week.
Ivory Coast conflict: Armed groups in Liberia who supported Ivory Coast’s former president have killed at least 40 civilians in crossborder raids into Ivory Coast since July and are recruiting children as young as 14 into their ranks, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. The armed men, most of whom fought for former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and flooded over the border to Liberia following his arrest, carried out at least four attacks against ethnic groups who support Ivory Coast’s current president, Alassane Ouattara.
3Colombia rebels: At least eight rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia were killed in a bombardment and clashes with army troops in Colombia, the military said Wednesday. The military bombed a rebel camp Wednesday in northern Antioquia state. The rebels have been fighting the government for decades.
Plane crash: A Nigerian airline whose airplane crashed in the country’s largest city of Lagos, killing 153 on board and more on the ground, defended itself Wednesday against growing public criticism, saying its chief engineer died on the doomed flight. Francis Ogboro, an executive who oversees Dana Air, also told journalists the MD-83 that crashed Sunday underwent strenuous checks like the others the carrier owns. Searchers recovered 153 corpses as well as fragmented remains before halting their efforts.
5Drug- resistant TB: One in 10 cases of tuberculosis in China cannot be treated by the most commonly used drugs because of a lack of testing and misuse of medicine, according to a national survey that showed for the first time the size of the drug-resistant epidemic. Researchers say the findings from the 2007 survey on drug-resistant TB, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that the government must invest more in public health services to better diagnose drug-resistant strains of the killer lung disease.
6Solar plane: Morocco’s ambitious plan to draw 40 percent of its energy needs from the limitless power of its blazing sun by 2020 received a publicity boost this week as the first solar-powered plane landed in the North African kingdom after a 1,554-mile trip from Switzerland. Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard immediately paid tribute to Morocco’s solar ambitions.
7El Post: The Huffington Post has announced its newest version, a Spanish language site called El Huffington Post produced in Madrid at the headquarters of Spain’s leading newspaper. Founder Arianna Huffington said Wednesday that the new site, introduced by her and the El Pais newspaper, will try to draw in a global audience by attracting Spanish speakers in Europe, the United States and Latin America.