Defiant woman
RIYADH – A Saudi woman has defied the kingdom’s ban on female driving, getting behind the wheel of her husband’s car before police detained the couple and fined the man. The woman, 23, was caught driving in the Qatif district in Eastern Province. The couple were forced to sign a pledge not to repeat the offence.
42 die in crash
KARACHI – At least 42 people have been killed and 17 injured in southern Pakistan when a bus travelling to Karachi collided with a tractor pulling a trolley, police say. The dead and injured included women and children. Police said the cause of the accident was not yet clear.
Killed in ambush
ALGIERS – Fourteen Algerian soldiers were killed and a dozen wounded when they fell into an ambush in the restive Kabylie region east of Algiers, security sources say. Eleven soldiers were killed instantly, and another three later died of their wounds, national news agency APS quoted one security source as saying.
War crime
THE United Nations Security Council says an attack on a UN base in South Sudan which killed at least 58 people and injured 100 others may “constitute a war crime”. A mob of armed civilians pretending to be peaceful protesters delivering a petition to the UN forced their way into the base sheltering 5000 civilians and opened fire.
Forgiveness
POPE Francis has asked for forgiveness for priests who molested children in some of his strongest words ever on the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis. The pontiff said the church had to take an even stronger stand than before against the scandal that has haunted it for over two decades.
‘Hurricane’ dies
RUBIN ‘Hurricane’ Carter, the boxer whose wrongful murder conviction became an international symbol of racial injustice, has died at 76. He died at his home in Toronto, Canada, his friend and former co-defendant John Artis, confirmed. The former middleweight boxer spent 19 years in prison for three murders in 1966.
Rape threat
A HEAVILY pregnant reporter is being treated for shock after a right-wing politician ordered his aides to “violently rape her” during a press conference in Russia. Firebrand nationalist Vladimir Zhironovsky was caught on camera pushing the aides towards reporter Stella Dubovitskaya and shouting: “When I say, you run to her and violently rape her.” One of the aides grabbed the six-months-pregnant woman, to the shock of the watching press pack.
