World Briefs

Iranian helicopters scattered flowers into the Persian Gulf waters as family members remembered the 290 passengers killed when a US warship shot down an Iranian airliner 22 years ago.

About 250 relatives of victims and officials sailed from the southern port city of Bandar Abbas to the spot where the Iran Air A300 Airbus was downed on July 3, 1988.

The USS Vincennes shot down the airliner shortly after it took off from Bandar Abbas for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Washington said the Vincennes mistook the airliner for a hostile Iranian fighter jet. Iran maintains it was a deliberate attack.

Yesterday's commemoration comes as Tehran is embroiled in a bitter stand-off with the West over its controversial nuclear programme.

Planner of Munich Olympics attack dies in Syria

Mohammed Oudeh, the key planner of the 1972 Munich Olympics attack that killed 11 Israeli athletes, died yesterday in Damascus, his daughter said. He was 73.

Oudeh died of kidney failure a day after he was taken to Damascus' Andalus hospital after falling sick, Hana Oudeh said.

Mohammed Oudeh - also known under his guerrilla name Abu Daoud - did not take part in the September 5, 1972 attack. Two Israeli athletes were killed in the assault, and nine others died in a botched rescue attempt by the German police. A German policeman and five Palestinian gunmen were also killed.

The Munich attack shocked the world as the most high-profile and brazen assault on a sports team, and later led to a wave of assassinations of top Palestinian officials.

Helicopter crashes into Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour

Two pilots and 11 passengers on board a helicopter travelling to the southern Chinese gambling enclave Macau survived an emergency landing into Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour minutes after takeoff yesterday.

All 13 on board suffered light injuries, with the passengers discharged from the hospital after medical check-ups, marine police District Commander Leung Man-kon said.

The pilots executed an emergency landing after noticing a mechanical problem that created a loud noise minutes into the journey, said Leung Yu-keung, acting head of the Civil Aviation Department.

They were able to avoid a plunge into the harbour because the pilots deployed inflatable buoys before the aircraft hit the water, Leung said.

The helicopter rides are a pricey alternative to the commonly used high-speed ferry service to Macau, with each one-way flight costing 2,600 Hong Kong dollars (£265) per person.

Warren Buffett gives away $1.9 billion in stock to charity

Investor Warren Buffett delivered his annual gifts of Berkshire Hathaway stock worth $1.9 billion to the five foundations he promised the bulk of his $45 billion fortune to.

Mr Buffett made his gift of $24.5 million Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock last Thursday.

Most of the shares - $20.4 million - went to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; the rest went to Mr Buffett's own foundation and those run by his three children.

After making these gifts, the 79-year-old Mr Buffett holds 350,000 Class A shares and 50.4 million Class B shares of stock in the company he runs.

Mr Buffett gives each foundation five per cent of his remaining pledge annually in July in accordance with the plan he announced in 2006.

Japan shows The Cove after protests delay

The Cove, an Oscar-winning film about a Japanese dolphin-hunting village, opened yesterday around Japan after protests by angry nationalists pressured cinemas to cancel earlier showings.

Some of the six small cinemas sold out their initial shows and others were mostly empty. At Image Forum, an art theatre in Tokyo, protesters gathered briefly at the front door and blasted slogans against the film as police and journalists lined the street.

The cinemas in five other cities said they had no problems with protesters.

Last month three other cinemas cancelled planned screenings of the film after noisy protests and a telephone campaign against the film. Nationalist groups say the US-produced film is anti-Japanese, distorts the truth, and has deep connections with a militant anti-whaling organisation.

12 dead as bus falls off elevated road

A bus fell off an elevated road as it was heading to South Korea's main airport, killing 12 passengers and injuring another 12, police said yesterday.

Police official Kang Bong-soo said the bus hit a guard-rail as it was trying to avoid a broken-down car and fell about nine metres from the road near a bridge in Incheon, west of Seoul.

He said the bus was carrying 24 people, and the driver and a 52-year-old Mongolian man were among the injured as well as two children aged five and seven.