A picture taken on November 16, 1985 in Vaison-La-Romaine shows Guy Penne during a wine fair. Former socialist MP and former French President François Mitterrand‘s adviser on African issues at the Elysee Palace, Mr Penne died on Sunday night. (AFP)
Naomi Campbell’s testimony delayed
A war crimes court yesterday delayed by a week to August 5 supermodel Naomi Campbell’s testimony about a “blood diamond” she allegedly received from former Liberian President Charles Taylor in 1997.
The fashion model was initially due to have testified on Thursday after the Special Court for Sierra Leone issued a subpoena for her to appear at the prosecution’s request, but her lawyers had asked for a delay, the court said in The Hague yesterday.
“The judges of SCSL trial chamber II have this morning approved Naomi Campbell’s request to postpone her scheduled testimony in the trial of Charles Taylor to August 5,”a court statement said.
Mr Taylor has been on trial since 2008 for his alleged role in the civil war in Sierra Leone, accused of arming rebels in return for illegally mined diamonds.
Ms Campbell will have to testify about claims by her former agent Carole White and actress Mia Farrow that she was given a diamond by Mr Taylor after a celebrity dinner hosted by then South African President Nelson Mandela in September 1997. (AFP)
Wind farm protesters shot at
Security guards yesterday fired rubber bullets to disperse villagers in eastern Romania trying to force their way into what is to be Europe’s largest wind farm, injuring five, police said.
“The row broke out when the mayor of Cogealac accompanied by several dozen villagers went to the site to fine the owner,” Czech electricity company CEZ, local chief of police Adrian Rapotan said.
The angry villagers threw stones at the guards, who responded by firing rubber-coated bullets, he added.
The five injured were shot in the legs and taken to hospital.
Local official Claudiu Palaz said the mayor had “incited the villagers against CEZ, alleging the windmills were built illegally”. (AFP)
Boy found dead in tumble dryer
A four-year-old boy was found dead in a tumble dryer yesterday.
The child was reported missing from the garden of his home on Northcliffe Road, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, shortly after 10.30 a.m.
A police helicopter was scrambled before the boy was found dead just under an hour later by his “distraught” mother and a police officer.
Detectives would not say whether the dryer was switched on when the boy was found. (PA)
Suicide bomber kills seven
A teenage suicide bomber killed seven people yesterday in an assault targeting senior Pakistani officials mourning the assassination of a Cabinet minister’s son by suspected Taliban members.
Police said the bomber was stopped at a checkpoint from entering the home of Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and that none of his guests were hurt in the attack.
Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, suspicion fell on the Islamist militants who have wrought carnage across Pakistan, killing more than 3,570 people over the last three years.
Police blamed the Taliban for killing Mr Hussain’s 28-year-old son Mian Rashid on Saturday and yesterday’s bomber struck the small town of Pabbi shortly after Interior Minister Rehman Malik visited to pay his respects. (AFP)
Goa teen murder trial
The mother of a British teenager who was found drowned in the Indian resort state of Goa is to give evidence this week against two men on trial over her daughter’s death, her lawyer said yesterday.
Advocate Vikram Varma said Fiona MacKeown would be a prosecution witness on Friday at the children’s court in the state capital of the former Portuguese colony, Panaji, and “give all the information she has.”
Two men – Samson D’Souza and Placido Carvalho – are on trial after the bruised and half-naked body of Ms MacKeown’s 15-year-old daughter, Scarlett Keeling, was found at the popular Anjuna Beach resort in February 2008.
Fiona MacKeown was instrumental in forcing local police to conduct a murder investigation after they initially dismissed the teenager’s death as accidental. (AFP)
Poles rescued in Swiss Alps
Three Polish tourists had to be rescued by helicopter from a Swiss mountain after embarking on a climbing trip wearing only summer shoes and light clothing, police yesterday.
The three men aged between 18 and 27, were planning to scale the rugged 2,500-metre Saentis peak in eastern Switzerland late Sunday, police in the southeastern canton of Appenzell Inner-Rhodes said.
But they soon lost their way and called rescue services by mobile phone.
A helicopter winched the three tourists off the mountainside without injuries. (AFP)