Arnost Lustig, an author who escaped from a Nazi death transport to make the Holocaust the main theme of his fiction, has died at the age of 84.
Jana Jelinkova, spokeswoman for Prague’s Kralovske Vinohrady university clinic, said Lustig died early yesterday. He had been battling cancer for five years.
Born in Prague in 1926, Lustig survived Auschwitz and two other Nazi camps before he managed to escape from a train that was transporting him to another one - Dachau - in 1945.
His experience was reflected in his books, including A Prayer For Katerina Horowitzova and Diamonds of the Night.
In 1994, he received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for exceptional accomplishment.
Man blows himself up outside store
A man has blown himself up with a grenade outside a supermarket in Moscow, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.
The report cited witnesses as saying that the man drove up to the store in the south-east of the capital, then got out of his car, muttered something indistinct, pulled out a grenade and set it off.
It said the man died at the scene but no one else was injured.
Moscow police said they had no immediate information on the incident. (PA)
Kashmiri separatists on hunger strike
Hundreds of Kashmiri separatists are holding a one-day hunger strike to demand that government soldiers be punished for the deaths of 112 people during anti-India protests last summer.
Families of some of those killed also joined the protest, called by the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front.
Protesters also demanded the release of hundreds of people who have been held without trial for years in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir. (PA)
Croatia war veterans rally in Zagreb
About 10,000 people gathered at a protest in Croatia’s capital organised by veterans of the country’s 1991-95 independence war.
Organisers said hundreds of others were prevented from reaching the rally by police. The gathering in a central square in Zagreb came just two days after several hundred protesters clashed with police at another anti-government rally.
The veterans were protesting in support of a fellow veteran awaiting extradition to Serbia in a Bosnian prison. Many Croats also blame the government for economic hardship and alleged corruption. (PA)
Amish children die in creek tragedy
Four Amish children have died after the horse and buggy they were travelling in with their family tipped over in a creek in Kentucky during a flash flood.
Elizabeth Wagler, 11, died in the incident near Dublin, Graves County, along with cousins Rosemary, five months, Sarahmae, five, and Samuel, eight.
Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon said: “There’s no doubt that this was just a terrible accident. We’re trying to give the family some time by themselves right now to grieve.” (PA)
Mugabe vows to seize foreign companies
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has celebrated his 87th birthday and said that, even if his body “gets spent”, he still has the political ideas of a young man.
And he vowed to take control of companies owned by British, European and American interests in retaliation for Western economic sanctions targeted at him and his associates.
Mugabe, who has been in power for 30 years, told more than 6,000 supporters at his birthday party that the government will take 51 per cent of those companies for black empowerment. (PA)
Social network site unblocked in China
Social networking site Linkedin is once again accessible in China after apparently being blocked by authorities following online calls for Middle East-style protests.
The unidentified organisers of the protests have urged people to rally in cities across China today.
Beijing responded by increasing internet filtering and Linkedin could not be opened in China for a few days this week but was working again yesterday. (PA)