World Scene – 01/12/10

(from WashingtonTimes.com, from wire dispatches and Washington Times staff reports) World Scene 

ANGOLA – Togo soccer team quits after ambush

CABINDA | Togo withdrew from a continentwide soccer tournament and its players reluctantly left Angola on Sunday, two days after a deadly ambush on the team bus killed three and injured eight. A separatist leader warned, however, that violence would not likely end.

It took a call from Togo’s president to persuade the players to leave the African Cup of Nations; they said they wanted to stay and compete in honor of the assistant coach, team spokesman and Angolan bus driver who died in Friday’s attack.

The government dispatched the presidential plane, while Togo’s prime minister, Gilbert Houngbo, said Angola had not done enough to protect the team after the attack in Cabinda – the oil-rich region in northern Angola which has seen occasional separatist violence.

SPAIN – 4 ETA members held in Portugal, France

MADRID | Four suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA were arrested in Portugal and France, one driving a van loaded with explosives near a police barracks, the government said Sunday.

Two ETA suspects were captured in northern Portugal after one was stopped while driving the van through the northwestern Spanish town of Bermillo de Sayago, about 20 miles east of the border with Portugal, officials said.

GAZA STRIP – Israeli raid kills 3 Islamic Jihad men

JERUSALEM | Israeli warplanes killed three Islamic Jihad gunmen in an air strike Sunday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the military would respond harshly to rocket and mortar fire from Gaza.

The aircraft targeted a group of Palestinian militants in the central Gaza Strip, killing the three with an air-to-ground missile, Palestinian medics said. The Israeli military said the militants were targeted “as they were preparing to fire rockets into Israel.”

The Israeli military said one of the dead, whom it identified as Awad Abu Nasir, was a senior Islamic Jihad field commander behind a string of attacks on Israel.

KENYA – Bid to deport Muslim cleric fails

NAIROBI | A radical Jamaican-born Muslim cleric who led a British mosque attended by convicted terrorists was flown back to Kenya on Sunday after an attempt to deport him failed, officials said.

Nigerian authorities refused to grant a transit visa for Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal and instead sent him back to Kenya early Sunday, an official said.

Kenya deported Mr. el-Faisal on Thursday. Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang said the cleric had chosen Gambia as a destination, and Gambia accepted, after attempts to fly him to Jamaica failed. Britain, South Africa, Tanzania and the U.S. have declined to grant Mr. el-Faisal a transit visa that would allow him to connect to flights to Jamaica, which has said it would accept him but would keep a close eye on him.

HONG KONG – Acid attack injures 30; man held

HONG KONG | Police arrested a man early Sunday after two bottles of corrosive liquid were hurled into a crowd at one of Hong Kong’s famous tourist spots, officials said. At least 30 people were injured in the city’s latest acid attack.

The victims, including children and tourists, were all treated at local hospitals for burns and other injuries and released. The liquid was thrown on them Saturday night near Temple Street, a densely populated district known for its outdoor shops and restaurants in the city’s Kowloon area.

Hong Kong has seen a series of similar attacks since December 2008 that have injured more than 100 people.

The suspect was described as a Chinese man in his 30s.

NOTE: The World Scene above was published at WashingtonTimes.com on Monday, Jan. 11, 2010.

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