The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Two Canadian prisoners break out in brazen helicopter escape
- Australia eases some military sanctions on reforming Myanmar
- Mayor of Peru's capital appears to survive recall vote - exit polls
| Two Canadian prisoners break out in brazen helicopter escape Posted: 17 Mar 2013 07:50 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two Canadian inmates broke out of prison in broad daylight on Sunday by climbing into a helicopter hovering over a detention centre northwest of Montreal, according to media reports. The helicopter was hijacked earlier in the day from tour company Heli-Tremblant by two men armed posing as tourists, according to The Globe and Mail. The helicopter's pilot was ordered to fly to the prison in St-Jérôme, about 37 miles (60 km) outside of Montreal, the newspaper reported. Once the helicopter arrived at the prison, the two inmates climbed up to it using ropes or cables, the newspaper said. Both fugitives, identified as Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau, 36, and Danny Provençal, 33, were believed to have been injured in the escape. By late Sunday, police had arrested three men, including one of the escaped prisoners, Hudon-Barbeau. Police had the second escapee, Provençal, surrounded, The Globe and Mail said. Earlier, while police were still pursuing the inmates, a man identifying himself as Hudon-Barbeau called a local radio station. "It will end badly," he said, according to the report. "I'll kill myself, I'm 36 years old, I was told that I would die in prison." When police eventually found the helicopter about 50 miles (80 km) from the prison, only the pilot was still at the scene. He was taken to the hospital and police officials said he would be questioned, according to the newspaper. (Reporting by Paul Thomasch; editing by Christopher Wilson) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Australia eases some military sanctions on reforming Myanmar Posted: 17 Mar 2013 07:42 PM PDT CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will ease restrictions on military engagement with Myanmar following democratic reforms since the country's ruling generals relinquished their half-century grip on power in 2011, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Monday. During a visit to Canberra by Myanmar's President Thein Sein -- the first leader from the former Burma to visit the Australian capital since 1974 -- Gillard said restrictions would be lifted on military humanitarian aid and peacekeeping, but an arms sales embargo would stay in place.
"What we've done today is taken a first step on defence relations between our two countries. It is not fully normalising defence relationships," Gillard told reporters at a press conference with Thein Sein at Australia's parliament. Since Myanmar's military stepped aside and a quasi-civilian government was installed in 2011, triggering a wave of political and economic reforms, western governments have cautiously dropped or eased sanctions against the country. But the government still maintains a constitution drafted by the generals and reserves a quarter of parliamentary seats for military personnel, while barring Nobel laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from the presidency. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar last week warned that progress had been erratic in Myanmar, with around 250 political prisoners still behind bars and 120,000 people internally displaced. Gillard said Australia, a rotating UN Security Council member and close U.S. ally, would soon post a defence attaché to its embassy in Myanmar, and would also provide additional aid worth $20 million to train the government in human rights. Thein Sein, a former junta general who has won praise for reforms since taking power in March 2011, said his government was looking to resource powerhouse Australia for investment and expertise in the country's fledgling resource sector. "We have to make sure that the extraction and exploitation of these resources is done properly," he said. Shut off from most of the world for decades, Myanmar is Asia's poorest country. Gillard's government last year lifted targeted travel and financial sanctions on Myanmar outside military assistance, with aid set to double to $100 million a year by 2015. (Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by Michael Perry) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Mayor of Peru's capital appears to survive recall vote - exit polls Posted: 17 Mar 2013 07:35 PM PDT LIMA (Reuters) - The mayor of Peru's capital appeared to survive a recall vote on Sunday, three exit polls showed, narrowly defeating traditional power brokers who tried to oust her from power in Lima before a presidential election in 2016. An Ipsos exit poll showed 52.6 percent of voters want mayor Susana Villaran to finish her four-year term, compared with 47.4 percent who voted for her removal.
Other exit polls by the survey firms Datum and CPI showed similar results, but Villaran's opponents did not concede defeat and a recount is possible as the election was close. Official results will be announced on Monday. "Today Lima won, we all won," Villaran said in a speech after the exit polls were released. Her showing in the polls reassured fellow left-of-centre politicians. They viewed the recall campaign as driven by conservative parties jockeying for sway in the 2016 presidential election, when President Ollanta Humala cannot run for a second straight term. Lima, with a third of Peru's population, often drives the outcomes of presidential elections. "Congratulations, Susana. We are proud to have bet as always for decency and democratic consolidation," former President Alejandro Toledo said on Twitter. Villaran, the first woman ever elected as mayor of Lima and the first leftist to hold that office in decades, spent months defending her two-year old administration as an alliance of conservative politicians, evangelical leaders and informal food and transportation workers said she was too inept to be allowed to finish her term. Only a week ago, polls showed she would lose the recall vote in the city of 8 million - a reminder of the volatile nature of voter sentiment in Peru. In the final days of campaigning, Villaran warned that big public works projects and private investment in concessions would face further delays if she were forced from office. Lima, which was the base of the Spanish empire in the Americas and has hundreds of pre-Columbian ruins, needs infrastructure investments of about $37 billion, according to some estimates. Villaran had angered opponents by emphasizing gay rights and trying to rein in the vast and largely unregulated informal economy. "This will allow Lima to deepen and accelerate the reforms we've been working on for the past two years so that our city becomes more orderly, modern and just," Villaran said. She also promised to address the needs of Lima's most vulnerable residents after as the recall campaign exposed strong opposition to her administration in poor districts where residents are demanding roads, water and sewage services. (Reporting By Marco Aquino and Omar Mariluz, Writing by Mitra Taj; Editing by Terry Wade and Christopher Wilson) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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