World RoundUp June 15

• Source: Global Times
• [07:40 June 15 2009]
• Comments

Blast in Pakistan market kills 8

A bomb blast in a market killed eight people and wounded 25 yesterday in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, northwest Pakistan, the latest in a wave of attacks since the army launched an offensive against Taliban militants.

Separately, a suspected US drone aircraft fired a missile yesterday in the South Waziristan region, a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, killing three militants traveling in a vehicle.

Dozens killed in Sudan ambush

At least 40 south Sudanese soldiers and civilians were killed when tribal fighters ambushed river barges carrying UN food aid.

Armed members of the Jikany Nuer group opened fire on 27 boats loaded with emergency rations destined for an area controlled by the rival Lou Nuer tribe on Friday afternoon.

“Women and children who were on the boats were also killed, either directly by bullets or by drowning after jumping into the river,” an official said.

Nine kidnapped in Yemen

Nine foreigners, mostly women and children, including seven Germans, a British engineer and a South Korean woman teacher, have been kidnapped by Shiite rebels in northern Yemen, a local official said yesterday.

The hostages belong to an international organization that has been working at a hospital in Saada for the past 35 years. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

S. Africa corruption scandal

South African civil servants rigged government tenders worth 600 million rand ($75 million), the latest corruption scandal in Africa's biggest economy, a newspaper reported yesterday.

The Sunday Times said an auditor general investigation into government officials who moonlight as business executives found more than 2,000 officials were involved in tender-rigging and corruption between 2005 and 2007, mostly at a regional level.

President Jacob Zuma has vowed to crack down on graft after winning April's election.

Egypt to 'prove' German theft

Egypt will soon provide evidence that the 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti was taken illegally out of the country by Germany, Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said yesterday.

“We are still gathering information, but I expect we will shortly have enough to place a formal request to the Berlin Museum for the return of the bust,” Hawass said.

Agencies