10 METRO Wednesday, October 21, 2009 D METROWorld All laughed out: Mexican clown Trozo poses for photographers in Mexico City, during the four- day Laughing Fair. More than 500 clowns gather for the convention which includes a five-minute, non- stop laughing binge Picture: EPA PhiliPPines: Thousands of people in northern areas prone to floods and landslides were evacuated yesterday ahead of a powerful typhoon that has gained strength over the Pacific. Typhoon Lupit was expected to make landfall around the northern tip of the Luzon region by tomorrow and dump more rain on typhoon-weary provinces. The country is still recovering from Ketsana and Parma, which struck in recent weeks, bringing record-high rainfall, killing more than 850 people and displacing hundreds of thousands. Lupit, a category-four typhoon with centre winds of 195kmh and with gusts up to 230kmh, was 890km east of Cagayan province yesterday. PAKisTAn: Forces attacking Taliban militants in their South Waziristan stronghold have captured a town on the approach to a main insurgent base. US defence secretary Robert Gates said he was encouraged by the offensive but it was too early to gauge the impact. The army says 78 militants and nine soldiers have been killed since the offensive began on Saturday. Soldiers seized Kotkai, the home town of senior Taliban commander Qari Hussain Mehsud in fighting on Monday. About 28,000 soldiers surrounded the militant zone and are battling about 10,000 hard-core Taliban. More than 100,000 civilians fled the region in anticipation of the offensive. sWiTZeRlAnD: A court yesterday rejected an appeal by film director Roman Polanski against detention pending extradition to the US for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. A statement by the countrys criminal court said there was a high risk Polanski might flee if released. The 76-year- old (pictured) was arrested at the request of the US when he flew into Switzerland on September 26 to receive a prize at a film festival. Polanski pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor in 1977 but fled the US for France before the case was concluded. GeRMAnY: Police pulled over a VW van for speeding and found 28 Romanian immigrants crammed in the back. The 17 adults and 11 children were squashed on makeshift benches. The driver was fined and 26 passengers had to carry on from Passau, Bavaria, by train. Its a miracle it could move at all, said one officer. AMeRicA: The father behind the Colorado balloon boy incident thought the world was going to end in 2012 and needed money to build a bunker, it has been claimed. Richard Heene told colleague Robert Thomas he wanted to make money quickly, become rich enough to build a bunker or something underground, where he can be safe from the Sun exploding. Mr Heene (pictured) was also obsessed with landing a TV show and being famous, added Linda Lee, Mr Thomass lawyer. ZiMBABWe: A fresh outbreak of cholera has killed five people from more than 100 recorded cases, raising fears of a repeat of last years epidemic that claimed more than 4,000 lives. The southern African country suffered the continents worst cholera outbreak in 15 years between August 2008 and June this year after its public health and water and sanitation systems collapsed. A new unity government formed by rivals President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has managed to stabilise the economy, re-open hospitals and restore some water supplies, but the latest outbreak shows the disease remains a serious threat. KYRGYZsTAn: The countrys cabinet has resigned as part of a government reform campaign the president says will save money and make the Central Asian nations leadership more effective. Opposition leaders in the poor and politically turbulent country dismissed President Kurmanbek Bakiyevs reform push as a bid to increase his own power. Mr Bakiyev (pictured) announced what he said would be sweeping reforms yesterday, starting with a reorganisation of the presidential administration and other state institutions. AMeRicA: Songwriter Vic Mizzy, who composed the catchy themes for the 1960s TV comedies The Addams Family and Green Acres, has died aged 93 at his home in Bel Air. He wrote songs that were recorded by Dean Martin, Doris Day, Perry Como and Billie Holiday in the 40s and 50s, but his most famous work was the theme to The Addams Family, a tune accented by finger snaps with clever, quirky lyrics. Mizzy sang the song himself and overdubbed it three times to give the impression of multiple vocalists. He teamed up with Irving Taylor and, while serving in the US Navy during World War II, the pair wrote several hits, including Three Little Sisters and Take It Easy. Initiative. This was leading edge, Department of Defense national se- curity work, said Mr Hubbard, a professor of aerospace at Stanford University who worked for 20 years at Nasa. He said Nozette worked on the Star Wars project at the Department of Energys (DoE) Lawrence Liver- more National Laboratory. The 52-year-old scientist from Maryland, held a special security clearance equivalent to the Defense Departments top secret and critical nuclear weapon design information clearances. DoE clearances apply to access to information specifically relating to atomic or nuclear-related materials. Nozette more recently developed the Clementine bi-static radar ex- periment that is credited with dis- covering water on the south pole of the Moon. Mr Hubbard said that the Clemen- tine project Nozette worked on in the 1990s was essentially a non- military application of Star Wars technology. The scientist also worked for the White Houses National Space Council in 1989 and 1990. US scientist held on spying chargesBy devlin Barrett A SCIENTIST who allegedly tried to sell classified secrets to Israel had worked on the US governments Star Wars missile shield programme andpreviouslyfortheWhiteHouses National Space Council. Arrested in an FBI sting operation, Stewart Nozette was jailed without bond and charged with two counts of attempting to communicate, adeliver and transmit classified in- formation, the US Justice Depart- ment said yesterday. A former colleague of Nozette, Scott Hubbard, says the scientist worked on the Reagan administra- tions Star Wars missile shield pro- gramme. In an interview, Mr Hubbard said that Nozette, was primarily a technical defence expert working on the Reagan-era effort formally named the Strategic Defense arrested: Stewart nozette Karzai caves in for election run-off AFGHAN president Hamid Karzai has backed down and accepted a decision to re-run Afghanistans disputed presidential election on November 7. The countrys Independent Election Commission ordered the run-off ballot after a fraud investigation cut Mr Karzais votes below 50 per cent of the total. He accepted the fraud panel finding and will now face his closest rival Abdullah Abdullah in the second round. We believe this decision of the IEC is legitimate, legal and constitutional and that it strengthens the path towards democracy, Mr Karzai said. Azizullah Lodin, IEC chairman, said they did not want to leave the people of Afghanistan in uncertainty any longer. Ex-US presidential candidate Senator John Kerry has been locked in talks with Mr Karzai, who wanted more US troops deployed in exchange for the run-off. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html