10 News Monday, January 18, 2010 D worlddigest PAKISTAN: An unmanned US drone yesterday killed 20 militants fighting the Taliban. It launched four missiles at a building used by Uzbek rebels in the Shaktoi area of South Waziristan. While the Pakistani government publicly condemns the drone attacks it is thought to have a secret deal with Washington allowing them. A suspected drone strike in the same area on Thursday forced Hakimullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, to confirm he was still alive. Elsewhere, two anti-Taliban tribal elders were killed in the Bajur area. 20 killed in latest US drone attack TURKEY: The gunman who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 faces being drafted into the military, it has emerged. Mehmet Ali Agca (pictured) will be taken to an army base for fitness tests when he is released from prison today. The military has previously ruled the 52-year-old unfit for service because of a severe anti-social personality disorder. Conscription for the man who shot Pope UKRAINE: Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Kremlin former leader, was yesterday on course to win the presidential election. Exit polls put him ahead of prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko (pictured). Sitting president, Viktor Yushchenko, who claimed he was poisoned in the 2004 run-off, was a distant third, meaning he is out of the run off. Voters set to go for pro-Kremlin leader MALAYSIA: One pupil and a teacher have drowned after their dragon boat collided with a tug boat and sank. Four people are still missing from the crew of 18. It capsized in rough seas in northern Penang state during a practise session, said police official Gan Kong Meng. Local fisherman managed to pull a number of the students from the water, while others were able to swim to shore. Dragon boat racing is a popular sport in the region and is included in the Southeast Asian Games held every two years. Six feared dead as dragon boat sinks and finally... GERMANY: Twenty-five tonnes of mushy peas froze solid after a lorry lost its cargo when it overturned on an icy motorway. The frozen peas caused a 180m (197yard) jam, blocking traffic for hours in Saxony-Anhalt, said police. SPAIN: A man rides his horse through flames during the annual Saint Anthony purification ceremony in the village of San Bartolom de Pinares near Avila. The festival coincides with the eve of the religious festivity of Saint Anthony, the patron saint of animals. Picture: Reuters Young girl killed as blaze leaves 4,000 homeless By Jo Steele Destroyed: A woman sleeps inside her burnt house after a fire swept through a slum in Manila Picture: EPA Death sentence for Chemical Ali THE chief architect of Saddam Husseins reign of terror received his fourth death sentence yesterday for the infamous gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 that killed 5,600 people. Ali Hassan al-Majid, dubbed Chemical Ali, was convicted in Baghdad of crimes against humanity. The verdict, met with jubilation across Iraq, was cheered by relatives of victims in court. Now the souls of our victims will rest in peace, said Nazik Tawfiq, 45, who lost six of her family. Iraqi authorities want the sentence carried out as soon as possible. Meanwhile, ex-Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz, 73, has suffered a severe stroke and lost the power of speech. Guilty: Friends of Alis victims cheered when the verdict was given A GIRL of five was killed and thou- sands left homeless when a fire de- stroyed a slum area in the Philip- pines. The blaze ripped through the shanty town, raging for more than two hours. More than 500 shacks were razed, leaving an estimated 4,000 slum-dwellers homeless. Remarkably, aside from the young girl, there were no other deaths or even reports of serious injury. That could yet, change, however, as survivors begin top sift through what is left of their homes on Ba- seco Compound on the rim of Ma- nila Bay. The victims were being housed in two evacuation centres within the compound, said Gwendolyn Pang a Philippine National Red Cross offi- cial. But amid the ashes, some families were unwilling to leave the tiny patches of land where their homes once stood. Amorsolo Villamor, his wife and three children returned to their gut- ted shack after running from the flames on Saturday night because they feared others may stake a claim to the land if they moved off. In 2004, fire destroyed the shacks of 25,000 people. MP photo in FBI bin Laden blunder THE US embassy has apologised to a Spanish politician after the FBI used a photograph of him as part of a digitally-enhanced Osama bin Laden wanted poster. US embassy spokesman Will Ostick said he called Gaspar Llamazares, a member of parliament from the Communist-led United Left coalition, to express regret after his hair and forehead wrinkles were used in the digitally- enhanced images on the US governments Rewards for Justice website. Mr Ostick said the error occurred when an FBI technician who put together the digitally enhanced image found an image [of hairline and wrinkles] that suited his purposes, and used it. Pic: LlamazaresImage: Bin Laden index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html