World datelines

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 7, 2008

Canada: Greyhound scraps ad

TORONTO -- Greyhound has scrapped an ad campaign that extolled the relaxing upside of bus travel after one of its passengers was accused of beheading and cannibalizing another traveler.

The ad's tag line was "There's a reason you've never heard of 'bus rage."'

Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh said Wednesday a billboard and some tunnel posters near a bus terminal in Toronto are still up and would be removed later in the day.

Colombia: Red Cross complaint

The International Red Cross said Wednesday that Colombia broke the Geneva Conventions by deliberately using the humanitarian group's emblem during the covert military mission that freed Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages.

New video footage of the operation contradicts an earlier claim by Colombia's government that the emblem was a last-minute addition to the daring ruse that rescued 15 hostages from the FARC rebel group last month, the Red Cross said.

Use of the Red Cross symbol in a military operation violates the first Geneva Convention because it could damage the relief group's neutrality in conflicts.

France: Sarkozy lauds China

PARIS -- First, French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to boycott the opening of the Beijing Olympics. Then he backed down. Now, he is heaping praise on China's leadership and avoiding a meeting with the Dalai Lama.

"If the organization of the Olympics were a sport ... we should give China the gold medal," Sarkozy said in an interview with China's Xinhua news agency released Wednesday. He said he was "greatly delighted at the prospect of going to Beijing."

Netherlands: Genocide case

AMSTERDAM -- Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has applied to the U.N. war crimes tribunal to summon former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her envoy Richard Holbrooke to testify in his genocide case.

Karadzic alleges that Holbrooke struck a deal with him in 1996 that he would never stand trial for war crimes, if he quietly left politics and disappeared, without hindering the recently signed Bosnian peace agreement.

Holbrooke has denied the story, but Karadzic wants him to testify under oath.

Pakistan: Poor K2 equipment?

ISLAMABAD -- An Italian who survived an avalanche that killed fellow climbers on the world's second-highest peak said Wednesday poor equipment and a mistake by a porter contributed to the tragedy.

Marco Confortola was among 30 mountaineers who began their ascent of K2 on Friday. He was stranded after an ice fall swept some climbers away and left others stranded in frigid conditions just below the 28,250-foot summit. In all, 11 people died.

Confortola said poor equipment -- including ropes and spikes that broke -- as well as sloppiness and inexperience were partly to blame for the disaster. A Dutch survivor, Wilco Van Rooijen, has said advance climbers laid ropes in some of the wrong places.

Russia: Solzhenitsyn buried

MOSCOW -- Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who exposed the horrors of Soviet slave labor camps, was buried Wednesday in a cemetery filled with evocations of Communist cruelty and the fight against it that defined his life.

Solzhenitsyn's death Sunday at age 89 silenced one of Russia's most influential figures, a man regarded by mourners as critical in destroying the Soviet Union. His funeral and burial at Moscow's Donskoi Monastery offered evidence of his renown -- the Russian president was there as military honor guards fired rifles in salute and white-robed priests sang dirges.

South Africa: Millions strike

JOHANNESBURG -- Millions of workers angered at high electricity and other prices went on strike and marched in protest across South Africa Wednesday, bringing some gold mines to a halt, thinning traffic and emptying factories.

But in board rooms and on the streets, some South Africans questioned whether the general strike called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions would be effective, saying neither the South African government nor the businesses affected Wednesday could fix the global problem of high prices.