Anger grows over rescue efforts in Cairo
CAIRO, Egypt: Hopes diminished yesterday for finding survivors among hundreds of people believed trapped beneath massive boulders that destroyed an impoverished neighborhood on Cairo's outskirts, killing at least 32 people, including whole extended families. Anger and resentment mounted as authorities failed for a second day to get heavy machinery into the devastated shantytown to try to clear the large slabs that split away from the Muqattam cliffs early Saturday. Survivors among the 100,000 residents of the Dewika slum were also left to spend the night without shelter.
Police seek to indict Olmert in corruption
JERUSALEM: Israel's police recommended yesterday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be indicted in a string of corruption cases, according to an official document. The police statement said they want to indict Olmert in affairs that include receiving tens of thousands of dollars from a U.S. businessman and double-billing Jewish groups for trips abroad. The decision about whether to indict Olmert rests with the attorney general. The charges include receiving bribes, breach of public trust and money laundering.
Prime minister sets early election in Canada
OTTAWA: Prime Minister Stephen Harper propelled Canada into a federal election campaign yesterday. The vote Oct. 14 will come about a year earlier than the date Harper had specified in legislation after his Conservative Party assumed power in January 2006. It will be the third national election for Canada in slightly more than four years. Harper said opposition parties had forced his hand by rendering Parliament "dysfunctional." But his opponents retorted that the early vote was exactly the sort of political manipulation the prime minister had promised to eliminate. Harper's government, like the Liberal one it succeeded, did not control a majority in Parliament. While he held power despite that handicap for a relatively long period, Harper is chancing an election now to exploit the Conservatives' current strengths - chiefly, his own popularity - and to face the voters before the negatives, mainly the economy, get worse.
Study: Colon cancer screenings lacking
