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Bhutan king appoints
election commissioner
GUWAHATI, India, Jan 5: The king of Bhutan has appointed an election commissioner as part of the Himalayan country's moves towards parliamentary democracy in 2008, state media reported. King Jigme Singye Wangchuck also announced the appointments of two other key constitutional posts in the first formal steps towards the transformation. The appointments were a "significant step forward in the process towards a democratic constitutional monarchy", Bhutan's national newspaper, the Kuensel, said in a report posted on its website Wednesday. Dasho Kunzang Wangdi was named election commissioner while Neten Zangmo was appointed as head of the anti-corruption commission and Ugyen Chhewang becomes the auditor general. "All three are interim appointments made in preparation for the general elections in 2008," the Kuensel said. The 50-year-old king announced last month that he was abdicating the throne in favour of his eldest son, Crown Prince Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, 25, ahead of prime ministerial elections in 2008. -- AFP
Mecca building collapse claims 23
MECCA, Jan 5: Twenty-three Muslim pilgrims were killed in the Saudi holy city of Mecca Thursday when a building collapsed in the midst of the annual hajj, a French pilgrim at the scene told the news agency. "For the moment, I counted 23 bodies. The wounded are more than 80," said the witness, Abderrahmane Ghoul, who heads an Islamic organisation in southeastern France, adding that more than 80 people were wounded. "I was present. It started with a fire in the building. A helicopter started to sprinkle water to put out the fire. Afterwards, the building collapsed," he told the news agency. Ghoul said the nine-storey pilgrims' hostel lay just 50 metres (yards) from Mecca's Great Mosque. He said the death toll would have been much higher if the tragedy had not struck during one of the five daily prayers observed by Muslims. With more than 2.5 million pilgrims expected to converge on Mecca for the hajj, the Saudi authorities had deployed some 60,000 security personnel to try to prevent any repetitions of the deadly stampedes and structural failures that have marred previous pilgrimages. Stampedes killed 251 people in 2003 and 1,426 in 1990. -- AFP
Floods kill 17 in famine-hit
southern Africa
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 5: At least 17 people have been killed and more than 40,000 made homeless by floods that swept across southern Africa in the past week, striking a region already grappling with severe food shortages. Low-lying Mozambique, which suffered devastating floods in 2000 and 2001 that claimed some 1,000 lives, has been worst hit in the region, with its death toll standing at 15. Heavy rain has been falling in two central provinces in Mozambique, leaving hundreds of families homeless and more than 4,000 hectares (10,0000 acres) of crops destroyed "This is the time of year for flooding," said regional World Food Programme spokesman Mike Huggins. The deadly rains in the former Portuguese colony follow a lengthy drought that left nearly one million people, mostly in the south of the country, in need of food aid. In neighbouring South Africa, a woman drowned Wednesday when her shack and 10 other dwellings were washed away by a flooded river in Diepsloot, an informal settlement in Johannesburg. A second person died in South Africa when his car was swept off a flooded bridge in Secunda, about 150 kilometres southeast of Johannesburg. In Malawi, floods displaced some 40,000 people, destroying the livelihoods of about 8,000 farming families. -- AFP
Underground Catholic
priest arrested in China
BEIJING, Jan 5: An underground Catholic priest who refused to join the Chinese government-controlled church has been arrested and is being forced to endure "brainwashing", a US-based religious rights group said Thursday. Wang Wenzhi (50), was arrested by state security officials after he finished mass in a family's home in Fengfeng city in the northern province of Hebei on December 11, the Cardinal Kung Foundation said in a statement. He has been kept in a detention centre in Guangping county since then, the group said. When contacted by the news agency, an employee at the detention centre denied Wang was being kept there. Wang, a priest in the diocese of Yongnian in Hebei, is one of the first group of priests ordained in the diocese about 20 years ago, the foundation said. Wang was arrested 13 years ago and detained for about 18 months, it said. Meanwhile, the foundation said underground Bishop Han Dingxiang of Yongnian has disappeared after six years of detention in a government-run hostel in Yongnian. -- AFP
Dubai bids farewell
to ruler Maktoum
DUBAI, Jan 5: Dubai came to a halt Thursday as the wealthy desert emirate bid farewell at the funeral of its ruler Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashed al-Maktoum, who died Wednesday of natural causes while on a visit to Australia. Maktoum (62) was also vice president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). After traditional death prayers were recited in a Dubai mosque, the corpse, wrapped in a plain shroud and tucked inside a wooden coffin, was carried by local officials toward a city cemetery where the former ruler was to be buried. UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan and Maktoum's brother and successor Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum were among several Arab and Islamic leaders who attended the funeral ceremonies. Jordan's King Abdullah II and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan were also present. Australian acting prime minister Mark Vaile offered his country's condolences. -- AFP
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