ARAb StAtES diSMAyEd At WESt'S cOMPlAcENcy - Kuwait Times

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013
INTERNATIONAL
Anti-EU party gains in British local elections
LONDON: The anti-European Union UK
Independence Party made big gains in
local elections, siphoning support from
Prime Minister David Cameron’s
Conservatives in a vote that underlined
the threat it poses to his re-election
chances in 2015.
Early results showed UKIP had won 42
council seats - as many as Labour - after
seven of 35 councils had been declared
and that it had polled an average 26 percent
of the vote, the best result by a
fourth party since World War Two. UKIP,
which wants Britain to leave the
European Union and an end to “opendoor
immigration”, also pushed
Cameron’s Conservatives into third place
in an election for a national parliamentary
seat in northern England, a humiliating
blow for the prime minister.
The results showed UKIP could split
the centre-right vote at the next national
election, making it harder for Cameron
to defeat Labour, which leads his
Conservatives by up to 10 percent in
opinion polls as economic austerity persists.
Yesterday’s outcome is also likely to
reignite questions about Cameron’s
leadership from malcontents within his
Belgian mystery:
Who is hiding
the stolen money?
ZEDELGEM, Belgium: On a Saturday evening two weeks ago
in Zedelgem, townsfolk were disturbed by the wail of a siren
and the shriek of tires, the din of a high-speed car chase that
broke the tranquility of their sleepy city.
Suddenly, cash was flying through the air like confetti at
carnival. Dozens of people rushed out of homes or cars to
grab a share of the accidental bounty: about 1 million euros
($1.3 million) in all. The small fortune had flown from a safe
that cracked open when the fleeing robbers panicked and
threw it out the window. “It was,” recalled Mayor Patrick
Arnou, “a rainstorm of money.” Everyone from kids to the elderly
ran out to take part in the free-for-all.
Now, the cops want the money back, and the townspeople
face a thorny dilemma: Play things badly, and you could
face two years in jail. Keep a poker face, and the money could
be yours to keep.
A veil of suspicion has fallen over the town: Neighbors
watch neighbors as police go door to door, questioning
townsfolk about what they did - and what they saw others
do. “People talk about nothing else any more in this town,”
said Arnou. “In the street itself, there is an atmosphere of bitterness.”
Some Zedelgem inhabitants who missed the windfall said
they understood the actions of their fellow townsfolk, but
insisted the size of the cash pile should have made them
think twice. “If it were a 20 euro note,” said 77-year-old pensioner
Hector Clarysse, “I’d pick it up, too, and join in.”
But he added: “If you pick up so much money, you know
it’s not normal.” It all started when the robbers broke into a
home in a neighboring town, and made off with the safe. The
getaway car was soon identified; by chance a motorcycle
police officer spotted it and gave chase. When the cop and
robbers hit Zedelgem’s Ruddervoordsestraat, a street lined
by simple red-brick row houses, the thieves tried to shake off
the officer by throwing the safe in his way. As it careened
down the asphalt, the box shot open: A cloud of bills - some
worth as much as 500 euros - swirled through the air and
drifted down.
Dozens of wide-eyed people flooded the street, grabbing
handfuls of cash. Drivers got out of their cars, snatched money
and sped away. One lady even came out of her house with
a broom, Arnou said, and swept the money inside. —AP
Cameron’s Conservatives face test
own party who complain he is too liberal
and to pile pressure on him to take a
tougher stance on Europe and immigration,
issues on which he has already
tacked to the right.
Full results of the elections for more
than 2,000 council seats in England and
Wales are expected later yesterday. UKIP
LONDON: UK Independent Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage addresses the
media in central London yesterday. — AFP
BELFAST: A 47-year-old man originally
convicted of murdering two British
soldiers in Northern Ireland was
acquitted yesterday following a retrial.
Brian Shivers had denied any involvement
in the attack outside the
Massereene Army barracks in Antrim
in March 2009.
Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, and
Patrick Azimkar, 21, were gunned
down as they came out to collect a
pizza delivery, in the first murders of
soldiers in Northern Ireland since
1997. Two other soldiers and two pizza
delivery men were seriously
wounded in the attack.
It took place hours before the soldiers
were due to fly to Afghanistan.
Judge Donnell Deeny delivered his
judgement after the retrial without a
jury at Belfast Crown Court. The prosecution
case against Shivers was based
on DNA evidence found on matchsticks
and a mobile phone in and
around the abandoned, partially
burned-out getaway vehicle used in
the attack. But the defence insisted
that the genetic traces did not prove
he was involved on the night of the
shootings.
The judge questioned why hardened
Catholic dissidents opposed to
British rule of Northern Ireland would
choose to work with Shivers, who suffers
from cystic fibrosis and was
engaged to a Protestant woman.
“He was an unlikely associate for
this hardened gang to rely on,” he
said. Last year, Shivers was convicted
of the murders of the two soldiers and
ordered to serve at least 25 years, but
that judgement was quashed earlier
this year by Northern Ireland’s Court
of Appeal. — AFP
said it had tapped a wider public disenchantment
with Britain’s three mainstream
parties, which it argues are effectively
all left-leaning social democratstyle
parties.
“We’ve got three parties who have
given away the ability to govern our own
country, who have led us into near bankruptcy
and who have pursued open
door immigration policies,” Nigel Farage,
UKIP’s leader, told BBC radio.
“We want to fundamentally change
British politics. It can happen.” Though
represented in the European Parliament,
UKIP currently has no MPs in the British
parliament.
Labour, which has controlled South
Shields since 1935, held onto the national
parliamentary seat that was previously
occupied by David Miliband, brother of
Labour leader Ed Miliband and a former
foreign minister. But UKIP won 24 percent
of the vote, its second highest result
in such an election.
Grant Shapps, the chairman of the
Conservative party, said his party, the
senior partner in a two-party coalition,
had heard the voters’ message “loud and
clear”. “We are offering a lot of the things
that people say they’re concerned
about,” he said. But he emphasised the
local nature of the election. “People’s
aren’t voting for who runs the country,
they’re voting for local councils.” The real
choice at the next national vote in 2015
would be between Labour and the
Conservatives, he said. — Reuters
N Ireland man cleared of
killing British soldiers
BELFAST: Brian Shivers (second left) looks on as his lawyer Naill Murphy (right)
reads out a brief statement to the media outside Belfast High Court in Belfast,
Northern Ireland yesterday after the former was acquitted in a retrial of the
murder of two British soldiers. — AFP
Pope calls for ‘greater aid’ for
Syrian refugees in Lebanon
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis called yesterday
for greater humanitarian aid for Syrian
refugees in Lebanon and surrounding countries,
after meeting with Lebanese President
Michel Sleiman at the Vatican.
“The huge number of Syrian refugees who
have sought refuge in Lebanon and the
neighboring countries gives rise to particular
concern,” the Vatican said following the talks.
“Greater humanitarian aid is called for, for the
refugees and the suffering population, with
the support of the international community,”
it said. The United Nations in mid-April said
that Lebanon was housing 400,000 Syrians
who have fled the conflict now in its third
year which has killed more than 70,000 people.
Those fleeing war-ravaged Syria included
a quarter of a million children, the Vatican
noted. At the meeting, the pontiff and
Sleiman also discussed the “delicate situation
of Christians throughout the Middle East.”
Christians in the region have felt under threat
from the rise of political Islam following the
Arab Spring.
They have been uneasy about showing
support for rebels against Syria’s President
Bashar Al-Assad and the secular Baathists
who have largely safeguarded freedom of
belief. Francis and Sleiman also discussed
their hopes for “the quick and fruitful
resumption of negotiations between Israel
and the Palestinians, which is ever more
necessary for peace and stability in the
region.” — AFP