The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I resigned from representing the government of Mussolini and Hitler.”

Hussein el-Sadek el-Mesrati,

a former Libyan diplomat in China who quit Monday Article, 1AWorld asset freeze urged for Mubarak

CAIRO - Egypt’s top prosecutor requested on Monday the freezing of the foreign assets of ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his family, said state TV.

Security officials said that the prosecutor general asked the Foreign Ministry to contact countries around the world so they can freeze his assets abroad.

The president’s domestic assets were frozen soon after he stepped down, they added.

The freeze applies to Mubarak, his wife, his two sons and two daughters-inlaw, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to the news media.

Egyptian state media on Sunday had quoted Mubarak’s legal representative as saying the former president had submitted to authorities a declaration that he had no assets abroad.

Speculation has placed the Mubarak family’s wealth anywhere from $1 billion to $70 billion.

Tunisian slams car into Milan airport

MILAN - A Tunisian man armed with a knife crashed a stolen vehicle through a window into a departure terminal at Milan’s Malpensa airport on Monday, and police shot and wounded him, authorities said.

The attacker was driving with his wife and three young children, and Italian news agencies quoted Police Chief Marcello Cardona as saying terrorism was not the motive.

Giovanni Pepe, head of the airport border police, said the driver was brandishing a knife as he approached a group of police on patrol inside the terminal. One shot the man’s foot when he refused to drop it.

The attacker had been driving a stolen vehicle accompanied by his wife and three children, ranging in age from 5 to 10, when it crashed into the airport window, Pepe said.

The attacker was treated at a hospital, then taken to jail, the policeman said. Police said they don’t know the Tunisian’s motive.

Milan’s Malpensa airport was briefly evacuated, but it resumed normal operations 90 minutes after the attack.

Stampede kills 36 at Muslim ritual

BAMAKO, Mali - At least 36 people were killed in a stampede Monday when a crowd surged against a metal barrier after a Muslim ceremony, Mali’s minister of interior security and civil protection said.

Sadio Gassame said the stampede at Bamako’s Modibo Keita Stadium took place during a ceremony marking the Muslim holy period of Maouloud. The surge happened as tens of thousands of people were trying to leave through a metallic enclosure.

Anguished families gathered outside the capital’s Gabriel Toure Hospital, where the staff was preparing to post a list of the dead. At least 64 others were hurt.

Sidiki Coulibaly was visibly shaken as he waited for the dreaded news. “I’ve already had it confirmed that my aunt died. We are now trying to find out what happened to her daughter. She’s just 10 years old. They go to this event together every year,” he said.

A young girl sat on a bucket at the edge of the scene, crying. She had lost both parents and didn’t know her way home.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 02/22/2011

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