The world in brief

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

QUOTE OF THE DAY “I am convinced that any kind of peace, even a bad one, is worse than any kind of war, even the best one.” Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who sought to calm thousands of anti-government demonstrators who have besieged government buildings in Kiev since the president rejected an association agreement with the European Union Article, this page

Somali lawmakers vote out premier

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Lawmakers in Somalia voted Monday to oust the country’s prime minister and his Cabinet after 14 months in office.

Lawmakers voted 184-65 to oust Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon and his 10-member Cabinet, Parliament Speaker Sheik Osman Jawari said.

Shirdon will remain in office until President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud nominates a new prime minister, who will then have 30 days to appoint a new Cabinet, Jawari said.

The parliament vote came after disputes emerged between Shirdon, a former businessman who has been prime minister since October 2012, and Mohamud. Lawmakers said Shirdon refused to put the president’s picks into his Cabinet.

The United Nations representative to Somalia, Nicholas Kay, said the ouster of the prime minister by vote from the parliament showed that Somalia’s institutions are “coming of age.”NATO says Afghan mission tied to deal

BRUSSELS - NATO won’t be able to deploy its noncombat training and advisory mission in Afghanistan after next year unless President Hamid Karzai agrees to a bilateral security agreement with the U.S., the alliance’s secretary-general said Monday.

Mounting new pressure on the Afghan leader a day before NATO foreign ministers start a two-day meeting in Brussels, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he hopes Karzai will sign the agreement needed for NATO to reach its legal framework for plans to assist Afghan forces after combat troops leave at the end of 2014.

Karzai has refused to sign a bilateral security agreement with President Barack Obama’s administration despite strong support from a key Afghan national assembly, deferring a decision to his successor after elections in April.

Alliance military chiefs and diplomats say they need time to plan, and the U.S. has threatened to make plans for a complete pullout if a bilateral deal isn’t signed by the end of this month.

China launches moon rover into space

BEIJING - China took a step toward eventually landing a person on the moon with Monday’s successful launch of a rocket carrying its first moon rover, the Jade Rabbit.

The rocket blasted off from southwest China early Monday, a day after India’s maiden Mars orbiter left Earth’s orbit on its journey to the red planet, in what some observers characterize as Asia’s new space race.

China’s rocket is expected to deposit the rover on the moon in mid-December.

If successful, China will be the third country to achieve a soft landing on the moon, after the United States and the Soviet Union. The last soft landing on the moon was the unmanned Soviet Luna 24 rover, which collected soil samples in 1976.

“We will strive for our space dream as part of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation,” said Zhang Zhenshong, director of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

The rover will set up a telescope on the moon, survey its geological structure and look for natural resources, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Scottish police: No calls from helicopter

LONDON - The pilot of a Scottish police helicopter did not put out any emergency calls before crashing through the roof of a crowded Glasgow pub, killing nine people, investigators said Monday.

Authorities used a crane to remove the wreckage of the helicopter from the roof of The Clutha pub where it crashed Friday night.

The helicopter’s crew - a civilian pilot and two police officers on board - died in the accident. Six other people also died. Officials said late Monday that they had finished a search and rescue operation at the scene and that no other bodies were found in the rubble.

David Miller, deputy chief inspector of Air Accident Investigations, did not offer a cause for the crash Monday, saying the investigation is just beginning.

Miller said there was no data recorder on board and that the pilot did not make emergency transmissions. There was no explosion or fire, he said.

Authorities say 12 people remain hospitalized.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 12/03/2013