8 theSun | TUESDAY JUNE 2 2009

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Last Titanic survivor dies in Britain, aged 97
LONDON: The last survivor of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, Millvina
Dean, has died in a nursing home in England at the age of 97, the Titanic People flee as a curfew was
International Society said yesterday. temporarily lifted on Sunday
Dean was just nine weeks old when her family sold a pub they after the army regained control
owned in London to travel on the maiden voyage of the passenger liner over Mingora the largest town
and begin a new life in Wichita, Kansas, in the United States, where her in north-western Swat valley,
father Bertram hoped to open a tobacconist shop. where Pakistani forces are
Her father was one of the 1,517 people who died after the suppos- engaged in an operation against
edly unsinkable ship hit an iceberg in the Atlantic and sank. the Taliban.
Dean, who was wrapped in a sack to protect her from the cold and
lowered into a lifeboat, was the youngest of the 706 Titanic survivors.
Her mother Georgetta and two-year-old brother Bertram also survived,
dying in 1975 and 1992 respectively. – Reuters

Susan Boyle in clinic after collapse: Report

Militants kidnap
LONDON: Scotland’s Susan Boyle, who became a global star when
a clip of her singing was viewed 100 million times on YouTube, has
been rushed to a health clinic suffering from exhaustion, reports valley,
said yesterday. northwest of
The Sun newspaper said the 48-year-old spinster – whose Islamabad.
rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical Les Miserables The army captured Swat’s
brought her worldwide acclaim – was taken to the Priory clinic main town, Mingora, on Satur-
in London on Sunday.
On Saturday night, Boyle came second in the “Britain’s Got
Talent” television competition that made her famous, despite
being the favourite.
In the days leading up to the final, media reports suggested
she was having trouble coping with the weight of expectations
300 students, day.
The militants have responded
to the offensive with eight bomb
attacks in various towns and
cities and have threatened more.
Main cities are on alert.

others in Pakistan
on her. – AFP The offensive also sparked an
exodus of about 2.4 million people,
according to government figures,
and the country faces a long-term
Abortion doctor shot dead humanitarian crisis. The United
Nations has pleaded for contribu-

in Kansas church ISLAMABAD: Taliban militants

WICHITA (Kansas): A controversial
doctor who provided late-term
abortions was fatally shot on Sun-
day as he walked into his Kansas
church, and authorities said they
have arrested a suspect in the
case.
Abortion doctor George
Tiller was murdered just after 10am
(11pm in Malaysia) in the lobby
of Reformation Lutheran Church
police said.
President Barack Obama decried
the killing in a statement released
by the White House.
“I am shocked and outraged by
the murder of Dr George Tiller as
he attended church services this
morning,” said Obama.
“However profound our differ-
ences as Americans over difficult
issues such as abortion, they can-
not be resolved by heinous acts of
violence.”
Wichita officials said the uniden-
tified suspect, was arrested some
three hours after the killing. Local
media identified the suspect as a
51-year-old man, who would be
returned to Wichita to be charged.
“It’s an unfortunate incident
to happen on a Sunday morning,”
Wichita police captain Brent Allred
said. “These things should not oc-
cur at a any time.”
Long a lightning rod in the bit-
ter US culture war over abortion,
Tiller, 67, over the years had been
picketed, bombed and even shot.
His was one of only three clinics
in the US that perform late-term
abortions, which are performed
on fetuses that would be viable
outside the mother’s womb.
Late-term abortions are legal in
Kansas if two independent physi-
cians agree that the mother could
suffer irreparable harm by giving
birth.
The shooting occurred just two
weeks after Obama sought “com-
mon ground” over the divisive
abortion debate in a controversial
speech at one of the top Catholic
universities in the United States.
Obama has attempted to defuse
one of the most emotive issues in
US public life by arguing that while
abortion should remain legal, the
government should do all it can to
limit unwanted pregnancies.
But he has angered the anti-
abortion movement by reversing
predecessor George W. Bush’s
restrictions on federal funding for
embryonic stem-cell research and
for family-planning groups that
carry out or facilitate abortions
overseas.
Obama’s choice for health
secretary, former Kansas governor
Kathleen Sebelius, has been widely
condemned by the anti-abortion
movement because of her ties to
Tiller.
His family released a statement
saying Tiller “dedicated his life to
providing women with high-quality
heath care despite frequent threats
and violence.”
“We ask that he be remem-
bered as a good husband, father
and grandfather and a dedicated
servant on behalf of the rights of
women everywhere.”
Tiller had been demonised by
abortion opponents who regularly
protested outside his clinic.
In 1986, someone placed a
bomb on the roof of the clinic,
seriously damaging the building. In
1993, Tiller was shot in both arms
outside the clinic. Tiller recovered,
and his assailant received an 11-
year prison term.
Some 2,000 protesters were
also arrested outside the clinic dur-
ing summer-long demonstrations
in 1991.
He was acquitted in March
on charges that he performed 19
illegal abortions in 2003 in a case
which his lawyer described as a
witch hunt.
Tiller testified during the trial
that he spent years under the pro-
tection of federal agents after the
FBI discovered an anti-abortion
assassination list in 1994 that listed
Tiller as the top target. – AFP
in northwest Pakistan kidnapped
about 300 students from a mili-
tary-run college, with teachers
and relatives, yesterday as they
were travelling in mini-buses,
Australia police said.
PM slams The abduction took place
while the Pakistani army pressed
attack on with an offensive against the
on Indian Taliban in the Swat valley in
students another part of the northwest.
Taliban fighters with hand
pg 10 grenades forced the students’
convoy to a halt as it was travel-
ling from the North Waziristan
ethnic Pashtun tribal region on
the Afghan border to the north-
western town of Bannu.
“The driver of one of the
vehicles managed to escape and
students reported to us that their
colleagues have been kidnapped
by Taliban,” said Razaq Khan,
a police official in Bakka Kheil
village in the area.
“The students reported that
one Taliban carrying a hand gre-
nade boarded each of the buses
A supporter
(left) and a
protester
(right) hold
Seoul: N. Korea may launch
up signs
during a
vigil in
long-range missile in weeks
downtown SEOUL: North Korea could
Wichita, test-fire this month a long-range
Kansas on missile designed to strike US
the day that territory and may also be gearing
Dr George up for skirmishes with the South
Tiller, was around their disputed sea border,
shot and South Korean news reports said
killed at yesterday.
his church North Korea last week
in Wichita, unleashed provocations rarely
Kansas. seen since the 1950-53 Korean
War with a nuclear test that put
it closer to having a working
atomic bomb, short-range mis-
sile tests and threats to attack the
South. It also warned of further
measures if the United Nations
tries to punish it.
In another move that could
further stoke tensions, North
Korea will hold a trial on Thurs-
day for two US journalists it took
into custody along its border
with China several months ago
after charging them with “hostile
acts”.
The growing belligerence is
seen as an attempt to bolster the
and took them away. We don’t
know where they have gone.”
Mirza Mohammad Jihadi, an
adviser to the prime minister
on the tribal areas, said efforts
were under way to secure their
release.
“We hope to get them released
soon from these terrorists.”
Government officials said they
were checking the report.
There are several Taliban- and
Al Qaeda-linked groups based in
North Waziristan.
Militant violence has grown
in Pakistan since mid-2007, with
attacks on security forces, and on
government and Western targets.
The violence has raised fears
for the stability of the nuclear-
armed US ally and the safety of
its nuclear arsenal.
While many members of the
security forces have been cap-
tured, the kidnapping of civilians
is relatively rare.
Pakistan has been carrying out
an offensive against a growing
Taliban insurgency in the Swat
position of leader Kim Jong-il,
whose suspected stroke in August
raised questions about his grip
on power, as well as improve the
country’s weaponry and pressure
regional powers into giving con-
cessions for its disarmament.
North Korea is preparing
to launch an intercontinental
ballistic missile (ICBM) with
an estimated range of 4,000km
to 6,500km from a west coast
base, the daily JoongAng Ilbo
cited South Korean intelligence
sources as saying.
“Preparations for the launch
are likely to be completed in mid-
June,” one intelligence source
said. Government officials would
not confirm the reports.
Train cars carrying a missile
departed from the Pyongyang
area about two weeks ago for a
missile base on the North’s west
coast, the sources said.
Investors said the recent rum-
blings have raised concern about
the threat posed by the North but
tions for a US$543 million (RM1.9
billion) fund to help.
Bomb attacks in cities and
the plight of the displaced could
undermine public support for the
offensive but the government and
military say they are determined
to defeat the Taliban in Swat.
The military said it had
distributed 25 tonnes of relief
goods for 40,000 people stranded
in Mingora, which usually has a
population of 300,000.
The military also urged
civilians to leave the town of
Charbagh, about 15km north of
Mingora, and lifted a curfew there
and in Mingora and thousands of
people left the two towns.
“We have to flee. I don’t know
what will happen tomorrow,”
Mingora resident Mohammad
Nisar told Reuters.
Civilians in Swat had no
running water or electricity, and
faced food shortages and lack
of medical facilities, the Inter-
national Committee of the Red
Cross said. – Reuters
have not caused long-term harm
to financial markets or headed
off a rally in foreign purchases of
Seoul shares since mid-May.
North Korea in April fired a
rocket from its east coast Mu-
sudan-ri missile range, which
was seen as a disguised test of its
long-range Taepodong-2 missile
that violated UN resolutions ban-
ning it from such launches.
That rocket splashed down
in the Pacific Ocean about
3,000km after launch, experts
said, indicating the North needed
further testing to perfect its ICBM
technology. The Alaskan coast is
about 4,800 km from North Korea
while the US West Coast is at
least 8,000km away.
“The launch of what North
Korea called a satellite in April
failed to show inter-continental
capabilities, so they want to show
it this time around,” said Kim
Tae-woo, a weapons expert at
the Korea Institute for Defence
Analysis. – Reuters