World news in brief - September 6, 2012
LOS ANGELES - Steve Wynn, the casino mogul whose interests include Wynn Macau, and the porn film producer Joe Francis faced off before jurors with Wynn denying that he threatened to kill Francis, founder of "Girls Gone Wild" video empire, and saying the accusation threatens his casinos. Jurors listened to wildly varying accounts of whether Wynn threatened to hit Francis over the head with a shovel and have him buried in the desert, with the producer insisting he heard about the threats the from record executive Quincy Jones. Francis testified that Jones told him Wynn made the threats in conversations and e-mails, but Wynn, 70, denies it. "I've never sent an e-mail in my life," Wynn told jurors. Wynn is suing Francis for slander, the latest legal fight in battles between the two men that include gambling debts that Francis racked up in one of Wynn's casinos. AP
MARIKANA - Ululating women and hundreds of striking miners waving sticks marched yesterday to a South African platinum mine near the Marikana mine where police killed 34 of their co-workers, pressing demands for higher wages and insisting that those at the second mine join the strike. A line of seven police armoured personnel carriers stood between the throng of singing, dancing strikers and their supporters and the Karee mine complex. One man said all they want is a monthly minimum wage of R12,500 (HK$11,550). Lonmin, the firm that owns the two mines, has warned that the strike, which began August 10, may cost 40,000 jobs if it continues. AP
NOUAKCHOTT - Mauritania extradited Muammar Gaddafi's former spy chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, to Libya yesterday, a Mauritanian government source and the state news agency said, after months of wrangling over who would put him on trial. Senussi, among the most feared members of Gaddafi's regime before rebels toppled it last year, was captured in the West African state in March, triggering a tug of war among Libya, France and the International Criminal Court for his extradition. A spokesman for the ICC, which has wanted to try him on charges of crimes against humanity including murder and persecution, said it received no information about Senussi's handover to Libyan authorities in Tripoli. Reuters
BOGOTA - Colombia and its main leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have signed an accord to launch peace talks next month aimed at ending a stubborn, half-century-old conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. It was reached after six months of direct talks in Cuba, with that country's government and Norway serving as brokers following a year-and-a-half of preparatory work. AP
