www.ntnews.com.au Friday, December 17, 2010. NT NEWS. 21

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DippyWhippy attack

AUCKLAND: Aman armedwith abutcher’s knife who commandeered aMrWhippy van and threw ice-cream atbystanders has been convicted in aNewZealand court. Joseph David Banks, 21, washeavily intoxicatedwhen he threatened awomanwith a child at Hastings, in the south-east of theNorth Island, earlier this month. When police arrived,he resisted arrest until back-up arrived.

No survivors in plane crash

KATHMANDU: A passenger plane that wentmissingin Nepal with 22 people on board has been foundcrashed into a hillside. The rescue team saidyesterday there are unlikely to be any survivors.The small Twin Otter plane lost contact with airtraffic control shortly after taking off onWednesdayafternoon from a small airstrip about 140km east ofKathmandu, with 19 passengers and three crew.

Russian rocket target

KAZAKHSTAN: A Russian Soyuzrocket blasted off onWednesdayfrom Russian-leased Baikonurcosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz TMA-20rocket is due to dockwith the International SpaceStation today. The crew comprises Russiancosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, Paolo Nespoli of theEuropean Space Agency (pictured) and NASAastronaut Catherine Coleman.

A woman walks past riot police who have clashed with protesters in Athens

Crisis inGreeceATHENS: Protesters havefought running battles withriot police in central Athens,torching cars, hurling petrolbombs and sending Christ-mas shoppers fleeing, as tensof thousands took to thestreets during a strike again-st the government’s latestausterity measures.

Police repeatedly fired teargas and flash grenades as theriots — some of the worstsince Greece’s debt crisisbroke a year ago — escalatedoutside parliament andspread to other parts of thecity centre.

At least 28 people were in-jured, including 23 police-men and a conservative for-

mer minister who wasbeaten in the street by pro-testers. Unions held the24-hour strike to protest newlabour reforms and pay cutsas Greece struggles to resha-pe its economy under strin-gent conditions set by a $146billion international bailout.

The strike also groundedflights, closed factories andschools, disrupted hospitalsand shut down train, ferryand bus services across thecountry, with further trans-port strikes planned for yes-terday and today.

The wave of austerity poli-cies are meant to pull Greeceout of its worst financial cr-isis since World War II.

Chips downfor banditLAS VEGAS: Waving agun, a motorcycle helmet-wearing bandit orderedwide-eyed gamblers anddealers back from a Bel-lagio craps table andquickly stashed at least$1.5 million in casinochips into a bag.

As he fled, casino secur-ity had a choice: Let thearmed robber escape, orget into a dangerousshootout. In the end, thebandit casually jogged outof the posh resort. Policesay for all the risk, therobber may be staring atcolourful, but worthlesschips. The chips aren’tcash, with no monetaryvalue unless they’re takenback to the Bellagio.

Unhappy mealsLOS ANGELES: A mother-of-two from California has laun-ched a class-action againstMcDonald’s, claiming thetoys given out with HappyMeals unfairly lure kids intoeating unhealthy food.

Monet Parham is spear-heading the suit backed bythe Center for Science in thePublic Interest.

‘‘I am con-cerned aboutthe health of mychildren andfeel that McDon-ald’s should be avery limited

part of their diet and theirchildhood experience.McDonald’s makes that somuch harder to do,’’ she said.

BP suffered well blowout more than a year ahead of Gulf spillLONDON: An Azerbaijan oilplatform operated by BP suf-fered a well blowout about ayear and a half before theGulf of Mexico spill, leakedUS diplomatic cables re-vealed yesterday.

The British energy giant

was lucky it managed toevacuate its 212 workers safe-ly after the incident, whichled to two fields being shutand output being dramatic-ally cut, the cables releasedby website WikiLeaks said.

The news came as the US

filed a lawsuit against BPand other companies fordamages over the devastat-ing Gulf oil spill.

BP suffered the Azerbaijanblowout in September 2008,as well as the gas leak, whichthe firm acknowledged at the

time, according to the cablespublished in Britain’sGuardian newspaper.

Another cable revealedthat the company had a nar-row escape after the gas didnot catch fire. The Gulf blastkilled 11 workers.

Terrorism charges

Abdulmutallab

DETROIT: A Nigerian manwho authorities say tried toblow up a Christmas Dayflight from Amsterdam toDetroit with a bomb con-cealed in his underwearwas indicted on a terrorismcharge on Wednesday.

A superseding indict-ment returned by a grandjury accuses Umar Farouk

Abdulmutallab,24, of conspir-ing with othersto kill 281 pass-engers and 11crew membersaboard North-

west Airlines Flight 253. USinvestigators say he re-ceived training from Yemenal-Qaeda operatives.

Sanctionsend on IraqNEW YORK: The UN Se-curity Council has endedkey international sanc-tions imposed on Iraq – amajor move toward bring-ing closure on the SaddamHussein era.

Three council resol-utions halted punishinginternational restrictionsto prevent weapons ofmass destruction prolifer-ation and ended the UNoil-for-food program forIraq. The action will allowIraq to start civilian nu-clear activities, but wasintended mainly to high-light the establishment ofa democratic governmentrecognised by the inter-national community,diplomats said.