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Journalism of Courage
Czar8217;s family remains to be buried after 80 years
MOSCOW: The Russian government has decided that the remains of the country8217;s last Czar and members of his family would be buried in the former imperial capital St Petersburg on July 17, exactly 80 years after they were executed by Bolsheviks. The decision to bury the so called Ekaterinburg remains8217; of Nicholas II, his Empress Alexandra and their children in the royal vaults of St Peter-Paul fortress at St Petersburg, with full military honours was taken at a special three-hour government meeting.
The Russian orthodox church, earlier in the day said it favoured the burial of the remains of the Czar and his family members in a special memorial grave, than at the St Petersburg fortress, as it doubted the authenticity of the bodies.
Jailbreak deaths
BANGKOK: Prison guards at a Thai jail in the northern outskirts of Bangkok on Saturday shot dead four inmates out of a group of seven involved in a failed escape bid, prison sources and witnessessaid. The inmates, convicted of drug offences, armed themselves with sharp metal objects and seized a visiting garbage truck at Klongpem prison, they said.
Ignoring warnings to stop and driving furiously, the inmates managed to get past two inner gates in the prison and were near the main gate when prison wardens shot them, they said. 8220;The guards fired after they failed to persuade them togive up,8221; a prison official said, adding that the garbage truck driver escaped unharmed. Three of the seven inmates who suffered gun shot wounds were sent to the prison hospital for treatment and were being interrogated. Klongprem prison houses 6,300 male prisoners.
Nobel winner dead
CHAPEL HILL US: Dr George H Hitchings, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for helping pioneer research techniques used by the modern pharmaceutical industry, died on Friday after suffering from Alzheimer8217;s disease. He was 92. Dr Hitchings and research partner Gertrude Elion won the Nobel Prize in 1988 for work that led to drugsfor Aids, Herpes, Leukemia and Malaria. Dr Hitchings and Elion shared the prize with Sir James W Black of Britain.
Beginning in the 1940s, the two developed an attack on disease built around finding substitutes for the building blocks of DNA that would disable a disease organism while sparing the host patient. Their approach remains widely used to develop drugs.
Taliban punishment
kabul:Thousands of people watched as a teenage girl, hidden behind an all enveloping burqa, has received 100 lashes Islamic punishment for fraternising with a man other than a relative. The Taliban religious army, which has imposed a strict version of Islamic law in the 85 per cent of the country under its control, also publicly amputated the hands of two thieves.
The thieves, whose names were given only as Hamidullah and Habibullah, were taken to the sports arena in the war-devastated capital where four doctors amputated their hands. They were found guilty of stealing 500 dollars from a local shop, officials said.The two men, whose ages were not given, received general anesthetic before their hands were amputated. Their hands were later displayed to the crowd, while over a loudspeaker a local Taliban leader warned, 8220;This is the fate of anyone who steals. It is Islamic law.8221;
