The World

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This article was published 07/01/2010 (6010 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Accused bomber charged

DETROIT — A Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day was indicted Wednesday on charges including attempted murder and trying to use a weapon of mass destruction to kill nearly 300 people.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was travelling from Amsterdam when he tried to destroy the plane by injecting chemicals into a package of pentrite explosive concealed in his underwear, authorities say.

Troops coming home: PM

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper says virtually all Canadian soldiers will leave Afghanistan by the end of 2011, making some of his most definitive statements yet on his vision of Canada’s future role there in an interview with Canwest News Service.

Parliament has already decided that the combat mission involving about 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan centred around Kandahar will end in 2011. The Department of National Defence has already started preparing detailed plans to move troops and material home.

But at various times over the last two years since that decision was made, there has been some consideration about using Canadian Forces personnel in a different or non-combat capacity or to station Canadian soldiers in a different, more peaceful part of the country.

“We will not be undertaking any kind of activity that requires a significant military force protection, so it will become a strictly civilian mission,” Harper said.

Elephant kills mom, tot

NAIROBI, Kenya — A lone elephant charged out of the brush as an American family was hiking near Mount Kenya and trampled to death a mother and the one-year-old daughter she held in her arms, officials said Wednesday.

Four adults and the baby were walking with an unarmed guide just outside Mount Kenya National Park on Monday morning when the elephant charged, said Kenya Wildlife Service official Michael Kipkeu.

The family was hiking on a nature trail about two kilometres from the Castle Forest Lodge, where the family was vacationing, said the owner, Melia van Laar. “The elephant emerged from the bush at full speed without any warning,” van Laar said. “Everybody ran away, but the lady, burdened by the weight of the baby, perhaps, or in panic, was not able to run fast enough.”

Vaccine lent to Mexico

TORONTO — Canada, which has a large surplus of H1N1 vaccine on its hands, announced Wednesday it will lend some to Mexico.

Canada’s NAFTA partner has ordered vaccine from manufacturers Sanofi Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline, but won’t take possession of the bulk of its supply until the end of this month.

So this week GSK Canada will ship five million doses of adjuvanted vaccine from Canada’s stockpile to Mexico. Later, GSK Canada will put five million doses of adjuvanted vaccine from Mexico’s order into the reserve the company is holding for Canada.

The move was announced in a press release, which stipulated that the vaccine will be replaced by the end of March. The loan was triggered by a request from Mexico, the Public Health Agency of Canada said.

— From the news services