World, Nation Briefs: Ghana reports discovery of 3 billion barrels of oil
Published 10:32 pm Saturday, December 22, 2007
ACCRA, Ghana — Ghana’s president said Saturday that offshore oil reserves discovered in the West African country’s waters total 3 billion barrels. “Ghana has struck oil in commercial quantities,” President John Kufuor said, speaking at a ruling party congress. “This is only the beginning. The future is very bright indeed.” British-based oil explorer Tullow Oil PLC announced over the summer that it had had success with a well off the coast of Ghana. It gave no details at the time, saying only that it had discovered “a significant light oil accumulation” and was appraising it.
Canada: Chocolate price fixing
Newly released court documents allege that the Canadian divisions of Nestle, Mars, Hershey and others teamed up in a price-fixing scheme in the Canadian chocolate bar market. Court documents in the case, unsealed by an Ottawa judge Friday, allege that senior executives at Hershey Canada Inc., Mars Canada Inc. and Nestle Canada Inc. met secretly in coffee shops, restaurants and conventions to set prices. Canadians reportedly buy about $2.3 billion worth of chocolate and candy every year.
Costa Rica: Big marijuana bust
Costa Rican agents made the largest marijuana bust in the Central American nation’s history, seizing 4.85 tons of the drug in an abandoned boat, police said Saturday. The marijuana was discovered Friday during a patrol with the U.S. Coast Guard off the country’s Pacific coast, Costa Rican police said. The ship’s crew fled, abandoning their 48-foot-long boat near the border with Panama, where they appear to have fled, police said. No arrests have been made.
Spain: Christmas lottery winners
Winners of Spain’s Christmas lottery celebrated Saturday by drinking toasts and singing songs after thousands took a share of the $3.1 billion in prizes. Up to 1,850 tickets carry the winning number — 06381 — with each holder receiving $430,000. The winning tickets were sold in 11 of Spain’s 17 provinces and in cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante and Almeria, lottery organizers said. In recent weeks, Spaniards have spent an estimated $4.8 billion nationwide, an increase of 5.7 percent over last year, to take part in what is by far the country’s favorite Christmas tradition.
China: Mine owner sentenced
The owner and four employees of a Chinese coal mine where an explosion killed 171 miners were sentenced Saturday to prison terms ranging from three and a half to six years, state media reported. The 2005 disaster at the Dongfeng Coal Mine in the northeastern city of Qitai — one of China’s worst on record — was blamed on airborne coal dust that caught fire. The Xinxing District People’s Court sentenced mine owner Ma Jinguang to six years in prison, concluding he “neglected both the regulations and his duty as a coal mine owner in failing to ensure work safety in the mine.”
Egypt: Bus slips off ferry; 16 die
A minibus fell off a ferry and sank in the Nile River in southern Egypt on Saturday, killing 16 people, including six children, officials said. Police blamed the driver for the accident because he had failed to apply the emergency brake while the car was being ferried to a landing near the village of Deir Mawas in Minya province, Minya police said. The driver jumped out of the vehicle at the last minute and survived, but all of the passengers perished, they said.
Britain: Man dies in racist attack
A South Asian man was killed in what Manchester-area police on Saturday were calling a racist attack. The 28-year-old man was attacked Friday night and died of severe head injuries outside a club in the Manchester suburb of Bolton, police said, adding that the man had not yet been formally identified. Police said they have arrested two suspects — an 18-year-old and a 15-year-old — on suspicion of murder.
Tajikistan: Deadly avalanche
An avalanche of snow hit a section of one of Tajikistan’s main roads, killing at least 15 people, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Saturday. The snowslide struck around midnight about 40 miles north of Dushanbe. It covered the road connecting Dushanbe with Khudjand, the principal city of the country’s north, the spokesman said. It was not clear how many vehicles were trapped or whether the death toll could rise. Much of the impoverished former Soviet republic’s territory is mountainous, and landslides and snow avalanches are common.
Kentucky: Nurses settle strike
Hundreds of striking nurses from Kentucky and West Virginia voted Saturday night to ratify a new contract with the region’s largest health-care provider. More than 600 of the Appalachian Regional Healthcare hospital system’s 750 registered nurses walked off the job Oct. 1 and about 500 remained on strike before the agreement was reached. Negotiators for the nurses had criticized conditions proposed by the hospital system that included recognizing replacement workers as permanent employees. The hospital system has hired about 150 replacements. The nurses said most employees will be called back to work by the end of January and that the company will try to return at least 80 percent of striking workers to where they were before the stoppage.
From Herald news services
