BRUSSELS: Mali will ask international donors for nearly ¤2bn ($2.6bn) to help rebuild the country and try to halt a resurgence of Al Qaeda-linked Islamists who were driven out of the major northern towns by a French-led offensive. Yesterday, suspected Islamists carried out three suicide attacks on soldiers from Mali and Niger in northern Mali, wounding a Malian soldier. At least five bombers died. In a document drawn up for an international donors’ conference in Brussels on Wednesday, the Malian government said it would be able to finance just over half of a ¤4.34bn plan for this year and next, but needed help with the rest. Next week’s conference, organised by France and the European Union, will aim to raise at least $600m to $700m, diplomatic sources said.
World Trade Center spire completed
NEW YORK: New York construction workers cheered yesterday as the final piece of the spire for the World Trade Center was hoisted into place, making the tower the tallest in the western hemisphere. Local television footage showed the huge piece, measuring 408 feet, being craned slowly up, completing the final piece in the new jewel of the Manhattan skyline. The skyscraper, officially known as One World Trade Center and popularly as Freedom Tower, is the lynchpin of the new complex built on Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers of the old World Trade center collapsed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The 104-storey building now measures 1,776 feet, a symbolic height chosen to echo the year 1776, when America declared independence from Britain. It is expected to open to tenants in 2014.
Bulgaria gears up for polls tomorrow
SOFIA: Bulgaria’s two main political parties were making their final attempts to woo frustrated voters before an election tomorrow that is likely to lead to a prolonged period of horse-trading to form a government. Former bodyguard Boiko Borisov’s centre-right GERB was forced to resign in February after thousands of people took to the streets to protest against high utility bills, entrenched corruption and low living standards. It is locked in a tight battle with its biggest rival, the Socialists, to lead the European Union’s poorest country, but with a fifth of voters undecided, whichever party wins, it will be unlikely to be able to claim a strong, popular mandate.
‘Mr Men’ history lessons flayed
LONDON: British Education Minister Michael Gove criticised the use of the popular “Mr Men” cartoon figures to teach 16-year olds about Adolf Hitler, saying such play-based learning infantilised students and led to a culture of low aspirations. In a speech, Gove lashed out against an online resource for history teachers that promotes using the “Mr Men” figures for revision on Nazi Germany. British media reports on Gove’s speech were accompanied by a picture of Mr Fussy, a figure with a Hitler-style moustache and hair-do, one of a panoply of characters such as Mr Happy and Mr Cool created by author Roger Hargreaves. Agencies
