Immigrants rescued

ATHENS: A Greek Navy frigate rescued around 50 would-be immigrants onboard a fishing boat drifting in stormy seas west of the Greek island of Crete and will take them to a nearby port, an official of the merchant marine ministry said on Saturday. According to a first count, 54 illegal would-be migrants had been brought on board the frigate which will bring them to the military port of Souda, near Chania, Crete, the spokesman said. — AFP

Vice prez deserts Arroyo

Ginoog: Philippine Vice President Teofisto Guingona formally broke with President Gloria Arroyo on Saturday to join the team of rival opposition presidential candidate Fernando Poe ahead of the May poll. Guingona, 75, announced his support for movie star Poe at a rally in this southern city, saying he had made the move because "the nation must change". He has long been estranged from Arroyo and left her cabinet nearly two years ago over differences on security issues, while staying on as vice president.— AFP

Third survivor found

ANTANANARIVO: A third survivor from a ferry that probably sank off Madagascar during a storm has been found on a beach in the northwest of the island along with the corpses of some 16 or 17 people that washed ashore, local authorities announced on Saturday. Two other survivors, a man and a woman, had managed to reach shore last Wednesday on a life raft. The ferry Samson went missing on Sunday. — AFP

Two Palestinians killed

GAZA CITY: Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli army gunfire on Saturday morning in the Gaza Strip near the Karni crossing point into Israel, security sources from both sides said. Israeli army sources said troops saw two “suspect silhouettes” in a prohibited area approaching the security fence dividing the two territories and opened fire, hitting them both. The army later called for Palestinian ambulances to remove the bodies of the pair, a Palestinian source said. — AFP

Japanese troops for Iraq

TOKYO: Some 190 Japanese ground troops left for Iraq on Saturday to join about 240 troops already in the southern Iraqi city of Samawa on humanitarian work, an army spokesman said. Following a send-off ceremony with colleagues and family members, the troops departed on two government planes from Hokkaido. They will arrive in Kuwait on Sunday and stay there for a few days to undergo training at a US army camp before heading to Samawa. — AFP

Ukraine’s ex-PM on trial

SAN FRANCISCO: Pavlo Lazarenko, Ukraine’s former prime minister, stands trial on Monday on suspicion of laundering at least $114 million of an illegally obtained fortune through banks in the United States. Lazarenko,51, the first former head of government to be tried in the US since Manuel Noriega of Panama, contends he neither siphoned funds from his government nor accepted bribes from big business in exchange for government contracts and favours. — AP

S African minister dead

CAPE TOWN: Transport Minister Dullah Omar, a leading human rights lawyer and anti-apartheid activist who served as justice minister in South Africa’s first black-led government, died on Saturday of cancer. He was 69. Omar had been battling Hodgkin’s disease, a cancer of the lymph nodes, for more than a year. He died in the early hours of the morning at Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic in Cape Town. — AP

Visa requirements relaxed

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait on Saturday scrapped prior visa requirements for citizens of 34 countries. The new decision became effective immediately and applies to nationals from North America, most of Western Europe, Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Australia.”Entry visas will be provided to citizens of these nations upon arrival at various terminals without the need of a Kuwaiti sponsor,” interior ministry assistant undersecretary said. — AFP