International News in Brief

Wednesday, 18 January 2012 10:59

Written by Editor

ARGENTINA

Ash closes airport again

A cloud of ash caused by a volcano in Chile has closed the Bariloche airport in neighbouring Argentina just three days after it had re-opened. It had been closed for seven months because of the ash, which affected airports as far away as Melbourne, Australia. Commercial flights to Bariloche – which serves nearby ski resorts – had resumed on Friday for the first time since the Puyehue volcano erupted in June last year. The area is very popular with tourists seeking the great outdoors.

Police on trial over man's death in custody

Seven police officers have gone on trial in Grasse, near the French Riviera, over the fatal suffocation of a 22-year-old detainee, Hakim Ajimi, in 2008. Two who are suspected of involuntary manslaughter face three years in jail. The other five are accused of failure to assist a person in peril. Ajimi had earlier resisted arrest and injured an officer, following an argument with his bank manager. The Ajimi family's lawyer said Ajimi was put in a police vehicle after being restrained, "unconscious or already dead".

Missing teenager declared dead

A judge in Alabama has declared Natalee Holloway dead - almost seven years after she went missing on a high school graduation trip to the Aruba in May 2005. Her body was never found. The 18-year-old was last seen leaving a bar with Dutchman Joran Van der Sloot, who last week pleaded guilty in a separate case to killing a young woman in Peru five years after Holloway vanished. He told police he killed her after she learned of his connection to the Holloway case.