Alexandra Hudson
No image available
/ 6 February 2008

Beatles’ Indian guru Maharishi Yogi dies

The guru to the Beatles who introduced transcendental meditation to the West, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, died at his Dutch home on February 5, aides said on February 6. He was said to be 91. The reclusive Indian mystic shot to international prominence when the Beatles visited him in the foothills of the Himalayas in 1968 to learn his meditation techniques.

No image available
/ 7 January 2008

Taylor trial resumes with tales of brutality

A blood-diamond expert and an account from a Sierra Leonean miner who said laughing rebels hacked off his hands and burned his family opened the war-crimes trial against Liberia’s Charles Taylor on Monday. The former Liberian president, once one of Africa’s most feared warlords, faces charges of rape, murder, mutilation and recruitment of child soldiers.

No image available
/ 25 June 2007

Liberia’s Taylor boycotts trial again

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor failed to appear in court on Monday when his war-crimes trial resumed, saying through an official the court did not give him adequate funds to assemble a strong defence team. Taylor, who is charged with instigating murder, rape and mutilation during Sierra Leone’s civil war, boycotted the start of his trial in June.

No image available
/ 12 June 2007

UN court sentences rebel Serb leader to 35 years

The United Nations war crimes tribunal sentenced the former leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia, Milan Martic, to 35 years in jail for ordering atrocities committed while rebel Serbs set up a breakaway state in Croatia. Martic (52) was found guilty of criminal responsibility for the murder, persecution, torture and deportation of Croats, Muslims and other non-Serb civilians.