Category:May 4, 2006

The time is 17:00 (UTC) on May 4th, 2006, and this is Audio Wikinews News Briefs.

United States

Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted for conspiring with al-Qaeda, will get life in prison. The attacks in September 2001 killed nearly 3,000 people and 4 commercial jetliners were used in the attacks. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, the trial judge, has agreed to the sentence and formally sentenced Moussaoui who will never leave prison. He will serve his life term in a federal, maximum security prison, in Florence, Colorado.

Greece

The Greek Premier Kostas Caramanlis and his counterpart of Turkey, Rejep Tayyip Erdogan, had a meeting, for 45 minutes, in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, in the sidelines of the Inter-Balkan Cooperation Summit. Caramanlis and Erdogan had the opportunity to discuss the bilateral issues between Greece and Turkey, such as the Cyprus Issue, the dispute between the two countries in the area of Aegean Sea as well as the process of Turkey's efforts to become a member of the European Union. Today, the Prime Minister of Turkey will have the opportunity to visit the Turkish Consulate of Thessaloniki; the house in which the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, was born.

England

Voting day, Thursday 4th May, has begun for the local elections taking place in England. The elections will appoint local councillors, and, in some boroughs, local Mayors. Council elections include all 32 London boroughs, 36 metropolitan boroughs and 88 non-metropolitan districts. Mayoral elections will be held for Hackney, Watford, Newham and Lewisham. In the non-London council areas, the voting will affect either a third or half of the total number of councillors. In London, all council seats are up for election. Some council areas are not taking part in the election.

Indonesia

Scientists warn that Mount Merapi, or "The Mountain of Fire," a large Indonesian volcano on the island of Java is likely to erupt. Molten lava and shallow volcanic earthquakes were recorded on Wednsday, as well as further tremors on thursday morning. Mount Merapi is the most active of 130 volcanoes in Indonesia.It is a strato-volcano with an active summit lava dome.It has small eruptions every 3-4 years and larger eruptions every 10-15 years. It has produced more pyroclastic flows,popularly known as heat cloud and magma, than any other volcano in the world. The last fatal eruption happenned in 1994, when 60 people got killed. 1,300 died during the eruption in 1930.

Australia

Rescuers are continuing their efforts to reach the trapped miners in the Beaconsfield mine in northern Tasmania. A five tonne borer drilling machine has been secured in place to drill a one metre hole through the remaining 12-16 metres of rock that fell into the main shaft. Since drilling began at 7pm last night, the machine has made a 2cm wide pilot hole half way to the miners. The trapped miners have been given egg sandwiches and yogurt, and have received MP3 players to pass the time and drown out the sounds of the drilling.

And more news from the United States

Picasso's famous portrait of his lover has been auctioned for $95.2 million at Sotheby's in New York on wednesday. 1941 masterpiece "Dora Maar with cat/ Dora Maar au chat" was sold to an anonymous buyer. This is the second highest amount ever paid in an auction. The highest amount paid so far for a painting is $104 million ( "Boy with a pipe/ Garcon a la pipe" by Picasso,1905 ),which was auctioned in 2004.

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