Diberdayakan oleh Blogger.

Popular Posts Today

US drone strike kills two in NW Pakistan

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 29 November 2013 | 21.51

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan: A US drone strike targeting a militant compound killed at least two suspected insurgents in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border on Friday, officials said.

The strike took place in the Anghar area, 10 kilometres (six miles) south of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal region, a stronghold for Taliban and al-Qaida linked militants.

"A US drone fired two missiles on a militant compound, killing two suspected militants," a senior security official said.

Another security official also confirmed the attack and casualties that took place after midnight (1900 Thursday GMT).

The identities of those killed in the strike were not immediately known but they appeared to be of Central Asian origin, the official said.

Last week a US drone attack on a seminary linked to the feared Haqqani militant network in Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the northwest killed at least six people.

The attack, which militant sources said killed the Haqqanis' spiritual leader along with five others, was extremely unusual in that it was mounted outside Pakistan's lawless tribal areas on the Afghan border.

North Waziristan is one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal regions which Washington considers to be a major hub of Taliban and al-Qaida militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.

The government criticizes drone strikes as a violation of sovereignty and counterproductive to anti-terror efforts. But ties with Washington have nevertheless improved this year after lurching from crisis to crisis in 2011 and 2012.

Last month the US announced it would release $1.6 billion in aid and Washington's support was seen as important in Pakistan securing a $6.7 billion rescue loan from the International Monetary Fund in September.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Thailand protesters storm army HQ

BANGKOK: Protesters in Thailand stormed into the national army headquarters on Friday, breaking into their latest high-profile target in a bid to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

The crowd of about 1,200 people broke the padlocked gate at the Royal Thai Army compound and forced their way inside, saying they wanted to submit a letter to the army chief, said army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd.

The compound is next to the United Nation's Asia-Pacific headquarters in Bangkok.

"They are now gathering in the courtyard, but they have not entered buildings," Sansern said. "We will make them understand that this is a security area and we will ask them to leave."

Yingluck has been reluctant to use force to evict the opposition-led protesters for fear of escalating a tense political crisis and sparking bloodshed.

Security forces have done little to stop protesters who have spent the week seizing government buildings and camping out at several of them in an effort to force a government shutdown and get civil servants to join their rally.

Crowds of protesters have occupied the finance ministry since Monday and others remain holed up at a sprawling government complex that houses the Department of Special Investigations, the country's equivalent of the FBI. On Thursday, the demonstrators cut power at Bangkok's police headquarters and asked police to join their side.

The demonstrations that started Sunday have raised fears of fresh political turmoil and instability in Thailand and pose the biggest threat to Yingluck's administration since she came to power in 2011.

The protesters accuse Yingluck of serving as a proxy for her billionaire brother Thaksin Shinawatra - a former prime minister who was ousted in a 2006 military coup but retains strong support from the rural majority in Thailand.

Thaksin, who lives in Dubai to avoid serving a jail term for a corruption conviction he says was politically motivated, is a highly polarizing figure in Thailand. So much so, that an ill-advised bid to push a general amnesty law through parliament - which would have paved the way for his return - sparked the latest wave of protests earlier this month.

Crowd sizes peaked Sunday at over 100,000 and have dwindled in recent days to tens of thousands, but organizers are calling for bigger crowds over the weekend.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who resigned as an opposition Democrat Party lawmaker to lead the protests, says he will not negotiate. He says his goal to rid the country of Thaksin's influence.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

British couples to get paternity leave from April 2015

LONDON: In a landmark decision, British fathers will now be entitled to officially be on parental leave.

Mums and dads will from April 5, 2015 be able to share up to 50 weeks of parental leave, under new government plans announced on Friday.

Under the new system working parents will have the right to divide the statutory 50 weeks of parental leave between them.

In addition, parents of children under 18 will have the right to take up to 18 weeks of unpaid parental leave per child.

Under the path breaking reforms announced today under the new Children and Families Bill, employers in UK will now have to get used to more men taking time off after their child is born and more mothers returning to work earlier.

Even those who adopt will have the same entitlements to pay and leave as birth parents. Fathers will also get a new right to take unpaid leave to attend two antenatal appointments.

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said "Women deserve the right to pursue their goals and not feel they have to choose between having a successful career or having a baby. They should be supported by their employers, rather than being made to feel less employable or under pressure to take unchallenging jobs".

"It is already illegal to sack a woman because she is pregnant or on maternity leave, but we want to go further than that. We want to create a fairer society that gives parents the flexibility to choose how they share care for their child in the first year after birth. We need to challenge the old-fashioned assumption that women will always be the parent that stays at home - many fathers want that option too. That is why from April 2015 we're introducing shared parental leave to allow couples to make that decision jointly ensuring all career options remain open to women after pregnancy".

Business Minister Jo Swinson said "Thanks to extensive discussions with business and family groups we have found a workable approach to shared parental leave. We want to shatter the perception that it is mainly a woman's role to stay at home and look after the child and a man's role to be at work. Employers too can gain from a system which allows them to keep talented women in the workforce and have more motivated and productive staff".

The proposals for shared parental leave and flexible working are included in the Children and Families Bill 2013 which is currently going through Parliament. The details will be set out in regulations. The new leave system will allow eligible working families to have more choice about how they balance their work and caring commitments.

Parents can choose to be at home together or to work at different times and share the care of their child.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

I'm no saint or icon, says Myanmar's Suu Kyi

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 28 November 2013 | 21.50

SYDNEY: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday insisted she was no saint and no icon, saying she disliked the titles and had always seen herself as an honest politician.

The celebrated activist and democracy champion endured years of house arrest at the hands of Myanmar's military regime and has been feted since her release, but she insisted she was just an ordinary person.

"I always thought that I was a politician, I look upon myself as a politician, not as an icon," she told an audience in Sydney during her first visit to Australia.

"I always object to the word icon, because it's very static, it stands there, sits there, hangs on the wall, and I happen to work very, very hard."

The Nobel Peace Prize winner said she disliked being called a saint even more than an icon.

"Let me assure you I am no saint of any kind; this I find very troubling, because politicians are politicians, but I do believe there is such a thing as an honest politician and I aspire to that," she said.

The Oxford-trained daughter of the country's independence hero was released from house arrest in 2010 and said her dream for the country under the reformist government of President Thein Sein was "unity".

During her trip to Australia, Suu Kyi will also visit Melbourne and Canberra, meeting Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Fighting rages near Damascus, missile hits Raqa'

BEIRUT: Rebels and loyalists clashed on two key fronts near Damascus, as a missile hit Raqa city in northern Syria early on Thursday, killing six people and wounding 30, a monitor said.

The frontline battles raged around the Qalamoun area that links Damascus to the central city of Homs and east of the capital where rebels are fighting to break a yearlong siege, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The early morning clashes were especially fierce around Qalamoun's Deir Attiyeh which rebels, including jihadist fighters, seized from the army last week, said the Britain-based group.

"The army is advancing around Deir Attiyeh," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman, adding that loyalists including pro-regime militia were trying hard to take it back from opposition hands in order to secure the Damascus-Homs road.

In Eastern Ghouta, east of Damascus, battles raged in the Marj area days after rebels launched an offensive aimed at breaking the siege on opposition-held areas.

"Nine rebels were killed around Marj, as were three members of Hezbollah," Lebanon's powerful Shiite group which the Observatory says has sent hundreds of fighters to back the army.

In the northern city of Raqa, a surface-to-surface missile launched overnight from Damascus province killed at least six people and wounded at least 30 others, including two women, the monitor said.

Raqa is the only provincial capital in Syria to have fallen out of regime hands since the start of the country's war more than 32 months ago.

It is now under jihadist control, but activists have frequently accused the army of targeting only civilian areas of Raqa, rather than parts of the city where the feared Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is positioned.

In Aleppo province's Atareb, ISIL executed Hassan Jazra and six members of his Ghuraba al-Sham battalion, after it had accused them of theft and looting.

In areas where it is powerful, ISIL has sought to establish itself as the sole power-broker, first by eliminating small rival groups over charges of corruption, then by opening fronts with bigger battalions.

Syria's war has killed more than 120,000 people and forced millions more to flee their homes.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pak's Lieutenant General Aslam resigns

ISLAMABAD: Lieutenant General Haroon Aslam of the Pakistan Army, on November 28, resigned a day after he was superseded by his two juniors who were made the new army chief and the chairman joint chief of staff committee.

Aslam has sent his resignation letter to defence ministry from the GHQ, Geo News reported.

Lieutenant General Aslam had also skipped the farewell dinner hosted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the outgoing army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

He was the senior most general after Kayani. However, Sharif appointed Lieutenant General Raheel Sharif as the 15th chief of the army staff and Lieutenant General Rashad Mahmood as the new CJCSC.

Since Aslam was superseded, many were expecting his resignation.

Sharif had earlier said he would go by seniority to elect the new army chief but he chose the third most senior ranking general.

Some analysts say that appointing General Mahmood as the CJCSC, a largely ceremonial post, is an attempt by the prime minister to sideline General Kayani's preferred candidate and reassert his authority over the military.

It is believed that Lieutenant General Aslam did not enjoy Kayani's support.

The News reported that one of the reason for his non-selection was his "key role" as director of military operations on October 12, 1999 along with the-then DGMO Major General Shahid Aziz to oust Sharif from power.

Then, Brigadier Aslam led the team to arrest all the cabinet members, including Sharif.

Another possible reason cited by the daily was that he was a special services group commando and Sharif does not like commandos, particularly after his experience with General Pervez Musharraf.

It reported that Aslam had, on November 27, phoned both his junior colleagues congratulating and greeting them on their promotions.

Lieutenant General Aslam has served as director general of military operations, commanded the elite force division of the special services group and headed the Bahawalpur-based XXXI Corps.

He also led the successful anti-Taliban operation in Swat Valley in 2009 and was due to retire on April 9 next year.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Thai protesters keep up anti-government push

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 27 November 2013 | 21.50

BANGKOK: Flag-waving protesters vowing to topple Thailand's prime minister took to the streets of Bangkok for a fourth day on Wednesday, massing in the thousands at half a dozen government ministries and raising fears of fresh political violence in the divided Southeast Asian nation.

The protests were peaceful, though, and as night drew near, Yingluck Shinawatra's embattled administration still controlled every ministry except the Finance Ministry despite an opposition threat to seize them all.

"Whether we succeed or not is not the most important" thing, said Taweesak Maham, a 55-year-old Bangkok resident. "What's important is that the people in the country came out this time to be understood, to symbolically show what the people want."

In a city of some 10 million people, the demonstrators appeared to number only in the tens of thousands - far less than the 100,000-plus mustered when they began Sunday. The numbers indicate they are unlikely to bring down the government on their own without more popular support, or judicial or military intervention.

By late afternoon, whistle-blowing throngs had massed inside or around at least six of the government's 19 ministries, although they left half of them after a few hours. One large group led by protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban entered a sprawling government office complex that houses the Department of Special Investigations, the country's equivalent of the FBI, and prepared to camp there overnight.

Yingluck has repeatedly said she wants to avert violence and offered to negotiate an end to the crisis. So far, security forces have not even fired tear gas to prevent protesters from forcing the closure of multiple government offices.

"We must not regard this as a win-or-lose situation," Yingluck told reporters at parliament. "Today no one is winning or losing, only the country is hurting."

A Thai government tourism official said the country has lost 300,000 tourists from the ongoing protests so far, at a cost of half a billion US dollars.

Late Tuesday, police issued an arrest warrant for Suthep, a former lawmaker. There appeared to be no attempt to detain him, however, as he led some 6,000 supporters early Wednesday out of the Finance Ministry, which had been converted into an ad-hoc protest headquarters since crowds stormed it on Monday.

Suthep says his goal is to replace the government with a non-elected council, a change he said was necessary to eradicate the political machine of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thaksin, Yingluck's billionaire older brother, was ousted by a 2006 military coup and fled the country to avoid a two-year prison term on a corruption conviction. He continues to sharply divide the nation, with his supporters and opponents battling for power.

In broad terms, the confrontation pits the Thai elite and the educated middle-class against Thaksin's power base in the countryside, which benefited from populist policies designed to win over the rural poor.

The anti-government campaign started last month after Yingluck's ruling Pheu Thai party tried to pass an amnesty bill that critics said was designed to absolve Thaksin and others of politically related offenses and allow him to return home. The Senate rejected the bill in a bid to end the protests, but the rallies have gained momentum.

On Tuesday, demonstrators surrounded the Interior Ministry and then cut off the electricity and water to pressure people inside to leave. Security personnel locked themselves behind the ministry's gates, with employees still inside. By Wednesday, just dozens of protesters remained outside, and some employees began returning to work.

But large groups of protesters massed peacefully at several other ministerial complexes, including industry, labor, energy, science and social development. They abandoned half those sites by late afternoon.

"Let the people go to every ministry that remains to make civil servants stop serving the Thaksin regime," Suthep said. "Once you take over, civil servants can no longer serve the Thaksin regime. Brothers and sisters, go seize the city hall."

Suthep served as deputy prime minister under a previous Democrat Party administration, which faced mass protests led by Thaksin's "Red Shirt" supporters, who occupied Bangkok's city center for two months in 2010. Those demonstrations ended in an army crackdown which left about 90 people dead and left swathes of downtown in flames.

Pro-Thaksin parties have won every election since 2001, and the Democrats were crushed by Yingluck's ruling party during a landslide vote that brought her to power in 2011.

Suthep has rejected new elections, which the now-opposition Democrats are certain to lose.

Akanat Promphan, a protest spokesman, earlier said the offensive to seize government offices would be extended nationwide. On Wednesday, protesters gathered around 20 of Thailand's 77 provincial halls, where the local governments are located. Most of them are southern provinces, a Democrat Party stronghold.

Yingluck's government is also fending off sharp criticism during a parliamentary no-confidence debate this week. A vote is expected Thursday, although it would be impossible to unseat Yingluck since her party controls the House of Representatives.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Afghan gunmen kill six local staff of French aid group

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN: Suspected Taliban gunmen on Wednesday shot dead six local staffers working for the French aid group ACTED in a volatile region in northern Afghanistan, the group said.

The men were dragged from their car in the Pashtun Kot district of Faryab province, which borders Turkmenistan, before being gunned down, the provincial police chief Nabi Jan Mullahkhail told AFP.

"They were travelling in a car from (the provincial capital) Maimana to Almar district," he said. "They were chased by Taliban suspects and their car stopped in the Pashtun Kot district."

ACTED (the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) released a statement from Paris condemning the killings and clarifying the death toll at six after local officials said seven had been killed.

"Six Afghan employees were killed following an ambush that targeted a team of seven people. One person was injured," it said.

"They were killed in the course of their work to support the developement in the north. We deplore the deaths of our colleagues while they were carrying out their duties."

ACTED is a non-governmental organisation founded in 1993 that runs reconstruction projects in Afghanistan and across the developing world.

It runs 34 projects in Afghanistan, and last year had 864 local staff and 13 international staff in the country, according to its website.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Police detain 15 radical Islamists in Moscow

MOSCOW: Russia's interior ministry said on Wednesday its agents had detained 15 radical Islamists in Moscow who belonged to a banned offshoot of the al-Qaida terror network.

The ministry said members of Takfir wal-Hijra — a group formed in Egypt in the 1960s and outlawed in Russia in 2010 — had been discovered hiding weapons and explosives in their apartments but provided few other details.

It said the group had been funding its activities by "conducting general crime".

Takfir wal-Hijra was quashed in Egypt in the 1970s but is believed to have cells linked to al-Qaida in several European and other countries.

Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency said the banned organisation's activities were first discovered in former Soviet republics such as Ukraine about five years ago.

But RIA Novosti said experts doubted whether Takfir wal-Hijra members in the region had actual links to the original organisation in Egypt or had simply assumed the name of a relatively well-known terror group.

Russia remains on heightened alert ahead of the February 7-23 Winter Olympic Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi that lies near the volatile North Caucasus.

A top guerrilla commander in the North Caucasus, who has claimed responsibility for a string of deadly suicide bombings in Moscow, has threatened to target the Sochi Games.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Scotland to make case for independence

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 26 November 2013 | 21.50

LONDON: The Scottish government on Tuesday unveils its legal argument for independence from the United Kingdom, but nationalist leaders face an uphill battle in convincing voters to end the 300-year union.
The Scottish regional government will publish its "white paper" in Edinburgh, detailing how the country will be run if voters choose independence in a historic referendum to be held next September.

But the pro-independence campaign, led by Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), must first overhaul a nine point deficit, according to a poll published in last week's Sunday Times newspaper.

Salmond insists he has time to convince voters that an independent Scotland will be richer due to its North Sea oil reserves, but also more egalitarian and pro-European than Britain.

However, his economic case was undermined last week by a study from independent research group the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which predicted that even under its most optimistic assessment of independence, Scotland would have to find public spending cuts or tax rises equivalent to 1.9 percent of its GDP.

Britain's Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander on Tuesday told Salmond warning him that this would mean the average basic rate taxpayer in Scotland facing a £1,000 (1,200 euros, $1,600) a year tax increase by the end of the decade.

"This is a very stark reminder of why it is in the interest of Scotland to pool these risks, not go it alone," he wrote in a letter.

Liberal Democrat Alexander is part of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-led government, which is pushing hard for a "no" vote.

Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon believes that the government document released Tuesday will convince sceptical voters that a "yes" vote will lead to "a wealthier and fairer Scotland".

"This is a document for the people of Scotland; it is their guide to independence, and it will provide both a vision for Scotland's future and the answers on independence that people have been seeking," she said before its release.

"The guide and the answers it provides will show clearly and simply the difference that we can make in Scotland if decisions on Scotland's future are taken by those who care most about Scotland, that is the people of Scotland.

"Our message to the people of Scotland is simple: read this guide, compare it with any alternative future for Scotland and make up your own mind."

Former Labour finance minister and pro-union campaigner Alistair Darling said the paper "will try to force Scots into a risky choice that we don't need to make."

"We simply don't have to choose between having a strong Scottish Parliament and the strength and security of being part of the United Kingdom," he argued. "We can have both."

Scots will be able to request a hard copy of the 670-page tome, and its 170,000 words will also be available to read online.

The document plans for Scotland to celebrate its independence day on March 24, 2016 and hold its first parliamentary elections in May 2016.

March 24 has a symbolic importance because it marks the anniversary of the signing of the Acts of Union in 1707, which joined Scotland and England into a single kingdom.

Scotland's devolved government currently has control over a range of policies including health and education, but other big policy areas -- including defence, foreign policy and welfare -- are still controlled by London.

Salmond's critics warn that a "yes" vote would throw up huge headaches for Edinburgh and London, on issues ranging from how to split the army to how to separate their tax systems.

Oil could prove another major sticking point.

Up to 24 billion barrels still lie off Britain in the North Sea, mostly in Scottish territory. London and Edinburgh have yet to discuss how they would divide the revenues, while experts say an independent Scotland could be over-reliant on the volatile energy market.

Rejoining the European Union and NATO could also be problematic, the "no" camp claims.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Scotland unveils independence blueprint

EDINBURGH, Scotland: Scotland's government has published its blueprint for independence, outlining the ways it says the nation will prosper should voters support a referendum to leave the United Kingdom.

The long-awaited document comes ahead of the referendum on September 18, 2014, when Scots will be asked whether they want Scotland to become an independent country.

The "White Paper," published on Tuesday, says independence will create a more democratic Scotland and a more prosperous and fairer country. It also sets out how independence could impact the nation's currency, taxation, education, defense and other aspects of life.

Scotland is part of the UK but it has had its own Parliament since 1999 and has its own set of laws. The governing Scottish National Party supports independence, while the opposition Labour and Conservative parties oppose it.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pakistan launches largest nuclear power project

KARACHI: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday launched the construction of the country's biggest atomic power plant and vowed to pursue further projects to make nuclear the largest energy source.

The 2,200-megawatt plant is to be built with Chinese technical assistance on the Arabian Sea coast at Paradise Beach, 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Karachi.

Pakistan already has three operational nuclear plants generating a total of around 740 MW of power and has begun work on a fourth, in addition to the one launched on Tuesday.

The government hopes nuclear will ultimately provide a relatively low-cost solution to the power cuts — known euphemistically as "loadshedding" — that blight life in Pakistan.

Mismanagement, corruption and an over-reliance on expensive imported fuels have left the energy sector in dire straits, with hours-long blackouts a daily reality in the summer months.

"This is one of the first steps of our goal of racing towards a loadshedding-free Pakistan," Sharif told the audience at the site of the plant.

The World Nuclear Association has estimated the cost of the new project at nearly $10 billion.

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission engineers will work on the project with help from the China Atomic Energy Authority.

As Pakistan is not party to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty it is excluded from the international trade in nuclear materials and technology, and can rely only on its neighbour China for help.

Sharif pledged to increase nuclear power generation capacity to 40,000 MW in the long term as part of his energy plan.

A few kilometres further west of the new nuclear power project, an energy park is being built at Gaddani beach in Baluchistan province, with plans for 6,600 MW coal-fired power projects.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Thai protesters enter finance ministry compound

Written By Unknown on Senin, 25 November 2013 | 21.50

BANGKOK: Thai protesters have entered the finance ministry compound in the country's capital in an escalating anti-government campaign to topple the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

A crowd of protesters swarmed into the compound's courtyard on Monday as a massive anti-government march fanned out to 13 locations in Bangkok.

There was limited police presence at the compound, despite heavy security elsewhere.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban urged the crowd to "make them see this is people's power".

Protesters say they want Yingluck to step down amid claims that her government is controlled by ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra, her brother.

Monday's rally came a day after about 100,000 people marched in Bangkok, the largest rally Thailand has seen in years.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pak police stop Nato supply truck blockade

PESHAWAR: Pakistani police have intervened to prevent activists who were protesting US drone strikes from halting Nato troop supply trucks traveling to and from Afghanistan.

Police officer Behram Khan said on Monday the police would permit peaceful protests on the roadside but that the activists would not be allowed to stop trucks as they did the day before.

Khan is the local police chief in an area where members of Tehreek-e-Insaf, a party led by cricket star Imran Khan, were stopping trucks and roughing up drivers on Sunday on the outskirts of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The party said it will halt Nato supply trucks until drone strikes end.

Police were present at the scene on Sunday but didn't stop the protesters, some of whom were carrying wooden batons.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Earthquake strikes south Atlantic

WASHINGTON: A powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck in the south Atlantic ocean 314 kilometres (195 miles) southeast of Stanley, the main city on the Falkland Islands, the US Geological Survey said early on Monday.

The underwater quake struck at 0627 GMT at a depth of 10 kilometres in the lightly populated area, the USGS said. The epicentre was also 877 kilometres east of Ushuaia, Argentina, the USGS said.

There were no initial reports of damage or casualties. The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a bulletin stating that, despite the power of the quake, "a destructive widespread tsunami threat does not exist".

The Tsunami Warning Center, however, did say that there was a "small possibility of a local or regional tsunami" that could affect coastlines "located usually no more than a few hundred kilometres from the earthquake epicentre."

The USGS initially said that it was a magnitude 6.6 earthquake, but later revised the quake's strength.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tens of thousands rally in Kiev for closer EU ties

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 24 November 2013 | 21.51

KIEV, Ukraine: Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through central Kiev on Sunday to demand that the Ukrainian government reverse course and sign a landmark agreement with the European Union in defiance of Russia.

The protest was the biggest Ukraine has seen since the peaceful 2004 Orange Revolution, which overturned a fraudulent presidential election result and brought a Western-leaning government to power.

Led by Ukraine's leading opposition figures and carrying giant Ukrainian and EU flags, the demonstrators chanted "Ukraine is Europe" and sang the national anthem as they marched toward European Square. An estimated 50,000 people turned out for the rally.

"We want to be together with Europe," Volodymyr Mnikh, a 62-year-old retired chemist, said with tears in his eyes. "We want our children to have a future and not to be pressured by Russia."

Ukraine's leaders announced suddenly last week that they were pulling out of a free trade and political association deal with the EU to be signed in the coming week, saying the country could not afford to break trade ties with Russia. The Russian government has worked aggressively to derail the EU deal and bring Ukraine into the Moscow-dominated Customs Union.

"The EU means Ukraine's development," said demonstrator Andriy Mazeta, a 19-year-old management student. "The Customs Union means Ukraine's destruction. We need to push Russia as far away as possible."

Sunday's protest was seen as a test of the strength of the opposition and its ability to nudge President Viktor Yanukovych back in the EU's direction.

One key EU demand for signing the deal is the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose imprisonment the West sees as politically driven. Yanukovych only narrowly defeated Tymoshenko in the 2010 presidential election and sees her as a political threat. He comes up for reelection in 2015.

The European Union insists that Yanukovych is still welcome to attend the summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Thursday and Friday, during which the two sides had intended to sign the agreement.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Japan warns of 'unpredictable events' over China's new air zone

TOKYO: Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida warned on Sunday that "unpredictable events" could follow China's unilateral declaration of an air defence zone over waters including disputed Tokyo-controlled islands.

A Japanese ruling party leader also urged Beijing to help prevent a "touch-and-go situation" after China said on Saturday it was setting up the "air defence identification zone" over the islands in the East China Sea to guard against "potential air threats".

Kishida told reporters Japan can not accept the Chinese measure, which he said was "a one-sided action which warrants us to assume the danger of unpredictable events on the spot".

He added Japan was considering making stronger protests to Beijing "at a higher level".

On Saturday, a division at Japan's foreign ministry lodged a strong protest with a minister at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo by telephone.

Earlier on Sunday, former Japanese foreign minister Masahiko Komura, speaking as deputy head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Tokyo should "keep on doing what it has been doing in a straightforward manner" apart from making protests to Beijing.

"At the same time, defence officials of the two countries must keep in close communication with each other in order to prevent a touch-and-go situation from arising under any circumstances," Komura said on public broadcaster NHK.

Kishida said the United States is also concerned at China's action. "We want the countries concerned to have an understanding" on Japan's position, the foreign minister said.

The Japanese Defence Ministry said Saturday two Chinese planes entered Japan's own air defence identification zone over the East China Sea, prompting its air defence force to scramble fighter aircraft.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel said Saturday they were "deeply concerned" at China's move and committed to defending Japan.

Hagel reiterated that the Senkaku islands - which the Chinese claim and call the Diaoyus - fall under the US-Japan security treaty, meaning that Washington would defend its ally Tokyo if the area is attacked.

The defence chief made it clear that the United States, which stations more than 70,000 troops in Japan and South Korea, would not respect China's declaration of control over the zone.

However Washington has repeatedly said it has no position on the islands' ultimate sovereignty.

Tokyo last year nationalised some of the islands and has vowed not to cede sovereignty or even to acknowledge a dispute with China.

It accuses its neighbour of trying to change the status quo through intimidation.

China has since sent coastguard vessels and other state-owned ships as well as aircraft close to the islands, sometimes breaching airspace and territorial waters around them.

This has prompted Japanese coastguard boats and air force fighter jets to try to warn them off.

"China used to maintain a certain degree of restraint in the past although it insisted that the Senkaku islands were part of its territory," said Komura, who served as foreign minister from 1998-1999 and from 2007-2008.

"But it is a serious matter that Chinese ships have recently intruded into the territorial waters and that China declared the air defence identification zone this time," he said.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Egypt issues law regulating protests

CAIRO: Egypt's interim president has issued a new law regulating protests, weeks after the much-anticipated bill stirred serious criticism from rights and political groups.

Presidential spokesman Ihab Badawi said details of the law endorsed Sunday by President Adly Mansour will be published later.

The protest law, proposed by the military-backed government and debated for more than a month, comes 10 days after authorities lifted a three-month-long emergency order that granted security forces sweeping powers.

Rights groups and political forces say the law is designed to restrict protests. The bill as initially drafted required prior notice for protests and set high fines for violators.

Nineteen rights groups said the law, despite some amendments suggested by court, gives police forces unrestricted use of birdshot to put down protests.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

5.3-magnitude quake jolts China

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 22 November 2013 | 21.50

BEIJING: A 5.3-magnitude quake jolted northeast China's Jilin Province on Friday, the state media reported.

The epicentre of the quake was determined to be at a depth of eight kilometres, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the China Earthquake Networks Centre as saying.

Details of its impact are awaited.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

45 dead in grocery roof collapse in Latvia

RIGA, Latvia: Hordes of shoppers were picking up food after work in the Latvian capital when an enormous section of the supermarket's roof caved in. Firefighters rushed in to save them, only to be crushed themselves when a second part of the roof collapsed.

The death toll from the rush-hour disaster on Thursday evening at the Maxima supermarket in Riga rose to 45 on Friday, including three firefighters, police said. Spokesman Toms Sadovskisk said the death toll is expected to go even higher, and nine of the dead were still unidentified.

Another 35 people were injured, 28 of them hospitalized, including 10 firefighters struck just as they entered the unstable building, the Fire and Rescue Service said.

It was the largest tragedy for the Baltic state since it regained independence in 1991. Latvia's government declared three days of mourning starting Saturday.

The rescue agency could not say how many people might be trapped under the rubble in the densely populated, working-class neighborhood between downtown Riga and the city's airport.

The reason for the collapse was still not known, but rescue and police officials said workers had been building a garden on the roof as part of the supermarket's original design.

An enormous crater-like hole gaped in the supermarket's roof, while building materials were still stacked on the remaining sections of the roof.

Rescue workers kept up their round-the-clock search for possible survivors on Friday, periodically turning off all equipment and asking the relatives of missing people to call so they could pinpoint ringing phones. Dozens of firefighters carefully sifted through the rubble.

Rescue agency spokeswoman Viktorija Sembele said the search for survivors was proceeding slowly, since both the rubble and the remaining sections of the roof were fragile and could easily collapse further if the wrong piece was moved.

About 500 square metres (5,300 square feet) of the roof collapsed, the rescue service estimated, destroying large sections of the store's high walls and nearly all its front windows.

Several large construction cranes gingerly hauled metal slabs and other debris from its central gaping hole Friday, while bulldozers cleared paths into the store. Sembele said approximately one-third of the rubble still needed to be removed.

The building was completed in November 2011. The Lithuania-owned Maxima was reportedly renting the space.

Maxima officials refused to comment, saying they would release a statement later.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Modest 'progress' in Iran nuclear talks

GENEVA: Iran and world powers appeared to make modest progress in nuclear talks on Friday, with Tehran saying foreign ministers could fly in to Geneva in a fresh bid to clinch a deal. "Last night we were a long way from foreign ministers coming. Today it has got closer," Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, according to the ISNA news agency.

Differences however remained. This third meeting in Geneva since President Hassan Rouhani was elected in June is seen as the biggest hope in years to resolve the decade-old standoff over Iran's nuclear programme.

Failure might mean Iran resuming the expansion of its atomic activities, Washington and others adding to already painful sanctions, and possible Israeli military action. At the last gathering two weeks ago foreign ministers including US secretary of state John Kerry flew to Geneva but three days of intense, high-drama talks failed and they went home empty-handed. Both sides say they want a deal but getting an accord palatable to hardliners both in the United States and in the Islamic republic - as well as Israel - has proven a daunting task.

According to a draft proposal hammered out on November 9, the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia, and Germany - the P5+1 - want Iran to freeze for six months key parts of its nuclear programme.

In return Iran would get minor and, Western officials insist, "reversible" sanctions relief, including unlocking several billion dollars in oil revenues and easing trade restrictions on precious metals and aircraft parts. This hoped-for "first phase" deal would build trust and ease tensions while Iran and the six powers hammer out a final accord that ends once and for all fears that Tehran will get an atomic bomb.

After yesterday's sessions Iranian diplomats were downbeat. But today signals coming out of Tehran appeared to indicate an improvement after only an hour-long meeting between Zarif and the powers' chief negotiator Catherine Ashton.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Loya Jirga debates security deal with US

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 21 November 2013 | 21.51

KABUL: About 2,500 Afghan tribal chieftains, community elders and politicians began a grand assembly on Thursday to debate a crucial security deal with the US.

President Hamid Karzai and most of his cabinet arrived at a giant Kabul tent to mark the official start of the " Loya Jirga", or grand assembly, which will debate the bilateral security agreement over the next four days.

Karzai, speaking to the delegates, said the meeting was committed "only to seriously discussing the security agreement" with the United States.

A copy of the BSA document agreed upon between Kabul and Washington will be provided to the delegates in local languages, one of the organisers said.

Hours before the start of the meeting, US secretary of state John Kerry said in Washington the two sides had agreed the text of the pact in a slew of phone conversations with Karzai.

A draft text released by Kabul appeared to show Karzai had given in to a US demand that its forces should be subject to American rather than Afghan justice if accused of a crime.

The issue was a major hurdle during the year-long negotiations over the pact.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

US drone strike kills 5 in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: A US drone strike targeting a seminary in Hangu district's Tal area in northwest Pakistan on Thursday killed at least eight persons and injured five others, in a rare attack outside the country's tribal areas.

The drone fired three missiles at about 5am, targeting the seminary near Degree college in Tal, which lies within the settled areas of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The attack comes a day after the Prime Minister's adviser on foreign affairs and national security Sartaj Aziz told the Senate body that the US had assured Pakistan of not conducting drone strikes during the government's talk with the Taliban.

Today's attack was also first since the one that killed Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud on November 1.

Those wounded in the attack included students of the seminary whereas the identities of the deceased could not be ascertained.

Media reports said the clerics of the seminary were believed to be affiliates of the Taliban's Haqqani Network. The strike could increase tension between Islamabad and Washington.

US had earlier come under vicious criticism by Pakistani politicians and media for allegedly "sabotaging" the peace talks with the Taliban.

Aziz had told the Senate Standing Committee on foreign affairs on Wednesday that US was informed that drone strike against Hakimullah Mehsud has disrupted negotiations with the Taliban, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.

He said Washington has given assurance that militants holding talks will not be targeted.

Aziz did not inform how it will be determined that Taliban were holding talks and how the US will be updated about the status of negotiations.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Netanyahu Moscow visit falls flat: Israeli media

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Moscow to push Russia into taking a harder line on Iranian nuclear negotiations has fallen flat, Israel's media said on Thursday.

Netanyahu flew to Moscow yesterday in what was seen as a last-minute bid to influence an emerging nuclear deal with Iran strongly opposed by the Jewish state and being discussed by world powers and Iranian diplomats in Geneva.

Right-leaning Maariv newspaper said Russian President Vladimir Putin's comments after meeting Netanyahu at best gave little away, and suggested the Israeli premier's visit had left no lasting impression.

"When the two men gave their joint press conference (Wednesday), it appeared Putin's statement had been given to journalists in advance, and he only changed certain passages afterwards to make them more palatable to Netanyahu," it said.

Speaking as the talks got under way in Geneva between Iran and world powers, Putin only said he hoped that "in the nearest future a mutually acceptable solution is found" to end the crisis.

Top-selling Yediot Aharonot said Netanyahu's visit to Moscow was an unnecessary "put-down" to the United States after tension with Israel over a possible Iran deal.

"Every reader knows Putin supports and will continue to support the ayatollahs' regime in Iran," Yediot said.

"If there's the slightest chance of persuading world powers to take a harsher line on Iran, Israel should engage in discreet dialogue (with the US), instead of bickering publicly with Washington," it said.

And left-leaning daily Haaretz suggested Netanyahu's visit was futile, pointing out Russia was traditionally much more closely aligned with the Islamic republic than with other world powers.

"Russia, which built Iran's first nuclear power plant and remains on better terms with Tehran than Western powers, has expressed less suspicion than them about Iran's nuclear work," it said.

Netanyahu insisted on the need for a "real" solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, after his talks with Putin.

"We would all like a diplomatic solution, but it needs to be a real solution," said Netanyahu, adding that this would involve Iran halting nuclear work in the same way that Syria was allowing its chemical weapons arsenal to be destroyed.

Iran would have to halt uranium enrichment, stop work on centrifuges, have enriched uranium material taken out from Iran and dismantle the Arak heavy water reactor, he said.

"We think it is possible to get a better agreement but that requires determination," Netanyahu warned.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

New attempt to reach N-deal with Iran

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 20 November 2013 | 21.50

GENEVA: World powers aim to reach a preliminary deal to curb Iran's nuclear programme in politically charged talks resuming in Geneva on Wednesday.

Seeking to end a long standoff and head off the risk of a wider Middle East war, the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany came close to winning concessions from Iran on its nuclear work in return for some sanctions relief at negotiations earlier this month.

Top policymakers from the six have since said that an interim accord on confidence-building steps could finally be within reach. But diplomats caution that differences remain and could still prevent an agreement.

Russia is hopeful that a preliminary deal will emerge this week, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"We hope the efforts that are being made will be crowned with success at the meeting that opens today in Geneva," he told a news conference on Wednesday.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran would not step back from its nuclear rights and he had set "red lines" for his negotiators in Geneva. But Tehran wanted friendly ties with all countries, including the United States.

"We want to have friendly relations with all nations, even the United States," he told an audience of Basij militiamen.

"Death to America," the militiamen chanted in response, repeating one of the main rallying cries for supporters of the Islamic Republic.

The last meeting stumbled over Iran's insistence that its "right" to enrich uranium be recognised, and disagreement over its work on a heavy-water reactor near Arak, which could yield plutonium for atomic bombs once it becomes operational.

STICKING POINT

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has since indicated a way around the first sticking point, saying Tehran has the right to refine uranium but is not insisting others recognise that right.

A U.N. report last week showed Iran had stopped expanding its enrichment of uranium and had not added major new components at Arak since August, when moderate Hassan Rouhani replaced hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president.

Nuclear analyst Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group think-tank said the "body language" showed that the sides were ready for a deal, pointing to Iran slowing its nuclear push and Washington refraining, so far, from imposing more sanctions.

"(They) have demonstrated that they are looking to transform stumbling blocks into stepping stones," Vaez said.

Zarif, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator, said on the eve of the meeting there was "every possibility" of a successful conclusion provided there was good faith and the political will among all involved to resolve problems.

U.S. President Barack Obama sounded a more cautious note on Tuesday, saying it was unclear whether the world powers and Iran will be able to reach an agreement soon.

American lawmakers urged the Obama administration on Tuesday to take a tougher line with Iran.

The talks are expected to resume with a meeting between Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who coordinates contacts with Iran on behalf of the powers.

Western governments suspect Iran has enriched uranium with the covert aim of developing the means to fuel nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies. Refined uranium can fuel nuclear power plants - Iran's stated goal - but also provide the core of a nuclear bomb, if enriched further.

CONFRONTATION

After years of confrontation, a shift towards meaningful diplomacy between Iran and the world powers began after the June election of Rouhani on a platform to relieve the Islamic Republic's increasing international isolation and get sanctions strangling its oil-dependent economy lifted.

Rouhani wants to move quickly: Western sanctions have reduced Iran's daily oil export revenue by 60 percent since 2011 and caused its currency to collapse.

But diplomats say Iran has so far refused to meet all of the powers' demands. They include suspending enrichment of uranium to 20 percent fissile purity - a significant advance toward the threshold for bomb fuel - as well as limiting its enrichment capacity and mothballing the Arak reactor project.

The Iranian assets that would be unfrozen as part of any deal this week would amount to less than $10 billion, U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice told CNN.

Western diplomats have kept much of the details of the proposed deal under wraps but said Iran would not win relief from the most painful sanctions on oil trade and banking that many believe finally forced into serious negotiations.

Under an initial deal the OPEC producer is likely to regain access to precious metals markets and trade in petrochemicals, an important source of export income, and could see the release of some of its oil revenues frozen in oversees accounts.

If an agreement is struck in the coming days, it is intended to be the first step on the road towards a broader settlement that would avert the threat a new Middle East war.

In crafting a deal, Western governments are wary of critics across the Middle East, especially in Israel and Saudi Arabia, who view Iran as a deadly threat, and of hawks in the U.S. Congress who want stiffer sanctions and terms for Tehran.

Obama warned Congress on Tuesday that Iran would make progress towards nuclear arms status if there were no deal to halt or roll back its nuclear programme and urged lawmakers to hold off on tightening sanctions while talks continue.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Washington, Israel's main ally, to avoid making a "historical mistake" when negotiators appeared close to a deal this month. Israel wants Iran to scrap its entire nuclear energy infrastructure.

Israel, widely assumed to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, has warned it may bomb Iranian nuclear facilities if it deems diplomacy futile in reining in Tehran before it attains nuclear "breakout" capability.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

US Supreme court upholds new Texas abortion law

HOUSTON: A divided US Supreme Court has refused to block implementation of a controversial law limiting abortions in Texas that will force a third of clinics in America's second-largest state to stop performing the procedure.

The court voted 5-4 in favour of a provision requiring doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

Abortion rights groups had challenged the law passed in July by the Republican-led Texas Legislature.

Texas officials have defended the law in lower federal courts, with Planned Parenthood and other opponents winning an initial victory that was overturned days later by a US Court of Appeals.

In the ruling, "The majority said that the challengers had not met the requirement for setting aside a federal appeals court order permitting the law to take effect."

Critics of the Texas law have said it imposes a burden both on physicians who perform abortions and on their patients, with its requirement that the doctors have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles (48.28 km) of their clinic.

That court is expected to hear arguments in January, and the law will remain in effect at least until then.

Abortion rights groups and clinics said the law served no medical purpose and was forcing a third of the state's 36 abortion clinics to stop performing the procedure, preventing some 20,000 women a year from access to safe abortions.

State officials told the court that the law, which requires that doctors have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of where they perform abortions, protects public health by "fostering a woman's ability to seek consultation and treatment for complications directly from her physician."

The officials added that the impact of the law was modest, saying that more than 90 per cent of women seeking abortions in the state will still live within 100 miles of an abortion clinic.

The law had been temporarily stalled when Wendy Davis, a Democratic state senator, mounted an 11-hour filibuster in the Republican-controlled Legislature. SHK NSA


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Malala receives EU Sakharov rights prize

STRASBOURG, France: Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai was handed the EU's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on Wednesday in recognition of her crusade for the right of all children, girls and boys, to an education.

To thunderous applause announcing the European Parliament prize, the assembly's president Martin Schulz praised the 16-year-old activist as "a survivor, a heroine and an extraordinary young woman" and said: "You have given hope to millions of people."

Malala, dressed in orange and with her father Ziauddin at her side, became the 25th winner of the Sakharov prize at the ceremony significantly held on World Children's Day, with 21 of the former winners present.

Past winners of the 50,000 euro ($68,000) prize also include South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

Accepting the award "in the name of God", Malala spoke out for the 57 million children in the world deprived of education, emphasising the lack of schooling for girls, often because of forced marriages, trafficking, poverty and sexual violence.

"Children don't want an iPhone, an Xbox or chocolates," she said as lawmakers rose to their feet, "They just want a book and a pen."

Governments need to cut military spending and invest instead in education to create "a country with a talented, educated and skillful people", she said.

"There is hope, because we all are here together united to help innocent children come out of the quagmire of trouble," she added.

Schulz said Malala, who was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban for speaking out against them, was "a symbol of resistance to fanaticism" and he lauded her father for encouraging her speak out and battle for girls' rights.

Earlier this month however, Pakistani private schools banned her book "I Am Malala" for "anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam content" and a hardline cleric linked to the attack on her life was appointed the new chief of the Pakistani Taliban.

Malala, who was also nominated for the Nobel Peace prize, was taken to Britain for treatment in the wake of last year's attack and now goes to school in the central city of Birmingham.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hunt on for Paris shooter, victim critical but 'better'

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 19 November 2013 | 21.51

PARIS: A massive manhunt was under way on Tuesday in Paris, a day after a gunman shot and critically wounded a photographer at the offices of a major newspaper before opening fire outside a bank headquarters and hijacking a car.

Investigators have so far been unable to identify the gunman — described as white and aged between 35 and 45 — and branded a "real danger" by interior minister Manuel Valls.

A police source said on Tuesday that about 400 calls had come in following an appeal for information from the public.

"Of these 120 have been taken seriously and are being followed up," the source said.

Investigators issued a new photograph of the suspect taken by a close-circuit camera on Monday in Paris's central Concorde metro station, near the Avenue des Champs Elysees.

It shows a man with a round face, wearing a red jacket and a beige cap, and carrying a black shoulder bag.

His motive remains unclear, but police believe the man was also behind an incident on Friday in which staff at a Paris news television station were threatened by a gun-wielding intruder.

The attacker, wearing a cap and wielding a 12-gauge shotgun, opened fire at the offices of left-wing newspaper Liberation at about 10.15am (0915 GMT) on Monday.

A photographer arriving for his first day of freelance work at the paper suffered buckshot wounds to the chest and stomach.

Liberation said he was 23, originally from the southern city of Toulon and had been about to work on a photo shoot on Christmas presents.

He was taken to hospital in critical condition. The newspaper later said he underwent surgery and was being kept in intensive care.

Liberation's publisher Nicolas Demorand said on Tuesday the man was "still critical," although he was "in a slightly better state."

"He was in a hopeless state yesterday when he was hospitalised," Demorand told France Inter. "He is however in a critical state and we remain hopeful."

Demorand said the shooting in the Liberation's entrance hall left staff traumatised but the paper vowed to carry on its work.

A commentary in Tuesday's edition of the paper signed by Demorand said simply: "We will continue".

"Opening fire in a newspaper is an attack on the lives of men and women who are only doing their jobs. And on an idea, a set of values, which we call 'The Republic'," it said.

The daily devoted four pages to the unprecedented attack and an employee described the moment the gunman walked in.

"The guy pulled out a gun from his bag and fired twice at the first person he saw. It lasted no more than 10 seconds, and anyone of us could have been hit. The shooter said nothing and left immediately," the staff member was quoted as saying.

After fleeing the daily's offices in the east of Paris, the same man is believed to have crossed the city to the La Defense business district on its western edge, where he fired several shots outside the main office of the Societe Generale bank, hitting no one.

He then reportedly hijacked a car driven by a priest and forced him to drop him off close to the Champs-Elysees in the centre of the French capital, where gun crime is rare.

A judicial source quoted the driver as saying that the gunman told him that he had "been released from prison, was ready to do anything and had a grenade."

Police said security camera images of the shooter suggested he was the same man who last Friday stormed into the Paris headquarters of TV news channel BFMTV to threaten staff.

In that incident, the gunman pumped his shotgun to empty several cartridges on the floor, while warning a senior editor: "Next time, I will not miss you."

Philippe Antoine, the editor-in-chief of BFMTV, came face-to-face with the attacker during Friday's incident and said he had appeared calm and determined.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Tuesday that police were working relentlessly, adding: "We will find the perpetrator so that he is tried and sentenced."


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

End Central African Republic killings: UN chief

UNITED NATIONS: UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon urged the UN security council on Monday to immediately back military action to protect civilians in Central African Republic before the growing ethnic and religious strife leads to widespread atrocities.

He called on the council to authorize international support to an existing African Union-led peace operation and to permit emergency intervention from UN forces elsewhere in Africa "should there be a precipitous deterioration in the situation."

Ban said in a report to the council obtained by The Associated Press that he backed the eventual transformation of the African Union force into a UN peacekeeping force with 6,000 troops and 1,700 police officers.

But he said another 3,000 UN soldiers would be needed if the crisis degenerates.

One of the world's poorest countries with a long history of chaos and coups, Central African Republic has been in turmoil since a coalition of rebel groups joined forces to overthrow the president in March and put their leader in charge.

Since seizing power, Seleka rebels have plunged the country into a state of near-anarchy. They have been accused by human rights groups of committing scores of atrocities, of widespread looting, killings, rapes and conscription of child soldiers.

Ban said escalating attacks by former Seleka combatants, who are mostly Muslim, and retaliation by traditional militia groups known as anti-Balaka, who are mainly Christian, are fueling a conflict that was neither religious nor ethnic when it started. About half of Central African Republic's 4.6 million people are Christian, and 15 percent Muslim, with the others following indigenous religions.

"This cycle, if not addressed now, threatens to degenerate into a country-wide religious and ethnic divide, with the potential to spiral into an uncontrollable situation, including atrocity crimes, with serious national and regional implications," Ban warned.

In October, the security council unanimously backed the new African Union peacekeeping force and called for free and fair elections within 18 months.

So far, the African Union force has about 2,590 personnel in Central African Republic, the majority in the capital, Bangui.

Ban said an African Union force "will still have maximum capability levels that will differ from those of a United Nations peacekeeping operation of similar size" because UN peacekeepers are better trained and better equipped with artillery, armored vehicles, and attack helicopters.

Philippe Bolopion, the UN director for Human Rights Watch, who is just back from Central African Republic, told the AP, "The report is very alarming, and yet very lucid when it comes to assessing the potential for widespread atrocities."

"If you read between the lines, it's clear that African peacekeepers are not the solution to the challenges facing the country. Only a UN peacekeeping mission would have a shot at preventing the worst," he said.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Spying row: Indonesian leader slams Oz PM

JAKARTA: Indonesia's president criticized Australia's prime minister on Tuesday for not expressing remorse over the alleged wiretapping of his phone, and said cooperation agreements between the near-neighbors would be reviewed.

In Canberra, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott endorsed intelligence gathering in principle without confirming or denying the reported spying under a previous government in 2009.

In a series of tweets confirmed by his office, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reacted strongly. One in the Indonesian language said, "I also deplore the statement of Australian Prime Minister who underestimates the wiretapping of Indonesia, without sense of guilt."

A later English tweet used the word "regret" instead of "deplore" and said the statement "belittled this tapping matter on Indonesia, without any remorse."

Yudhoyono tweeted that Indonesia wanted an official Australian response that could be understood and that bilateral cooperation agreements would be reviewed as a consequence of "this hurtful action."

Indonesia already has recalled its ambassador following the reports that Australian spies attempted to listen to the president's cellphone in 2009.

Analysts describe the furor as the lowest point in a perennially volatile bilateral relationship since 1999, when Australia led a UN military force into the former Indonesian province of East Timor following a bloody independence ballot. At that time, Indonesia ripped up a 4-year-old security treaty with Australia. A new treaty has since been signed.

Australian Broadcasting Corp and Guardian reported that they had documents from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden showing that the top-secret Australian Signals Directorate also targeted the phones of Indonesian first lady Kristiani Herawati and eight other government ministers and officials.

Abbott told Parliament on Tuesday he regretted any embarrassment that the spying reports had caused Yudhoyono but ruled out demands for an apology and explanation.

"I regard President Yudhoyono as a good friend of Australia, indeed as one of the very best friends that we have anywhere in the world," Abbott said. "That's why ... I sincerely regret any embarrassment that recent media reports have caused him."

But he said national security required consistent determination to do what's best, and his government would support how past governments chose to do that. "Australia should not be expected to apologize for the steps we take to protect our country now or in the past, any more than other governments should be expected to apologize for the similar steps that they have taken," he said.

"The first duty of every government is to protect the country and to advance its national interests," Abbott said. "That's why every government gathers information and why every government knows that every other government gathers information."

Indonesian Ambassador Nadjib Riphat Kesoema left Australia on Tuesday morning, urging its government to come clean.

"I think a good explanation will be the best way ... to ease the problem," Kesoema told reporters at Canberra airport.

The diplomatic spat is an early test for Abbott's government, which was elected in September and is anxious to cement ties with it populous near-neighbor before the uncertainty of Indonesian presidential elections next year.

Australia wants to increase cooperation against human traffickers who ship asylum seekers in rickety boats from the Indonesian archipelago to Australian shores.

Indonesia temporarily recalled its Australian ambassador in 2006 to protest Australia's decision to accept as refugees 42 asylum seekers from the restive Indonesian province of West Papua. Australia determined that they would face persecution under Indonesian rule if they returned home.

Greg Fealy, an Australian National University expert on Australia-Indonesia relations, said the bilateral relationship was at its lowest point since 1999.

"Depending on the Australian government's response, it could still get worse," Fealy said.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Iraq executes 12 'terror' convicts amid surging unrest

Written By Unknown on Senin, 18 November 2013 | 21.50

BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities announced the execution of a dozen "terrorism" convicts on Monday, defying widespread international condemnation of Baghdad's use of the death penalty as violence nationwide has surged.

The latest executions, carried out on Sunday, bring to at least 144 the total number of people put to death by Iraq so far this year, compared to 129 for all of 2012, according to an AFP tally based on reports from the justice ministry and officials.

"Yesterday (Sunday), we executed 12 convicts," a senior justice ministry official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"All of them were Iraqi men accused of terrorism." The official gave no further details about the men or the crimes they had been convicted of.

Executions in Iraq, usually carried out by hanging, have increased this year despite persistent international criticism urging Baghdad to issue a moratorium on capital punishment.

In a statement issued on World Day Against the Death Penalty last month, the justice ministry said it had executed 42 convicts in one week.

The executions have drawn widespread condemnation from the European Union, the United Nations and rights groups.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said this year that Iraq's criminal justice system was "not functioning adequately."

She highlighted "numerous convictions based on confessions obtained under torture and ill-treatment, a weak judiciary and trial proceedings that fall short of international standards."

"The application of the death penalty in these circumstances is unconscionable, as any miscarriage of justice as a result of capital punishment cannot be undone," Pillay said.

But Iraqi justice minister Hassan al-Shammari has insisted that the executions are carried out only after an exhaustive legal process.

The growing use of the death penalty comes as violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal sectarian conflict.

More than 5,700 people have died so far this year in surging unrest that has forced Iraq to appeal for international help in combatting militancy, with the government facing criticism from diplomats and analysts saying it has not done enough to address the root causes of the bloodshed.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

US pastor facing church trial over gay marriage

A US pastor who could be defrocked for officiating at his son's same-sex wedding faces a church trial Monday.

The Rev. Frank Schaefer, 51, could face punishment ranging from a reprimand to suspension to losing his minister's credentials if a jury comprised of fellow Methodist clergy convicts him of breaking his pastoral vows by presiding over the 2007 ceremony in Massachusetts. Schaefer's supporters argue that church teaching on homosexuality is outmoded.

"Public opinion has changed very rapidly," said the pastor's son, Tim Schaefer, 29. "I hope this leads to a renewed conversation to revisit these policies to see if they are a little archaic."

He will testify on his father's behalf.

Schaefer could have avoided a trial if he had agreed to never again perform a same-gender wedding, but he declined because three of his four children are gay.

The nation's largest mainline Protestant denomination accepts gay and lesbian members, but it rejects the practice of homosexuality as "incompatible with Christian teaching."

The issue has split the church. Hundreds of Methodist ministers have publicly rejected church doctrine on homosexuality, and some of them face discipline for presiding over same-sex unions.

Critics say those pastors are sowing division within the church and ignoring the church's democratic decision-making process. Indeed, the denomination's top legislative body, the 1,000-member general conference, reaffirmed the church's 40-year-old policy on gays at its last worldwide meeting in 2012.

The methodists have set aside three days for Schaefer's trial, to be held at a church retreat in Spring City, Pennsylvania, beginning on Monday.

Tim Schaefer will testify on his father's behalf.

Tim Schaefer struggled as a teenager, aware of Methodist doctrine on homosexuality. He said he prayed every night that "God would make me normal, take this away from me." He contemplated suicide but knew it would devastate his family. Schaefer finally told his parents at age 17, and he said they accepted him completely.

Years later, Schaefer knew he wanted his dad to perform his wedding ceremony.

"I remember thinking I have two choices: I can ask my dad and know I am putting him in a position ... where he would risk his career, or I could not ask my dad and really risk hurting his feelings. I think he would have been devastated if I hadn't asked him," he said.

Frank Schaefer has said he informed his superiors in the Eastern Pennsylvania conference that he planned to officiate his son's wedding, and again after the ceremony, which took place at a restaurant near Boston. He said he faced no discipline until April, about a month before the church's six-year statute of limitations was set to expire, when one of his congregants filed a complaint.

A Methodist trial resembles a secular trial in many ways, with counsel representing each side, a judge and jury, opening statements and closing arguments, and testimony and evidence.

Schaefer can appeal a conviction, but neither the church nor the person who brought the charge may appeal an acquittal.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Spying row: Indonesia recalls Oz envoy

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recalled his ambassador from Australia on Monday and ordered a review of bilateral cooperation following reports that an Australian security agency attempted to listen to his cellphone in 2009.

Australian Broadcasting Corp and Guardian reported on Monday that they had documents from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden showing that the Australian agency also targeted the phones of Indonesian first lady Kristiani Herawati and another eight government ministers and officials.

The documents reportedly showed that the Australian Defence Signals Directorate, now the top-secret Australian Signals Directorate, attempted to listen to the president's phone conversations on at least one occasion and tracked activity on the phone for 15 days in August 2009.

The diplomatic spat is the second in less than a month between Indonesia and Australia stemming from Snowden's revelations linking Australia with US espionage.

It's an early test for Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's new government, which was elected in September and is anxious to cement ties with it populous near-neighbor before the uncertainty of Indonesian presidential elections next year.

Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters in Jakarta on Monday afternoon that Yudhoyono had "directly ordered" the ambassador, Nadjib Riphat Kesoema, to be recalled.

Natalegawa said Indonesia "is very disturbed by this matter."

"This is not a clever thing to do, it's not a smart thing to do," Natalegawa said of the reported spying. "It violates every single decent and legal instrument that I can think of."

He said the onus was now on Australia to explain what happened and to make a commitment that it would never happen again.

"In short, it has not been a good day in the Indonesia-Australia relationship," Natalegawa said.

He said Kesoema would soon leave the Australian capital of Canberra and fly home. No time frame was given for his return to Australia.

Indonesia's coordinating minister of political and security affairs Joko Suyanto said in a statement that all cooperative relationships between the two countries were also under review, as were the postings of Australian officials in Jakarta.

Abbott, who was not in government in 2009, declined to comment on the reports in Parliament.

"All governments gather information, and all governments know that every other government gathers information," Abbott said.

"The Australian government uses all the resources at its disposal — including information — to help our friends and our allies, not to harm them," he added.

But Bob Carr, Australia's foreign minister until Abbott's coalition won September elections, advised Abbott to assure Yudhoyono that if his phone had been tapped, it wouldn't happen again.

"If the American president can give a guarantee to Angela Merkel of Germany that America won't be overhearing what she says on the phone, then we ought to be able to do it without any trouble to the president of Indonesia," Carr told Nine Network television news.

Second on the target list after the president was his wife, also known as Ani Yudhoyono.

Vice-President Boediono, who visited Australia last week, was third, and his predecessor, Jusuf Kalla, was fourth. Like many Indonesians, Boediono uses one name.

Also listed was the government's then-foreign spokesman, Dino Patti Djalal, who later became Indonesia's ambassador to Washington.

Former finance minister Sri Mulyani, now a managing director at the World Bank, was also on the list.

Earlier this month, the Indonesian government called in the Australian ambassador for an explanation following reports that the Australian Embassy in Jakarta was a hub for Washington's secret electronic data collection program.

A document from Snowden published last month by the German magazine Der Spiegel describes a signals intelligence program called "Stateroom" in which US, British, Australian and Canadian embassies house surveillance equipment to collect electronic communications. Those countries, along with New Zealand, have an intelligence-sharing agreement known as "Five Eyes."

The Australian embassy in Jakarta was listed as one of the embassies involved in a report from Australia's Fairfax media, along with Australian embassies in Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Dili in East Timor; and high commissions in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Italy's Etna volcano erupts, lighting up sky over Sicily

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 17 November 2013 | 21.51

ROME: Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, has erupted again, lighting up the sky over much of eastern Sicily and shooting up a towering column of ash.

The eruption, which began late Saturday and tapered off Sunday morning, didn't endanger any of villages dotting the mountain's slopes, and no evacuation was ordered.

The airport in nearby Catania said two air space sectors above the volcano were closed to flights, but that the airport itself was operating normally, including takeoffs and departures.

Etna erupts occasionally. Its last major eruption occurred in 1992.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Death toll rises to 12 in Afghan bombing

KABUL: The death toll from a suicide vehicle bomb attack on the site of a key national council in Afghanistan's capital has risen to 12, officials said on Sunday.

The Taliban meanwhile took credit for the blast the day before outside the huge tent where next week's Loya Jirga is to be held later this week.

Elsewhere, in the insurgency-racked south, villagers discovered the beheaded bodies of six government contractors and a service member from the international coalition died when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb, officials and NATO said.

Yesterday's suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle after being spotted by Afghan security personnel guarding the Loya Jirga site, said interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi. He said three of the 12 dead were members of Afghanistan's National Security Force with most of the rest civilians.

The blast came days before the Loya Jirga's scheduled Thursday opening, in which thousands of prominent Afghans are scheduled to meet to debate a contentious security agreement with the United States.

Hours before, President Hamid Karzai announced that US and Afghan negotiators had completed a final draft of the Bilateral Security Agreement to be presented to the gathering for debate. If approved, it would allow U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan after the final withdrawal of international combat forces in 2014.

The Taliban took responsibility for the bombing, giving the bomber's name as Saeed Kabuli. They provided few other details.

Nato did not announce the nationality of the service member killed in the south, according to its rules. Most troops serving in southern Afghanistan are from Britain and the United States.

So far this year 139 Nato service members have been killed in Afghanistan, according to Associated Press figures. This compares to 394 troops of the Nato-led coalition killed in 2012.

Also in southern Afghanistan, where a stubborn insurgency flourishes, police said they recovered the decapitated bodies of six government contractors, the apparent victims of Taliban insurgents who regularly target state projects.

Kandahar police spokesman Ahmed Durrani said villagers found the bodies today. He said the men were involved in building police compounds and checkpoints in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban.

In northern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber attacked the deputy governor of Balkh province. While the official escaped unhurt, one civilian was killed, said Balkh police spokesman Sher Jan Durrani.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack, but the Taliban have previously targeted both officials and contractors, warning Afghans against working for the government.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Life in Germany's ex-communist east never better'

BERLIN: Falling unemployment, higher birthrates and heavy investment in education have created the best living standards in Germany's ex-communist east since the fall of the Berlin Wall, an upcoming government report said.

Excerpts from the official study published in Sunday's Bild am Sonntag newspaper said the sunnier outlook in a region long plagued by grim economic conditions had largely halted a brain drain of easterners to the west.

In the report, to be presented by Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich on Wednesday, the authors said that the east was now catching up to the west by many measures of success.

"Nearly a generation after reunification (in 1990), economic living standards in the eastern and western states, particularly in terms of material prosperity, have clearly improved," they wrote.

"In recent years, the erstwhile planned economy has turned into an industrial region with increasingly competitive companies."

The jobless rate has sunk to 10.7 per cent from 18.7 per cent in 2005 in the east, against 6.5 per cent in Germany as a whole currently.

According to the findings, the number of easterners returning home from the west nearly matched the number of easterners moving west in 2012 for the first time since reunification.

Also helping to staunch the drop in population is a gradual rise in the birthrate in the east to a slightly higher level than in the west. Bild did not provide figures ahead of the report's publication.

Manufacturing has begun to boom again in the eastern states, while generous support for education, research and development has also nurtured economic growth, the report found.

Unemployment soared and the birthrate plummeted in east Germany in the years after the fall of communism, leading to widespread disillusionment with the promises of reunification.

Between 1989 and 2010, some 4.1 million east Germans moved to the west, according to the federal statistics office, most seeking work. During the same period some 2.1 million westerners moved east.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Six killed in Kabul bomb attack: Ministry

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 16 November 2013 | 21.50

KABUL: At least six people were killed and 22 injured when a suicide bomber struck near a venue where Afghan elites will debate a security pact with the US next week, the interior ministry said.

"Inital information shows that unfortunately four civilians, one police and one soldier have been killed in today's attack, 22 more, majority of them civilians, have been injured," spokesman for Afghan interior ministry Sediq Sediqqi told AFP, adding that the toll may rise.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Philippines: Survivors begin to rebuild

TANAUAN (Philippines): Long-delayed emergency supplies flowed into the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines on Saturday, reaching desperate families who had to fend for themselves for days, as the United Nations more than doubled its estimate of homeless to nearly two million.

The aid effort was still patchy, with relief officials reporting a surge in desperate, hungry survivors trying to leave the coastal city of Ormoc, 105 km (65 miles) west of Tacloban, the worst-affected major city.

More than a week after Typhoon Haiyan killed at least 3,633 with tree-snapping winds and tsunami-like waves, hundreds of international aid workers set up makeshift hospitals and trucked in supplies. Helicopters from a US aircraft carrier ferried medicine and water to remote, battered areas.

Residents of Tanauan, a fishing town about 15 km (9 miles) southeast of Tacloban, said they only started receiving substantial aid on Friday after being forced to survive on biscuits and dispose of dead bodies on their own for days.

More than 60 people were buried behind the municipal office in the district of 50,000 people. Down the road, dozens of corpses were interred under a roundabout.

"I think (the response) was quite slow. This town was isolated. Media didn't come here. We were out of circulation for three days," said Penny Tecson, the wife of the district's mayor. She was running the recovery operation while her husband, Pel Tecson, was in Tacloban to coordinate the district's first large-scale delivery of aid from the national government.

In one ward of Tanauan, neighborhood chief Cecilio Yepes Jr. estimated his community lost nearly 10 percent of its 1,176 residents. Here, the storm surge has transformed an entire swampy plain into a rubbish pile of trees and debris. Locals have recovered and buried 30 bodies. Another 98 remain somewhere in the vast wasteland that stretches on either side of the road.

At least 800 people died in the district of Palo, which lies between Tanauan and Tacloban, national authorities said.

In Tacloban, work crews and heavy equipment cleared debris from roadsides, but side streets remained piled with the sodden, tangled remains of homes which city officials fear could reveal hundreds more bodies when they are eventually cleared.

There are 1,179 people missing, according to the national count. The official death toll only rose by 12 on Saturday, giving hope that initial local estimates of 10,000 dead were overblown.

In front of Tacloban's San Fernando Elementary School, government workers distributed sacks of aid to a restless crowd of hundreds who had spent the last week camped in shattered wooden classrooms or in a main school building with floors covered in wet black sand. Nearby, about a dozen body bags were neatly lined up by the roadside.

Rica Mobilla, an 18-year-old mother of one, said local authorities showed up two days after the disaster, handing out four kilograms of rice and a few packs of noodles for her family of thirteen. The family stretched this out with onions and garlic bought from the market.

"I'm upset. I'm not blaming anyone. If there's aid there to give out we'll receive it," she said.

President Benigno Aquino, caught off guard by the scale of the disaster, is scheduled to visit typhoon-affected areas on Sunday. He has been criticised for the slow pace of aid distribution and unclear estimates of casualties, especially in Tacloban, capital of hardest-hit Leyte province.

In Tacloban the death toll is written on a whiteboard at City Hall and bodies have been buried in mass graves since Thursday. Tacloban mayor Alfred Romualdez said many people may have been swept out to sea after the tsunami-like wall of seawater slammed into coastal areas.

Survivors start to rebuild, homeless rise

The Philippines Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman acknowledged in a radio interview that the national relief response had been too slow to reach many areas.

"We will double our efforts to distribute relief goods because we've been hearing complaints that a lot of people have yet to receive relief goods," she said.

Arnaldo Arcadio, an emergency responder with the Catholic Relief Services group, said desperation over conditions in remote rural areas had led people to surge into Ormoc in hope of fleeing the city by ferry.

"People are fleeing in mass numbers and coming to Ormoc, where they stand in line all day to get on a ferry only to be turned away," he said.

"Ormoc is teeming with people who haven't eaten in days. They're hungry, thirsty and tired. They want to get out."

Across Tacloban, survivors have begun to rebuild. The sounds of hammers ring out. Men gather in groups to fix motorbikes or drag debris off splintered homes and wrecked streets. Most have given up searching for lost loved ones.

The number of people made homeless by the storm rose to 1.9 million, up from 900,000, the United Nations' humanitarian agency said. In Tacloban, at least 56,000 people face unsanitary conditions, according to the United Nations' migration agency.

US helicopters aid relief effort

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday pledged 30 million pounds for international aid agencies working in the Philippines.

Japan plans to send 1,180 troops to the Philippines, its largest oversea deployment for disaster relief. Japanese destroyer Ise and transport vessel Osumi will leave for the Philippines in a few days carrying helicopters to deliver aid.

But the patchy initial aid response highlighted the need for international agencies and local governments to prepare for more frequent, more devastating natural disasters, said Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.

"This is a mindset change that must happen if we want to be able to stand up to this trend," she told Reuters in Tacloban.

US military assistance has been pouring into the Philippines since Thursday when the USS George Washington aircraft carrier and accompanying ships arrived off eastern Samar province, carrying 5,000 crew and more than 80 aircraft.

The Philippines is one of Washington's closest allies in Asia and a crucial partner in President Barack Obama's strategy of rebalancing US military forces towards the region to counter the rising clout of China.

The Pentagon said on Friday that US Navy amphibious ships will leave Okinawa in Japan "in the coming hours" carrying an additional 1,000 marines and sailors who will provide engineering equipment, relief supplies, and medical support.

The US military estimates that it delivered some 623,000 pounds (283,000 kg) of US relief supplies to the Philippines so far. The American military also estimated that it had moved nearly 1,200 relief workers into Tacloban and airlifted nearly 2,900 displaced people from affected areas so far.


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Trust us on war crimes probe: Rajapakse

COLOMBO: President Mahinda Rajapakse said on Saturday that Sri Lanka must be trusted to conduct its own investigation into war crimes allegations and warned against international pressure on his regime's human rights record.

"People in glass houses must not throw stones," Rajapakse said in a press conference in Colombo where he is chairing a Commonwealth summit.

The three-day gathering has been overshadowed by allegations of war crimes by his troops at the end of an ethnic war in 2009.

British Prime Minister David Cameron had earlier given Rajapakse's regime until March to come up with credible results from its own investigation into the final stages of the war or else he would lead a push for the issue to be taken up by the United Nations.

Rajapakse, however, said Sri Lanka must be allowed to complete its own investigation in its own time.

"They have to trust us," he said. "Pressure wont do anything. ... It's much better to wait rather than demand or dictate."


21.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Jihadists say Syria rebel beheaded in error: Report

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 15 November 2013 | 21.51

BEIRUT: Al-Qaida-linked jihadists in Syria have admitted beheading a fellow rebel by mistake after believing him to be an Iraqi Shia fighting alongside regime forces, a watchdog said on Friday.

A video posted on the internet on Wednesday showed two members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) holding up a bearded man's head before a crowd in Aleppo in northern Syria.

They said he was an Iraqi Shia who had been fighting among the ranks of President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

"Some minutes after the video was posted, the man was identified as Mohammed Marroush, a fighter with rebel group Ahrar al-Sham," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The Islamist Ahrar al-Sham is an ISIL ally. "ISIL later admitted the rebel had been killed by mistake and said it had arrested one of its men, a Tunisian, for decapitating him. He was referred to their Islamic court."

The second man, also a foreign fighter and from the Gulf, has not been detained.

Marroush had been wounded in fighting at a regime military base east of Aleppo, Syria's second city and former commercial hub.

In the battle, rebel and jihadist groups squared up against Syrian soldiers backed by members of Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah movement and Iraqi Shias of the Abu Fadl al-Abbas group.

Marroush was taken to hospital outside Aleppo for treatment, and in his drugged state was heard to repeat the names Ali and Hussein, two venerated Shia imams.

"This was the last thing he had heard from the Shia fighters before being wounded," an observatory statement said.

"The two ISIL men deduced he was a Shia fighter and cut his head off," it added, calling the decapitation "a war crime".


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

EU clears Spain in new row with UK over Gibraltar

BRUSSELS: The EU executive on Friday said it had found no proof of British claims that Spain had violated European Union rules on border and customs checks at Gibraltar's border.

"The commission has not found evidence to conclude that the checks on people and goods as operated by the Spanish authorities at the crossing point of La Linea de la Conception have infringed the relevant provisions of Union law," a European Commission statement said.

Brussels said its findings were based both on its observations during a technical visit on September 25 and on information provided by both sides.

But the commission said "the management of this crossing point is nevertheless challenging, in view of the heavy traffic volumes in a relatively confined space and the increase in tobacco smuggling into Spain."

In a letter sent to Spain on Friday, the EU recommended improving the crossing by adding lanes, decreasing random checks in favour of more targeted controls and exchanging data on smuggling with Britain.

A letter sent to Britain the same day also recommended improved measures to fight smuggling as well as the exchange of intelligence with Spain and more risk-based profiling of travellers crossing the border.

The commission said it would review the situation in six months. In London, a Foreign Office spokesman told AFP that Britain welcomed Brussels' recommendation that the Spanish government "should take measures to ensure that the Gibraltar-Spain border functions efficiently."

British EU inspectors were sent to assess customs controls at Gibraltar's border with Spain after a fresh row during the summer.

Tension flared in July when Gibraltar boats dumped blocks of concrete in disputed waters used by Spanish fishermen. Gibraltar said it was creating an artificial reef that would boost fish populations.

Spain complained the blocks threaten the livelihoods of Spanish fishermen and blamed Gibraltar for an increase in tobacco smuggling to the Spanish mainland.

Madrid subsequently stepped up border checks, leading to huge queues for motorists, in what Britain and Gibraltar charged were a retaliatory measure aimed at choking the territory's economy.

Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in 1713 but has long argued that it should be returned to Spanish sovereignty. London says it will not do so against the wishes of Gibraltarians, who are staunchly pro-British.


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

In Philippines, battered town gets busy rebuilding

GUIUAN (Philippines): The knock of hammer on nail, the buzz of chain saws, the swish of brooms clearing up debris from wrecked homes and yards: The sound of people putting their lives back together rings out across this devastated town.

A week after the typhoon struck the Philippines, there is immense need along this coast, much of it untouched by an aid effort that is struggling against clogged airports, blocked roads and a lack of manpower.

But amid the desperation, a spirit of resilience was clearly evident Friday as the residents of Guiuan (GEE-one) and other battered towns started rebuilding their lives and those of their neighbors — with or without help from their government or a foreign aid groups.

At 6am, Dionesio de la Cruz was hammering together a bed, using scavenged rusty nails. He has already built a temporary shelter out of the remains of his house.

"We're on our own, so we have to do this on our own," the 40-year-old said as his wife and mother slept on a nearby table. "We're not expecting anybody to come and help us."

Authorities estimate some 600,000 people have been displaced by Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the islands of Samar and Leyte hardest. Most of those are likely to be homeless. Along with food, water and medicine, aid groups will prioritize the distribution of tools, nails and other equipment to allow people like de la Cruz to make better shelters while more permanent solutions are considered.

The death toll, meanwhile, was raised Friday by disaster authorities to 3,621, up from the previous figure of 2,360. Some officials have projected that the eventual toll will top 10,000, after the missing are declared dead and remote regions are reached.

In signs that relief efforts were picking up, US navy helicopters were flying sorties from the aircraft carrier USS George Washington off the coast, dropping water and food to isolated communities.

The government — perhaps inevitably — has come under some criticism for its inability to get supplies out quicker.

"In a situation like this, nothing is fast enough," interior secretary Mar Roxas said in the Leyte capital, Tacloban, most of which was destroyed by the storm. "The need is massive, the need is immediate, and you can't reach everyone."

Back in the town of Guiuan, some 155 kilometers (about 100 miles) east of Tacloban, there were other signs of life emerging from the debris. One man was selling skewers of meat, a couple of kiosks are open selling soda and soaps. Everywhere, freshly washed clothes lay in sun, drying.

While many have left this and other affected towns, some are choosing to stay and help.

Take Susan Tan, a shop owner. She was all set to fly elsewhere in the country after hungry townsfolk swarmed her business a few days after the storm struck, stripping the shelves of everything of value.

But a friend persuaded her to stay, and she is now running a relief center from her shop, which has been in the family since the 1940s.

"I can't just go to Cebu and sit in the mall while this place is in ruins," she said. "Although I've been looted and made bankrupt by this, I cannot refuse my friends and my town. We need to help each other."

Tan managed to get her hands on a satellite phone from a friend who works for a local cell phone provider. Hundreds line up in the sun to use it to call relatives to let them know they are safe. One minute per caller is the house rule.

On Thursday afternoon, she welcomed her first aid shipment. It's a fraction of what is needed, buts it's a start: 20 boxes containing dried noodles, canned goods, sardines, medicines, some bottle water.

Guiuan was one of the first towns to be hit by the storm. It suffered massive damage, but casualty figures were lower than in Tacloban and some other towns because it was largely spared from storm surges.

In Tacloban, there were also some signs a battered population was beginning to get back on its feet even as trucks carrying corpses drove through its streets on the way to a mass grave.

The ornate tiled floor of a still-standing church was covered in mud as sunlight poured in through holes in the wind-peeled ceilings. Inside, people prayed while others swept dirt from the pews.

Residents hauled debris into piles in the streets and set them on fire. Others were at work making frames for temporary homes.

In one neighborhood, dozens of people crowded around a mobile generator, where countless cords snaked across the dirt and into power strips. Residents plugged in mobile phones, tablets and flashlights, hoping for a precious gulp of electricity, even though cell coverage remained spotty.

John Lajara was already thinking about replacing his old residence, which once had a pool table and a sea breeze. Now it's a trash heap.

"We can't wait so I am building my house again," he said. "Back to zero."

John Bumanig and his wife were cleaning out their second-hand clothes shop, which was swamped by storm surges. They were laying out ladies bras in the sun, though they weren't hopeful anyone would buy them. Most of the stock had to be thrown out.

They were determined to stay in Tacloban, but faced an uncertain future.

"We cannot do anything, but will find a way to overcome this," said his wife, Luisa, holding back tears. "We have to strive hard because we still have children to take care of."

In Guiuan, a team of volunteers from elsewhere in the Philippines was clearing rubble from the road to the airport so that relief goods could get in quicker. Its leader, Peter Degrido, was trying to move an overturned passenger bus with a truck and steel cables.

"It's devastating to see this. But people are slowly recovering," he said. "They've already moved most of the bodies."


21.51 | 0 komentar | Read More
techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger