Five more US soldiers killed in Iraq unrest
AFP, BAGHDAD
Jan 5: Five US soldiers were killed on Thursday when a roadside bomb
hit their vehicle while on patrol in Iraq, the US military said.
The final results of Iraq's December election will be published within
four days, an electoral official said on Thursday, raising hope of an end to weeks of
uncertainty following the landmark poll. But a coalition of parties that believe the
December 15 vote was rigged immediately rejected any such announcement before an
investigation into its complaints by an independent team of monitors is completed.
US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair want
Iraq to form a parliament and new government as quickly as possible. They believe this
would improve security and stability on the ground and ultimately enable them to start
withdrawing their troops later this year. Highlighting the ongoing violence, a suicide
bomber blew himself up in the middle of an Iraqi funeral procession on Wednesday in the
bloodiest of a string of attacks across the country that left more than 50 people dead. It
was the deadliest violence since the election, first to elect a permanent parliament since
the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003. Abdul Hussein al-Hindawi, a member of the Iraqi
electoral commission board, said a complete list of election results will be announced by
Monday. But he told AFP it would take up to another fortnight before the results are fully
certified with all the names of the new members of parliament. First, the commission will
release the outcome of its own probe into some 1,800 complaints made in the wake of the
poll.
"We have almost finished this investigation," said Hindawi.
Of the 1,800 complaints about 50 are connected to election results, he said, and include
allegations of ballot-rigging and other forms of election fraud.
"In the next day or two we plan to release the results of our
investigation," Hindawi said.
Next, the commission will publish the election results, announcing
which parties, political groups or independent candidates have won all 275 seats that make
up the Iraqi parliament.
This will be done "in the next two to three days-four days
maximum," Hindawi said, noting that the results would be released on the commission's
website and in the official gazette, and also at a possible press conference. Of the 275
seats, 230 are divided amongst Iraq's 18 provinces according to the number of registered
voters in each area. For example, Baghdad-the most densely populated province-has 59
seats.
The remaining 45 seats are distributed as so-called compensatory seats
to political entities to help match the number of votes they collected nationwide.
"The final results will be published in about two weeks, hopefully
before 20 January," Hindawi said.
As for the work of an independent group of foreign monitors sent to
Iraq to review the election and complaints, it will continue separately to the
commission's timetable.
The International Mission for Iraqi Elections is due to publish its
findings of a review into the complaints and other matters within three weeks, but Hindawi
said there was "no need" for the commission to wait until then before making its
announcement.
But a spokesman for a group of 50 parties and personalities that have
complained of election fraud said any announcement by the commission before the
independent monitors finish their work would be illegal and irrational.
Car bomb in Afghan town kills 10
AFP, KANDAHAR
Jan 5: Ten people died and 50 were wounded on Thursday in a suicide
bomb attack in central Afghanistan during a visit by the US ambassador, US and Afghan
officials said.
US envoy Ronald Neumann was unhurt when the attacker detonated
explosives strapped to his body near the governor's headquarters in Tirin Kot, capital of
the central province of Uruzgan, provincial officials and the US embassy said.
The Taliban militia, which was ousted from power in late 2001 by a
US-led military operation, claimed responsibility for the attack. "Today when the US
ambassador was on a visit to Uruzgan an explosion took place which killed 10 civilians and
wounded 50 others, and the ambassador was in the provincial headquarters," deputy
governor Abdul Aziz told AFP. "We need to wait for the investigation results but it
seems now that the suicide bomber had strapped explosives to his body, although we were
told earlier it was a suicide car bomb attack," Aziz said. "Fifteen of the
wounded are in critical condition including the provincial police director. The area was
crowded because the US ambassador was visiting," he added.
The blast happened around half a kilometer (a third of a mile) outside
the provincial headquarters as the envoy visited the headquarters to discuss local
agricultural issues, he said.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Kabul, Lou Fintor, confirmed that the
ambassador was unharmed after the "security incident" in Uruzgan.
"Ambassador Neumann and his delegation of US officials visited a PRT (provincial
reconstruction team) and conferred with local officials in Tirin Kot on Thursday," he
said.
"The ambassador and his delegation are safe and have been
accounted for.
They were never in any danger."
Provincial governor Jan Mohammad Khan was away in Mecca for the Hajj,
the annual Muslim pilgrimage, provincial spokesman Abdullah Jan added. A self-styled
spokesman for the Taliban, Qari Mohammad Yusouf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for the
attack and gave a higher death toll of "around 20" without giving details.
Speaking by telephone from an unknown location, he said the suicide
attacker used a car bomb and was an Afghan citizen and resident of Uruzgan named Abdul
Rahim.
In the last three months Afghanistan has suffered more than a dozen
suicide attacks, which have claimed more than 30 lives including that of a German soldier.
Most have been blamed on remnants of the Taliban, who are now thought
to be copying the tactics of insurgents in Iraq.
Uruzgan is a known hotbed of violence linked to the Taliban and other
Islamic rebels fighting Afghan government and US-led coalition forces in the war-torn
country.
300 feared dead, 10,000 homeless in Indonesia: UN
Rain halts search for landslide victims
AFP, SIJERUK
Jan 5: At least 300 people in an Indonesian village in central Java
have probably been buried and killed by a landslide unleashed by heavy rain, the United
Nations said.
A torrent of mud slammed into Sijeruk village, 370 kilometres (230
miles) east of Jakarta.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in
Geneva said in a statement that "local authorities fear at least 300 people"
were buried in Sijeruk.
Local officials also said the landslide covered about six hectares (15
acres) and that the mud was up to five metres (16 feet) deep.
Television footage showed only the tops of tiled roofs of some houses
visible, along with smashed timber debris and other semi-flattened brick and concrete
homes.
The landslide -- which hit the village at about 5:00 am Wednesday (2200
GMT Tuesday) after three days of monsoon rains -- was the second disaster this week to hit
the island of Java, caused by monsoon rains and, activists charged, deforestation.
In the district of Jember, about 800 kilometres east of Jakarta, flash
flooding has killed 77 people since Saturday, "including 71 in the sub-district of
Panti, the area most affected by the torrential rain," the UN office said.
According to OCHA, 9,500 people have been left homeless in the
district, and nearly 7,000 are living in temporary camps.
In Sijeruk, local chief of police operations Budi said about 150 police
and soldiers were involved in rescue operations, which were halted overnight and set to
resume early Thursday.
A district welfare official, Umar Yulianto, said late Wednesday that
the confirmed death toll stood at 16. Local television said some 300 people were thought
missing.
Environmentalists blamed both disasters on rampant illegal logging as
well as land conversion for farming on Java, one of the world's most densely populated
islands, and called on the government to take action.
"We can look forward to another disaster if they don't stop
(deforestation) and if they don't reforest areas with original species to make new natural
forests," Greenpeace Southeast Asia forestry campaigner Hapsoro told the news agency.
"This is a sign for the Indonesian government to be more
serious."
Meanwhile, rescuers called off the search for up to 200 people buried
in a landslide that flattened a village in central Indonesia due to heavy rain as hopes of
finding survivors faded.
Officials said 34 bodies had been recovered but scores more remained
buried following Wednesday's landslide in Central Java province, which was triggered by
heavy rains.
Rescuers halted the search in the afternoon for fear of another
lanslide as more heavy rain pounded the area.
Among the bodies unearthed by rescuers on Thursday was that of a woman
holding her child.
"The possibility of finding survivors is almost nil,"
Mulyanto, a soldier assisting in the rescue efforts in the village of Sijeruk, told the
agency earlier Thursday.
Court orders continued food aid for quake-hit Indian
Kashmir
AFP, SRINAGAR
Jan 5: Indian Kashmir state officials have been ordered by a court to
supply food and kerosene for another month to survivors of October's deadly earthquake, an
official said.
"The orders were passed by the region's Chief Justice Bashir Khan
and senior Justice Bashir Kirmani on Wednesday," a court official told AFP on
Thursday.
He said a group of lawyers filed suit to force the state to continue
providing food for January in the worst-hit northern sectors of Uri and Tangdhar, and to
increase kerosene allotments to 10 litres (2.6 gallons) from six litres at subsidised
rates.
The October 8 earthquake killed some 1,300 people in Indian Kashmir and
left more than 150,000 homeless. More than 73,000 died across the border in Pakistani
Kashmir and North West Frontier province.
The state and federal government, working with the army in the
insurgency-hit region, has provided cash to survivors to rebuild their houses as well as
food supplies.
"We have provided free rations to the survivors for the months of
November and December," said Basharat Ahmed, the Kashmir valley's relief
commissioner.
UN warns of new disease threat to Pak quake survivors
AFP, ISLAMABAD
Jan 5: Survivors of last year's huge earthquake in Pakistan are at
increased risk of pneumonia after recent snow and rain caused the aid effort's first
crisis of the winter, the United Nations said.
Officials said the disease had already claimed up to 19 lives in
Pakistani Kashmir and North West Frontier Province in the past six weeks, five of them
during the last week. But they said they hoped to have made enough preparations to avert a
feared second wave of deaths from hunger and sickness among more than 2.5 million people
living in tents and temporary shelters.
"The temperatures are falling, they are dropping fast and the cold
spell will bring the spectre of increased pneumonia," UN humanitarian coordinator in
Pakistan Jan Vandemoortele told reporters in Islamabad on Thursday.
"The snow came late but it came with a vengeance. The weather on
the weekend was very severe with snow falling below the usual snowline of 5,000 feet
(1,500 metres) and with heavy rain flooding countless tents," he added.
Dubai pays last tributes to ruler
AFP, DUBAI
Jan 5: Dubai came to a halt on Thursday as the wealthy desert emirate
bid farewell to its ruler Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashed al-Maktoum, who died Wednesday of
natural causes while on a visit to Australia.
After traditional death prayers were recited in a Dubai mosque, the
corpse, wrapped in a plain shroud and tucked inside a wooden coffin, was carried by local
officials toward a city cemetery where the former ruler was buried. His body was lowered
into the ground to cries of "Allahu Akhbar (God is greatest)."
Maktoum, who died at the age of 62, was also vice president of the
United Arab Emirates (UAE). Thousands of native and foreign residents joined the prayers,
and those living in the six other emirates that make up the UAE federation were invited by
authorities to pray for their former leader in their local mosques.
Israeli PM suffers stroke, power transferred to deputy
Media declare end to Sharon era
AFP, JERUSALEM
Jan 5: Israel's media declared an end Thursday to the tumultuous Ariel
Sharon era as the prime minister lay fighting for his life after suffering a massive brain
haemmorrhage.
Commentators were united in the belief that Sharon would find it next
to impossible to return to office even if he were to survive his hospital ordeal and that
all previous calculations about the outcome of a general electionon March 28 would have to
be revised.
"Even if he does recover, he will have a very hard time convincing
the public of his ability to serve four more years, after undergoing two strokes in two
and a half weeks," wrote Haaretz columnist Aluf Benn. "One can cautiously say
that it appears that the era in which Sharon stood at Israel's helm came to a tragic end
on Wednesday." Nahum Barnea, the chief columnist of the best-selling Yediot Aharonot
daily, agreed that Sharon would struggle to convince voters that he was physically of
withstanding the rigours of high office. "Even if the prime minister emerges,
miraculously, unscathed, his political situation will have changed," he said in a
front-page opinion
piece. "The first CVA (stroke) that he suffered some two weeks ago
raised doubts. The stroke he suffered last night was far more severe and was the second in
a series: it cast a heavy shadow on his ability to return to functioning in the near
future and to withstand the pressures that an Israeli prime minister has to deal with for
another term in office."
AP report adds: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was in serious condition
early Thursday following seven hours of emergency surgery to stop "massive,
widespread" bleeding in his brain that doctors feared would cause permanent damage.
A brain scan after surgery showed bleeding had been stopped, and Sharon
was transferred to the intensive care unit, said Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the director of
Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where Sharon was being treated.
"At this point, all the vital signs are ... stable. The prime
minister is still in serious condition," he said.
Vice Premier Ehud Olmert was named acting prime minister and given a
beefed-up security detail. He met with key members of Sharon's staff early Thursday and
convened the Cabinet for a special session at 9 a.m. (0700 GMT). Close Sharon associates
said they did not expect the prime minister to return to office.
"This is a difficult situation that we are not accustomed
to," Olmert told the somber ministers, adding that they would get back to work while
they awaited news from the hospital. Sharon's chair at the center of the long oval table
remained empty.
Sharon's stroke threw Israeli politics and diplomacy throughout the
region into turmoil in the midst of election campaigns for both the Palestinians and
Israel. The premier had been expected to easily win re-election in March at the head of
the moderate Kadima Party he created to free his hands for further peace moves with the
Palestinians.
Abbas offers wishes for Sharon’s cure
AFP, RAMALLAH
Jan 5: Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas offered his best wishes for
Ariel Sharon's recovery in a phone call to the office of the ailing Israeli prime
minister.
"President Abbas called the office of Mr Sharon to inquire about
his health. He expressed his concerns and support for a swift recovery," chief
Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told the news agency on Thursday.
Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei had earlier sent a letter to the Israeli government
expressing "great concern" over Sharon's condition after he suffered a massive
brain haemorrhage.
Police withdrawn from Aceh
AP, LHOKSEUMAWE
Jan 5: Indonesia withdrew the last of its police from Aceh province
Thursday under a peace agreement with separatist rebels that was propelled by the tsunami
one year ago.
The withdrawal - delayed several times in the past week due to a
shortage of ships - was the last military step required under the deal to end a 29-year
war that claimed 15,000 lives. Some 2,150 officers left the port town of Lhokseumawe on a
warship Thursday afternoon, said Lt. Col. Mulyatno, chief of North Aceh Police. "This
is the last batch," he said. Some 24,000 non-Acehnese troops were withdrawn from the
province late last month as part of the peace pact. For their part, the Free Aceh Movement
rebels handed in more than 800 weapons and announced the abolition of their armed wing.
India begins tiger count
REUTERS, MUMBAI
Jan 5: Armed with radio collars and high-tech cameras, hundreds of
wildlife experts fanned out across a vast mangrove in India's east on Thursday as part of
the world's largest census of the endangered tiger.
Alarmed by reports of large-scale poaching in India's famed tiger
sanctuaries, about 250 officials used speedboats or walked through muddy creeks and
marshland looking for tell-tale footprints, or pugmarks, in West Bengal's Sunderbans, the
world's largest natural tiger habitat. "This census is the world's biggest and the
most scientific to date," Pradeep Vyas, the census chief, told Reuters from the
Sunderbans, a 10,000 sq km sparsely populated mangrove marshland on the eastern coast.
ROK to build up submarine fleet
AFP, SEOUL
Jan 5: South Korea is to build up its submarine fleet by increasing the
number of vessels and boosting their capability, the defence ministry said Thursday.
The nation currently has nine ageing 1,295-tonne, 209-Class subs but
three 214-Class, 1,800-tonne boats are being built and due for completion by 2008, the
ministry said. A ministry spokesman said South Korea was considering long-term plans
eventually to replace all its 209-Class German-built subs that were introduced in the
1990s, but gave no details. The Chosun newspaper said the military plans to add six more
214-Class subs by 2020, in addition to the three now under construction. It quoted
military sources as saying the six would be commissioned beginning in 2012.
India, Pakistan begin talks
AFP, NEW DELHI
Jan 5: India and Pakistan began talks Thursday to finalise a second
rail link connecting the two countries as part of confidence building measures for an
ongoing peace process, an Indian foreign ministry official said.
Railway officials from the two countries were to discuss visas, fares
and passenger security for the train link between Munnabao in India's western state of
Rajasthan and Khokhrapar in Pakistan's Sindh province, the official said. Ahead of the
talks, Pakistani officials said they were hopeful for a final agreement to begin the rail
services. "We hope to finalise the agreement. We have come with an open mind. This is
another confidence building measure and we will be discussing the draft proposal for the
movement of passengers," Saleem-ur-Rehman Akhoond, general manager of operations at
Pakistan Railways, was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.
Bush defies Congress in filling key defence, foreign
policy posts
He reaches beyond inner circle on Iraq
AFP, WASHINGTON
Jan 5: US President George W. Bush has defied Congress again by placing
a slew of controversial political allies in key national security and foreign policy
posts, circumventing the requisite approval process in the Senate.
Bush resorted to the same recess appointment procedure he used in
August to install John Bolton as US ambassador to the United Nations, despite Capitol
Hill's strong opposition to the nominee.
On Wednesday, the bureaucratic maneuver was used to fill key vacancies
in the Defense, State and Homeland Security Departments with officials whose approval by
the Senate was in doubt.
The White House said Bush had appointed Gordon England, a former Navy
secretary, to the post of deputy secretary of defense left vacant by Paul Wolfowitz, a
leading architect of the Iraq war, who resigned the second-highest Pentagon job last year
to become president of the World Bank.
A former General Dynamics executive, England was designated acting
deputy defense secretary in May, but his Senate confirmation hearing hit a roadblock when
at least two Republican senators, Olympia Snowe of Maine and Trent Lott of Mississippi,
put it on hold over his decisions concerning the local shipbuilding industry.
The recess appointment, which presidents can made when Congress is in
recess, will allow England and others to remain in their jobs until January 2007, when the
current congressional session ends.
However, England's appointed was expected to generate less controversy
than that of Dorrance Smith, who was named assistant secretary of defense for public
affairs, or the Pentagon's chief spokesman.
Meanwhile, President George W. Bush, who has been criticised for
consulting with only a tight circle of trusted aides, is soliciting the views of former
secretaries of state and defence, some of whom have doubted his Iraq policy.
The group will meet Bush on Thursday and will be briefed by Gen. George
Casey, the US commander in Iraq, as well as Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador
there.
"The president initiated an effort to broaden the outreach,"
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "It is an opportunity to talk about our
plan for victory in Iraq, and the progress we're making and the challenges ahead."
"This will also be an opportunity to hear from some former key
leaders of previous administrations," he added.
Among those attending will be Colin Powell, Bush's first secretary of
state whose tenure was often marked by friction with the White House and the Pentagon on a
range of foreign policy issues.
Since leaving the post, Powell has avoided publicly criticizing the
president, but several of his aides have lashed out at Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney
and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
British police hold DNA of four in 10 black men
AFP, LONDON
Jan 5: The DNA profiles of 37 percent of Britain's black males are on
the police's national database, compared to fewer than one in 10 white men, The Guardian
newspaper reported Thursday.
The newspaper compiled the figures after the Home Office said Wednesday
that the DNA of one in 14 people in Britain is expected to be on police records by April
2008.
The Home Office denied accusations of racial bias, saying most of the
DNA came from people who had been charged and convicted of crimes.
The interior ministry predicted there would be 4,250,000 DNA samples on
the national DNA database by the end of 2007-08 -- seven percent of the population.
Keith Jarrett, the president of the National Black Police Association,
said the figures were "very worrying".
"It raises some serious issues that need to be looked at,"
The Guardian quoted him as saying.
He blasted the notion that the figures reflect the racial balance of
criminals in Britain.
"In my experience that is not so at all. This is an example of
disproportionality in yet another part of the system. It's just going to alienate more
black people from having any part in the judicial system."
Egypt delays plans to deport Sudanese refugees
AFP, CAIRO
Jan 5: Egypt has delayed a plan to deport more than 600 Sudanese
refugees Thursday, the UN refugee agency said amid continued wrangling over a raid against
Sudanese protestors that left 28 people dead.
Egypt, facing an unwelcome international spotlight over the forcible
break-up of a three-month protest by Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers, has sought to
deflect responsibility, saying the UNHCR had applied enormous pressure on the government
to end the sit-in.
Thousands of riot police wielding batons and water cannon last week
dispersed the protest by over 2,000 Sudanese in an upmarket Cairo district aiming to draw
attention to their cause. Hundreds were also reported wounded.
The UNHCR said Wednesday that Egypt agreed to delay by three days the
deportations of more than 600 Sudanese after rights groups protested the plan.
"They will postpone the deportations that were planned for
tomorrow (Thursday)," UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort told AFP.
Egypt arrested over 2,000 Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers in the
wake of the clashes and has been holding them in military camps around the city.
"We have appealed for days now to have access to the people in the
military centres, so we are going to get this access tomorrow, apparently," Stort
said. "We will have access for three days to assess the status of the people in the
centres, to assess their legal status and to see if there are people that are in need of
international protection," she added.
The Egyptian authorities had said they would begin deporting some 654
Sudanese on Thursday.
Six non-governmental organisations charged that the plan violated a
Geneva Convention which bans the forced repatriation of refugees.
Human rights groups have expressed concern for the safety of those
being returned, many of whom lost their documents when Egyptian security forces stormed
the park where they had been protesting for months.
The protesters had demanded resettlement in a third country,
complaining of harsh living conditions in Egypt and discrimination.
US-based Human Rights Watch sent a letter to President Hosni Mubarak
saying some of those set for return could be at risk of persecution in Sudan, and that the
police assault had scattered families.
"Its clear that the brutal tactics of the security forces left
families separated and vital documents such as refugee cards destroyed or missing,"
said Bill Frelick, HRW's refugee policy director.
Egypt complained Wednesday it had faced continued pressure from the
UNHCR to end the demonstration by the Sudanese, who had created a makeshift camp outside
its offices in Cairo. The foreign ministry said the agency "demanded in writing and
verbally the need for the authorities to intervene and end the protest and held (Egypt)
responsible for any possible harm on its staff and offices."
The UNHCR further threatened to suspend its activities in Cairo should
the authorities fail to deal with the situation, it said.
"And that was actually what the UNHCR did on two consecutive
occasions," it said.
In spite of the "increased pressure" and negative impact the
presence of the protesters was having on the neighbourhood, "the Egyptian authorities
dealt with the situation with wisdom," the ministry added.
Judge rejects US government’s claims on detainees
AP, NEW YORK
Jan 5: A federal judge, ruling on a lawsuit filed by The Associated
Press, came a step closer Wednesday to forcing the government to reveal the names of
hundreds of Guantanamo Bay detainees by rejecting its contention that identifying them
would violate their privacy.
The some 500 prisoners at the US prison camp in eastern Cuba have been
held for several years without being charged or publicly identified, which has troubled
human rights groups.
US District Judge Jed S. Rakoff said in his ruling that the government
had not backed up its claim that prisoners faced retaliation by terrorist groups if their
identities became known.
"The Department of Defence has failed to come forward on this
motion with anything but thin and conclusory speculation to support its claims of possible
retaliation," Rakoff wrote.
The AP filed its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the
Department of Defence to have government documents related to military hearings for
Guantanamo Bay detainees made public.
Dave Tomlin, the AP's general counsel, applauded the judge's decision.
"Many of these detainees are begging for the world to know where
they are," Tomlin said. "The court was right to reject the government's pose as
guardian of privacy rights when what it's really guarding is its own secrecy."
The judge's ruling means the world is closer to knowing the identities
of those held in the detention center, said David A. Schulz, an attorney who is pursuing
the AP's lawsuit. Many of the detainees were captured in Afghanistan. The detainees are
from Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf, Russia and a host of other countries.
"This is a significant step forward," Schulz said in a
telephone interview. "The court rejected the DoD's claim of authority to withhold all
these names on a blanket basis and he said it's inconsistent with the public's right to
know." In the ruling, the judge stopped short of ordering the information released,
saying instead that further court proceedings were necessary. "The government is
making the case that they're trying to protect the detainees by keeping their names quiet,
when it's clear to us that ... the more that is known about them, the better they can be
protected," said James Ross, a senior legal analyst with Human Rights Watch.
Two Marines killed in military vehicles crash
AP, SAN DIEGO
Jan 5: Two military vehicles carrying Marines to the Miramar air base
crashed Wednesday night, killing two Marines who were ejected over the side of a freeway
and injuring two others, authorities said.
The fatally injured men, ages 22 and 20, were ejected more than 70 feet
over the side of the southbound Interstate 15 freeway at 7:20 p.m., Officer Mark Gregg, a
California Highway Patrol spokesman, said at the scene.
The two injured Marines were transported to a nearby hospital, said
Maurice Luque, a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman. They were listed in fair
condition at Pomerado Hospital in Poway, nursing supervisor Lorie Vermaire said.
One vehicle was ferrying eight Marines and towing the second vehicle
without personnel when they crossed a bridge in Rancho Bernardo, a hilly suburb about 30
miles north of downtown San Diego and several miles east of Miramar. The towed vehicle
somehow swung around in front of the first and both careened into a guard rail, coming to
rest on the edge of a bridge spanning a canyon, authorities said.
Nearly 25 firefighters and other rescuers aided by fire engines and a
helicopter responded to the scene of the accident in the city's northern Rancho Bernardo
area, Luque said.
US hits Iranian firms with nuclear-tied sanctions
REUTERS, WASHINGTON
Jan 5: The United States, confronting Iran over its nuclear programme,
has imposed sanctions on two Iranian companies it accuses of aiding the country's atomic
ambitions, US officials said on Wednesday.
Two affiliates of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran- the Novin
Energy Company and the Mesbah Energy Company-have been targeted under a presidential
executive order that allows company assets held by US persons or firms to be blocked or
frozen, the officials told Reuters.
State Department officials could not immediately say exactly what, if
any, specific ties the two Iranian companies had with US firms or individuals.
They could also not say what effect the designations would have on the
two Iranian companies. The measures were decided on Dec. 29 and disclosed on Wednesday.
Justin Higgins, a State Department spokesman, said Novin and Mesbah
both met the criteria for designation under an executive order signed by President George
W. Bush's in June 2005 because they were owned by, controlled by or purport to work on
behalf of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
"Novin has transferred millions of dollars on behalf of the AEOI
to entities associated with Iran's nuclear programme and operates largely from within the
AEOI, including sharing the same address," he said.
Higgins described Mesbah as a state-owned company that functions as a
front for the Iranian agency.
Defying US and European demands, Iran has announced plans to resume
sensitive weapons-related nuclear research and development on Jan. 9.
One US official said if Iran went ahead, the United States and its
European allies would call a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International
Atomic Energy Organization, and try to bring the Iran case to the U.N. Security Council,
which could impose broad international sanctions.
Washington and its European partners agree the research activity
"would unequivocally cross a red line," said the official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
Britain, France and Germany, with US backing, have been trying to
resolve the nuclear conflict diplomatically but Iran increasingly has turned its back on
this process.
Human trafficking victims could remain in Britain
AFP, LONDON
Jan 5: Human trafficking victims could be spared deportation from
Britain and get automatic permission to stay under government proposals revealed.
The Home Office said that illegal immigrants could be handed special
residence permits when people-smuggling scams were uncovered.
Pledging to tackle the "appalling modern-day slave trade of human
trafficking", ministers said they were considering allowing victims to stay
temporarily while they decide whether to prosecute the traffickers, by offering an
automatic "reflection period".
The cases of trafficking victims -- often forced into prostitution --
are currently decided case by case, with no right for those concerned to remain in
Britain.
The consultation paper warns, however, that the measures could attract
immigrants to Britain.
"They could be misused by individuals seeking to extend their stay
in the UK, where they do not have a genuine claim as a victim of trafficking," it
said.
"Dealing with fraudulent applications will slow down our ability
to respond to genuine claims."
The consultation will look at all forms of human trafficking, including
labour exploitation, sexual exploitation and trafficking in children.
Home Office minister Paul Goggins said: "Human trafficking, often
for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labour, is an appalling crime and amounts
to modern day slavery.
"It causes great harm, not just to the victims, but to our society
as a whole.
"The Government is determined to tackle this terrible crime and
reduce the harm it causes."
In October, police arrested the suspected kingpins of a pan-European
ring believed to have smuggled tens of thousands of people, mainly Turkish Kurds, into
Britain in recent years.
Northern Kenya faces famine disaster
AFP, NAIROBI
Jan 5: International aid agencies on Thursday stepped up appeals for
urgent intervention in drought-hit northern Kenya, warning of mass starvation in the
region where at least 40 people have already died of hunger and related illness amid fears
of a major famine.
At least three foreign relief organizations-the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Action Against Hunger (AAH) and
World Vision-said immediate emergency assistance is needed to help some 2.5 million people
survive the crisis. A day after local Red Cross and hospital officials said the death toll
from malnutrition had risen to 40 since the beginning of December, the groups described
the situation as "grim," "dramatic" and "disastrous" for the
largely pastoralist population amid widespread death of livestock. The IFRC urged donors
to contribute 12.7 million dollars (10.5 million euros) to help deal with "a critical
lack of water for both human and animal consumption across many districts" where it
said the mortality rate for livestock, essential to the nomadic peoples there, could surge
from 30 to 70 percent. "Communities may soon be wiped out since they depend entirely
on livestock," the Red Cross said. "Given the dramatic situation, it is vital
that the international community respond by supporting the government of Kenya appeal for
food assistance."
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has declared the situation a
"national disaster," ordered the military to assist in food and water
distribution and appealed over Christmas for 100 million dollars (84 million euros) to
fill a shortfall in relief funding.
Yet, the severity of crisis has continued to worsen, according to AAH
and World Vision.
"The situation in Mandera has really gone from bad to
disastrous," said Kelly Delaney, a nutritionist with AAH, referring to one of the
worst-hit regions in Kenya's far northeast on the Somali border. Emergency feeding centers
in the area saw a 29-percent increase in the number of children admitted in the first
three weeks of December over the entire month of November and many of those "are more
severely malnourished than those the organization has seen in the past," AAH said in
a statement.
Judge okays terror suspect's extradition to US
AFP, LONDON
Jan 5: A judge in London approved Thursday the extradition of a British
citizen wanted in the United States on suspicion of setting up terrorist training camps.
Haroon Rashid Aswat, 31, from West Yorkshire in the north of England,
who was deported from Zambia in August 2005 where he had been detained on immigration
grounds, had denied any involvement in terrorism.
In a ruling, magistrates court judge Timothy Workman said he was
satisfied that the grounds for extradition were proper, and that the final decision to
turn over Aswat to the US authorities rests with Home Secretary Charles Clarke.
There was no immediate reaction from the Home Office, and observers
recalled that Aswat's lawyers could appeal the decision.
US authorities want to question Aswat-who remains in detention-over
alleged attempts to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon, in the Pacific
Northwest.
William shares first public kiss with Kate
AFP, LONDON
Jan 5: Britain's Prince William has shared his first public kiss with
girlfriend Kate Middleton, newspapers reported Thursday.
The Sun and the Daily Mail printed pictures of the 23-year- olds
embracing on the slopes at the Klosters ski resort in Switzerland.
It is the first time the pair have been caught so intimately in public,
after four years of maintaining discretion at all times, the Mail reported.
An onlooker told The Sun: "As Kate caught her breath, William
placed an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close for a long, slow, kiss on the
lips. It was very romantic and lasted several moments."
William, second in line to the throne, begins his Army officer training
on Sunday at the elite Sandhurst military academy where his younger brother Prince Harry
is part-way through the course.
Suicide bombers kill 85, injure 100 in 2 Iraqi cities
REUTERS, KARBALA (IRAQ)
Jan 5: Two suicide bombers killed at least 85 people and wounded more
than 100 in the Iraqi cities of Karbala and Ramadi on Thursday in one of the country's
deadliest days for months.
The attacks raised fears of an escalation in sectarian tensions, coming
as they did in one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest cities, Karbala, and the Sunni Arab
stronghold of Ramadi.
The first bomber detonated an explosive belt laced with ballbearings
and a grenade in Karbala, killing 50 and wounding 69 in the worst single attack in Iraq
since July.
Television pictures showed pools of blood in the street, which was
littered with debris. Passers-by loaded the wounded into the backs of cars and vans, and
one black-clad woman stood crying while clutching her dead or wounded baby to her chest.
Soon afterwards, another bomber blew himself up near a group of police
and army recruits in the western city of Ramadi, a day after seemingly coordinated attacks
across Iraq killed at least 58.
The Ramadi attack, which killed 35 and wounded around 40, was the
latest in a long string of assaults on police and army recruits, tasked with taking over
the lead in the fight against the largely Sunni Arab insurgency from the US military.
The assault in Karbala was the second in the city in as many days and
happened within sight of the golden dome of the Imam Hussein shrine, one of the holiest
sites in Shi'ite Islam.
"The bomb was caused by a suicide bomber wearing an explosive
belt, walking among people," said Lieutenant-Colonel Razak al-Taee of the Iraqi
police.
"Explosives experts found wires, ballbearings and a grenade used
in the explosion," he told al-Iraqiya state television. "Experts estimate he
used between 7 and 8 kg (15-18 lb) of TNT (explosives)."
On Wednesday, a car bomb wounded three people in the first attack of
its kind in Karbala since December 2004. In March 2004 coordinated suicide bombings during
an annual religious festival in the city killed more than 90 people, an act blamed on al
Qaeda in Iraq.
Karbala, 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Baghdad, is home to two of the
three holiest shrines in Iraq, the other being in nearby Najaf. Any attack in the city is
almost certain to have sectarian motives.
The Karbala bombing was the bloodiest single attack in Iraq since July
18, when a fuel truck bomb killed 98 people in the town of Musayyib, south of Baghdad,
although in November two suicide bombers killed 77 people in two Shi'ite mosques in the
town of Khanakin in northern Iraq.
After a lull in violence around the December 15 election, insurgent
attacks have spiked up in recent weeks, exploding into carnage on Wednesday.
A suicide bomber killed 36 and wounded 40 at a Shi'ite funeral in the
town of Miqdadiya, northeast of the capital, and two car bombs in Baghdad killed 13 and
wounded 27.
On a road north of Baghdad, guerrillas with rocket-propelled grenades
and machineguns ambushed a convoy of 60 fuel tankers.
The widespread nature of the attacks suggested a level of coordination
that may have been a response by Sunni Arab insurgents to the largely peaceful
parliamentary election.
Mistrust between Iraq's majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni Arab
communities has been heightened by the results of last month's elections, which some Sunni
and secular leaders say were rigged to favour the Shi'ites.
The Iraqi electoral commission has called in a panel of four
international monitors to investigate those accusations.
After a series of bilateral meetings in Kurdistan, political leaders
have agreed to meet in Baghdad soon to push their plan for a national unity government
able to stem the bloodshed that has become part of daily life for millions of Iraqis since
the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.
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