Karachi bus explosion kills five

AN EXPLOSION on a bus in Pakistan's largest city Karachi left at least five people dead and wounded 35 others, police said.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the blast in Sadar, a congested shopping area of Karachi, officials said, adding that a bomb disposal team was trying to determine whether it was caused by a bomb or an exploding compressed natural gas cylinder.

"At least five people were killed and 35 others were wounded," said police surgeon Jalil Qadir.

Karachi is in the grip of a long-running wave of militancy, political and sectarian violence.

Pakistan says 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism since the 9/11 attacks and the 2001 US-led invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Iran hangs drug traffickers, rapists

IRAN has hanged an Afghan drug trafficker and four Iranians, three of them convicted of rape, local media reported.

The 27-year-old Afghan from Herat, identified only by his initials MM, was sent to the gallows in the northern city of Damghan after being convicted of selling around two kilos (four pounds) of crack cocaine.

Three Iranian men convicted of rape and another of smuggling heroin and opium, were hanged in the central city of Yazd.

The Islamic republic, where murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are punishable by death, has one of the highest annual execution counts in the world, alongside China, Saudi Arabia and the US.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has condemned the executions, but Tehran says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order and that it is enforced only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Iran to relocate airport after oil found

IRAN plans to relocate an airport in the southwest of the country after discovering oil deposits under its runway, media reported.

The National Iranian Oil Company "intends to buy Ahvaz airport due to the existence of oil deposits under the airport's tarmac," the state broadcaster's website quoted Mohammad Rasoulinejad, managing director of the Iranian Airports Company, as saying.

"The government has approved the relocation of the airport," mR Rasoulinejad said, adding that the new airport will be built 15 kilometres from the city.

He did not give any details about the oil deposits.

Mr Rasoulinejad said that the airport is among "the country's busiest" with some 30 flights per day, adding that relocating it would also enable its much-needed expansion.

The NIOC did not comment on the government's decision.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Fifteen tied up and killed in Nigeria

SUSPECTED radical Islamist gunmen have attacked a village in northeast Nigeria, tying up men, women and children before slitting their throats and killing at least 15 in the troubled region's latest attack.

The assault happened early on Friday morning in the village of Musari on the outskirts of Maiduguri.

The gunmen, suspected of being members of Boko Haram, shouted religious slogans and later ordered people to gather up into a group, said Mshelia Inusa, a primary school teacher in the village.

Chants of "God is great, God is great" followed, he said.

Later, Mr Inusa and others saw corpses with their hands tied behind their backs and their throats cut.

Later Friday morning, an ambulance arrived at the State Specialists Hospital in Maiduguri, accompanied by a group of military vehicles, a security guard said. Agitated soldiers ordered people away, but the guard said he counted at least 15 bodies being brought into the facility's morgue.

A military spokesman later issued a statement saying only five people had been killed in the village during the attack. However, military and police officials routinely downplay casualty figures because they are under increasing pressure from their superiors to minimise the perceived effects of the ongoing attacks by Boko Haram.

Boko Haram could not be immediately reached for comment.

More than 780 people have been killed in Boko Haram attacks in 2012.

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen also attacked another village Friday in Adamawa state on its border with neighbouring Cameroon.

Witnesses said that attack focused on the town of Maiha, where gunmen also shouted praises to God while setting fire to government buildings, a school and a prison.

At least 35 prisoners were released from the prison in the attack, though 11 had been recaptured, police spokesman Mohammed Ibrahim said.

Mr Ibrahim said a civilian and a police officer were killed during the fighting.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Swine flu kills nine Palestinians

NINE Palestinians have died in an outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain known as swine flu, the office of Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad says.

"Latest figures and information ... show that 187 cases have so far been recorded, the majority of which are in the northern West Bank," it said in a statement.

"The number of recorded deaths ... stands at nine until now."

It added that the Palestinian health ministry "has the necessary medicines, testing kits and equipment to deal efficiently with the spread of the virus".

The virus has affected Israel and the Palestinian territories in the past, killing dozens of people.

In 2009, an H1N1 epidemic erupted in Mexico and spread into a worldwide pandemic that caused at least 17,000 deaths.

In 1997, the H5N1 strain of influenza, commonly known as bird flu, broke out in Hong Kong.

Spreading from live birds to humans through direct contact, it causes fever and breathing problems and claimed 359 human lives in 15 countries, mainly in Asia and Africa, from 2003 to August of this year, according to the World Health Organisation.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hanlong to buy Sundance: report

A PRIVATELY-owned Chinese company is finalising the acquisition of an Australian mining firm that controls a major iron ore mine in west Africa, China's official Xinhua News Agency reports.

The move would give China a stronger role in setting global iron ore prices.

Xinhua, citing officials from Hanlong Group, based in southwestern China's Sichuan province, said Hanlong plans to complete the acquisition of Sundance Resources Ltd for 45 cents per share by March 1, after submitting paperwork to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Sundance controls the Mbalam iron ore mine, which straddles Cameroon and the Republic of Congo.

Hanlong is seeking a partnership with Chinese state-owned companies and investing $US5 billion ($4.84 billion) to develop the Mbalam project and to build a 550-kilometre railway and a shipping port, Xinhua said.

Operations are expected to begin in 2014, Xinhua said.

As the world's second-largest economy, China is eager to acquire overseas assets and resources to feed its rapid growth.

The prospect of a takeover appeared remote earlier this month following news that Hanlong wanted to delay the bid because it could not secure funding by December 13, AAP reported.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Invisible Exhibition' opens eyes to blind

THE darkness is total. Mundane gestures suddenly become complicated. How do you find the door to your room, cook a meal or cross the road?

The Invisible Exhibition in the Polish capital Warsaw offers an opportunity to understand what it is like to be sightless, as blind guides steer visitors round in blacked-out rooms .

"The visitors take on the role of the blind," exhibition curator Malgorzara Szumowska told AFP.

"Thanks to a series of sense-based installations, you experience what it is to live in the dark."

The hour-long tour requires a healthy imagination, as the sighted learn how smell, hearing, taste and touch work differently in this unknown world.

"There are six rooms, all in utter darkness. Each one replicates a scene from daily life: an apartment, a street, a museum, and so on," said Szumowska.

The noise seems overwhelming in the street scene, where visitors must dodge cars and lampposts. Smells are a delight in a forest chalet, as is the sound of a stream under a small wooden bridge.

The last stop is a loud cafe where the blind guide takes on the role of the barman.

Along with the dark side, the exhibition has a section with light that offers educational games to stimulate the senses and demonstrates tools the blind use in their daily lives, such as braille.

"Our goal is to show that the invisible world is beautiful and sumptuous, and that the blind have a sense of humour, with a life and passions," said Szumowska. "Fate doesn't exclude them from society."

The idea for the exhibition came from Hungary, where a woman blacked out her apartment to understand and share the experience of her husband, blinded by an accident.

Her experiment led to an exhibition-cum-social project in the capital Budapest. It caught on, and was followed by a version in the Czech capital Prague then another one in Warsaw, which opened a year ago.

Some 30,000 people have visited Niewidzialna Wystawa, as it's called in Polish.

"It's very powerful," said Warsaw student Aleksandra. "At first I was terrified. I didn't know what was going on around me. I felt lost. But luckily there was a blind guide."

The guides are paid, a boost in a labour market where options for the blind are often limited.

"It's the best job I've ever had," said Pawel Kozlowski, one of the team.

It's also a challenge, said 31-year-old Pawel Orabczuk, a graduate in teaching and social work as well as a sound engineer and drummer in a heavy metal band who has been blind since birth.

"The main thing for we guides is to ensure that everything feels fine and safe," he said. You not only have to help visitors tap their four remaining senses but you must do so "only through words, because they can't see your gestures in the dark".

"If only one visitor in 10 realises that you should consider the blind as an ordinary person, that's a success," he added.

Even "we can still say, 'See you soon'," he said at the exit. "How else can you put it?"

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

China shows off its new high-speed rail

A display shows the speed aboard a high-speed train in Hebei province south of Beijing. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

CHINA has shown off the final link of the world's longest high-speed rail route set to begin whisking passengers from Beijing to Guangzhou next week in a third of the time currently required.

The much anticipated opening of high-speed passenger service from Beijing to Guangzhou, a distance of 2298 kilometres is scheduled to begin Wednesday, officials said.

Travelling at an average speed of 300 kilometres per hour, the new line will slash the time it takes to travel by rail from the capital to the southern commercial hub from the current 22 hours to just eight.

Authorities took journalists for a ride yesterday on the section of the route linking Beijing's West Station with the city of Zhengzhou 693 kilometres to the south, the route's last link.

Hitting speeds of over 300km/h, the gleaming, tubular train sped past frozen lakes and rivers as well as snow-covered farmland on the journey of approximately two-and-a-half hours each way.

Though moving much faster than the country's conventional rolling stock, the ride on the aerodynamic bullet train was smooth and made little noise other than a low-level hum during most of the trip.

The reclining seats are laid out in rows of three and two separated by an aisle, are upholstered in cloth and can be turned around so rows faced each other.

Toilets on the train are of stainless steel squat variety, with slightly more bathroom space than would usually be found on an airliner, while uniformed women were on hand to serve drinks and snacks during the trip.

"This is the world's longest bullet train track," Zhou Li, a Ministry of Railways official, said, describing the Beijing-Guangzhou route. "It's also one of the most technically advanced tracks in China and the world."

The line will have 35 stops. Besides Zhengzhou, they will include other major cities such as Wuhan and Changsha. Sections linking Zhengzhou and Wuhan and Wuhan and Guangzhou are already in service.

China's high-speed rail network was only established in 2007, but has quickly become the world's largest, with a total of 8358 kilometres of track at the end of 2010.

That is expected to almost double to 16,000 kilometres by 2020.

But the network has been plagued by graft and safety scandals following the rapid expansion. A deadly bullet train collision in July 2011 killed 40 people and sparked a public outcry.

The accident - China's worst rail disaster since 2008 - triggered a flood of criticism of the government and accusations that authorities had compromised safety in its rush to expand.

Authorities say that they have taken steps ahead of the new line's opening to improve maintenance and inspection of infrastructure, including track, rolling stock and emergency response measures.

"The emergency rescue system and all kinds of emergency pre-plans are established to improve emergency response ability," according to a ministry booklet handed out to journalists.

The train will be in service for China's Lunar New Year holiday period, which falls in mid-February, when hundreds of millions of people will travel across the country in the world's largest annual migration.

State media earlier reported that December 26 had been chosen for the start of the passenger service on the Beijing-Guangzhou line to commemorate the birth of Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
 

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ex-butler pardoned, expelled from Vatican

POPE Benedict XVI has pardoned his former butler Paolo Gabriele, who was sentenced to 18 months in jail for leaking secret papal memos, but banished him from the Vatican.

"This morning the Holy Father Benedict XVI visited Paolo Gabriele in prison in order to confirm his forgiveness and to inform him personally of his acceptance of Mr Gabriele's request for pardon," the Vatican said in a statement.

Gabriele's pardon was a "paternal gesture" for a man "with whom the pope shared a relationship of daily familiarity for many years".

However, the ex-butler "cannot resume his previous occupation or continue to live in Vatican City," it added.

After a 15-minute meeting with Benedict, Gabriele returned home to his wife and three children, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

Gabriele had spent a total of three and a half months in detention.

A former trusted aide who passed hours of every day in the pontiff's company, Gabriele will now have to move out of his home within the tiny city state's walls.

"The Holy See, trusting in his sincere repentance, wishes to offer him the possibility of returning to a serene family life," the Vatican said.

Gabriele was found guilty in October of leaking sensitive memos to the press as part of a whistle-blowing campaign against what he said was "evil and corruption" in the Vatican.

Documents secretly copied and leaked in a case that has been dubbed "Vatileaks" included allegations by a former governor of the city state of massive fraud within its walls.

During the trial, Vatican police said they had found more than 1000 secret documents, some photocopies but others originals, in Gabriele's home, stolen from the papal palace.

These included letters from cardinals and politicians and papers the pontiff himself had marked "To Be Destroyed".

Gabriele had said he wanted to "help" the pope who, he claimed, had been kept in ignorance of scandals inside the Vatican.

The documents were handed to an Italian journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi, who published them in a book.

While the disgraced butler was initially given a three-year jail term, the presiding judge reduced the sentence on the grounds of his past service to the Catholic Church and his apology to the pope for betraying him.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Damascus car bomb kills 5

A CAR bomb blast in northeastern Damascus killed five men and wounded dozens of people on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"A car bomb blast in the district of Qaboon killed five men, wounded dozens of other people and caused widespread material damage," said the Britain-based watchdog.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Suicide bomber targets Pakistan meeting

A SUICIDE bomber has blown himself up at a meeting of the political party that rules Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing six people and wounding 21, officials say.

There were "reports of injuries to the senior minister of the provincial government, Bashir Bilour," police official Asif Iqbal said.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Don't return to sectarian strife: Iraq PM

IRAQI Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has called for people to stand together against sectarian strife, warning of a return to the days of bloody conflict when heads were left in the streets.

Maliki called in a speech in Baghdad for Iraqis to "stand together in one rank in facing this strife".

And the Shi'ite premier warned of a return to the worst days of the sectarian conflict that swept Iraq from 2006 to 2008.

"Have you forgotten the day we were collecting bodies from the streets? Have you forgotten the day we were collecting severed heads from the streets?" he asked.

Maliki's remarks came two days after security forces arrested at least nine of Sunni Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi's guards on terror charges, threatening a new crisis with the minister's secular, Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc.

After his guards were arrested, Essawi demanded Maliki's resignation, and also called for no-confidence proceedings that failed to remove the premier earlier this year to be reopened.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bahrain protesters demand departure of PM

THOUSANDS of Shi'ite protesters in Bahrain have demanded a transition government and the removal of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who has been premier since 1974, witnesses say.

They said the demonstrators marched in the village of Diya near the capital Manama, chanting "Resign, Khalifa!" and waving Bahraini flags.

The Shi'ite opposition in the tiny Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom is led by al-Wefaq, which wants a government of technocrats to rule in a transition leading to a constitutional monarchy.

Since February last year, Bahrain has been shaken by opposition protests that the authorities accuse of being exploited by Shi'ite Iran across the Gulf.

At least 80 people have died since the start of the unrest in February 2011, according to the International Federation of Human Rights.

The opposition insists that the premier stand down and that the government be headed by the leader of the elected majority in parliament

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Taliban seek new Afghanistan constitution

AFGHANISTAN'S Taliban has called for a new constitution as a pre-condition for it joining the country's fledgling peace process, according to a declaration issued by representatives at a landmark meeting in France.

Representatives from the country's warring factions met on Thursday for two days of talks that diplomats hope will bolster relations in the war-torn country.

It is the first time since a US-led bombing campaign drove the Taliban from power in 2001 that senior representatives have sat down with officials from the government and other opposition groups to discuss the country's future, in a meeting brokered by a French think tank.

"Afghanistan's present constitution has no value for us because it was made under the shadows of B52 bombers of the invaders," said the declaration, which was handed to participants during the meeting and later released to the media.

"Islamic Emirate, for the welfare of their courageous nation, need a constitution that is based on the principles of the holy religion of Islam, national interest, historical achievements, and social justice," it read.

The meeting in France was organised by the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), and was held behind closed doors at an undisclosed location near Paris.

The talks come against a background of accelerating efforts to draw the Taliban and other opponents of President Hamid Karzai into negotiations on how Afghanistan will be run after foreign troops withdraw at the end of 2014.

Karzai's government has drawn up a roadmap for peace which involves persuading the Taliban and other insurgent groups to agree to a ceasefire as a prelude to becoming peaceful players in the country's nascent democracy.

As a first step in that direction, Karzai's administration has been attempting to secure the release of top Taliban prisoners held by neighbouring Pakistan.

Despite the landmark meeting, the Taliban's declaration continued to display a lack of trust in the government.

"The invaders and their friends don't have a clear roadmap for peace," it stated.

"Sometimes they say we want to talk to the Islamic Emirate, but sometimes they say we will talk with Pakistan. This kind of vague stance will never get to peace," it said.

To date the Taliban has refused to negotiate with the government, which it regards as a puppet of the United States.

Discussions with US officials were suspended in March.

In France the Taliban was represented by their senior figures Shahabuddin Dilawar and Naeem Wardak, a move seen as a sign that the Islamist group is contemplating going beyond exploratory discussions.

The Taliban, who ruled in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, were ousted from power by a US-led invasion and have since waged an 11-year insurgency to topple the US-supported government of Karzai.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

NSW healthcare system 'working well'

RATES of premature death from cancer, heart disease and stroke have fallen across NSW, but further improvements could be made in the state's health care system, a report says.

Results from the third annual Healthcare in Focus 2012 report, which compares the performance of the NSW health care system with other states and countries, found fewer years of life are lost to cancer and heart disease in NSW than in most other countries, Bureau of Health Information chief Kim Browne said.

"NSW is performing quite well when we compare internationally," Ms Browne told AAP.

"(But) there are areas where we've got opportunities to improve compared to international comparators."

The report indicated NSW has one of the lowest rates of potential years of life lost to cancer, outperforming France, The Netherlands, New Zealand and the US.

Only Sweden has a lower rate, Ms Browne said.

Fewer years of life were lost to cardiovascular disease and stroke in NSW than in most other countries, the report found.

Ms Browne added fewer years of life were lost to heart attack in NSW than in any of the 10 other countries examined in the report.

But there are areas of the health care system that can be improved, she said.

"Unplanned readmissions for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are mid-range ... but they're higher than places like Canada, the UK and Switzerland," she told AAP.

NSW also has a high rate of hospitalisation for diabetic, medical and surgical care complications, a statistic Ms Browne would like to see decrease.

"It's a bit of a mixed picture but overall when we look internationally NSW tends to perform fairly well," Ms Browne said.

Health care system users were surveyed as part of the report and the majority rated their experiences and treatment positively, she said.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Opposition claims Egypt 'vote rigging'

THE opposition accused Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood of attempted "vote rigging" in today's referendum on a new constitution for Egypt.

The National Salvation Front, in a statement, expressed "deep concern... over the number of irregularities and violations in the holding of the referendum," charging it "points to a clear desire for vote rigging by the Muslim Brotherhood."

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mandela undergoes gallstone surgery

SOUTH Africa's presidency says Nelson Mandela has undergone successful surgery to remove gallstones.

The presidency said the 94-year-old Mandela underwent the surgery overnight. The presidency said Mr Mandela's doctors wanted to treat a recurrent lung infection before putting him through the surgery.

The statement said: "The procedure was successful and Madiba is recovering." It referred to Mandela by his clan name as a sign of affection.

Mr Mandela has been in hospital since Dec. 8.

Mr Mandela is revered for being a leader of the struggle against racist white rule in South Africa. He served one five-year term as president before retiring from public life.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bodies removed from US massacre school

THE bodies of 20 young children and six adults massacred by a lone gunman in a quiet US town were finally removed from the blood-soaked school, police said.

The formal identification of the victims in one of America's worst mass shootings marked a new chapter for horrified residents of Newtown, Connecticut, where Friday morning a 20-year-old man walked in with at least two powerful pistols and shot everyone he could find in two rooms of the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"By early this morning, they were able to positively identify all of the victims and make formal identification to all of the families of the victims," said Connecticut State Police spokesman Lieutenant Paul Vance.

The removal of bodies, which were initially left for investigators, "has been accomplished," he said on CBS television. "That was done overnight."

The gunman shot dead 18 children inside the school and two more died of their wounds shortly afterwards. Six adults, including the school principal, perished before the gunman died - apparently in a suicide.

Authorities offered little clue as to the motive for the shootings in Newtown, a wooded and picturesque small town northeast of New York City.

Hours after the shooting, hundreds of people gathered for a vigil, the crowd filling the church to capacity and spilling outside its doors.

"This is a kind of community, when things like that happen, they really pull together," the priest, Robert Weiss, said during the Mass.

A letter from Pope Benedict XVI was also read during the service.

Pope Benedict XVI sent his condolences to the community, in a letter read aloud at a vigil in Newtown Friday evening.

The pope "has asked me to convey his heartfelt grief and the assurance of his closeness in prayer to the victims and their families, and to all affected by the shocking event," Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said in the letter.

"In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy he asks God our Father to console all those who mourn and to sustain the entire community," the letter said.

David Connors, whose triplets were at the school during the shooting but were unharmed, said he was still horrified.

"It's hard. I've never imagined a thing like that could happen here."

"Our faith is tested," state Governor Dan Malloy told the congregants.

"Not just necessarily our faith in God, but our faith in community, and who we are, and what we collectively are."

Earlier the governor had said "evil visited this community today."

US President Barack Obama, wiping away tears and struggling to maintain his composure, said he was aghast over the tragedy.

State police spokesman Vance said just one injured person survived, indicating that the gunman was unusually accurate or methodical in his fire.

The majority of killings, which began at around 9:30am local time, "took place in one section of the school, in two rooms," Vance added. The children were aged between five and 10, officials said.

The killer was identified as Adam Lanza, 20. Initially, police told media they thought the murderer was his brother, 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, whose identity card had been found on the shooter's dead body.

The surviving brother was in custody and being questioned, according to US television reports.

Many news outlets said another victim found in a home in Newtown - the 28th body in the day's bloodshed - was the shooter's mother, who was a teacher at Sandy Hook and whom he had killed before driving to the school.

Mr Obama went on national television to express his "overwhelming grief." He ordered flags to be lowered to half mast.

And there were similar statements of grief and shock around the world.

The head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, spoke of his "deep shock and horror," the Queen sent a message to Mr Obama in which she said she was "deeply shocked and saddened," and French President Francois Hollande expressed his condolences to Mr Obama, saying the news "horrified me."

Of all US campus shootings, the toll was second only to the 32 murders in the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech university.

The latest number far exceeded the 15 killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which triggered a fierce but inconclusive debate about the United States' relaxed gun control laws.

However, the White House has scotched any suggestion that the politically explosive subject would be quickly reopened.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Russia breaks up anti-Putin rally

RUSSIAN police have detained dozens of people, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after breaking up an anti-Vladimir Putin rally in Moscow.

Scores of Muscovites, many holding white roses, defied authorities by gathering at Lubyanka Square, despite temperatures of minus 14 Celsius.

Police pushed protesters from the precinct and shoved some into vans two hours into the Saturday rally following warnings it would be broken up.

"By the end it was rough," Nikolai Svanidze, a member of the Kremlin-linked human rights council told Dozhd television.

Police said around 40 people had been detained.

"The unsanctioned action has now been thwarted and serious provocations were prevented," police said in a statement.

Mr Navalny, possibly the most charismatic figure in the protest movement, was detained a day after investigators launched a new criminal probe against him for suspected fraud.

"It's raving mad. (They) simply snatched me from the crowd," Mr Navalny tweeted from inside a police van.

Police also arrested Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of leftist group the Left Front, and activists Ilya Yashin and Ksenia Sobchak, the daughter of Putin's late mentor Anatoly Sobchak.

"One of the policemen mentioned that we had criminal intentions," Mr Yashin told Echo of Moscow radio by telephone from detention.

The prominent figures arrested all noted that the police vans holding them had been equipped with webcams to keep close watch on their behaviour.

Police put the turnout at around 700 people, over 300 of them journalists and bloggers, but an AFP correspondent said the number of the protesters appeared to be significantly higher.

People laid white lilies, carnations and chrysanthemums at the Solovetsky Stone, a monument to victims of Stalin-era purges adorning the square, as a helicopter hovered overhead.

The opposition movement is hoping to maintain momentum despite internal divisions between liberals, leftists and nationalists and the authorities' tough crackdown on dissenters since Putin's return to the Kremlin in May.

Smaller rallies were held in several cities across Russia including Mr Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg, where about 1200 people gathered for a sanctioned march.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

School gunman 'forced' his way in: police

THE gunman who slaughtered 20 young children and six adults at a US school in Connecticut "forced" his way into the building, police say.

Lieutenant Paul Vance of Connecticut State Police said the man - identified widely in media reports as 20-year-old Adam Lanza - was not let into the Sandy Hook Elementary School "voluntarily".

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Family mourns after US school tragedy

PUERTO Rican relatives of one of the 20 children shot dead at a US primary school say the family of the 6-year-old girl moved to the mainland just two months earlier.

The parents of Ana Grace Marquez had moved from Canada to Connecticut and enrolled her at Sandy Hook Elementary School because of its good reputation, the child's grandmother, Elba Marquez, told The Associated Press.

"They looked for the best school for their daughter, the best," Marquez said, adding that she had flown there for Thanksgiving.

She said the family had moved to the area because Ana Grace's mother had been hired to teach at a local university.

"It was a beautiful place, just beautiful," Elba Marquez said.

"What happened does not match up with the place where they live."

Elba Marquez's brother, Jorge Marquez, who is mayor of a Puerto Rican town, said Ana Grace had a 9-year-old brother who was at the school during the shooting.

"He was in another classroom," he said.

The family flew from Puerto Rico to Connecticut overnight for the girl's funeral.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

US warns against N.Korean missile launch

THE United States has urged North Korea to scrap plans to launch a rocket later this month, warning the "highly provocative" move would destabilise the region.

"Devoting scarce resources to the development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles will only further isolate and impoverish North Korea," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement on Saturday.

Her comments came after Pyongyang announced it would conduct between December 10 and 22 its second long-range rocket launch this year following a much-hyped but failed attempt in April.

As in April, the North said it would be a purely "peaceful, scientific" mission aimed at placing a polar-orbiting earth observation satellite into orbit.

The announcement was certain to ratchet up tensions with South Korea, which is just days from a presidential election.

The US and its allies insist the launches are disguised tests for an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

As such, they would contravene UN resolutions triggered by Pyongyang's two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

"A North Korean 'satellite' launch would be a highly provocative act that threatens peace and security in the region," Nuland said.

"We call on North Korea to comply fully with its obligations under all relevant UNSCRs," she added, referring to UN Security Council resolutions.

Washington and its allies say the North's Unha-3 rocket is actually a three-stage variant of the Taepodong-2 ICBM that Pyongyang has been developing for years but has never tested successfully.

"The path to security for North Korea lies in investing in its people and abiding by its commitments and international obligations," Nuland added.

She said Washington was "consulting closely" with its allies on a response.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Internet resumes in Syria after blackout

INTERNET connections were back up and running in Damascus, after a three-day blackout of Internet and mobile phone communications, according to an AFP journalist in the capital.

"Internet is back in Damascus and in parts of Damascus province," the correspondent said.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Protesters, police clash in Mexico

HUNDREDS of protesters have clashed with police outside Mexico's congress ahead of Enrique Pena Nieto's presidential inauguration, throwing firebombs while officers responded with tear gas.

At least five police officers were injured on Saturday as around 500 protesters, many wearing masks, threw objects and Molotov cocktails outside the congress, which was surrounded by metal barricades.

One officer was hit in the face by a stone while two others were struck by a Molotov cocktail. They were taken away in ambulances.

Two more officers were carried out by their colleagues, apparently affected by the tear gas.

"We weren't expecting something so violent," an officer told AFP.

Pena Nieto's presidency will mark the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico with an authoritarian hand for 71 years until it lost the 2000 presidential election.

The second-place finisher in this year's election, leftist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has refused to conceded defeat, charging that the PRI bought millions of votes. The electoral court threw out his claims.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

European stealth-combat test drone flies

A PAN-EUROPEAN stealth combat drone has taken its first test flight in southern France.

French defence company Dassault-Aviation is lead contractor on the "Neuron" project launched in 2005 involving firms from France, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Greece and Switzerland to provide a test bed for developing future combat aircraft.

Its successful flight took place on Saturday near Istres.

Program officials say the Neuron is not a prototype, but aims to help European countries explore stealth technology for possible use - years from now - in future drones or successors of fighters like the Eurofighter or France's Rafale. The program will also seek innovations like the release of air-to-surface weapons from an internal bay.

Many experts believe armed drones will play an increasing role in the future of air combat.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Highway reopens after horror crash

THE Great Western Highway has reopened after a crash that killed four people, and left a man with critical injuries.

The highway reopened in both directions around 12.45am (AEDT) on Sunday, the Transport Management Centre said.

All lanes of the highway had been closed between Bathurst and Lithgow after the crash at Glanmire, east of Bathurst, around 1.40pm on Saturday.

"A lengthy recovery operation has been completed and all diversions have been lifted," a spokeswoman said.

It was reported that the horrific crash - involving a car, a ute and a semi trailer - occurred after one of the vehicles swerved to miss a dog that had run onto the road.

Three people in the car were killed instantly, while a passenger in the ute also died at the scene.

The ute driver was trapped for an hour and half before being airlifted to Westmead Hospital with life threatening injuries.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Iran congratulates Hamas 'victory'

IRAN'S President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has congratulated Gaza's Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya on a "great victory" over Israel, the two sides say.

Haniya in turn "thanked Iran for its support," they added, days after Tehran confirmed it had supplied military aid to Gaza.

"The Iranian president congratulated the people of Gaza and the (Palestinian) resistance facing Zionist aggression ... on their great victory," Iran's news agency ISNA reported on Saturday.

Haniya's office said Ahmadinejad called late on Friday to praise Gaza's "victory after eight days of Israeli aggression," referring to the Jewish state's Operation Pillar of Defence which ended with a Wednesday ceasefire.

"We stand beside the Palestinian people," the Iranian president added.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani on Wednesday said Iran had supplied military aid to Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza and which fired missiles at Tel Aviv for the first time during the eight-day conflict with Israel.

"We are proud to defend the people of Palestine and Hamas ... and that our assistance to them has been both financial and military," Larijani said in remarks reported by parliament's website, ICANA.ir.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief General Mohammad Ali Jafari also said on Wednesday that Tehran had provided the "technology" for the Fajr 5 missiles used to target Tel Aviv, but denied supplying the actual weapons.

He said they were being "rapidly produced" in Gaza.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on Wednesday thanked Iran as well as Egypt for their support during the conflict, saying Iran "had a role in arming" his Islamist movement.

The truce ended eight days of cross border attacks in which 166 Palestinians and six Israelis died.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Anti-immigration couple lose foster kids

THREE children from ethnic minority groups have been taken away from their foster parents because the couple support the anti-immigration UK Independence Party.

The couple from Yorkshire in northern England said they had been fostering children for seven years but have been told by social workers that they were not suitable because of UKIP's calls for curbs on immigration to Britain.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said the decision was "indefensible" and opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband, whose party runs the local authority involved, called for an urgent investigation into the "very disturbing" claims.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage, a member of the European Parliament, said the situation was "appalling" and "disgraceful".

He accused the council of bigotry, insisting that decisions on foster care should be "colour-blind".

Following the outcry, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council announced it would launch an investigation into the actions of its staff.

The couple involved told the Daily Telegraph newspaper they had been "stigmatised and slandered" by the removal of the baby girl, boy and older girl they had been caring for for eight weeks.

The decision came after two officials visited to question them about their membership of UKIP, Britain's fourth-biggest party which campaigns for an end to Britain's membership of the European Union and a freeze on immigration.

The woman, a qualified nursery nurse, said the social worker told her: "We would not have placed these children with you had we known you were members of UKIP because it wouldn't have been the right cultural match".

She asked what UKIP had to do with the decision, "then one of them said, 'Well, UKIP have got racist policies'. The implication was that we were racist."

The identity of the couple, who are in their 50s, has been kept secret to protect the children.

Mr Gove condemned the council for making "the wrong decision in the wrong way for the wrong reasons" and said he would be looking into what happened.

Rotherham council's director of children's services, Joyce Thacker, told BBC radio the children had been placed with the couple as an emergency and it was never meant to be a long-term arrangement.

She added: "These children are not UK children and we were not aware of the foster parents having strong political views. There are some strong views in the UKIP party and we have to think of the future of the children."

UKIP started life on the fringes of politics but a recent ICM poll suggests it now has the support of seven per cent of voters.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Dubai plans world's largest mall, new city

DUBAI famed for its mega-projects before it was hit by the global financial crisis, has announced a new development to open the world's biggest mall and a park larger than London's Hyde Park.

The ruler of the Gulf desert city state, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, announced the plan for a "new city within Dubai," according to an official statement on Saturday, naming it after himself.

No cost was stated for "Mohammed bin Rashid City," to be carried out by his Dubai Holding and the publicly-listed Emaar Properties, which developed many of Dubai's prestigious projects, including Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower.

The plan also features new residential areas, although the emirate continues to have a surplus of units built during a five-year bubble which burst in 2009.

The "Mall of the World" will have a capacity of 80 million visitors a year to become the "largest in the world," said the statement, while its park will be "30 per cent bigger than Hyde Park of London."

The mall will be connected to a family entertainment centre to be developed in cooperation with Universal Studios International that will be the largest in the region, aiming to attract six million visitors a year.

The emirate already has countless malls and hotels, including the Dubai Mall, touted as the world's largest shopping, leisure and entertainment destination, with 62 million visitors this year.

"The current facilities available in Dubai need to be scaled up in line with the future ambitions for the city," Sheikh Mohammed said in the statement.

Dubai's tourism is growing by 13 per cent a year, according to the statement, with hotel occupancy hitting 82 per cent in 2011 while hotel revenues grew 22 per cent last year, exceeding 16 billion dirhams ($4.26 billion).

The emirate rocked global financial markets in autumn 2009 over its debt crisis, but Dubai has restructured the mountain of debt owed by its corporations, and its economy has returned to growth after contracting in 2009.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

India to log 5.5% quarter growth: minister

INDIA'S economy logged around 5.5 per cent growth in the last financial quarter, a rate that could boost calls for lower interest rates to spur activity.

India's once-booming economy has been hit by high interest rates, Europe's debt crisis that has slowed exports, and sluggish investment caused by domestic and overseas concerns about policy and corruption.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said he expected official data to be released next Friday to show that the economy grew by "around 5.5 per cent" in the three months to September 30.

That would be down from 6.9 per cent in the same second-quarter period a year earlier.

"It goes without saying that we face a difficult situation," Chidambaram said at a bankers' conference, adding the "global economy is still in crisis".

India's economy was growing by more than eight per cent before 2011/12.

But it has been performing increasingly worse with the Congress-led government of Prime Minister Manmohan widely criticised for its handling of the situation.

Even though 5.5-per cent growth would be the envy of much of the world, it is not enough for India, which has been aiming for close to double-digit expansion to substantially reduce crushing poverty.

"For us eight per cent growth is not an aspiration but a necessity. India cannot afford to grow below eight per cent," Chidambaram said.

The slow growth comes at a time when it is more difficult for the Indian government to pep up the economy than in the 2008/09 financial crisis.

Then, the government had more fiscal room to stimulate the economy but now it is struggling to cut a widening budget deficit and avert a downgrade of its sovereign debt to "junk" status by global credit ratings agencies.

In addition, the central bank has been keeping interest rates high to combat stubbornly high inflation.

Inflation eased marginally in October to 7.45 per cent year-on-year, but economists said the level is still too high to permit the bank to lower rates.

Indian businesses have been calling for lower rates, saying the slowdown is in large part due to high borrowing costs that have curbed consumer spending.

Chidambaram said India must boost growth "through innovation, through finding ways of increasing the production of goods and services".

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Syria rebels attack army in Aleppo

SYRIAN rebels have attacked army positions in the northern province of Aleppo, while Islamist fighters clashed with Kurdish militias on the border with Turkey.

Insurgents also attacked troops guarding the strategic Tishrin dam, located on the Euphrates river between the provinces of Aleppo and Raqa.

The rebels have surrounded the area, about 10 kilometres from the town of Manbij, local resident Abu Mohammed told AFP.

Opposition fighters already control one of the main routes to Raqa and the Tishrin dam would give them a second passage, connecting a wide expanse of territory between the two provinces, both of which border Turkey.

In Aleppo city, the commercial capital where fighting has reached stalemate after five months of deadly urban combat, clashes broke out near an air force intelligence building, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Insurgents earlier this week captured Base 46, just west of Aleppo. Nearly 300 soldiers were killed in the sprawling army garrison, according to the rebels, and a large cache of arms and ammunition seized.

The rebels are aiming to also seize Sheikh Suleiman base, also west of the city, that they have encircled for nearly two months, to give them full control of a swathe of northwest Syria from Aleppo to the Turkish border.

In Hasakeh province, northwest Syria, Ras al-Ain saw its fiercest violence since the town near the Turkish border was captured by rebels two weeks ago, a resident told AFP.

"There are so few people, most have left. There is no electricity, no water and no mobile coverage," said Ali, a farmer in his 40s, who fled with his family on Saturday.

"The fighting has been non-stop for five or six days now, but in the last 24 hours it has gotten worse ... The Kurds are bringing reinforcements from Derik and other nearby villages," he said.

Two main Kurdish groups have joined forces in a standoff with hundreds of Islamist rebels, a Syrian Kurdish representative and an activist said on Friday.

Hundreds of fighters loyal to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) - which has close ties to Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - have been locked in fierce battles with fighters of the jihadist Al-Nusra Front and allied Ghuraba al-Sham group in Ras al-Ain.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Probe into attempt to set bear on fire

AN INQUIRY has been ordered into an attempt by a jeering mob to set a terrified bear on fire in northern Indian, a state minister said.

Television footage showed the frightened bear scrambling up a tree in the state of Jammu and Kashmir as one of the men in the crowd tied a flaming cloth to a pole and tried to poke the animal.

"We've ordered an inquiry - a senior government official will hold the inquiry," Kashmir forest minister Mian Altaf told India's NDTV network.

The incident took place in the southern Kashmir district of Shopian earlier in the week, the network said.

The bear eventually climbed down from the tree and managed to escape but its fate was unknown, Mr Altaf said.

The attack was reported just two days before India's environment ministry was due to host a global conference on bear conservation in New Delhi.

Vivek Menon, executive director of the Wildlife Trust of India, blamed the the incident on the increasing incursion by humans into bears' natural habitats in Kashmir and in other parts of the country.

"There has been a great land use change in Kashmir. People are living closer and closer to the forests and therefore coming into contact with bears - and both people and bears are suffering," he said.

According to medical officials, a large number of hospital beds in Kashmir are occupied by people suffering from wounds inflicted by bears, Mr Menon said.

"That is spreading fear and panic among people and resulting in absurd retaliatory measures," he said.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

New Syrian envoy to France named

FRENCH President Francois Hollande and the new Syrian opposition leader have announced plans to install an ambassador to represent Syria in France.

The surprise move came after talks at France's presidential palace between Hollande and Moaz al-Khatib, head of the newly formed Syrian opposition coalition. France recognised the coalition days after it was formed on Sunday - and is so far the only Western country to do so.

Hollande also confirmed that French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who was at Saturday's talk, will raise the issue of lifting the EU arms embargo against Syria at a meeting on Monday in Brussels among European Union foreign ministers.

Fabius has suggested supplying defensive weapons so Syrian rebels can protect themselves from attacks by the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

More than 36,000 people have been killed since the Syrian uprising against Assad began in March 2011 and the new coalition is pressing for the means to defend Syrian civilians.

Since May 2011, the EU has imposed a ban on the export of weapons and equipment to Syria that could be used for "internal repression".

France has taken the lead in efforts to oust Assad's regime, and Hollande reiterated on Saturday that the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces is for France the sole representative of the Syrian people and a future provisional government.

Fabius will also press EU partners to recognise the coalition, Holllande said.

"We have no hidden agenda," al-Khatib said in a bid to reassure other nations.

Hollande said al-Khatib, a preacher-turned-activist, reassured him that the coalition he leads seeks unity of the Syrian people and France's aim in moving quickly is to "assure its legitimacy and credibility".

The United States and other EU nations have said they prefer to wait and see whether the coalition truly represents the variety of people that make up Syria.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

49 children killed in Egypt bus tragedy

AT least 49 nursery school children have been killed when a train smashed into their bus in central Egypt after a railway signal operator fell asleep, officials say, prompting protests and resignations.

Transport Minister Rashad al-Metini stepped down after the tragedy, which also killed the bus driver and his assistant, saying he "accepts responsibility".

President Mohamed Morsi accepted the Egyptian Railway Authority head's resignation.

"There are now 49 deaths and 18 injuries," with almost all of the casualties children, Assiut provincial governor Yehya Keshk told state television.

"There is a team of 45 doctors looking after the injured children."

The bus taking about 60 children aged between four and six on a school trip organised by their nursery was struck on a railway crossing in Manfalut, 356 kilometres south of Cairo, police said.

The worker manning the level crossing - which had been left open - was asleep when the bus tried to cross the tracks, Keshk said. "He has been arrested, of course."

Parents of the children were staging angry demonstrations near the scene of the horrific accident, demanding the death penalty for those responsible, police said.

A state television correspondent described the scene as "terrifying" with the blood-splattered bodies of children on the ground, before they were taken to nearby Manfalut hospital.

In a brief television address, Morsi offered his condolences to the families and said those responsible would be referred to the public prosecutor.

"On my and the Egyptian people's behalf, I offer my sincerest condolences to the families," the president said. "I am referring all those responsible to the public prosecution."

Earlier, Morsi ordered the prime minister, the defence and health ministers, and the Assiut governor "to offer all assistance to the families of the victims", the official news agency MENA said.

Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and his interior minister headed to Assiut, MENA said.

Activist groups have called for the resignation of Qandil's cabinet.

"This accident proves the failure of Qandil's government and strengthens the demands for the resignation of a government that has failed, over several months, to produce anything to improve the suffering of Egyptians," the April 6 movement said.

Keshk has ordered the "formation of a fact-finding committee" to probe Saturday's accident, but in similar tragedies in the past, such panels have done little to shed light on the details and less still to bring about accountability.

In a separate road accident, 12 people were killed and three injured when a truck smashed into a minibus near the Egyptian capital on Saturday.

Officials said a speeding truck driving on the wrong side of the road crashed into a minibus carrying 15 passengers. The truck driver was arrested at the scene in the 6th October area, as rescue services worked to extract the bodies, police said.

Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with the country's chronic transport problems, with roads as poorly maintained as train lines.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mali's north tense after Tuareg offensive

AL-QAEDA-LINKED fighters have gathered reinforcements in the tense Gao region of northeastern Mali and are waiting to see if the Tuareg rebels that launched a failed offensive a day earlier would regroup for a fresh assault.

The desert area of Gao has been a focus of Islamist and Tuareg activity since the once-allied fighters seized the region, along with much of Mali's arid north, following a coup and military collapse in Bamako March.

Though the dusty town of Gao and its surroundings were initially under the control of Tuaregs, who are fighting to establish an independent state, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) ousted them at the end of June.

On Friday, Tuaregs with the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) attacked the Islamist fighters but suffered a heavy defeat that saw about a dozen of their men killed, regional security sources said.

To prepare for a possible new offensive, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which is linked to MUJAO, sent about 300 reinforcements from Timbuktu, about 300 kilometres west of Gao, witnesses told AFP.

By Saturday morning an uneasy calm had settled over the region as locals waited to see if the MNLA would again try their luck, witnesses said.

According to Moussa Salem, an MNLA fighter, "our goal remains to retake Azawad from the hands of AQIM and its allies. We can fall back, but it's only to be able to better push forwards after."

Azawad is the Tuareg name for all of northern Mali.

MUJAO spokesman Walid Abu Sahraoui said his group would continue to pursue the MNLA across the entire region.

"We are in control of the situation," he said.

Since their defeat at the hands of the radical Islamists on June 27, the more secular Tuaregs have no longer controlled any town in this massive desert region that spans two-thirds of Mali's territory.

In the regions under their control, Islamist groups have implemented sharia law and carried out brutal punishments of transgressors, including the stoning to death of an unmarried couple and the amputations of hands and feet of accused thieves.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

ASEAN urges China 'hotline' over sea row

SOUTHEAST Asian nations will propose opening a "hotline" with China aimed at defusing tensions over the South China Sea, ASEAN's chief says.

Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said after a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers on Saturday that they had agreed to back the plan first mooted by Indonesia.

"This of course will be brought up to our Chinese friends," Surin told reporters ahead of a gathering of leaders from the region that begins in Cambodia on Sunday.

"We can call it a red line, we can give it a sense of urgency that if there is anything developing that we all will be phoned ... trying to consult, trying to coordinate, trying to contain any possible spillover of any ... incident, accident, miscalculation, misunderstanding," he added.

ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, have claims to parts of the sea, home of some of the world's most important shipping lanes and believed to be rich in fossil fuels.

China insists it has sovereign rights to virtually all of the sea, and the Philippines and Vietnam have expressed concerns that their giant Asian neighbour has become increasingly aggressive this year in staking its claim.

Philippine and Chinese vessels engaged in a standoff at a remote shoal in the sea in April, escalating the dispute between their countries dramatically.

The proposal comes as ASEAN and China struggle to make progress on a code of conduct (COC) to ease tensions in the sea that was first envisaged a decade ago.

"What Indonesia is now looking for while we are working on the COC is a commitment on the part of ASEAN and China to open a hotline of communication," Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters in Phnom Penh.

"So that if there were to be an incident in the future ... we can commit to have communication and have dialogue if there were to be disputes."

ASEAN leaders will hold their annual summit in Phnom Penh on Sunday. This will be followed by a two-day East Asia Summit involving Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, US President Barack Obama, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the leaders of five other countries.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Sirens go off in Tel Aviv, 1 dead in Gaza

AIR raid sirens have gone off in Tel Aviv for a third day running, sending people scuttling for cover as TV images showed the Iron Dome anti-missile system firing on an incoming rocket.

AFP correspondents at the scene on Saturday said people could be seen running to find shelter as the sirens wailed, a day after a rocket crashed into the sea off central Tel Aviv.

In Gaza City, one man was killed on Saturday in a fresh Israeli strike on Rafah in southern Gaza, taking the overall Palestinian death toll from three days of Israeli raids to 40, medics said.

"Osama Qadi, 25, was killed and two others were wounded in an air strike on Rafah," emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya told AFP.

In a separate strike, another eight people were wounded in a raid on the southern city of Khan Yunis, he said.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Obama heads for Asia with stop in Myanmar

PRESIDENT Barack Obama heads to Asia for a tour of three countries on his first foreign trip since winning re-election that will see him make a once unthinkable stop in Myanmar (Burma).

The first trip by a US president spent entirely in Southeast Asia since the Vietnam War, the visit that will also take in Thailand and Cambodia aims to emphasise the Obama administration's focus on the dynamic and largely US-friendly region where several nations worry about a rising China.

But his tour also comes at an awkward time amid a spiralling conflict between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas with the Jewish state poised to launch its first ground offensive on the Palestinian territory in four years.

At home, Obama is in tough negotiations with legislators to avoid steep automatic budget cuts and tax hikes that could send the country back into recession.

Obama launched a so-called "pivot" to Asia in his first term that included greater military cooperation with Australia, Thailand and Vietnam and a plan to shift the bulk of the US navy to the Pacific by 2020.

Virtually no nation has seen a greater shift towards the United States under Obama than Myanmar. The nation formerly known as Burma was for years a close ally of China and treated as a pariah by Western nations.

Surprising sceptics, Myanmar launched reforms after its nominal end to nearly half a century of army rule last year.

President Thein Sein, a former general, released political prisoners, opened dialogue with ethnic rebels and allowed once-confined opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to run for parliament.

Thailand is the oldest US ally in Asia, famously offering elephants to Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War. But the kingdom has been consumed by internal disputes, which escalated in 2010 into violence that left more than 90 people dead.

Obama will be the first sitting US president to visit Cambodia, a staunch China supporter.

On the sidelines of an East Asia Summit there, Obama will meet China's outgoing premier, Wen Jiabao, and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan, amid a dispute between the two countries over islands in the East China Sea and the oil and gas fields in the disputed waters.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hamas chief in Cairo for talks

HAMAS chief Khaled Meshaal is in Cairo to confer on ending the Gaza conflict, but the Islamist group is reluctant to agree a ceasefire without guarantees Israel will honour it, a senior Hamas official says.

Meshaal was scheduled on Saturday to meet with Egypt's intelligence chief as well as Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, both visiting Cairo, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hamas, now its fourth day of conflict with Israel around the Gaza Strip, doubts that any country could guarantee terms for a ceasefire, he said.

"Through Egyptian mediation, we reached an understanding for a truce and it was broken in about 48 hours," he said of an Israeli air strike on Wednesday that killed the Hamas military chief, after rockets were fired from Gaza.

"Egypt now cannot say: 'I guarantee a truce'," he said, adding it would require a stronger effort by the "international community".

Hamas's last sustained conflict with Israel in December 2008-January 2009 ended with an Egyptian mediated truce that was meant to guarantee a loosening of Israel's blockade of Gaza.

Palestinian medics said 40 Gazans have been killed and more than 350 wounded since Israel launched an air campaign on the enclave on Wednesday. Three Israelis were killed by a Hamas rocket.

Since Israel's last major offensive on Gaza, the Arab Spring uprisings that brought an Islamist to power in Cairo have put more pressure on Israel to halt its campaign before it expands into a ground operation.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Orthodox patriarch visits Bethlehem

RUSSIAN Orthodox Patriarch Kirill visited the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem and met with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, on the second day of his Holy Land trip.

After his visit to the Bethlehem church, built over the site where Christians believe Mary gave birth to Jesus in a stable, Patriarch Kirill met with the Palestinian president at his office in the West Bank city.

A statement from the president's office cited Mr Abbas as telling Patriarch Kirill the visit was historical and bore political meaning.

"We feel it comes from the leadership of the Russian people," Mr Abbas said of the visit, saying Moscow supported peace and justice in the Middle East.

The statement also quoted Patriarch Kirill as saying the visit was special to him, and especially important "since Christ walked here."

"I'm fully confident you are committed to real peace, and your position is welcome because the people living here know the meaning of living in unrest," the Russian patriarch was quoted as saying.

The head of a community of some 150 million Orthodox believers arrived in Jerusalem on Friday for his first visit since becoming head of the powerful church in 2009, and held prayers at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Over the course of his six-day trip, Patriarch Kirill will also meet Israeli President Shimon Peres and King Abdullah II of Jordan, in a new sign of his importance as a global religious figure.

Israel's foreign ministry called his trip "the most important (religious) visit (to Israel) since that of the Pope Benedict XVI" in 2009.

The 65-year-old patriarch will visit Christian holy sites in northern Israel as well as in Jordan.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Fears blight 'Malala Day'

PAKISTAN marked "Malala Day" on a global day of support for the teenager shot by the Taliban for promoting girls' education, but in her home town security fears meant schoolmates could not honour her in public.

PTaliban hitmen shot Malala Yousafzai on her school bus a month ago in Mingora in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley, in a cold-blooded murder attempt for the "crime" of campaigning for girls' rights to go to school.

Miraculously the 15-year-old survived and her courage has won the hearts of millions around the world, prompting the UN to declare Saturday a "global day of action" for her.

People around the world are expected to hold vigils and demonstrations honouring Malala and calling for the 32 million girls worldwide who are denied education to be allowed to go to school.

Demonstrations backing Malala were held in Islamabad, Karachi, the eastern city of Lahore and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf saluted Malala's courage.

But in Mingora, the threat of further Taliban reprisals casts a fearful shadow, with students at Malala's Khushal Public School forced to honour her in private.

"We held a special prayer for Malala today in our school assembly and also lit candles,"  said school principal Mariam Khalid.

"We did not organise any open event because our school and its students still face a security threat."

Though their bid to kill Malala failed, the Taliban have said they will attack any woman who stands against them. Fears are so great that Ms Khalid said even speaking to the media could put students' lives in danger.

Two of Malala's friends were wounded in the attempt on her life and one, 16-year-old Kainaat Riaz, said she was still haunted by memories of the attack.

"I am still terrified. I still get tears in my eyes whenever I think of that incident. I saw Malala in the pool of blood in front of me with my eyes," she said.

Malala rose to prominence with a blog for the BBC charting life in Swat under the Taliban, whose bloody two-year reign of terror supposedly came to an end with an army operation in 2009.

Despite the dangers, some children in Mingora were determined to speak out and pledged to follow Malala's brave example.

"Malala is a good friend of mine. She is brave and has honour and whoever attacked her did a terrible thing," said Asma Khan, 12, a student in Saroosh Academy, close to Malala's school.

"After the attack on her and her injuries, we have now more courage to study and now we will fulfil her mission to spread education everywhere."

Khan's schoolmate Gul Para, 12, added: "Malala is the daughter of the nation and we are proud of her.

"She has stood by us and for our education up to now and now it is time that we should stand by her and complete her mission."

Nearly 100,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Malala to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and on Friday UN special education envoy Gordon Brown handed a separate million-strong petition in support of Malala to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

Islamabad on Friday also announced a UN-backed scheme to give poor families cash incentives to send their children to school in a bid to get three million more youngsters into education.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mick Jagger's love letters for sale

HANDWRITTEN letters from Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger to his former lover Marsha Hunt will be auctioned in London next month.

Hunt is an American-born singer who was the inspiration for the Stones' 1971 hit Brown Sugar and bore Jagger's first child.

Sotheby's says she has tasked the auction house with selling 10 letters written from the set of Jagger's film Ned Kelly, which was shooting in Australia.

Sotheby's says the "passionate and articulate" letters sent in the summer of 1969 show a "poetic and self-aware" 25-year-old Jagger.

The auction house said the collection, which includes song lyrics and a Rolling Stones playlist, is expected to fetch between 70,000 and 100,000 pounds ($107,000 and $153,000) and will go under the hammer on December 12.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

IT tech convicted in 'Vatileaks'

A VATICAN court has convicted a Holy See computer technician of helping the former papal butler in the theft of confidential papal documents and given him a two-month suspended sentence.

Claudio Sciarpelletti, an Italian who is a computer program analyst in the Vatican's Secretariat of State, had testified earlier that he had played no role in helping to spirit out confidential documents in a scandal involving alleged corruption in the Vatican bureaucracy.

Pope's former butler, Paolo Gabriele, was convicted last month in a separate trial for the theft of the documents and is serving a 18-month prison sentence in Vatican City.

Top Vatican security officials, including the head of Pope Benedict XVI's bodyguards, as well as his convicted former butler were the witness list in the latest trial in the leak of confidential papal correspondence.

The witnesses had been called to testify earlier in the week in a Holy See courtroom, but the judge told them to come back Saturday to give more preparation time for the defence.

The stolen documents formed the basis of an Italian journalist's book about alleged corruption at the Vatican.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Prince Charles thanks 'kind' Aussies

Prince Charles thanked Australians for being "wonderfully kind", as he and wife Camilla wrapped up a six-day tour which has taken them from the Outback to Bondi Beach.

Hundreds of people came to see the royal couple at their final destination in Canberra, with one woman offering the prince a packet of chocolate Tim Tams -which he had said he hoped someone would allow Camilla to try.

"You're very kind," Charles told Alyson Richards, 25, as she handed over the biscuits and wished him a happy birthday for next week.

At a lunch at Government House, Charles said it had been a joy to visit Australia, where the couple had met hundreds of community volunteers, as well as been able to see the local wildlife, including koalas and kangaroos, up close.

"When we finally get back, after a very, very, long journey, if I'm still reasonably compos mentis by then and haven't completely lost my marbles to jet lag, I will report back to Her Majesty your wonderfully kind thoughts and expressions after our visit," he said.

He said while the tour had not allowed them to visit as many places as they would have liked, it enabled them to "witness so many of the changes that have happened here since I was here last".

"And to witness... the extraordinary vibrancy of the multicultural society which Australia is and which of course has stood Australia in such remarkable stead in terms of the richness and diversity which you can see only too well."

Earlier, Charles watched as one of the terraces of Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin was named after the Queen, following a tradition of naming the terraces after Australia's monarchs since the country became a federal state in 1901.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the renaming would "remind future generations that for more than half of our journey as a united nation, Elizabeth the Second has been our monarch."

The royal couple arrived in New Zealand late onSaturday on the last leg of their tour marking the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and were met at a military air base in Auckland by Prime Minister John Key.

They will formally begin their six-day visit with a traditional Maori welcome today at the Auckland War Memorial Museum where they will also commemorate Armistice Day.

They will then travel to Wellington and tour Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop to inspect costumes and props used in The Hobbit movies before moving to Christchurch, the scene of devastating earthquakes last year that claimed 185 lives.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

China plans manned space launch

CHINA is aiming to launch its next manned space mission as early as June 2013, state media reported, as the country steps up its ambitious exploration program.

The Shenzhou-10, with three crew members, is aiming for a primary launch window in June, Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of the manned space programme, told China National Radio in an interview Friday.

Mr Niu, speaking on the sidelines of China's 18th Communist Party Congress that kicked off Thursday in Beijing, said officials had identified a back-up launch window for July or August.

He said one of the three astronauts would likely be a woman.

China sent its first female astronaut, Liu Yang, into space earlier this year on the Shenzhou-9 in the country's first manual space docking mission.

The docking procedure was a major milestone in the country's ambitious space program that has a goal of building a space station by the end of the decade.

In its last white paper on space, China said it was working towards landing a man on the moon, but did not specify a time-frame.

So far only the United States has achieved that feat, most recently in 1972.

Beijing has said it will also attempt to land an exploratory craft on the moon for the first time in the second half of 2013 and transmit back a survey of the lunar surface.

China sees its space program as a symbol of its rising global stature, growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.

The country sent its first man into space in 2003. It completed a space walk in 2008 and an unmanned docking between a module and rocket last year.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Afghan soldiers attack NATO troops

TWO Afghan soldiers attacked US-led NATO forces (ISAF) in western Afghanistan, in the latest "insider" attack in the country, injuring one foreign soldier, ISAF said.

An ISAF spokesman in Kabul said that the attack by two Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers occurred in Muqur district of Badghis province in the early hours of Saturday, which resulted in the injury of one NATO soldier and one attacker but no fatalities.

"Two ANA service members turned their weapons against ISAF forces in Badghis province. There was no fatalities, but one ISAf soldier was injured and one attacker was also wounded when ISAF troops returned fire. Both attackers were detained by ISAF and Afghan forces," the spokesman said without giving more details.

A provincial spokesman confirmed the incident but said that only one attacker, an ANA soldier who "was suffering from mental problems", was involved.

"The soldier who opened fire was suffering from mental problems, he was wounded when ISAF forces returned fire and later detained by Afghan and ISAF forces," said provincial governor spokesman Sharafudin Majidi.

Shootings by Afghan forces have taken an increasing toll on NATO troops and have seriously undermined trust between NATO forces and their Afghan allies in the fight against hardline Islamist Taliban insurgents.

In the most recent previous attack a man in Afghan police uniform opened fire on NATO-led coalition forces in southern Helmand province on October 30, killing two British soldiers.

The Afghan conflict has seen a surge in insider attacks this year, with more than 50 ISAF troops killed by their colleagues in the Afghan army and police.

There are presently around 100,000 US-led forces fighting alongside Afghan security forces against a Taliban-led insurgency that has been raging in the war-torn country since a US-led invasion toppled the hardline Islamist regime in late 2001. NATO combat forces are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rebels fight Syrian troops over airbase

SYRIAN rebels have launched a major assault on a strategic airbase in the north of the country, trying to disrupt strikes by warplanes and helicopters that pound rebel-held towns.

The assault, reported by activists, comes a day before the start of a key international conference in Qatar at which the United States and its allies aim to reorganise the opposition's political leadership and unite their ranks. The leadership-in-exile has been widely seen as ineffective and out of touch with rebel fighters on the ground.

Rebel forces attacked the Taftanaz airbase early on Saturday morning in fighting with government forces that continued into the afternoon, the anti-regime activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Joining Syrian rebels in the attack were fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic militant group made up of foreign jihadis, according to the Observatory. Al-Nusra fighters, who are considered among the most experienced and disciplined among the opposition forces, have led attacks on other airbases in the north in past months.

The Taftanaz base mainly houses military helicopters, near the main highway between the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, where rebels and the military have been battling for control for months.

Online activist videos claim to show the battle, with rebels firing rockets and mortars, and smoke rising over buildings and an airstrip area. An activist speaking in the video identifies it as an attack by rebels and Jabhat al-Nusra on the base.

The videos appear genuine and are consistent with other Associated Press reporting in the area.

The capturing of the base - and holding on to it - would be a major achievement for the rebels, who often complain they are outgunned by government forces.

Airstrikes have been one of the most effective and feared weapons of the regime in the civil war. Rebels managed to seize control of a pocket of territory around Aleppo, but government warplanes and helicopters continue to blast towns they hold from the air. In the fierce fighting over Aleppo itself, warplanes almost daily swoop in to strafe or bomb rebel-held neighbourhoods.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Blindfolded boy to pick Copt pope

A BLINDFOLDED boy will select the new pope for millions of Coptic Christians in Egypt, becoming his mother's pride and joy in the process.

Nearly 2500 eligible voters made up of Coptic public officials, MPs, journalists and local councillors have already pre-selected three candidates to succeed pope Shenuda III, who died in March at the age of 88.

They are Bishop Rafael, 54, a medical doctor and current assistant bishop for central Cairo; Bishop Tawadros of the Nile Delta province of Beheira, 60; and Father Rafael Ava Mina, the oldest of the five original candidates at 70.

Their names will now be written on separate pieces of paper and placed in a box on the altar of St Mark's Cathedral, for God to guide the boy's hand towards the winner - in the beliefs of the Church and the faithful.

The final choice will be left to a boy, aged between five and eight, explained Bishop Pola from Tanta in the Nile Delta, in the first such contest since Shenuda was selected by the same method more than four decades ago, in 1971.

"A lot of families propose the names of children, that's why we lay down precise criteria and ensure the faithfulness of the family and the child to the Church," said the bishop.

Dozens of families have come forward.

"I pray my son George is selected to carry out the will of God," said one mother, Merihan Moros.

The interim head of the Church, Father Pachomius, will choose 12 boys to be invited to the ceremony. Then, he will instruct that one of them be blindfolded.

That boy will choose a piece of paper bearing the name of the 118th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa in the Holy See of St Mark the Apostle.

Bishop Pola told reporters that strict measures are taken to ensure there is no foul play: the three pieces of paper are all the same size, tied up the same way and placed in a transparent box.

The entire process is also televised before a large, live congregation.

Some Copts say the procedure should be updated.

"The faithful should vote after having prayed and fasted," according to Gamal Asaad, an intellectual in the community.

The Coptic pope serves as the spiritual leader of the country's Christians, who make up between six and 10 per cent of Egypt's 83-million-strong population.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

NASA to text space station alerts

GALACTIC tourism may still be a daydream for most of us, but for anyone interested in a glimpse of the International Space Station sooner, NASA is ready to help.

The US space agency, celebrating the 12th anniversary of astronauts living and working on the orbiting lab, launched a new service Friday that alerts people when the space station is visible from their backyard.

Those who sign up will get an email or a text message with a few hours warning.

Then, when the moment is right, NASA said, you just go outside and look up - no fancy equipment required.

"It's really remarkable to see the space station fly overhead and to realize humans built an orbital complex that can be spotted from Earth by almost anyone looking up at just the right moment," William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said in a statement.

The space station is typically visible right at dawn or dusk, when the moon is the only brighter object visible in the night sky, NASA said.

It looks like a fast moving point of light, similar to Venus.

"Spot the Station" service is available worldwide, the agency said, adding the station's trajectory carries it over more than 90 per cent of the Earth's population.

To sign up, visit spotthestation.nasa.gov.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Romney, Obama fight for an edge

REACHING for the finish line, Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama embarked on the final 72-hour haul of their long, grinding quest for victory, swatting at one another over what should motivate Americans to vote and making closing arguments that offer dueling pictures of what the next four years can and should bring.

The candidates began the day swatting at one another over what should motivate Americans to vote and making closing arguments that offer dueling pictures of what the next four years can and should bring.

Mr Romney opened a three-state campaign day in New Hampshire by faulting Mr Obama for telling supporters a day earlier that voting would be their "best revenge"

"Vote for revenge?" Mr Romney asked, oozing incredulity.

"I'd like to tell him what I'd tell you: Vote for love of country. It's time to lead America to a better place."

The Republican candidate released a TV ad carrying the same message

Mr Obama tended to presidential business before politics as he led a briefing at the government's disaster relief agency on the federal response to Superstorm Sandy.

The recovery effort still has a long way to go but pledging a "120 per cent effort" by all those involved, Mr Obama said. Then he began his own three-state campaign day in Ohio, the biggest battleground of Campaign 2012.

After holding mostly small and midsize rallies for much of the campaign, Mr Obama's team is planning a series of larger events this weekend aimed at drawing big crowds in battleground states.

Still, the campaign isn't expecting to draw the massive audiences Mr Obama had in the closing days of the 2008 race, when his rallies drew more than 50,000.

Mr Obama's closing weekend also includes two joint events with former President Bill Clinton: a rally at night in Virginia and an event Sunday in New Hampshire.

The two presidents had planned to campaign together across three states earlier this week, but that trip was called off because of Sandy. And, of course, there is always Ohio.

In a whiff of 2008 nostalgia, some of Mr Obama's traveling companions from his campaign four years ago were planning to join him on the road for the final days of his last campaign. Among them are Robert Gibbs, who served as Mr Obama's first White House press secretary, and Reggie Love, Mr Obama's former personal aide who left the White House earlier this year.

Likewise, virtually Mr Romney's entire senior team has left the campaign's Boston headquarters to travel with Mr Romney for the contest's final three days. Most will connect with Mr Romney at his morning New Hampshire event.

Their presence for the campaign's waning hours is an admission that the strategy and planning is largely complete. His schedule has been set, the ads have been placed, and Mr Romney's message has been decided.

The tight inner circle that has worked with him for several years in most cases plan to enjoy the final moments on the campaign trail as Mr Romney's side.

"It's been a long road," Ann Romney told reporters aboard the campaign plane, offering breakfast pastries to Secret Service agents and reporters alike. After campaigning on her own for the past month, she hooked up with her husband for the final swing.

Mr Romney hosted a massive rally Friday night in West Chester, Ohio, drawing more than 10,000 people to the Cincinnati area for an event that featured rock stars, sports celebrities and dozens of Republican officials. It was a high-energy event on a cold night designed to kick off his own sprint to the finish.

Mr Romney arrived in New Hampshire close to midnight after an 18-hour day on the campaign trail that took him from Virginia to Wisconsin to Ohio.

After his morning rally on the New Hampshire seacoast, he was making an afternoon appearance in Iowa, and two more in Colorado. He shifted an original plan to campaign in Nevada in favour of a schedule likely to bring him back to Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

On Saturday, Mr Obama's first stop was in Mentor, Ohio, then he was campaigning in Milwaukee and Dubuque, Iowa, and ending the day in Bristow, Va. On Sunday, he was taking his campaign to New Hampshire, Florida, Colorado and, yes, Ohio.

Polling shows the race remains a toss-up heading into the final days. But Mr Romney still has the tougher path; he must win more of the nine most-contested states to reach 270 electoral votes: Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire.

Mr Romney has added Pennsylvania to the mix, hoping to end a streak of five presidential contests where the Democratic candidate prevailed in the state.

Mr Obama won Pennsylvania by more than 10 per centage points in 2008; the latest polls in the state give him a 4- to 5-point margin. Mr Romney will campaign in the Philadelphia suburbs on Sunday.

Mr Obama aides scoff at the Romney incursion, but they are carefully adding television spending in the state and are sending Clinton to campaign there Monday.

In crucial early voting, Mr Obama holds an apparent lead over Mr Romney in key states. But Mr Obama's advantage isn't as big as the one he had over John McCain four years ago, giving Mr Romney hope that he could make up that gap in Tuesday's election.

About 25 million people already have voted in 34 states and the District of Columbia.

No votes will be counted until Election Day, but several battleground states are releasing the party affiliation of people who have voted early. So far, Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio. Republicans have the edge in Colorado.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Three police shot dead in Egypt's Sinai

GUNMEN have killed three Egyptian policemen and seriously wounded a fourth in El-Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula, state television says.

"Armed men who might belong to a jihadist group attacked a police vehicle and fired on its passengers before fleeing," a security source said on Saturday.

The dead and wounded were taken to the general hospital in El-Arish, where one of the policemen died from serious wounds," a medic said.

A civilian was also wounded.

Security forces threw up a cordon around the city in an attempt to capture the gunmen.

Security in the desert and mountainous region collapsed after an uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Since then, several militant attacks in the Sinai, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip, have targeted police and soldiers, including a brazen August 5 ambush on an army outpost that killed 16 soldiers.

On Friday, Bedouin tribesmen attacked a police post in the central Sinai city of Nakhl, attempting to free one of their number who was in detention.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Syrian tanks enter Golan, Israel says

ISRAEL'S military says three Syrian tanks have entered the demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights.

A military spokeswoman says Israel complained to the UN peacekeeping force in the area after the tanks entered the area on Saturday.

The spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military protocol, did not elaborate. The relatively low-key response suggested Israel did not see the armour as an immediate threat.

The Israeli news site Ynet said the tanks and two armoured personnel carriers drove a few kilometres away from Israeli military positions.

There are concerns in Israel that violence from Syria's civil war could spill over a long-quiet frontier. Misfired Syrian shells have exploded inside Israel on several occasions. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Euro debt crisis will take 5 years: Merkel

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel says Europe's sovereign debt crisis will last at least five more years.

Merkel says the continent is on the right path to overcome the crisis but "whoever thinks this can be fixed in one or two years is wrong".

Two years ago some heavily indebted European countries were dragged into the turmoil that first gripped global financial markets in 2007.

Greece in particular has been struggling with the austerity conditions imposed on it by countries such as Germany.

But Merkel told a regional meeting of her Christian Democratic Party on Saturday that the time had come for "a bit of strictness".

Otherwise, she says, Europe won't be able to attract international investment.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Flood evacuations in Catholic shrine town

FRENCH rescue services and police are evacuating hundreds of pilgrims from hotels threatened by floodwaters from a rain-swollen river in the Roman Catholic shrine town of Lourdes.

Lourdes' grotto is said to be the site where the Virgin Mary appeared to a 14-year-old girl named Bernadette in 1858. Officials say the town draws about 6 million visitors a year.

A spokesman for the Lourdes sanctuary said the grotto itself was under 1.5 metres of water after the Gave River overran its banks. Visits were temporarily suspended.

Regional government spokesman Anatole Puiseux said about 500 people were being evacuated from riverside hotels and more rain was forecast for later on Saturday.

The shrine has special meaning for the suffering, many of whom believe its spring water can heal and even work miracles.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

UK protesters decry austerity drive

TENS of thousands of demonstrators have descended on the British capital in a noisy but peaceful protest at a government austerity drive aimed at slashing the country's debt.

Unions, anti-war campaigners, community groups and other activists poured down London's streets in a demonstration against reductions to public sector spending which officials are pushing through in order to rein in Britain's debt, which stands at more than STG1 trillion ($A1.56 trillion).

Although the austerity program has had some modest successes - the country's deficit has dropped slightly - the UK economy has shrunk for three consecutive quarters amid cuts at home and economic turmoil on the continent.

Brendan Barber, whose Trades Union Congress helped organise the march, said that the message of Saturday's protest was that "austerity is simply failing".

"The government is making life desperately hard for millions of people because of pay cuts for workers, while the rich are given tax cuts," he said.

Britain borrowed STG13 billion ($A20.25 billion) in September alone, and with other European countries - including next door neighbour Ireland - struggling to make good on their debt, and there is a general consensus that the UK budget needs to be rebalanced.

But the coalition government did little to endear itself with ordinary Britons when it reduced income taxes for the country's wealthiest citizens earlier this year.

And its leadership has struggled to fight perceptions of elitism which rankle many in this class-conscious country.

On Friday the Conservative Party's chief whip stepped down following a dispute over whether he'd described officers guarding the prime minister's official residence at Downing Street as "plebs" or warned them to "learn your (expletive) place".

News of Andrew Mitchell's resignation broke just as word was getting around that Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne had been spotted by a journalist sitting in a first class train carriage with a second class ticket.

Osborne paid for an upgrade, but story's humour was irresistible - newspapers lavished coverage on what many nicknamed "The Great Train Snobbery," and Osborne's misadventure was a talking point at the rally, which marched through the city beneath huge red and purple balloons emblazoned with union logos.

Some protesters shouted "no first class tickets here;" others booed as they passed Downing Street.

The marchers carried banners which read: "Cameron Has Butchered Britain", "24 Hour General Strike Now" and "No Cuts" as they marched through Whitehall towards Hyde Park.

They shouted "pay your taxes" as they passed a Starbucks coffee shop.

Police officers stood outside Starbucks, which has been involved in a row over its tax arrangements.

But unlike some rallies elsewhere in Europe which devolved into riots, Saturday's march appeared to go off without violence.

A police spokesman said there had been no arrests or incidents.

One group of children dressed up as government workers, including a nurse and a traffic warden.

Another child, dressed as a chef, held up a sign warning that Prime Minister David Cameron was "a recipe for disaster".

Ed Miliband, the leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, was among the speakers to address the crowd in London's Hyde Park, following the march.

Miliband accused the prime minister of "clinging" to policies which were not working.

He said the coalition was cutting taxes for millionaires and raising them for everyone else.

"It is one rule for those at the top and one rule for everyone else."

Miliband was booed by a small section of a rally in Hyde Park when he said Labour would have to make "hard choices" if it was in government.

He pledged that if he became prime minister he would tax bankers' bonuses, support the building of 100,000 houses and end the privatisation of the NHS.

Similar protests were also held in Belfast, Northern Ireland's capital, and Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city.

23.15 | 0 komentar | Read More