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Indian recounts Saudi hostage drama
2 dead as rockets hit Pak town
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Islamic hardliners call for strike
10 Suu Kyi loyalists arrested
Dissident troops surround Congo airport
Earth brightening up, say scientists
Coffin makers cash in on AIDS pandemic
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24 killed in Iraq blast, fighting
Baghdad/Kufa, May 31 Col Mike Murray said the target of the attack was not known. “There was a Mercedes moving down the street and then it turned and suddenly blew up,” said witness Mohammad Abbas. “After that we didn’t see anything.” Debris was scattered across a wide area and a pall of smoke hung over the area as crowds of locals gathered to look at the destruction. Fire fighters were also at the scene, dousing the burnt-out wreckage of several cars. A US soldier said the blast was caused by a “vehicle-borne improvised explosive device” — US military terminology for a car bomb. But some Iraqi witnesses said they believed a rocket or mortar had hit the street. US forces and Iraqi militia loyal to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr fought near Najaf overnight, leaving two US soldiers and around 20 militiamen dead on the fourth day of clashes since Sadr offered a truce. The US military said two soldiers from the Ist Armored Division were killed late on Sunday around the town of Kufa, one when his patrol was ambushed by gunmen and one when his tank was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. The US forces shot and killed around 20 militiamen when they returned fire, a coalition military official said. Meanwhile Iraqi politicians today said talks to decide posts in a new government had been delayed by a day at America’s behest and complained that Washington was meddling in the selection process. “The Americans have asked for the meeting to be delayed until tomorrow,” said Mahmoud Othman, a member of the US-appointed Governing Council. Iraq’s US-led authorities are due to formally hand sovereignty to the new government on June 30. Iyad Allawi, who has worked with the CIA against Saddam Hussein, was last week named as Prime Minister.
— Reuters |
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Bush proud to own Saddam’s pistol
New York, May 31 The pistol, seized from Mr Hussein when he was captured from a spider hole near Tikrit last December, was gifted to Mr Bush by US Special Forces who had caught the deposed Iraqi President. The pistol adorns a proud place in a small study adjacent to the Oval Office, where Mr Bush takes select visitors.
— PTI |
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Indian recounts Saudi hostage drama
Khobar (Saudi Arabia), May 31 But the following 24 hours were the most horrifying for an Indian computer project manager, as four militants took over the hotel, going door-to-door in search of Westerners and non-Muslims. The assault and hostage crisis, which began early Saturday, ended 25 hours later with 22 people killed, including eight Indians. A Saturday morning call to the Oasis hotel maintenance saved his life. “Stay inside your room. Use the double-lock on the door and keep the key inside the keyhole. Do not open the door for anybody,” he was told by the receptionist when he called to ask for a repairman. The Dubai-based Venkatamani was told by the hotel staff that there was a “security situation.” Moments later, he heard gunshots, screams and loud explosions. “There was banging at my door. I looked through the peephole and saw a hotel staffer with two guns stuck to his head on either side,” he said from his home in Dubai. Terrified, he hid under the bed in absolute silence. “I could hear the clink-clank of grenades, as they rolled on the tiles before exploding.” He used his mobile to contact a colleague who was with security forces outside the hotel. “I was getting restless. I asked him if I could jump out of the window. Perhaps I would have broken my legs, but at least I would stay alive,” he said, but was advised to stay put. As the siege of the compound continued, he locked himself in the bathroom and placed towels and sheets over the mirror and against the door, fearing an explosion. Early Sunday morning, Saudi security forces broke down the door to his room and banged on the bathroom door, identifying themselves as police. An armed escort took him to the 5th floor, where other guests were waiting to be evacuated.
— AP |
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2 dead as rockets hit Pak town
Quetta, May 31 Unidentified attackers fired the rockets on the town of Mund near the Iranian border at about 3 am (local time), local administration official Rafiq Ahmad said on telephone. “One of the rockets hit a private house, killing a man and a 14-year-old boy and injuring four others from the same family,” he said. “Thuds of rockets jolted the whole town as unknown people targeted the paramilitary Frontier Corps camp, a high school building and other government offices and a private house,” Ahmad said. He said the exact number of rockets was not known, but residents believe more than a dozen rockets landed in Mund, including some of which crashed near his own home. Police and security officials in Mund, 510 km south-west of Baluchistan provincial capital Quetta, are combing the area in search of the attackers, he said.
— AFP |
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Islamic hardliners call for strike
Karachi, May 31 The situation was tense but there was no immediate outbreak of violence following a day of unrest that saw the police fire tear gas and warning shots to disperse rioters who set fire to banks, shops, a police station and a KFC fast-food restaurant.
— AP |
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Yangon, May 31 The police swooped on the woman in central Yangon minutes after she shouted the Nobel laureate’s name in a rare public display of opposition against the ruling military junta. “She was standing on the road calling for the release of Suu Kyi, Tin Oo and other political prisoners,” said a witness who saw the protest outside Yangon’s City Hall. Nine young members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) were also detained at market places in Yangon yesterday for distributing leaflets, citing a UN human rights declaration. “The young men are NLD members, but I don’t know anything about the woman or her protest,” said party secretary U. Lwin. Witnesses said security was especially tight in Yangon yesterday, the anniversary of Suu Kyi’s detention after violence on May 30 last year triggered a crackdown on the opposition. “We call for the immediate and unconditional release of Suu Kyi and Tin Oo, who are under house arrest, and all other party members and members of democratic forces who have been imprisoned,” the NLD said in a statement, referring to its vice- chairman.
— Reuters |
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Dissident troops surround Congo airport
Bukavu (DR Congo), May 31 Two regular soldiers were killed near the airport last evening, according to their commander. The airport itself was still controlled by the UN military mission in DRC, MONUC, which confirmed that the facility, which lies 30 km north of Bukavu, had been encircled without having been attacked. MONUC also said regular troops in the area had made a “strategic withdrawal.” As many as 27 persons were killed in Bukavu last week in clashes between regular and dissident troops of the new DRC army, which is now meant to incorporate fighters from former rebel groups that fought in the vast central African country’s five-year war and which have, since the end of the conflict last year, joined a government of national unity. “Two of our men were killed and two wounded. We had to withdraw late in the evening because we were running out of ammunition,” said Major Masudi, whose unit of regular troops controls an area that includes the town’s airport. His dissident counterpart, General laurent Nkunda, said his men had halted 11 km south of the airport on road to Bukavu itself. “We stopped fighting because Vice-President (Azarias) Ruberwa asked me for a ceasesfire, otherwise I would already be in Bukavu,” he said. — AFP |
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Earth brightening up, say scientists
Washington, May 31 The change appears to have resulted from changes in the amount of clouds covering the planet. More clouds reflect more light back into the space, potentially cooling the planet, while a dimmer planet with fewer clouds would be warmed by the arriving sunlight. The researchers, from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology, used two sets of records to establish the amount of light reflected from the Earth. The records, which partly overlap, include measurements of cloud cover taken by satellites and an analysis of “earthshine.” Earthshine, the reflection from the Earth, was determined by studying how much it illuminates the dark portion of the moon. But the use of two separate types of measurements gave pause to Mr James A. Coakley (Jr) of Oregon State University, who studies climatic changes and satellite cloud data. Observations of sunlight reflected by the Earth are far from being well understood. “At this stage, it’s too early to tell how such observations will help assessing variability and changes in the climate,” said Mr Coakley, who was not a part of the research team. Mr Philip R. Goode of the Jersey Institute of Technology, a co-author of the paper, contended that the moon analysis is in fact quite accurate.
— AP |
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Coffin makers cash in on AIDS pandemic
Blantyre, May 31 ‘’Death is increasing all the time because of AIDS,’’ said Mr Chanache. Malawi is in the epicentre of Africa’s AIDS epidemic along with Zambia, Zimbabw According to government estimates, HIV/AIDS affects about one million of Malawi’s 11 million citizens. About 640,000 people are believed to have died from AIDS-related illnesses since 1985.
— Reuters |
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