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Fighting rages in Syria before truce Free Syrian Army soldiers fire towards regime loyalists in the neighbourhood of northern city of Aleppo. — AFP Pilgrims raise rebel flag at Haj |
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WikiLeaks releases new tranche of US military documents
Punjabi, Hindi among growing immigrant languages in Canada
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Fighting rages in Syria before truce Amman, October 25 President Bashar al-Assad's government was expected to make a statement soon on whether it accepts the temporary ceasefire advocated by UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. The Syrian authorities said on Wednesday they were still studying the plan, but Russia's envoy to the United Nations said Damascus had indicated to Moscow that it would agree to it. China urged all sides to respect a ceasefire, an idea also backed by Syria's main regional ally Iran, but there was no sign on the ground of any let-up in the violence on the eve of Eid al-Adha, the biggest feast on the Muslim religious calendar. Syrian troops pounded Harasta, near Damascus, with tank and rocket fire, killing five people, after rebels overran two army roadblocks on the edge of the town, on the main highway from the capital to the north, opposition campaigners said. Rebels tried to maintain pressure on two army bases on main roads leading to the contested city of Aleppo, a key prize in the 19-month-old uprising against Assad's authoritarian rule. "No one is taking the ceasefire seriously," said Moaz al-Shami, an opposition activist in Damascus. "How can there be a ceasefire with tanks roaming the streets, roadblocks every few hundred metres and the army having no qualms about hitting civilian neighbourhoods with heavy artillery? This is a regime that has lost all credibility." Even if Assad accepts a truce, there may be no unified response from Syria's fractured opposition. Some armed groups have said they will abide by a ceasefire. Others, including the Islamist militant Al Nusra Front, have rejected it. In Aleppo, where opposition activists reported more fighting and shelling, the rebel Shining Aleppo Division said it would observe the ceasefire despite "doubts over the credibility of the regime" if Assad stopped moving armoured units, halted air raids and released thousands of prisoners held without trial. Brahimi's predecessor, former UN chief Kofi Annan, declared a ceasefire in Syria on April 12, but it soon became a dead letter, along with the rest of his six-point peace plan. Violence has intensified since then, with daily death tolls compiled by opposition monitoring groups often exceeding 200. — Reuters
Pilgrims raise rebel flag at Haj Mount Arafat: Syrian pilgrims raised rebel flags as the Haj reached its climax near Mecca on Thursday, despite a call from Saudi Arabia's top cleric for the annual Islamic pilgrimage to be free from nationalist sentiment and Muslim infighting. This year's Haj takes place against a backdrop of divisions among Muslims, as Shi'ite Iran and Sunni countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey back opposing sides in Syria's civil war. Nearly three million Muslims stood at Mount Arafat in western Saudi Arabia on Thursday in the most important ritual of the
haj. Most had spent the night at nearby Mina. — Reuters
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white house dreams Burbank, October 25 Obama is barnstorming the country in what he hailed as an eight-state, 40-hour "campaign marathon extravaganza," trying to shore up his re-election bid by building a firewall across the key battlegrounds. Romney was on similar territory, telling voters in western swing state Nevada, where Obama was due later, that the President's campaign in the neck-and-neck election boiled down to four words: "More of the same." And the Republican made a bold prediction of victory, despite signs that Obama holds a slight edge in the clutch states that will send one man to the 270 electoral votes needed for the presidency. But the Republican's effort to focus on Obama's economic record was complicated by a new row over comments by Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, once again throwing a spotlight on his party's stance on women. Mourdock said that pregnancy caused by rape was "something God intended to happen" and Obama aides quickly highlighted the fact that Romney, who it says backs 1950s style social policies, had endorsed the Indiana candidate. "The President felt those comments were outrageous and demeaning to women," Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, adding that it was "perplexing" that Romney would not take down an ad featuring him endorsing Mourdock. The row put Romney in an awkward spot with women voters, who already favour Obama in larger numbers and whose support could prove decisive on Nov 6. — AFP President to cast vote today President Barack Obama would cast his ballot on Friday, thus becoming the first US President to vote early in the country's electoral history. Obama will stop in Chicago during his 48-hour tour of several key battle ground states of Colorado, Ohio, Nevada and Virginia. "I am going to stop in Chicago to vote before this 48-hour day is done," Obama said. Under US laws voters get an option to vote ahead of elections, the date and duration of which varies from state to state. Obama Campaign spokesperson Jen Psaki said, Obama will "make history by being the first sitting President to vote early." — PTI
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WikiLeaks releases new tranche of US military documents London, October 25 The latest release by the anti-secrecy site comes as Assange, who faces charges of rape and sexual assault in Sweden, remains holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London with what Quito says are health problems. Assange said in a statement that the newly released documents exposed military detention policies at camps in Iraq and at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba following the 9/11 attacks on the US. Among the documents is the 2002 manual for staff at Camp Delta at Guantanamo, shortly after it was set up by US President George W Bush to house alleged Al-Qaida and Taliban detainees from the "war on terror". "This document is of significant historical importance. Guantanamo Bay has become the symbol for systematised human rights abuse in the West with good reason," said Assange. WikiLeaks first enraged Washington in 2010 by publishing a flood of secret military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a huge cache of diplomatic cables from US embassies across the world. — PTI
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Punjabi, Hindi among growing immigrant languages in Canada Toronto, October 25 Nearly 6,630,000 people, spoke a language other than English or French,
either alone or in some combination with English or French, according to '2011 Census of Population: Linguistic Characteristics of Canadians'. Almost one-third or 2,145,000 people reported that the only language they spoke at home was a language other than English or French, that is, a non-official language. The remaining two-thirds spoke a non-official language in combination with either English or French. The 2,145,000 people who spoke only a non-official language accounted for 6.5 per cent of the population, unchanged from 2006. In total, 58 per cent of the population or 19,225,000 spoke only English at home, while 18.2 per cent or 6,043,000 spoke only French. Both proportions were down slightly from 2006, government agency 'Statistics Canada' reported. — PTI
Changing graph *
Nearly 6,630,000 people spoke a language other than English or French, the country's two official languages, either alone or in combination with English or French *
The top 10 immigrant languages spoken most often at home in 2011 were Punjabi, Chinese, Cantonese, Spanish, Tagalog, Arabic, Mandarin, Italian, Urdu, German
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Dog given posthumous medal for finding hidden Taliban weapons Taliban storm Afghan bazar, 30 killed China appoints new Army Chief
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Syrian troops bombarded a town near Damascus on Thursday and fighting raged in and around the northern city of Aleppo, a day before a proposed truce for a four-day Muslim religious holiday.
white house dreams
