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Japan Quake & aftermath
2 pulled out alive after nine days
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First rebuilding begins in disaster zone
In Yemen, Saleh’s 32-yr empire about to fall
China turns heat on ‘Jasmine’ activists
Saudi forces help Bahrain king to crush rebellion
US army apologises for Afghan abuse pictures
Nuclear wake-up for Merkel in state vote
Pak mine blast claims 45 lives
Carnival singer tipped to be Haiti’s president
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Japan Quake & aftermath
Tokyo/Fukushima, March 21 Prime Minister Naoto Kan said slow but “steady progress” is being made in tackling the brewing crisis at the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant. “Grayish smoke was seen coming out from a building that houses the No.3 reactor of the troubled atomic unit and Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the unit said that workers had been “temporarily” asked to evacuate. Kan also told a Cabinet-level emergency disaster headquarters meeting held at his office that he will gear up for reconstruction of the eastern Japan areas pummeled by the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami, the Kyodo reported. Meanwhile, the death toll from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern and eastern Japan and the number of those reported missing touched to near 22,000 as of today, the National Police Agency said, Kyodo reported. After the smoke was spotted at the southeast of the building around 3:55 p.m., TEPCO said it had temporarily evacuated its workers from the site as it assessed the situation. The amount of smoke later decreased, TEPCO added. Japan will monitor radiation levels in the Pacific Ocean near the Fukushima plant, where firefighters have been using seawater to cool reactor units, officials said. Following a magnitude 9.0 quake and ensuing tsunami on March 11, cooling functions of the No. 3 reactor were lost and its core is believed to have partially melted. At present, coolant water is pumped into the reactor and a pool for spent nuclear fuel. The roof and upper walls of the building that houses the No. 3 reactor were blown off by a hydrogen explosion last week. On Sunday, pressure in the No. 3 reactor’s containment vessel temporarily rose, but it later stabilized. The number of deaths reported in a total of 12 prefectures came to 8,649, while people reported by their relatives to be missing climbed to 13,262 in six prefectures. The police has identified about 4,080 bodies, including 2,990 returned to their families, the agency said. A total of about 340,000 evacuees, including those who fled from the vicinity of the troubled nuclear reactors in Fukushima Prefecture, are now staying at some 2,070 shelters set up by 16 prefectures. — PTI
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2 pulled out alive after nine days
Osaka, March 21 “An 80-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy were found under debris,” said a police spokesman in the devastated city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi
prefecture. “Their temperatures were quite low but they were conscious. Details of their condition are not immediately known. They have been already rescued and sent to hospital.” Sumi Abe and her grandson Jin Abe were in the kitchen when the quake struck on March 11, public broadcaster NHK
reported. The house collapsed with them inside but the grandson was able to reach food from the refrigerator, helping them to survive, NHK quoted rescuers as saying. The boy was said to be shivering and with no feeling in one leg. — AFP
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First rebuilding begins in disaster zone
RIKUZENTAKATA: Temporary housing is taking shape next to an evacuation centre in this northern Japanese town, among the first places where rebuilding from the devastating earthquake and tsunami 10 days ago has begun. Authorities aim to start moving families out of the cramped shelters where they have lived on mats, separated from neighbours by only cardboard, and into the houses by the end of the month.
Steel structures have been erected in the parking lot of the school, which is on a hilltop overlooking the debris and devastated remains of the town. In
Rikuzentakata, few of its hundreds of buildings still stand, mangled and twisted. Residents and workers tempt fate by entering the structures looking for something to salvage. — Reuters
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In Yemen, Saleh’s 32-yr empire about to fall
Dubai, March 21 Along with Mohsen, two other key generals and dozens of high and middle ranking officers also pledged their support for the protest movement. Quoting highly placed sources, the Arab news channel said about "90 per cent of the army had now joined the protesters." Minutes after the general's announcement, units of his armoured division, which included tanks, took up positions in a major square in the capital, Sanaa, where protesters have been camping out to call for President to step down. The two others are Mohammed Ali Mohsen and Hameed al-Qusaibi, who both have the rank of brigadier. All three officers belong to Saleh's tribe, which also called on President to resign yesterday, dealing a serious blow to his desperate attempts to cling on to power. — PTI
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China turns heat on ‘Jasmine’ activists
Beijing, March 21 Jiang is among dozens of well-known lawyers and activists across China who have vanished, been interrogated or criminally detained for subversion in recent weeks, a crackdown that human rights groups say is on a scale and intensity not seen in many
years. Activists say China’s massive security apparatus is using the government’s anxiety over possible Middle East-inspired protests as a pretext for the
crackdown. “None of them will tell me anything about why he was taken away or where he has been taken to,” Jiang’s wife Jin Bianling said today. She said after her husband’s disappearance last month, a Beijing police officer told her verbally that “the case was being handled,” meaning he was under investigation. But her repeated efforts to get more details from police have been
fruitless. More than 100 people have been questioned or followed by police or placed under house arrest, the Hong Kong-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders, or CHRD, said in a recent statement. It said Jiang and others who have disappeared for weeks were at risk of being tortured to extract
confessions. Human Rights Watch senior Asia researcher Nicholas Bequelin said the crackdown is even more serious than the one in December when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a jailed Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo. He said it is also more extensive than when police questioned and detained activists involved in signing Charter 08, a manifesto for peaceful democratic reform that Liu co-authored, in 2008. — AP
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Saudi forces help Bahrain king to crush rebellion
Manama, March 21 “An external plot has been fomented for 20 to 30 years for the ground to be ripe for subversive designs. I here announce the failure of the fomented subversive plot,” King Hamad was quoted as saying by the state-run Bahrain News Agency (BNA). King Hamad told officers of a Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that if such a plot succeeded in one Gulf Arab country, it could spill into neighbouring states, BNA reported. Even as he did not give any details of the power behind the alleged plot, Bahrain has accused Iran of interfering in its internal affairs. Bahrain had witnessed anti-government protests for weeks, inspired by mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt that toppled the two countries’ presidents. The kingdom has imposed a three-month emergency rule and invited the military from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Sunni-ruled Gulf states to help crush the uprising in Bahrain. The Sunni leadership in Bahrain, boosted by the presence of Saudi forces, crushed the protest last week in the heart of the capital Manama and drove away the pro-democracy protesters, mainly from the majority Shia community. At least 13 people have been killed in the brutal crackdown in the month-long revolt. The bloody crackdown on protesters angered Iran, which has a Shia majority, prompting Tehran to ask for the withdrawal of Saudi forces from Bahrain. It has triggered a diplomatic row between Bahrain and Iran, with a tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions. Bahrain expelled Iran's charge d'affaires on Sunday, accusing him of contacts with some opposition groups, the Al Jazeera said, citing a diplomatic source. — PTI
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US army apologises for Afghan abuse pictures
Washington, March 21 “We apologise for the distress these photos cause,” US Army said in a statement, on the pictures published by the German newspaper, Der Spiegel. “Der Spiegel published photographs over the weekend depicting actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States Army,” it said. The US Army said the actions portrayed in these photographs have been investigated and are now the subject of ongoing US court-martial proceedings, in which the accused are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. “These court-martial proceedings speak for themselves,” it said. The photos appear in stark contrast to the discipline, professionalism and respect that have characterized US Soldiers’ performance during nearly 10 years of sustained operations. “It would be improper to comment further on these photographs at this time. The United States Army is committed to adherence to the Law of War and the humane and respectful treatment of combatants, noncombatants, and the dead,” the Army said. — PTI
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Nuclear wake-up for Merkel in state vote
Berlin, March 21 The Green Party, which has been at the forefront nation-wide protest campaigns against the federal government’s decision at the end of last year to extend the lifespan of the country’s 17 nuclear reactors, emerged as the main winner of the election in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in eastern Germany. It succeeded in returning to the state parliament in Magdeburg after 13 years by polling 7.3 per cent of the votes. Analysts said a public debate about the future of nuclear energy sparked off by the crisis at the Fukushima reactor complex boosted the voter support for the Green Party. The outcome of Sunday’s election is unlikely to change the balance of power in the state and present indications are that a new edition of the present “grand coalition” between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party will rule the state for the next five years. — PTI
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Pak mine blast claims 45 lives
Islamabad, March 21 The mine at Sorang, located about 30 km from Quetta, collapsed following the blasts. Balochistan's Irrigation Minister Aslam Bizenjo told the provincial assembly that 45 miners had been confirmed dead. Twenty-four bodies had been recovered and an operation is underway to remove the other bodies from the rubble, he said. — PTI
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Carnival singer tipped to be Haiti’s president Port-Au-Prince, March 21 Tally sheets read out on television and radio indicated Martelly was well ahead of his rival, former first lady Mirlande Manigat, in key urban areas, including Petionville and the Cite Soleil slum, in the capital. "I think he has won the election. From everything that I've heard it looks like it may even be a landslide, at least in the urban areas," said US-based Haiti expert Robert Fatton. "It's not fully representative but it indicates a trend. Petionville, it was overwhelming, Cite Soleil was overwhelming." Martelly supporters were triumphantly taking to the streets, but there has been no claim of victory from the candidate and final results are not expected until April 16. Out of 50 people questioned in Port-au-Prince after polls closed yesterday, not a single one said they had voted for Manigat, a soft-spoken 70-year-old and long-time opposition figure. Known to fans by his former stage name "Sweet Micky", the 50-year-old Martelly waged a slick campaign built on the promise he would dramatically transform Haiti's notoriously corrupt and violent politics. — AFP
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Fukushima nuclear reactor had to be evacuated after smoke was seen billowing in a latest in a series of troubles to hit the moves to stabilise the radiation leaking
plant.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year-old iron-fisted rule appeared to be tottering today after three army generals, including his longtime confidant, defected, asking him to step down and deployed tanks and armoured vehicles to protect the protesters. 
Bahrain's monarch Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa today said an external plot to "subvert security and stability" in the country had been foiled as he praised the Saudi-led GCC force for helping crush an unprecedented unrest in the majority Shia
nation.
The US Army today apologised for the “distress” that might have been caused following the publication of pictures from the Afghan war zone by a German newspaper, depicting the alleged abuse committed by American soldiers in
Afghanistan.
