Sibling rivalry?
Zuckerberg’s sister quits Facebook
New York, August 7
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's sister Randi has reportedly quit the popular social networking website to start her own company.

London, August 7
London picked itself up on Sunday from some of the worst violence seen in the British capital in years which politicians and police blamed on criminal thugs but residents attributed to local tensions and anger over rising financial hardship.

Rioters throwing petrol bombs rampaged overnight through an economically deprived district, setting police patrol cars, buildings and a double-decker bus on fire.

The police said 26 officers were injured as rioters bombarded them with missiles and bottles, looted buildings including banks, shops and council offices, and torched three patrol cars near Tottenham police station in north London.

The riots erupted after a street protest over the fatal shooting of a man by armed officers this week turned violent. Residents said they were forced to flee their homes to escape the trouble as mounted police and riot officers on foot charged the crowd to push rioters back.

As day broke, the Metropolitan Police, which will handle next year's London Olympic Games in what is expected to be Britain's biggest peacetime operation, faced questions about how the trouble had been allowed to escalate.

The disturbance was only finally brought under control today after hours of sporadic clashes. Buildings were still smouldering, bricks littered the roads and burglar alarms continued to ring out.

At a nearby retail park, electrical stores and mobile phone shops had been ransacked, with boxes for large plasma televisions discarded outside, along with CDs and glass from smashed windows. "They have taken almost everything," said Saad Kamal, 27, branch manager of retailer JD Sports. "Whatever is left is damaged."

Local MP David Lammy and police chiefs appealed for calm. "This must stop," Lammy told reporters, saying they did not know if everyone had escaped flats above shops that were gutted by fire. "A community that was already hurting has now had the heart ripped out of it."

The trouble broke out on Saturday night following a peaceful demonstration over the shooting of Mark Duggan, 29, who was killed after an exchange of gunfire with police on Thursday. Duggan's death is now being investigated by the independent police watchdog.

The riots also come amid deepening gloom in Britain with the economy struggling to grow amid deep public spending cuts and tax rises brought into help eliminate a budget deficit which peaked at more than 10 per cent of the GDP.

"Tottenham is a deprived area. Unemployment is very, very high ... they are frustrated," said Uzodinma Wigwe, 49, who was made redundant from his job as a cleaner recently.

"We know we have been victimised by this government, we know we are being neglected by the government," said another middle-aged man who declined to give his name. "How can you make one million youths unemployed and expect us to sit down?"

Kabul, August 7
NATO troops tried to ascertain today if Taliban insurgents had shot down a troop-carrying helicopter in Afghanistan, killing 38 persons in the largest loss of life suffered by foreign troops in a single incident in 10 years of war.

In what has proved to be a bloody two days for foreign forces in Afghanistan, another two unidentified NATO troops were killed in two separate attacks by insurgents in Afghanistan's violent east and south, the coalition said.

Thirty US soldiers — some from the Navy's special forces Seal Team 6, the unit that killed Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden —seven Afghans and an interpreter died in Friday night's crash which came just two weeks after foreign troops began a security handover to Afghan forces.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for bringing down the helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade. Although it often exaggerates incidents involving foreign troops, a US official in Washington said the helicopter was believed to have been shot down.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan confirmed the death toll overnight, which was first announced by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and said the cause of the crash was still being investigated.

ISAF officials in Kabul remained tight-lipped on Sunday about possible causes of the crash and said the process of recovering the bodies from the crash site in a valley about 80 km southwest of the capital was still going on.

The deadly crash comes at a time of growing unease about the increasingly unpopular and costly war. Foreign forces are due to complete their security handover to Afghan troops and police by the end of 2014.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement on Saturday that the United States would "stay the course" to complete the mission in Afghanistan, a sentiment echoed by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.— Reuters

Washington, August 7
The CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter that crashed on Saturday in Afghanistan, causing the single deadliest loss for US troops since the Afghan war began in 2001, is the workhorse of the military, used to haul large numbers of troops and equipment to the battlefield.

Its primary mission is to move troops, artillery, ammunition, fuel, water, barrier materials, supplies and equipment on the battlefield. Its secondary missions include medical evacuation, disaster relief, search and rescue, aircraft recovery, fire fighting, parachute drops, heavy construction and civil development.

Depending on the configuration, the tandem-rotor Chinook, first introduced in 1962, can carry 33 to 55 troops, plus two pilots on the flight deck.

A central element in the Gulf War, they continue to be the standard for the US Army in the global campaign against terrorism. Since its introduction 1,179 Chinooks have been built, according to Boeing, the manufacturer.

The Chinook, costing over $35 million, is capable of speeds up to 170 knots (315 km/h). The Chinook's three external cargo hooks can lift up to £60,000 of equipment.

The US military fleet of nearly 1,000 Chinooks comprises multiple configurations with different types of mission- specific avionics, CNN reported. — PTI

Beirut, August 7
Two Syrian rights groups say government forces have killed at least 52 persons in the latest phase of their crackdown on dissent and the toll for the day could rise to 69 as President Bashar al-Assad defended what he termed a crackdown on "outlaws" despite rising condemnation.

Today's casualties were mainly in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour and the central city of Houleh.

Abdul-Karim Rihawi, the Damascus-based chief of the Syrian Human Rights League, says at least 42 persons were killed in Deir el-Zour and 10 in Houleh.

Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, says 42 persons were killed in Deir el-Zour and 17 in Houleh. He says 10 people were shot dead in Idlib while taking part in a funeral.

While the pope joined an international chorus of concern over the bloodshed, Assad on defended his security forces' deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests as the "duty of the state" to confront "outlaws." "Syria is on the path to reforms," he said, quoted by state news agency SANA.

His statement came a day after a personal appeal by UN chief Ban Ki-moon for Assad to halt the bloodshed. — Agencies

Beijing, August 7
Over six lakh people were moved to safer destinations as Typhoon Muifa grazed past China’s eastern coast city of Shanghai today, heading north towards the Shandong Province, which braced for a direct hit.

The ninth cyclone to hit China this year, Muifa slightly rattled China’s commercial hub Shanghai and nearby areas today with high winds and heavy rain that downed power lines and forced cancellations of dozens of flights in the region.

Though Shanghai was not hit directly, the typhoon with gusts up to 178 km per hour, was moving north at 25 km per hour towards the eastern coast of Shandong Province where it is expected to make landfall tomorrow, the National Meteorological Centre said in a bulletin.

More than 6 lakh people were evacuated from vulnerable areas in Shanghai and the provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Shandong, the country’s disaster relief agency said.

More than 62,700 vessels were ordered to dock as a precaution though the typhoon weakened on its way.

In Shandong, the local weather forecast bureau said the typhoon might further weaken into a tropical storm when it lands, even so authorities continued to order about 20,000 fishing boats to lay anchor in harbours.

Thirty-five fishing boats that earlier were reportedly missing off east China’s coast have been found, officials said. The boats from Shandong, with about 300 people on board had lost contact with their families in the sea.

Maritime authorities also requested vessels to either leave or stay clear from those parts of Shandong’s coast that were likely to be hit the hardest by the typhoon, state-run Xinhua reported.

Also in Shandong, 18 flights departing or arriving at Qingdao airport on the coast were cancelled.

Most of the canceled flights were headed in the southern direction to cities such as Shanghai or Hangzhou.

As many as 53 tourists, who were briefly stranded on an island off the port of Qingdao as surging water submerged the rock bridge linking it to the mainland, were rescued by the police. — PTI

Jerusalem, August 7
Israel's streets witnessed an unprecedented outpouring of public anger, capped by nearly 300,000 citizens joining protests to demand 'social justice', forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to scramble for a solution to calm discontent over rising cost of living.

The unexpectedly large turnout yesterday in support of the demand that the government address socio-economic issues easily eclipsed any previous such demonstrations in the Jewish state's history.

Initially, Netanyahu's aides reportedly dismissed the protesters, saying they had come out to witness performances by leading musicians, but the unexpectedly huge numbers across the country has pushed the government on the backfoot.

Though the government does not face any immediate threat of being dislodged, the wave of protests during the last three weeks has underscored the potential electoral impact of a burdened middle class rallying under the banner of "social justice".

Bowing to the protesters, Netanyahu, announced at the weekly cabinet meeting the appointment of a committee of experts to propose social-economic reform. — PTI