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Typhoon Talas kills 15 in Japan
Strauss-Kahn returns to a frosty welcome in France
24 killed in Syrian violence
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Rebels eye Gaddafi’s bastion
Small planes big terror threat: US
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Typhoon Talas kills 15 in Japan Tokyo, September 4 Evacuation orders and advisories have been issued to 460,000 persons in western and central Japan. A TV footage showed a bridge that had been swept away after intense rainfall, which caused a river to swell with brown torrents. People holding umbrellas waded through knee-deep waters in city streets and residential areas. The centre of the season’s 12th typhoon was moving slowly north across the Sea of Japan, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It crossed the southern Japanese island of Shikoku and the central part of the main island of Honshu overnight today. Because of the storm’s slow speed, the agency warned that heavy rains and strong winds are likely to continue and could lead to flooding and landslides. Three homes were buried in a landslide in Wakayama prefecture and one woman who was rescued, whose identity was still being confirmed, later died, four remained missing and a 14-year old girl was saved from the debris, the police said. Overall in the hard-hit prefecture, 10 persons were dead and 32 persons were missing, it said. Seven persons were reportedly missing in the nearby Nara Prefecture after homes were swept down a river. Among the dead was a woman, who appeared to be in her 30s whose body was found in a river in Ehime prefecture on Shikoku, the police said. A 73-year-old man in Nara prefecture died after a landslide caused his house to collapse, police said. — AP
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Strauss-Kahn returns to a frosty welcome in France
Paris, September 4 The former IMF chief arrived at Paris’s Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport at 7 am with his wife Anne Sinclair. Police escorts whisked the couple through the terminal, past waiting media, and into a car. Strauss-Kahn pulled up at his Parisian apartment in the chic Place des Vosges square an hour later. He waved, but made no comment as he pushed through a sea of flashing media cameras. “I am thinking about his joy, and that of Anne Sinclair, to be back here,” Jack Lang, a left-wing former education and culture minister and a neighbour of the couple, said. “What we owe him, as Socialists and friends, is to greet him here with warmth, friendship and joy,” he added. But another bystander yelled, loudly enough to be heard by Strauss-Kahn and Anne Sinclair as they stood in the interior courtyard of their apartment building: “You are a disgusting creature. Go and get cured somewhere else.” Strauss-Kahn’s public relations adviser Anne Hommel told journalists outside that he would not make any statement today. “You can all leave. He won’t come back out,” she said. His homecoming marks the end of a three-month struggle through New York’s criminal court system after he was charged with attempting to rape a New York hotel maid. The case was dropped after her credibility was thrown into doubt. — Reuters Future uncertain The arrest of the former finance minister, one of France’s most talented economic thinkers, thrust the country’s political landscape into turmoil, with the main opposition Socialists forced to find alternative candidates. Many of Strauss-Kahn’s former backers have now repositioned themselves behind Francois Hollande, who leads opinion poll for the Socialist primary contest, or his rival Martine Aubry. Yet his allies say he is bound to play a role in the future, either by contributing to the Socialists’ election campaign or taking a position in a future left-wing government. Others see him opting for a role on a European or international level, following his experience leading the IMF through the 2007-09 global financial meltdown.
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Damascus, September 4 Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, meanwhile, said Syria has agreed to host him for a visit which he would probably make this week. In the latest bloodshed, six soldiers and three civilians were killed when an “armed group” opened fire on a bus in Maharda, central Syria, state news agency SANA reported. “Nine persons, including an officer, were killed and
12 others wounded in Maharda in an ambush by an armed group who opened fire on a bus carrying soldiers and labourers going to work,” it said. SANA said a security patrol killed three of the assailants. The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which groups anti-regime activists on the ground, said security forces shot dead three people in the Khan Sheikhwan area of Idlib province in northwestern Syria. The security forces encircled hospitals “to prevent the wounded from being brought in for treatment,” it charged. — AFP
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Tripoli, September 4 “Everything was done yesterday, they asked us for more time and we gave them some more hours. Today, God willing, we will go in. There was some fighting overnight. They fired at us first,” Mahmoud Abdul Azil said. Abdul Azil said NATO-backed NTC forces were just 10 km from Bani Walid and inching forward, ready to attack what he said were an estimated 100 pro-Gaddafi fighters there if necessary. “We are waiting for the order for our commanders to go into the city. We have told them we are coming. Everyone should stay at home. Hopefully it will be done without bloodshed,” he said. — Reuters Libyan Dictator ‘safe’ Anti-Gaddafi forces have closed in on the deposed leader’s birthplace in the coastal city of Sirte, but appear ready to allow more time for negotiations there. “We are in a position of strength. We can enter any city ... but because of our care and desire to prevent bloodshed we have given a period of one week,” NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Aziz said in the eastern city of Benghazi on Saturday. A spokesman for Gaddafi, who has been in hiding since his foes seized Tripoli, has dismissed talk of surrender and said powerful tribal leaders were still loyal to him. “He’s in a safe place surrounded by many people who are prepared to protect him,” Moussa Ibrahim said.
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Small planes big terror threat: US Washington, September 4 The authorities say there is no specific or credible terrorist threat for the 10-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. But they have stepped up national security a precaution. According to a five-page law enforcement bulletin issued on Friday, the Al-Qaida was considering ways to attack airplanes. The alert, issued ahead of the summer’s last busy travel weekend, said terrorists have considered renting private planes and loading them with explosives. “The Al-Qaida and its affiliates have maintained an interest in obtaining aviation training, particularly on small aircraft, and in recruiting Western individuals for training in Europe or the US, although we do not have current, credible information or intelligence of an imminent attack being planned,” according to the bulletin. The bulletin also says the Al-Qaida would like to use sympathetic Westerners to get flight training, then get them to become flight instructors. Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, described the bulletin as routine. —
AP
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Heavy rains and mudslides from powerful Typhoon Talas killed at least 15 persons in Japan as the storm moved northward past the country today. At least 43 others were missing, the local media said.
