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A year on, Japan mourns tsunami dead
Suicide bomber kills 15; Pak politician has narrow escape
US soldier runs amok, kills 16 Afghans
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Egyptian doctor acquitted in ‘virginity test’ case
Nigeria violence claims 20 lives
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A year on, Japan mourns tsunami dead
Ofunato (Japan), March 11 The magnitude 9.0 earthquake had unleashed a wall of water that hit Japan's northeast coast, killing nearly 16,000 and leaving nearly 3,300 unaccounted for. The country is still grappling with the human, economic and political costs. In the port town of Ofunato, hundreds of black-clad residents gathered to lay white chrysanthemums in memory of the town's 420 dead and missing. “We can't just stay sad. Our mission is to face reality and move forward step by step," said Kosei Chiba, 46, who lost his mother and wife in the disaster. “But the damage the town suffered was too big and our psychological scars are too deep. We need a long time to rebuild.” The country observed a minute of silence at 2.46 pm, the time the quake struck. Residents of Ofunato gathered before a makeshift altar with a calm, sun-flecked sea behind them. Ofunato paused again 33 minutes later - the time when a year ago a 23m (75 ft) tsunami engulfed the town of 41,000. Just a kilometre from Tokyo Electric Power Company's (Tepco) wrecked Fukushima plant, where reactor meltdowns triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, residents of the abandoned town of Okuma were allowed back for just a few hours to honour the dead. Those who felt betrayed by Japan's "nuclear village" - the powerful nexus of utilities, politicians and bureaucrats that promoted nuclear power as clean and safe - were less forgiving. "We are angry at Tepco and came here to show our anger," said Tomoe Suzuki, 65, a restaurant owner and chef. "The earthquake was something that was unavoidable because it was a natural disaster, but you can't stay quiet about Fukushima because it's a man-made disaster," she said, marching with about 12,000 other protesters to form a "human chain" around the parliament building in the capital city Tokyo. The protest was one of several around the country including in Fukushima City, where some 16,000 people gathered to express their pain and anger. Emperor Akihito, recovering from coronary bypass surgery last month, attended a memorial service in Tokyo's National Theatre and urged people to work together, echoing his unprecedented televised address five days after the disaster. "I hope all the people will keep the victims in their hearts and work so that the situation in the disaster-hit areas improves," the 78-year-old monarch said. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who took over in September from Naoto Kan - who was premier at the time the disasters struck - pledged to work for recovery: "Our forebears who built this country's prosperity have emerged from each crisis even stronger. We will fulfil our historic mission of realising the rebirth of this nation." Tepco, criticised by many for its failure to prepare for the disaster, issued a fresh apology. "Each and every member of our company and its group remembers March 11 and will work with our all hearts to solve challenges with safety as our first priority," Tepco president Toshio Nishizawa, who marked the anniversary at the plant, said in a statement. Slow progress in drawing up plans for the tsunami-damaged and radiation-contaminated region is deepening the misery of survivors, about 326,000 of whom are still homeless, including 80,000 evacuated from the vicinity of the Fukushima plant. — Reuters
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Suicide bomber kills 15; Pak politician has narrow escape Islamabad, March 11 The bomber struck in Badabher area of Peshawar just after Khushdil Khan, Deputy Speaker of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, left a cemetery after attending the funeral prayers for a local resident, the police said. Khan, a vocal critic of the Taliban, was the target of the bomber but he escaped unhurt as he left the area 10 minutes before the blast, Peshawar police chief Imtiaz Altaf told mediapersons. Mohammad Siraj, the Chief of Peshawar administration, told reporters the death toll from the blast had touched 15. "The latest toll is 15 dead and 37 wounded," he said. Officials at the Lady Reading Hospital said several of the wounded were in a serious condition and the death toll could rise, they said. The police said they had found the legs and head of the suicide bomber. They said most of the casualties were caused by ball bearings packed into the attacker’s suicide vest. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. — PTI
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US soldier runs amok, kills 16 Afghans Kandahar, March 11 Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs Asadullah Khalid, who is investigating the incident, said the soldier entered three homes, killing 11 persons in the first one. Other Afghan officials said at least seven people died. The incident came just weeks after US soldiers burned copies of the Koran at a NATO base, triggering widespread anti-Western protests, and plunging already strained ties between Kabul and Washington to a new low. The soldier has been detained and an investigation is under way, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) coalition said. "I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorised ISAF military activity," ISAF deputy commander Lt-Gen Adrian Bradshaw said in a statement. — Reuters
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Romney walks away with Wyoming Washington, March 11 Newt Gingrich, who so far has won only two states, South Carolina and Georgia, however, said that he would not withdraw from the race even if he loses the Tuesday's primary in Alabama and Mississippi; thus making the Republican presidential primary race more complicated. To bag the Republican presidential nomination, the candidate needs to have 1,144 delegates, who are elected from various states where elections are currently being held. With 446 delegates, Romney – the former Massachusetts Governor – has the largest number of delegates and analysts consider him to be closest to getting the party’s nomination to challenge Barack Obama in the November presidential elections. Santorum has 199 delegates, while Gingrich so far has 117 and Ron Paul has 61. However, Santorum's win in Kansas yesterday gave a modest boost to his effort to challenge Romney. Santorum received 51 per cent of the votes, while Romney was a distant second with 21 per cent, followed by Gingrich with 14 per cent and Paul (13 per cent). Romney won the Wyoming primary with 46.4 per cent of the votes, while Santorum got 29.4 per cent. Romney also cornered 18 delegates with wins in Guam and Northern Mariana Islands. This was in addition to seven delegates in the US Virgin Islands.
— PTI
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Egyptian doctor acquitted in ‘virginity test’ case
Cairo, March 11 Ahmed Adel, against whom one of the detainees Samira Ibrahim had levelled allegations, was acquitted by the military court in Cairo. Adil was accused of forcing woman detainees to undergo virginity tests, after military personnel dispersed on March 9 last year a sit-in at the Tahrir Square by activists demanding quick transition to the civilian rule following the fall of the Mubarak regime. Apart from 25-year-old Ibrahim, who brought the charges against Adel, six women had said that they were forced by the army, while in detention, to submit to a 5-minute "virginity test" by a male doctor.
— PTI
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With a moment of silence, prayers and anti-nuclear rallies, Japan today marked one year since an earthquake and tsunami killed thousands.
A US soldier went on a shooting rampage in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, bursting into the homes of civilians in villages near his base in the middle of the night and killing up to 16 persons, an Afghan minister said.
