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US, Russia to push for Syria peace talks
2 killed as Afghan Taliban attack US Consulate
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Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. — AFP
Russian psychiatric home fire kills 37
Bomb attacks kill 31 in Iraq
‘Fukushima clean-up a challenging job’
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US, Russia to push for Syria peace talks
New York/Geneva, Sept 13 Heading into discussions with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the two would meet again later this month — probably around September 28 — to try to set a date for a long-delayed peace conference. He said the US and Russia were "deeply committed to a negotiated solution" to the Syrian conflict and he and Lavrov were "working hard to find the common ground to be able to make that happen". Both Washington and Moscow said they hoped talks on dismantling Syria's chemical arsenal would open the door to wider peace efforts. Talks between Kerry and Lavrov are focussed on a four-step plan, which includes Syria joining the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The plan, proposed by Russia this week, is aimed at averting any US-led military strike against the embattled Assad regime, which the US holds responsible for killing over 1,000 civilians in an alleged chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb on August 21. The talks are meant to come up with a draft plan on how and when Syria will hand over its cache of chemical weapons. Meanwhile, the United Nations said it has received documents from Syrian government on joining the Chemical Weapons Convention, which outlaws their production and use. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon received a letter from the Government of Syria, informing him that President Bashar al-Assad has signed a legislative decree providing for accession of Syria to the Convention, a UN statement said. In the letter, Syrian authorities expressed their commitment to observe obligations entailed by the Convention even before its entry into force for Syria. — PTI
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2 killed as Afghan Taliban attack US Consulate
Kabul, September 13 The US said all its personnel from the consulate in the city of Herat were safe and US forces later moved into the area to secure the site. The attack underscored the perilous security situation in Afghanistan, where US-led troops are reducing their presence ahead of a full withdrawal next year. According to Afghan officials, the attack in Herat started with Taliban setting off two bombs, one in an SUV and the other in an explosives-laden small van, while militants on foot opened a firefight with Afghan security forces around the compound in the city, 1,000 km from Kabul. It was not entirely clear whether any attackers managed to breach the facility, but at least two Afghans were killed and several wounded, said an official. — AP |
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Qaida chief calls for attacks on US, economic boycott
Washington, September 13 A summary and translated English excerpts of the roughly 72-minute address was made available by the SITE Intelligence Group. The speech was posted on jihadi forums a day after America held ceremonies in honour of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001. "We should bleed America economically by provoking it to continue in its massive expenditure on its security, for the weak point of America is its economy, which has already begun to stagger due to the military and security expenditure," Zawahiri said yesterday according to the SITE translation. "And keeping America in tension and anticipation only costs a few disparate attacks here and there, meaning as we defeated it in the gang warfare in Somalia, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan, so we should follow it with that war on its own land," he added. — AFP
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Russian psychiatric home fire kills 37
Luka (Russia), September 13 The fire was apparently started by a patient who was either smoking or deliberately set fire to his bed at the hospital in the village of Luka, 220 kilometres southeast of Saint Petersburg, officials said. The single-storey wood-and-concrete building housed around 60 male patients including 15 who were bedbound, and the institution had been previously warned by the authorities to improve its fire safety. Local residents said one of the patients was believed to suffer from pyromania. "During a fire in the Oksochi psychiatric hospital 37 people died," regional investigators said in a statement, adding that 30 bodies had already been pulled from the wreckage. A nurse perished in the fire that broke out at 2.45 am (2245 GMT) while saving patients. She left behind a husband and four children, locals said. — AFP
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Baghdad, September 13 The second tore through a crowd of people who had rushed to help those hurt in the first. Meanwhile, one person was killed and five others were wounded when a roadside bomb hit the Sunni mosque in Qarataba, 110 km northeast of Baquba. — Reuters/IANS
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‘Fukushima clean-up a challenging job’
Tokyo, September 13 Lake Barrett was appointed by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co as an outside adviser for the decades-long decommissioning process. He led Three Mile Island accident cleanup for nearly a decade as part of Nuclear Regulatory Commission. — AP
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Indian freedom fighter gets House of Commons award Sound pioneer Ray Dolby dies at 80 Pak Oscar nomination after 50-yr hiatus
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