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60% vote in Lanka’s Northern
Province Pak frees top Taliban leader Baradar US nearly detonated atomic bomb by accident in 1961 |
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Super
typhoon whips Philippines, Taiwan Gunmen storm Nairobi mall; 25 killed 65 killed in Iraq attacks
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60% vote in Lanka’s Northern
Province
Colombo, September 21 No major violence was reported from the war-ravaged region. Results are expected by Sunday. Nearly 60 per cent of the 7,15,000 voters exercised their franchise in the five districts of the province, election authorities said. They said counting of votes had begun at 478 counting centres at 6 pm (local time). Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said all measures had been taken to ensure a free and fair election and all results will be released by 6 am tomorrow. The landmark election is being seen as a test to decide whether the predominantly Tamil province wants more opportunities for development or the people want more autonomy. The election is also expected to give minority Tamils a chance at self-rule after decades of ethnic conflict that left over 1,00,000 dead. The main Tamil party - Tamil National Alliance (TNA) - is expected to win the Northern Provincial Council while the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) of President Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to win in the Sinhala-dominated Central and North Western provinces. Earlier, voting at some 850 stations began on schedule at 7 am (local time) amid tight security to elect the provincial administration in the war-affected region once dominated by the Tamil Tigers until their defeat by the military in 2009. Soldiers patrolled the streets with police, election observers said. Polling ended at 4 pm. More than 2,000 local and foreign observers, including from India, were deployed in the Northern Province, where people voted to choose a 36-member council for a five-year term. Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaithivu and Vavuniya districts form the provincial council's jurisdiction. For decades, these districts were the main strongholds of the LTTE. The run-up to the election saw allegations of voters being intimidated by the army. The charge was firmly denied by the military. — PTI Election scene
It is the first poll in 25 years in the Tamil-majority Northern Province The results are expected by 6 am on Sunday The main Tamil party — Tamil National Alliance — is expected to win in the northern region. Its main rival is the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance of President Rajapaksa.
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Pak frees top Taliban leader Baradar Islamabad, September 21 Baradar will not be handed over to any second country and like other detainees, he has been released within Pakistan. He will be provided with security and will be given the freedom to meet and communicate with anybody he wishes, media reports here said. The Pakistan Foreign Office had yesterday announced that he would be released today to "further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process". Baradar has been in the custody of Pakistani security agencies since his capture in Karachi in 2010. Though Islamabad has freed 33 Afghan Taliban commanders since last year, Baradar's release was the most anticipated. — PTI Freed for peace
Baradar was once considered the most influential Taliban leader after Mullah Muhammad Omar He is one of the four commanders who founded the Taliban movement When the Taliban came to power in 1996, Baradar became Deputy Defence Minister His release was personally sought by Karzai during his last-month visit to Islamabad.
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US nearly detonated atomic bomb by accident in 1961 London, September 21 Two hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over the city of Goldsboro, North Carolina, on January 23, 1961 when the B-52 plane carrying them broke up in mid-air, according to the file. One of the bombs began to detonate — a single switch was all that stopped it from doing so. The three other safety mechanisms designed to prevent an unintended detonation failed. The US government has acknowledged the accident before, but the 1969 document is the first confirmation of how close the United States came to nuclear catastrophe on that day. "It would have been bad news in spades," wrote its author, US government scientist Parker F Jones. The bomb was 260 times more powerful than the one that devastated Hiroshima in 1945, according to the Guardian. The accident happened at the height of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. — AFP Close N-shave
The bomb was 260 times more powerful than the one that devastated Hiroshima in 1945 Three safety mechanisms designed to prevent an unintended detonation failed A single switch was all that stopped it from doing so |
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Super typhoon whips Philippines, Taiwan Manila, September 21 The typhoon battered the Batanes island group in the far north of the Philippines overnight with gusts of up to 250 km per hour, affecting communication lines and damaging crops, officials said. "The winds are very strong. I cannot even go out now," Batanes Governor Vicente Gato told DZBB radio in Manila. "Many trees have been uprooted and we have no electricity," he said. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Centre issued its highest alert, with flooding recorded in four regions of the main island of Luzon, the country's most populous area, while several roads and bridges were rendered impassable by overflowing rivers or landslides. There were no immediate reports of any casualties, although emergency and relief services said they were prepared for the worst with more than 100 families having already been evacuated in one northern province. In Taiwan, some flights were cancelled and ferry services suspended, with schools and offices in many parts of the island closed, especially in the south and east, which were expected to bear the brunt of the storm, authorities said. Hotels and resorts in mountainous areas were closed due to fears of flooding and landslides. — AFP
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Gunmen storm Nairobi mall; 25 killed Nairobi, September 21 Shooting continued hours after the initial assault as troops surrounded the Westgate mall and police and soldiers combed the building, hunting down the attackers shop by shop. A police officer inside the building said the gunmen were barricaded inside the Nakumatt supermarket, one of Kenya's biggest chains. "We got three bodies from this shop," he said, standing a dozen metres from the supermarket entrance and pointing to a children's shoe shop where blood lay in pools. The Westgate mall attack is the single biggest since Al-Qaida's east Africa cell bombed the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998 killing more than 200 persons. In 2002, the same militant cell attacked an Israeli-owned hotel and tried to shoot down an Israeli jet in a coordinated attack. A policeman dragged the corpse of a young girl across the floor and lay her on a stretcher. Two plainclothes policemen lay on the floor with guns trained on the Nakumatt supermarket entrance. Some local television stations reported hostages had been taken, but there was no official confirmation. — Reuters
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Baghdad, September 21 The strikes are the latest in a months-long surge of violence that is raising fears Iraq is slipping back toward the widespread sectarian killings that followed the 2003 US-led invasion a decade ago. In the funeral attack, 54 persons were killed and more than 70 were wounded. — AP
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition is set for a photo finish with her rivals, the final poll before Sunday's elections showed. Merkel’s conservatives scored 39 per cent, with her pro-business allies, the Free Democrats, on six per cent. Her main rivals, the centre-left Social Democrats, scored 26 per cent and their allies, the ecologist Greens, won nine per cent. — AFP NAIROBI A Kenya Red Cross official says at least 22 persons have been killed in an attack on an upscale Nairobi mall on Saturday. Abbas Gullet said the toll could rise as gunmen were seen using grenades and gunfire. — AP Beirut Syrian troops backed by pro-regime militia killed at least 15 persons in a Sunni village in the central province of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. — AFP Manila Super Typhoon Usagi, the most powerful storm of the year, brought torrential rain and strong winds to the Philippines and Taiwan on Saturday, uprooting trees and knocking out power as it barrelled towards Hong Kong. — AFP
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Super Typhoon Usagi, the most powerful storm of the year, brought torrential rain and strong winds to the Philippines and Taiwan today, uprooting trees and knocking out power as it barrelled towards Hong Kong.
Militant gunmen stormed a shopping mall in Nairobi on Saturday killing at least 25 persons, including children, and sending scores fleeing in panic from shops and restaurants onto the streets, according to witnesses and the Red Cross.
