Committed to chemical weapons’ deal: Assad
Damascus, September 26
Syria is committed to a deal to hand over its chemical weapons, President Bashar al-Assad has said in an interview, as major powers inched closer to a UN resolution enshrining the agreement.

Nairobi, September 26
The Islamic extremist group that killed scores of people at a Nairobi mall has now attacked two Kenyan towns near the Somali border, killing three persons.

The leader of the Somali group affiliated with Al-Qaida said the attacks would continue until Kenyan troops were withdrawn from Somalia.

The leader of the Al-Shabab said in a message that there was no way Kenya could a war of attrition inside your own country. “Make your choice today and withdraw all your forces,” said Ahmed Abdi Mohamed Godane, who goes by his nom de guerre Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, in a new statement posted on the Internet late yesterday.

"Otherwise be prepared for an abundance of blood that will be spilt in your country, economic downfall and displacement." The Al-Shabab said the Nairobi mall attack was not only directed at Kenya, but was also "a retribution against the Western states that supported the Kenyan invasion and were spilling the blood of innocent Muslims in order to pave the way for their mineral companies," according to the statement from Godane.

The Al-Shabab attacked Nairobi's upscale Westgate mall on Saturday and held it for four days in a siege in which at least 67 persons, including three Indians, were killed.

Forensic experts from around the world, including the US, Britain, Germany and Canada, continued their work today reconstructing events in the crime scene, including by carrying out fingerprint, DNA and ballistic analysis.

Early today, Al-Shabab fighters attacked the border town of Mandera, killing two police officers, injuring three others and destroying 11 vehicles, said regional police chief Charlton Mureithi.

Last night, the Al-Shabab attacked the border town of Wajir, killing one person and injuring. — AP

Baghdad, September 26
Bombs ripped through outdoor markets in and near Baghdad today, killing at least 23 persons and wounding dozens, the latest in a deadly wave that has hit Iraq in recent months, officials said.

Three bombs went off simultaneously in the Shiite village of Sabaa al-Bour, about 30 km north of the Iraqi capital.

The police said two explosions at the market entrance and one inside the shopping area went off as the place was packed with shoppers, killing 16 persons and injuring 41 there.

Three women and two children were among those killed in the village market, according to police and hospital officials. Several shops and cars were damaged in the blast.

The attack came shortly after a bomb blast hit the al-Athorien market in Baghdad’s southern neighbourhood of Dora. The police said seven persons, including two women, were killed there and 17 persons were wounded.

Insurgents in Iraq often target crowded places such as markets, cafes and mosques in order to inflict huge casualties. More than 4,000 persons have been killed in violence during the past few months.

All officials giving the casualty tolls for today’s attacks spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to the media.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they bear the hallmarks of Al-Qaida’s local branch in Iraq, known as the Islamic State of Iraq.

Al-Qaida is believed to be trying to build on the Sunni minority’s discontent toward what they consider to be second-class treatment by the Iraq’s Shiite-led government.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years which raises fears that the country is sliding back to the full blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007 when the monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq said earlier this month that almost 5,000 civilians were killed and 12,000 injured in Iraq from January to August this year. — Agencies

Washington, September 26
Washington Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis left a note saying he was driven to kill by months of bombardment with extremely low-frequency radio waves, the FBI has said in a disclosure that explains the phrase he etched on his shotgun: “My ELF Weapon!”

Alexis did not target particular individuals during the September 16 attack in which he killed 12 persons, and there is no indication the shooting stemmed from any workplace dispute, said Valerie Parlave, head of the FBI’s Washington field office.

Instead, authorities said, his behaviour in the weeks before the shooting and records later recovered from the hotel room where he was staying reveal a man increasingly in the throes of paranoia and delusions.

“Ultra-low frequency attack is what I’ve been subject to for the last three months, and to be perfectly honest that is what has driven me to this,” read an electronic document recovered by agents after the shooting.

The attack came one month after Alexis had complained to the police in Rhode Island that people were talking to him through the walls and ceilings of his hotel room and sending microwave vibrations into his body to deprive him of sleep.

He scrawled “My ELF Weapon!” an apparent reference to extremely low-frequency waves on the shotgun, along with "End to the Torment!” “Not what yall say” and “Better off this way.”

Alexis, a 34-year-old former Navy reservist and computer technician for a defence contractor, used a valid badge to get into the Navy Yard with a sawed-off Remington shotgun he had legally purchased two days earlier.

He was killed by a US Park Police officer on the building's third floor following a rampage the FBI said lasted about an hour.

The FBI said it believed he was prepared to die when he went on the murderous attack. — AP

United Nations, September 26
With a maturity and poise that belied her tender years, Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teen shot by the Taliban for championing girls’ education stood by world leaders on Wednesday and called for books not guns.

“Instead of sending weapons, instead of sending tanks to Afghanistan and all these countries which are suffering from terrorism, send books,”she pleaded.

“Instead of sending tanks send pens,” she urged, her hair modestly covered by a scarf as she took part in the first anniversary of the Global Education First initiative at the United Nations in New York.

In October last year, Malala was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman as she was on her way to school in her usual bus in an attack that drew worldwide condemnation.

Gravely wounded and close to death, the Pakistani schoolgirl was flown to Britain for surgery. She returned to school in England last March, after recovering from her injuries.

Now, she has become a global advocate for the right of all children, and in particular girls, to have a proper education. — AFP 

Damascus, September 26
Syria is committed to a deal to hand over its chemical weapons, President Bashar al-Assad has said in an interview, as major powers inched closer to a UN resolution enshrining the agreement.

The Syrian president, in an interview, yesterday said he saw “no obstacles” to a plan under which Damascus would relinquish its chemical arms.

His comments came as UN experts arrived in Damascus to resume investigating around 14 incidents in which chemical weapons are alleged to have been used.

On the ground, an Iraqi woman was killed when a mortar round hit the Iraqi consulate in Damascus, a diplomat said. Assad said his government was committed to the Chemical Weapons Convention, which it signed as part of the US-Russian agreement on the destruction of its chemical arsenal. “Syria is generally committed to all the agreements that it signs,” he said in the interview. He said Damascus had begun to send the required details of its chemical arsenal to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. — AFP