Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Uighur leader says 10,000 'disappeared' in China


The exiled leader of China's Uighurs said Wednesday nearly 10,000 of her people were detained or killed this month in ethnic unrest and appealed for the United Nations to investigate their fate.

Rebiya Kadeer, the US-based head of the World Uighur Congress, also said she was "perplexed" at the muted US response to the violence as she spoke during a visit to Japan that has drawn angry protests from Beijing.

Citing local sources and speaking through an interpreter, she said almost 10,000 people "disappeared" in one night on July 5 when authorities cracked down on the unrest in the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang.

"Where did those people go?" she said. "If they died, where did they go?"

Kadeer, 62, said Chinese police opened machine-gun fire at Uighur people after dark once the electricity was turned off, and that the following morning large numbers of Uighur men had gone missing.

"Uighur people who were there must have been either killed or taken away," she told a Tokyo press conference. "The next morning, the streets were cleaned and the bodies of ethnic Han (Chinese) were left in the streets."

Kadeer said she had asked Japanese lawmakers during a meeting Wednesday to push for a UN investigation.

"I want to urge the international community to dispatch an independent, third-party investigation mission to investigate what happened," she said.

"If China can confidently say that the Uighur people are at fault, then open up the area, tell the third-party commission what really happened."

Beijing accuses the mother-of-11 and grandmother of being a "criminal" and a separatist who instigated the unrest -- which the government says left 197 people dead, most of them Han Chinese killed by angry Uighur mobs.

China has said police opened fire to prevent further bloodshed, killing 12 "mobsters," according to state media reports, and that more than 1,400 people were detained for their involvement in the unrest.

Kadeer said she was not involved in fomenting the riots, which came after Uighur protests over violent clashes at a factory in southern China.

"If China says I did it, I want them to show evidence," she said. "If the international community judges it as evidence, I would acknowledge that."

Kadeer instead charged that "the responsibility lies with the authorities who changed what was a peaceful demonstration into a violent riot".

"For Uighurs, taking part in demonstrations is like committing suicide."

Kadeer -- who was jailed in China from 1999 to 2005 and now lives in exile in a suburb of Washington -- was on a three-day visit in Japan.

China said on Wednesday that it had summoned Japan's ambassador in Beijing to protest Kadeer's visit to Tokyo.

In Washington, China's vice foreign minister Wang Guangya on Tuesday said his side had asked the United States to "restrain and prevent" anyone from using its soil to conduct "separatist activities against China".

He also said Beijing had "expressed our appreciation for the moderate attitude of the United States so far" to the Xinjiang unrest.

Kadeer said she was "perplexed and disappointed" by the US response, saying it had been "somewhat cold".

But she added: "I do not believe the United States will remain quiet. I believe it will respond in an appropriate way."

China has also complained to Australia over a planned visit next week by Kadeer, the foreign affairs department in Canberra said Wednesday.

Kadeer is due to attend the August 8 launch in Melbourne of the documentary "10 Conditions of Love", which depicts her life story and which prompted Chinese attempts to have it pulled from the city's film festival.

Kadeer on Tuesday drew support from the Dalai Lama, who told an audience in Warsaw that Kadeer shared his belief in non-violence and was not seeking a separate state.

Speaking on the Xinjiang situation, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said: "Using force, this will never bring genuine harmony. Harmony must come based on trust, and trust you cannot bring by a gun."

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Gates hints at faster Iraqi pullout if leaders curb feuds


ABOARD A US MILITARY AIRCRAFT, Iraq (AFP) - – US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday dangled the prospect of a faster withdrawal of US troops as he urged Iraq's Arab and Kurdish leaders to settle their feuds.

Gates told reporters after a two-day visit to Iraq that there was "at least some chance for a modest acceleration" of plans for the drawdown of American troops this year.

Citing his talks with the top US commander in Iraq, he said a stepped up withdrawal was possible "because of the way General (Ray) Odierno sees the way things going" amid declining violence and increasingly capable Iraqi security forces.

The current plan foresees two combat brigade teams departing by the end of the year but Gates said "maybe one more" brigade could be withdrawn as well before elections in January.

The precise number of additional troops that might be withdrawn remains unclear but a combat brigade comprises about 3,000 to 4,000 troops and is often accompanied by supporting units. There are 14 combat brigade teams deployed in Iraq.

Violence has dropped markedly throughout Iraq in recent months though attacks increased in the run-up to the US military's pullback from urban areas last month, with 437 Iraqis killed -- the highest death toll in 11 months.

Gates spoke after a meeting with Massud Barzani, who was re-elected on Wednesday as president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, following talks on Tuesday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad.

"He reminded his hosts that we have all sacrificed too much in blood and treasure to see the gains of the last two years lost to political differences," his press secretary Geoff Morrell.

Gates told the Kurdish leader in the regional capital Arbil that it is vital both sides move quickly before US forces leave Iraq.

"He urged them to take advantage of our remaining time in Iraq to settle some of these disputed issues they have with the central government in Baghdad," Morrell told reporters accompanying Gates as he flew from Iraq to Turkey.

Barzani, who secured his re-election with 69.57 percent of the vote from Saturday's election, later said Maliki was expected soon in Kurdistan.

"He (Maliki) will visit Kurdistan soon, to discuss and to solve all pending problems between us and Baghdad," Barzani told AFP.

Odierno said on Tuesday that tensions between Iraqi Kurds and Arabs over boundaries and oil revenues represent the biggest threat to the country's stability.

Kurdish demands to expand their autonomous region in northern Iraq to include the Kirkuk oil fields and other districts has triggered an increasingly heated war of words with the Shiite-led central government.

Odierno said: "We think that many of the insurgent groups are trying to exploit Kurd-Arab tensions in the north."

The US military is closely monitoring the situation and has set up liaison offices with commanders of Kurdish militia and Baghdad government forces to try to prevent tensions from escalating, he said.

Gates, speaking to reporters aboard his plane on Wednesday, said no decision has been taken on the drawdown and he will wait for advice from Odierno in the next few months. "It really depends on circumstances."

Under a timetable approved by President Barack Obama, all US combat troops are due to pull out of Iraq by the end of August 2010 and a security pact with Baghdad requires all American forces to leave by the end of 2011.

Only months ago, US officers and analysts warned of a fragile situation in Iraq that could be jeopardised if American forces were pulled out too quickly.

The Obama administration has been anxious to free up troops and resources for a military buildup in Afghanistan.

Gates said the fact that Odierno was considering a faster drawdown showed that security trends were promising in Iraq after US forces pulled out of cities and towns at the end of last month.

"It is an indicator of his view that things are going pretty well following June 30th," he said, ruling out any scaling back of the drawdown.


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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

F1 driver Massa 'suffered eye damage' in accident


Seriously injured Brazilian Grand Prix driver Felipe Massa has suffered eye damage, neurosurgeon Professor Robert Veres who operated on the driver said on Monday.

The Ferrari driver suffered skull and eye injuries when he was hit on the head by a spring that broke loose from compatriot Rubens Barrichello's Brawn car during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix Saturday.

Asked whether Massa's eye suffered damage in the accident, Veres said: "I am sure but we do not know the extent (of the damage) yet."

Earlier a Hungarian defense ministry spokesman revealed that Massa was now able to communicate with movements when woken up.

"Massa is now woken up increasingly often and is capable of active communication, giving feedback by moving his legs and hands. This is certainly a good sign," Istvan Bocskai said on state television channel m1.

The 28-year-old - winner of 11 Grand Prix and the world championship runner-up in 2008 - was hit by debris in his helmet just above his left eye at around 275 kph.

Massa was airlifted to a hospital run by the defence ministry and underwent surgery for skull damage immediatelly.

The Ferrari driver has been kept in an induced coma since then to help his body to get through the postoperative phase of 48 hours but was woken up from time to time to get information on his condition.

Bocskai said a slow recovery was about to start although "this is not the phase yet when this can be stated as a certainity".

A test to determine if water had accumulated in his bowels was negative, Bocskai said, adding the results were "reassuring".

On Sunday, Massa underwent a computed tomography (CT) scan to determine if cerebral damage had occurred.

Asked whether the driver suffered brain injuries, Bocskai said: "The doctors did not observe any signs from the CT to confirm (an injury) but (...) it is still early to say anything."

Massa is to undergo another brain scan Monday and an update on his condition will be issued later, ministry spokeswoman Andrea Nagy said.

Massa has been with Ferrari since 2006 and was pipped by just one point by Lewis Hamilton in the 2008 title race. He is currently seventh this season with 22 points.

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Britain ends Afghanistan offensive


Britain announced the end of a bloody offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan, as a poll showed Tuesday that most Britons think military operations there are "unwinnable."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown praised the "heroic" efforts of British forces in the southern Helmand province, where the troop death toll has surged since the assault was launched late last month.

Brown claimed success in Operation Panther's Claw in the province, as officials announced the end of the first phase of the offensive, with troops now focusing on holding ground and then bringing development to the province.

"The efforts of our troops in Helmand have been nothing short of heroic," Brown said. "There has been a tragic human cost. But this has not been in vain.

The comments Monday came as two British soldiers were killed in the region, taking the death toll since operations began in Afghanistan in late 2001 to 191, higher than the number in Iraq.

The surge in troop deaths has sparked a political row over proper resources for troops, with Brown forced to defend Britain's strategy in Afghanistan, following calls for more equipment and boosted soldier numbers.

According to a poll in the Independent newspaper Tuesday, more than half of Britons now think military operations in Afghanistan are "unwinnable" and want troops should be withdrawn immediately.

Fifty eight percent see the offensive against the Taliban as a lost cause. Only 31 percent disagree, according to the poll conducted for the newspaper between July 24 and 26.

Fifty-two percent of the 1,008 Britons polled want the troops out while 43 percent want them to stay put.

Britain has around 9,150 troops in Afghanistan, the vast majority fighting Taliban militants in troubled Helmand.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Monday sought to reassure his compatriots about British operations and urged NATO allies to carry more of the burden.

"The biggest shift must now be towards the Afghan state taking more responsibility," Miliband said in a speech at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, aimed mainly at the British public.

He also warned Afghan leaders that their next government must do more to defeat the Taliban and drive a wedge between the insurgents.

The British military insisted Monday that the first phase of Panther's Claw was a success, with 3,000 British-led troops inflicting heavy losses on the Taliban since the operation was launched in late June.

"What we have achieved here is significant and I am absolutely certain that the operation has been a success," Brigadier Tim Radford, commander of Task Force Helmand, said from the province.

There are about 90,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan helping local forces stabilise Afghanistan, with thousands most recently deployed to the south to try and secure the restive area ahead of presidential polls on August 20.

The August 20 vote, a key test of US and NATO-backed efforts to install democracy in Afghanistan after decades of war and conflict, will be only the second time that Afghans elect a president.

President Hamid Karzai is favourite to win a second term, but has come under fire from his rivals in the election for not doing more to improve security in the country since he assumed office after the 2001 fall of the Taliban.

On Sunday, one of Karzai's vice president candidates Mohammed Qasim Fahim escaped unscathed after a gun and rocket attack hit his convoy in the northern province of Kunduz, the latest in a surge in militant violence.

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Solar eclipse pits superstition against science


MUMBAI (AFP) – Indian astrologers are predicting violence and turmoil across the world as a result of this week's total solar eclipse, which the superstitious and religious view as a sign of potential doom.

But astronomers, scientists and secularists are trying to play down claims of evil portent in connection with Wednesday's natural spectacle, when the moon will come between the Earth and the sun, completely obscuring the sun.

In Hindu mythology, the two demons Rahu and Ketu are said to "swallow" the sun during eclipses, snuffing out its life-giving light and causing food to become inedible and water undrinkable.

Pregnant women are advised to stay indoors to prevent their babies developing birth defects, while prayers, fasting and ritual bathing, particularly in holy rivers, are encouraged.

Shivani Sachdev Gour, a gynaecologist at the Fortis Hospital in New Delhi, said a number of expectant mothers scheduled for caesarian deliveries on July 22 had asked to change the date.

"This is a belief deeply rooted in Indian society. Couples are willing to do anything to ensure that the baby is not born on that day," Gour said.

Astrologers have predicted a rise in communal and regional violence in the days following the eclipse, particularly in India, China and other Southeast Asian nations where it can be seen on Wednesday morning.

Mumbai astrologer Raj Kumar Sharma predicted "some sort of attack by (Kashmiri separatists) Jaish-e-Mohammad or Al-Qaeda on Indian soil" and a devastating natural disaster in Southeast Asia.

An Indian political leader could be killed, he said, and tension between the West and Iran is likely to increase, escalating into possible US military action after September 9, when fiery Saturn moves from Leo into Virgo.

"The last 200 years, whenever Saturn has gone into Virgo there has been either a world war or a mini world war," he told AFP.

It is not just in India that some are uneasy about what will transpire because of the eclipse.

In ancient China they were often associated with disasters, the death of an emperor or other dark events, and similar superstitions persist.

"The probability for unrest or war to take place in years when a solar eclipse happens is 95 percent," announced an article that attracted a lot of hits on the popular Chinese web portal Baidu.com.

Sanal Edamaruku, president of the Indian Rationalist Association, dismissed such doomsday predictions.

"Primarily, what we see with all these soothsayers and astrologers is that they're looking for opportunities to enhance their business with predictions of danger and calamity," he told AFP.

"They have been very powerful in India but over the last decade they have been in systematic decline."

Astronomers and scientists are also working to educate the public about the eclipse.

Travel firm Cox and Kings has chartered a Boeing 737-700 aircraft to give people the chance to see the eclipse from 41,000 feet (12,500 metres).

Experts will be on board to explain it to passengers, some of whom have paid 79,000 rupees (1,600 dollars) for a "sun-side" seat on the three-hour flight from New Delhi.

The eclipse's shadow is expected to pass over the aircraft at 15 times the speed of sound (Mach 15), said Ajay Talwar, president of the SPACE Group of companies that promotes science and astronomy.

"It's coming in the middle of the monsoon season. On the ground, there's a 40 percent chance of seeing it in India. On the aircraft you have almost a 90 percent chance of seeing the eclipse," he added.

Siva Prasad Tata, who runs the Astro Jyoti website, straddles the two worlds.

"There's no need to get too alarmed about the eclipse, they are a natural phenomenon," the astrologer told AFP.

But he added: "During the period of the eclipse, the opposite attracting forces are very, very powerful. From a spiritual point of view, this is a wonderful time to do any type of worship.

"It will bring about good results, much more than on an ordinary day."

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Monday, July 20, 2009

US vows robust efforts to free soldier in Afghanistan


NEW DELHI (AFP) - – The United States on Monday voiced concern and outrage over an American soldier held by Taliban militants in Afghanistan, vowing everything possible is being done to free him.

"We are very concerned about the kidnapping of our American soldier and are working to do all we can to obtain his safe release," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a press conference in New Delhi when asked about the abduction of 23-year-old Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl.

The Taliban, which has stepped up its insurgency in Afghanistan, released a video over the weekend of a visibly shaken captive Bergdahl, who was snatched by the Islamist militants in Afghanistan late last month.

"Our commanders are sparing no effort to find this young soldier. And I also would say my personal reaction was one of disgust at the exploitation of this young man," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Washington.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the top US military officer, said: "We're doing absolutely everything we can to get him back."

In the 28-minute clip posted online, the soldier identified by the Pentagon on Sunday as Bergdahl sits on the floor in traditional pale grey Afghan clothing and pleads for US troops to leave the war-torn nation.

The shaven-headed man, who sports a fledgling beard and appears nervous and frightened, answers questions in English, occasionally choking back sobs as he tells his captors he is scared and wants to see his family.

"I deplore the exploitation of him," said Mullen, who returned on Saturday from a regional tour that included a stop in Afghanistan. "Having been with the forces in fact who are conducting the operations to recover him or to find him is -- they are extensive, vast. They're on it 24/7. And we're doing absolutely everything we can to get him back."

Clinton condemned Bergdahl's capture in an interview she gave earlier to US television network ABC while visiting India.

"It's just outrageous. It's a real sign of desperation and inappropriate criminal behavior on the parts of these terrorist groups," Clinton told ABC. "So we are going to do everything we can to get him."

A US military spokesperson in Kabul had earlier confirmed that the man in the video was the same soldier who went missing from his base in southeastern Paktika province on June 30, and condemned the video as "propaganda."

Hundreds of US soldiers and troops from other nations have been killed in Afghanistan battling the widening Taliban-led insurgency.

But the abduction is believed to be the first time militants have snatched an American soldier in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.

In the video, Bergdahl said he was trailing a patrol when he was captured, which contradicts earlier US military accounts that said the soldier had left his base at night with Afghan soldiers when he was taken by the militants.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to confirm the circumstances of Bergdahl's capture and said describing efforts to locate him was "not in the individual's best interests or our interests in trying to bring him back to safety."

Eating food and drinking green tea as he sits in front of a table, Bergdahl says the Taliban insurgents are "really treating me like a guest," but becomes distraught and emotional when talking about his family.

"I'm afraid that I might never see them again and that I'll never be able to tell them that I love them again, I'll never be able to hug them," he says.

"I'm scared... scared about not being able to go home. It's very unnerving to be a prisoner," he adds.

A commander of the Taliban's Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani faction on July 2 claimed the abduction.

The US Department of Defense said in its statement Sunday that Bergdahl -- who is a member of an infantry division based in Fort Richardson, Alaska -- was officially declared "Missing-Captured" on July 3, a day after the BBC first reported him missing.

Some 57,000 US troops are currently on the ground in Afghanistan alongside 33,000 troops from nearly 40 nations operating under a NATO-led force.

An additional 11,000 US forces are due in Afghanistan by the end of the year as part of 21,000 fresh troop reinforcements President Barack Obama has dispatched to the country.

"This is a very difficult battle, and this is one we feel must be waged," Clinton told reporters here when asked about a surge in US troop losses and other difficulties.


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Afghanistan helicopter crash: 10 Pinoys killed


MANILA, Philippines - The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) confirmed yesterday the death of 10 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in a helicopter crash at a key NATO airbase in southern Afghanistan on Sunday.

OWWA chief Carmelita Dimzon said they have received verified information that 10 Filipinos were among the 16 who died in the air tragedy.

Dimzon declined to release the names of the dead.

“They were legally deployed three or five years ago but they were unable to return since we imposed a ban in Afghanistan,” Dimzon said.

The Philippine government imposed a ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Afghanistan due to prevailing hostilities there.

Dimzon gave assurances that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), OWWA and other agencies concerned will work for the immediate repatriation of the bodies of the 10 OFWs once these have been recovered.

“They may already be considered undocumented because of the deployment ban, but we will be giving them all the necessary assistance for Filipino workers,” Dimzon said.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque earlier said they were still verifying the reported deaths of OFWs in a helicopter crash.

Meantime, the nationalities of the six other helicopter crash victims were not immediately known, according to a report of the ABS-CBN news bureau in Dubai.

The report also said that five others were wounded and were treated at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military facility.

The ABS-CBN report said the families of the 10 Filipino fatalities have been informed of the incident.

All ten victims were workers of Fluor Co. which refused to give information on the crash, the report further said.

Minutes before take-off, which was bound for Spin Buldak, the helicopter suddenly burst into flames near the runway, according to the report.

The workers on board the helicopter were supposed to be brought to Spin Buldak, a border city between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Last week, 13 Filipino workers bound for Afghanistan were intercepted and offloaded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) by authorities during an operation of the Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment (TFAIR).

Vice President and presidential adviser on OFWs Noli de Castro said the workers were offloaded from a plane before they could take the flight to Afghanistan.

De Castro, also TFAIR chair, said the 13 Filipino workers were recruited to work as carpenters, plumbers, and electricians in Kandahar airfield, a key NATO airbase in Afghanistan.

The workers were promised a monthly salary of $1,300.

The workers’ departure was prevented due to the deployment ban of the Philippines in five countries, including Afghanistan.

De Castro directed the TFAIR to conduct a thorough investigation on the recruiters of the 13 Filipino workers.

Based on its initial investigation, the TFAIR said travel documents of the workers were facilitated by a certain Faisal Ahmad Muhammad Alamri, who reportedly owns Sara Tourism and Cargo, a travel and tours firm in Dubai where the workers were supposed to land before proceeding to Kandahar airfield.

It was learned that once they reach Dubai, they would be met by their counterparts who will assist their entry into Afghanistan.

In March, an OFW who was working as a carpenter inside the Kandahar Air Base was killed in a rocket attack.

The DFA said Norbert Malana Hobayan died from wounds he suffered after being hit by rocket fire outside the Kandahar Air Base, the second biggest military installation in Afghanistan.

Recon International was reportedly Hobayan’s employer.

The DFA reiterated its advisory to the public not to travel to or seek employment in Afghanistan due to the unstable and volatile security situation in that country.

A Canadian government report said security in the southern Afghan region of Kandahar reportedly deteriorated in late 2008 as Taliban militants stepped up their attacks and crime spiked.

Expansion of infrastructure in Kandahar Air Base in Southern Afghanistan, which serves 13,000 troops from 17 countries, began last year at a cost of $780 million.

For years, the largest military facility in Afghanistan has been Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, the main hub for US forces concentrated in the mountainous eastern region where the Taliban insurgents are reportedly mixed with other extremists such as al-Qaeda fighters.

The balance of American power appears to be shifting south, toward the deserts and river valleys where the Taliban were born and a majority of the insurgents are local tribesmen. -With Pia Lee-Brago - By Mayen Jaymalin (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)


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Thursday, July 16, 2009

Blasts at Jakarta Ritz, Marriott kill 9, wound 50


JAKARTA, Indonesia – Bombs minutes apart ripped through two luxury hotels in Jakarta Friday, killing nine and wounding at least 50 more, ending a four-year lull in terror attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation. At least 14 foreigners were among the dead and wounded.

The blasts at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, located side-by-side in an upscale business district in the capital, blew out windows and scattered debris and glass across the street, kicking up a thick plume of smoke. Facades of both hotels were reduced to twisted metal.

Alex Asmasubrata, who was jogging nearby, said he walked into the Marriott before emergency services arrived and "there were bodies on the ground, one of them had no stomach," he said. "It was terrible."

The Marriott, which was attacked in 2003 in a bombing blamed on Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah, was hit first, followed by the blast at the Ritz two minutes later. The attacks came just two weeks after presidential vote expected to re-elect incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who has been credited with stabilizing a nation previously wracked by militancy.

Local media reported that two people were killed in another explosion in a car north Jakarta later Friday. Officials confirmed a blast but said it did not appear to be related.

Security Minister Widodo Adi Sucipto told reporters at the scene the hotel blasts happened at 7:45 a.m. and 7:47 a.m. (0045 GMT, 8:45 p.m. EDT) and that "high explosives were used." He said at least nine people were killed and 50 wounded.

Anti-terror forces were rushed to the scene, and authorities blocked access to the hotels in a district also home to foreign embassies.

"This destroys our conducive situation," Sucipto said, referring to the nearly four years since a major terrorist attack in Indonesia — a triple suicide bombing at restaurants at the resort island of Bali that killed 20 people.

The security minister and police said a New Zealander was among those killed, and that thirteen other foreigners were among the wounded, including nationals from Australia, Canada, India, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea and the U.S.

Earlier, South Jakarta police Col. Firman Bundi said that four foreigners were killed, but gave no details.

The attacks came ahead of a high-profile trip by the Manchester United football team to Indonesia. The team was scheduled to stay at the Ritz on Saturday and Sunday nights for a friendly match against the Indonesian All Stars, the Indonesian Football association said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna said the likely perpetrators were from the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah.

"The only group with the intention and capability to mount attacks upon Western targets in Jemaah Islamiyah. I have no doubt Jemaah Islamiyah was responsible for this attack," he said.

There has been a massive crackdown in recent years by anti-terror officials in Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million, but Gunaratna said the group was "still a very capable terrorist organization."

Police have detained most of the key figures in the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah, and rounded up hundreds of other sympathizers and lesser figures.

But Gunaratna said that radical ideologues sympathetic to JI were still able to preach extremism in Indonesia, helping provide an infrastructure that could support terrorism.

Jakarta chief of police operations, Arief Wahyunadi, said the blasts were in the Ritz-Carlton's Airlangga restaurant and in the basement of the Marriott. He gave no details on what kind of bombs were used and whether they were suicide attacks.

Government spokesman Dino Patti Djalal told CNN the scene of the blasts were "eerie," when he arrived.

"The bodies I saw, some were being collected, some were on the floor," he said. "What we know, of course, is this was a coordinated attack."

When asked if Jemaah Islamiyah was behind the attack, Djalal said: "We always knew there are terrorists out there. But we've had a number of very good successes; no major attacks since the Bali bombings."

He was referring to the October 2002 bombings of two Bali nightclubs that killed some 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.

"This is a blow to us," Djalal said, but said the government would find those behind the attacks.

"The president has built his reputation on ... anti-terrorism policies," he said. "Make no mistake, he will hunt whoever is behind this."

Because of past attacks, most major hotels in Jakarta take security precautions, such as checking incoming vehicles and requiring visitors to pass through metal detectors. Still, international hotels make attractive targets, since the nature of their business requires them to be relatively open and accessible.

On Friday, Australia and New Zealand updated their travel advisories, which had already warned against unnecessary travel to Indonesia because of the risk of terrorism.

"We advise you to reconsider your need to travel to Indonesia due to the very high threat of terrorist attack," the Australian Foreign Ministry said on its Web site. Those in Indonesia were warned to exercise "extreme caution."

New Zealand urged its citizens in Indonesia to keep a low profile.

Britain also updated its travel warning, though it did not raise its alert level.

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NASA lost moon footage, but Hollywood restores it


WASHINGTON – NASA could put a man on the moon but didn't have the sense to keep the original video of the live TV transmission.

In an embarrassing acknowledgment, the space agency said Thursday that it must have erased the Apollo 11 moon footage years ago so that it could reuse the videotape.

But now Hollywood is coming to the rescue.

The studio wizards who restored "Casablanca" are digitally sharpening and cleaning up the ghostly, grainy footage of the moon landing, making it even better than what TV viewers saw on July 20, 1969. They are doing it by working from four copies that NASA scrounged from around the world.

"There's nothing being created; there's nothing being manufactured," said NASA senior engineer Dick Nafzger, who is in charge of the project. "You can now see the detail that's coming out."

The first batch of restored footage was released just in time for the 40th anniversary of the "one giant leap for mankind," and some of the details seem new because of their sharpness. Originally, astronaut Neil Armstrong's face visor was too fuzzy to be seen clearly. The upgraded video of Earth's first moonwalker shows the visor and a reflection in it.

The $230,000 refurbishing effort is only three weeks into a monthslong project, and only 40 percent of the work has been done. But it does show improvements in four snippets: Armstrong walking down the ladder; Buzz Aldrin following him; the two astronauts reading a plaque they left on the moon; and the planting of the flag on the lunar surface.

Nafzger said a huge search that began three years ago for the old moon tapes led to the "inescapable conclusion" that 45 tapes of Apollo 11 video were erased and reused. His report on that will come out in a few weeks.

The original videos beamed to Earth were stored on giant reels of tape that each contained 15 minutes of video, along with other data from the moon. In the 1970s and '80s, NASA had a shortage of the tapes, so it erased about 200,000 of them and reused them.

How did NASA end up looking like a bumbling husband taping over his wedding video with the Super Bowl?

Nafzger, who was in charge of the live TV recordings back in the Apollo years, said they were mostly thought of as data tapes. It wasn't his job to preserve history, he said, just to make sure the footage worked. In retrospect, he said he wished NASA hadn't reused the tapes.

Outside historians were aghast.

"It's surprising to me that NASA didn't have the common sense to save perhaps the most important historical footage of the 20th century," said Rice University historian and author Douglas Brinkley. He noted that NASA saved all sorts of data and artifacts from Apollo 11, and it is "mind-boggling that the tapes just disappeared."

The remastered copies may look good, but "when dealing with historical film footage, you always want the original to study," Brinkley said.

Smithsonian Institution space curator Roger Launius, a former NASA chief historian, said the loss of the original video "doesn't surprise me that much."

"It was a mistake, no doubt about that," Launius said. "This is a problem inside the entire federal government. ... They don't think that preservation is all that important."

Launius said federal warehouses where historical artifacts are saved are "kind of like the last scene of `Raiders of the Lost Ark.' It just goes away in this place with other big boxes."

The company that restored all the Indiana Jones movies, including "Raiders," is the one bailing out NASA.

Lowry Digital of Burbank, Calif., noted that "Casablanca" had a pixel count 10 times higher than the moon video, meaning the Apollo 11 footage was fuzzier than that vintage movie and more of a challenge in one sense.

Of all the video the company has dealt with, "this is by far and away the lowest quality," said Lowry president Mike Inchalik.

Nafzger praised Lowry for restoring "crispness" to the Apollo video. Historian Launius wasn't as blown away.

"It's certainly a little better than the original," Launius said. "It's not a lot better."

The Apollo 11 video remains in black and white. Inchalik said he would never consider colorizing it, as has been done to black-and-white classic films. And the moon is mostly gray anyway.

The restoration used four video sources: CBS News originals; kinescopes from the National Archives; a video from Australia that received the transmission of the original moon video; and camera shots of a TV monitor.

Both Nafzger and Inchalik acknowledged that digitally remastering the video could further encourage conspiracy theorists who believe NASA faked the entire moon landing on a Hollywood set. But they said they enhanced the video as conservatively as possible.

Besides, Inchalik said that if there had been a conspiracy to fake a moon landing, NASA surely would have created higher-quality film.

Back in 1969, nearly 40 percent of the picture quality was lost converting from one video format used on the moon — called slow scan — to something that could be played on TVs on Earth, Nafzger said.

NASA did not lose other Apollo missions' videos because they weren't stored on the type of tape that needed to be reused, Nafzger said.

As part of the moon landing's 40th anniversary, the space agency has been trotting out archival material. NASA has a Web site with audio from private conversations in the lunar module and command capsule. The agency is also webcasting radio from Apollo 11 as if the mission were taking place today.

The video restoration project did not involve improving the sound. Inchalik said he listened to Armstrong's famous first words from the surface of the moon, trying to hear if he said "one small step for man" or "one small step for A man," but couldn't tell.

Through a letter read at a news conference Thursday, Armstrong had the last word about the video from the moon: "I was just amazed that there was any picture at all."


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Black boxes from Iran's crashed plane recovered


TEHRAN, Iran – Investigators have recovered the three black boxes belonging to a Russian-made jetliner that crashed in northwest Iran shortly after taking off from the capital, killing all 168 on board, authorities said Thursday.

Remains of the dead _ many badly burned and damaged _ were brought to Tehran for identification, as relatives from Armenia, the passenger jet's destination, headed for Iran to retrieve their loved ones' bodies.

Khristofor Sogomonian, whose father was among those killed, said he would "try to find anything and to commit his body to the soil."

Diana Sarkisian told The Associated Press at the airport in Armenia's capital Yerevan, that her cousin was aboard the plane as the first leg of a trip to her husband in the United States. "I had hoped that she was alive, but now all doubts have fallen away," said Sarkisian, an Iranian national.

The black boxes _ containing the plane's cockpit voice and flight data recorders _ will be key to determining the cause of the crash, which remains unknown. Witnesses said the plane's tail, where the engines are located, was on fire before it went down nose first, plowing a long trench into agricultural fields outside the village of Jannat Abad, and the plane was blasted to bits. Parts of the trench were up to four meters (yards) deep.

Chief investigator Ahmad Majidi said one of the recovered boxes was damaged, state radio said. The boxes would likely be sent to the aircraft's Russian manufacturers for analysis, he said.

A team of Russian air accident experts was due to arrive in Iran on Friday to help in the investigation of the latest crash, civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh told the semi-official news agency ISNA.

Majidi initially said two black boxes were found and that investigators were searching for a third. Later state TV reported that the third was found, some 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) away from the crash. Black boxes, built to survive crashes and intense fires, record a plane's performance, like speed and altitude, as well as communications between the cockpit crew or with air traffic controllers.

The crash of the Tupolev jet leased by Caspian Airlines was the latest in a string of air disasters in recent years that have highlighted Iran's difficulties in maintaining its aging fleet of planes. Iranian airlines, including state-run ones, are chronically strapped for cash, and maintenance has suffered, experts say.

U.S. sanctions prevent Iran from updating its 30-year-old American aircraft and make it difficult to get European spare parts or planes. The country has come to rely on Russian aircraft, many of them Soviet-era planes that are harder to get parts for since the Soviet Union's fall.

Iranian civil aviation agency chief Ali Ilkhani said the Tu-154M that crashed was built in 1987, was bought by Iran in 1998 and had an overhaul certificate valid until 2010, state TV said.

Most of the passengers were Iranians, including 42 from Iran's large ethnic Armenian community, as well as 11 members of Iran's national youth judo team.

Five Armenian citizens were among the dead, Armenia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, along with two Georgians, including a staffer from the Caucasus nation's embassy in Yerevan.

Armenia on Thursday announced a one-day national state of mourning to mark the death of its citizens in the crash. Flags were flying at half-mast on government buildings and Armenian embassies abroad. Local radio and TV have canceled entertainment programs in a show of respect.

Iran's national airline sent a Boeing 747 to Yerevan Thursday to help take victims' relatives to Tehran. Caspian Airlines' representative in Armenia, Arlen Davudian, said victims' relatives would be provided hotel rooms and transportation to the crash site.

Victims' relatives, he added, would be paid compensation of at least euro32,000 ($45,216).

At the site of the crash on Wednesday, flaming wreckage, body parts and personal items were strewn over a 200-yard (meter) area. Firefighters put out blazes from the crash, but smoke smoldered from the pit for hours after as emergency workers searched for the data recorders and other clues to the cause.

The Tu-154M jet had taken off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport. It crashed at 11:30 am, about 16 minutes after takeoff, outside Jannat Abad, near the city of Qazvin, around 75 miles northwest of Tehran.

The crash is Iran's worst since February 2003, when a Russian-made Ilyushin 76 carrying members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 people aboard. That crash was a sign of how maintenance problems have also affected Iran's military.

Caspian Airlines is an Iranian-Russian private joint venture founded in 1993.


Associated Press reporter Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, contributed to this report.

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New Zealand quake tsunami warnings cancelled


WELLINGTON/SYDNEY - New Zealand and Australia cancelled tsunami warnings Wednesday after an earthquake struck the south of New Zealand, causing minor damage but no injuries.

Australia's weather bureau said a small tsunami had been recorded in New Zealand and another was detected in the Tasman Sea heading towards Australia's southeast coast.

"Our deep ocean buoy in the southern Tasman Sea indicates a wave travelling across the Tasman. Because of the depth of the water we can not tell the wave height," Chris Ryan, from Australia's Tsunami Warning Centre, told Reuters.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology issued a statement advising people in low lying coastal areas to move to higher ground and for people to get out of the water.

Australia cancelled its tsunami warning after an hour, downgrading the threat to a "small boat alert." New Zealand also cancelled its tsunami warning.

The Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said the tremor, measuring 6.6 magnitude, struck at 9.22 p.m. below ground level.

Local civil defence officials had issued a warning about a "potential tsunami" for the region, because of conflicting reports about the quake's size. The Japanese meteorological agency put the preliminary magnitude at 7.8.

"There was a small wave, but it was not damage causing ... people probably wouldn't have noticed it among the other waves," Civil Defence spokesman Vince Cholewa told Reuters.

Local media said the quake was felt widely throughout the lower South Island as a long, rolling motion, sending goods falling from shop shelves, but said no injuries were reported.

"It was quite a large motion, the whole house was moving, the door was moving in the doorframe, and the fence posts were moving," Invercargill resident Simon Wilson told Radio New Zealand.

The region, famed for its natural beauty of high mountains, wilderness and deep fiords or inlets, is known for strong earthquake activity. New Zealand records around 14,000 earthquakes a year.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Iranian plane crashes into field, killing all 168


TEHRAN, Iran – A Russian-made jetliner carrying 168 people nose-dived into a field after taking off from the Iranian capital on Wednesday in a fiery crash that shredded the aircraft and killed everyone aboard _ Iran's worst air disaster in six years. Witnesses say the plane's tail was on fire before it went down.

It was the latest in a string of deadly crashes in recent years that have highlighted Iran's difficulties in maintaining its aging fleet of planes.

Iranian airlines, including state-run ones, are chronically strapped for cash, and maintenance has suffered, experts say. U.S. sanctions prevent Iran from updating its 30-year-old American aircraft and make it difficult to get European spare parts or planes as well. The country has come to rely on Russian aircraft, many of them Soviet-era planes that are harder to get parts for since the Soviet Union's fall.

The Caspian Airlines Tupolev jet's impact plowed a deep, long trench into agricultural fields outside the village of Jannat Abad, and the aircraft was blasted to bits. Flaming wreckage, body parts and personal items were strewn over a 200-yard (meter) area. Firefighters put out blazes from the crash, but smoke smoldered from the pit for hours after as emergency workers searched for data recorders and other clues to the cause.

Ali Akbar Hashemi, a 23-year-old, was laying gas pipes in a house by the field when he saw the stricken jet overhead. He said the plane was circling in the air, flames shooting from its tail section.

"Then, I saw the plane crashing nose-down. It hit the ground causing a big explosion. The impact shook the ground like an earthquake," Hashemi told The Associated Press by phone.

The Tu-154M jet had taken off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport on Wednesday morning and was headed to the Armenian capital Yerevan. It crashed at 11:30 am about 16 minutes after takeoff outside Jannat Abad, near the city of Qazvin, around 75 miles northwest of Tehran, civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh told state media.

At Yerevan's airport, Tina Karapetian, 45, sobbed and said she had been waiting for her sister and the sister's 6- and 11-year-old sons, who were due on the flight.

"What will I do without them?" she cried before collapsing to the floor.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

The plane was carrying 153 passengers and 15 crewmembers, Jafarzadeh and the deputy chairman of Armenia's civil aviation authority Arsen Pogosian said. "In all likelihood, all on board were killed," Pogosian told reporters at Yerevan airport.

Most of the passengers were Iranians, many of them from Iran's large ethnic Armenian community, as well as 11 members of Iran's national youth judo team. Five Armenian citizens were among the dead, Armenia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, along with two Georgians, including a staffer from the Caucasus nation's embassy in Yerevan.

Serob Karapetian, the chief of Yerevan airport's aviation security service, said the plane may have attempted an emergency landing, but reports that it caught fire in the air were "only one version." He did not elaborate. A police officer told Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency that several witnesses reported seeing the plane's tail on fire.

The Tupolev's three engines are in its tail section. The flames there could indicate "an uncontained engine failure," said Patrick Smith, a pilot and the air travel and safety writer for Salon.com.

But he said it's too early to tell. The crash's root cause could be elsewhere, and the flames a sign of a compressor stall caused when the plane went out of control, interrupting airflow through the engine, Smith said.

The crash is Iran's worst since February 2003, when a Russian-made Ilyushin 76 carrying members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 people aboard. That crash was a sign of how maintenance problems have also affected Iran's military.

Caspian Airlines is an Iranian-Russian private joint venture founded in 1993, with a fleet of Tu-154s built between 1989 and 1993. Russia produced 900 Tu-154s until production was halted in 1996.

The average age of Iran's fleet of aircraft is 22 years, said Masoud Mohajer, an aviation expert in Tehran. Age itself may not be a problem _ even older jets are in service around the world _ but keeping them maintained is. Mohajer said Iranian airlines can't afford to keep even Russian planes in shape because of lack of government support.

He pointed to "the financial inability to buy new planes or carry out maintenance requirements."

"Iranian airliners don't have enough cash even to buy new Russian planes. The government controls ticket prices. It's not profitable for airliners," Mohajer said.

Some of the jets in Iran's fleet are U.S.-made craft bought before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which led to a cut-off in ties between the nations. U.S. sanctions since prevent Iran from buying parts for those planes or new ones.

In December 2005, 115 people were killed when a pre-1979 U.S.-made C-130 plane, crashed into a 10-story building near Tehran's Mehrabad airport.

The sanctions also bar sales of European jets with a certain amount of U.S. parts, limiting Iran's ability to buy from Europe.

As a result, Iran has focused on Russian-built planes _ like the Tupolev and Ilyushins, the Soviet-era workhorses for Russian civil air fleets. After the Soviet collapse, government funding sharply declined for manufacturers of aircraft and spare parts, and other countries using the planes have had a harder time getting parts.

There have been two other fatal crashes involving Tu-154s in Iran since 2002 that killed 128 people.

"There is a big question about the availability of spares for aircraft generally in Iran," said Chris Yates, a Britain-based aviation analyst. The Iranians may have turned to buying spares produced locally or from the black market, he said.

Smith said Russian aircraft suffer from a somewhat undeserved bad reputation _ their "less impressive" record is in part because they have historically been used in harsher environments than Western models, like arctic areas, and by airlines in developing countries where safety standards aren't as strict.

"The plane is only as safe as how it's operated and maintained and how well trained its crewmembers are," he said.

____

AP writers Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, Lee Keath in Cairo, Egypt, and Adam Schreck in Dubai contributed to this report.


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30 dead in Mexico violence


CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AFP) - – An armed gang shot dead a mayor in northern Mexico, capping a vicious 48-hour period that has seen 30 people killed, including 12 police officers in the west of the country, officials said.

Hector Ariel Meixueiro, who was mayor of Namiquipa in northwestern Chihuahua state near the US border, was shot multiple times after being accosted Tuesday morning by at least 15 men carrying assault rifles, according to the state prosecutors office.

Earlier Tuesday a spokesman for Mexico's public security ministry said the bodies of 12 federal police officers were found along a road in the western state of Michoacan.

The bodies of 11 men and one woman, who had been undertaking investigative work in the area, were found stacked on top of each other and bore signs torture, said police spokesman Monte Alejandro Rubido.

Officials have attributed the killings to the powerful "La Familia" drug cartel that operates in the region and considered one of the most violent criminal gangs in Mexico.

In Ciudad Juarez, the country's crime capital, 11 other men were killed between Monday and Tuesday, local authorities said.

The city has been a flashpoint for Mexico's spiraling drug-related violence, for which President Felipe Calderon has deployed 36,000 soldiers and federal police throughout the country in an aggressive clampdown.

Last weekend, "La Familia" launched a series of attacks against police posts in Michoacan that left four people dead, including three members of the security forces and one suspected cartel hit man.

The attacks were "desperate and violent reactions" to the government's war on the cartels, Calderon said on Monday.

Authorities said the cartel attacks came in retaliation for security agents having detained top La Familia kingpin Arnoldo Rueda.

They say that Rueda, nicknamed "La Minsa" and allegedly La Familia's second in command, is a key cartel operative in charge of managing synthetic drug production and shipping marijuana and cocaine to the United States, the world's top consumer of cocaine.

La Familia, which operates mainly in Michoacan, burst into the headlines in October 2006 when an armed commando linked to the cartel entered a bar and tossed five severed heads onto the dance floor.

More than 7,700 people have been killed in drug violence in Mexico since 2008, according to government figures.


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Monday, July 13, 2009

PHIVOLCS watches Mayon closely


LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines - Mayon Volcano in Albay may proceed to a hazardous eruption, or an explosion that would be dominated by pyroclastic flows rather then the less life-threatening lava flows, scientists told the first meeting of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) here today.

Ed Laguerta, resident volcanologist for Bicol of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), said unlike the 2006 eruption that was characterized by slow-paced lava flow, the present condition of Mayon could lead to a hazardous eruption and it would be dominated by pyroclastic flow, a very hot gaseous volcano material ranging from 300- to 1000- degrees celcius in temperature and travels faster than lava.

Laguerta said Mayon’s present activity resembles that of its 1993 behavior which eventually led to pyroclastic explosion, that cascaded down its slopes very fast and killed at least 77 farmers tilling their land at the area facing Legazpi City.

The scientist said their instruments detected low degassing activity, which means that more volume of gaseous materials are trapped inside the volcano.


- By Cet Dematera (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)

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Monday, July 6, 2009

Fresh blast in Jolo kills 1, injures 2

MANILA, Philippines – One person was killed while two others were hurt after an explosion rocked a business district in Jolo, Sulu, this morning, reports said.

The blast reportedly happened around 8 a.m. at the Go Tek Leng Complex.

This latest bombing came just days after a similar explosion occurred near a cathedral in Cotabato City last Sunday, killing five people and injuring 35 others. - By Dino Maragay (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)

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Mayon volcano showing signs of increased activity


MANILA - The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) on Sunday said it is studying the possibility of raising the alert level of Mayon Volcano in Albay in the Bicol region after it recently showed signs of increased activity.

PHIVOLCS said it has intensified its monitoring on the activity of Mayon Volcano.

PHIVOLCS confirmed that the crater glow of the volcano has intensified from level one to two which means the glow is visible with the naked eye.

Ed Laguerta, PHIVOLCS resident volcanologist, said the increase in the crater glow means the magma activity inside the volcano has increased.

Aside from the crater glow, Phivolcs has also noted an inflation of the volcano's edifice in the ground deformation survey conducted this June compared to the 12 millimeter deflation recorded in the survey conducted last January. The survey was conducted in Buang Leveling Line in Barangay Buang in Tabaco City.

This also indicate an abnormal activity of the volcano PHIVOLCS said.

Meanwhile for the past 24 hours, PHIVOLCS also said it has recorded four low frequency volcanic earthquake.

Alert level one however is maintained over Mayon volcano and residents and tourists are advised not to enter the seven-kilometer extended danger zone and the six-kilometer permanent danger zone. PHIVOLCS said with the recent abnormal activity of the volcano, a sudden phreatic explosion is possible.

Phreatic eruptions is desribed by US Geological Survey as steam-driven explosions that occur when water beneath the ground or on the surface is heated by magma, lava, hot rocks, or new volcanic deposits (for example, tephra and pyroclastic-flow deposits). USGS says the intense heat of such material (as high as 1,170° C for basaltic lava) may cause water to boil and flash to steam, thereby generating an explosion of steam, water, ash, blocks, and bombs.

PHIVOLCS noted that the alert level can be raised if there is a continuous increase in parameters such as seismic ground deformation and sulfur dioxide emission rate.

Mayon Volcano’s last eruption happened in July until August of 2006 which had the alert level of the volcano raised to four. No casualties were recorded in the last eruption. With reports from Jose Carretero, ABS-CBN Bicol and dzMM


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Jemaah Islamiyah eyed in Cotabato blast


DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist group coordinated with local Islamic rebels to set off the bomb near the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cotabato City that killed five people and injured 35 others last Sunday, a military official said yesterday.

This developed as police placed under custody a suspect who was nabbed at the parking lot of the cathedral several minutes after the explosion at a food stall outside the church along Quezon Avenue corner Makakua Street in Cotabato City.

Col. Medardo Geslani, commander of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade, said that based on intelligence reports, the “most likely” suspects were members of the Indonesia-based JI, which is linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, the special operations group (SOG) of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and rogue MILF guerrillas.

Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr., AFP Public Information Office chief, said that JI-trained members of the MILF-SOG carried out the bombing.

“The bombing in Cotabato City only showed that the MILF-SOG’s plot is now in motion,” Brawner said.

He said the group is led by Basit Usman, who was behind previous bombings in Central Mindanao.

The military said Basit’s group had conducted 56 bombings in Central Mindanao since January.

The STAR obtained a document on counterterrorism, particularly the latest operations of the JI in Mindanao led by Indonesian Imam Lamai, a JI leader; and Abdul Sakim Sali, alias Commander Kidlat who is the team leader of the local JI in the Philippines.

Malaysian Al Poze and another Indonesian identified only as Joling were reported to be the organizers of the JI based in Camp Khalid in Maasim, Sarangani province.

Another Indonesian, Elmer Ambran, alias Elmer Enuran, is the finance officer of JI operations in the Philippines.

A certain Ustadz Usman Colano has also been identified as the local contact of the Imam Lamai.

Indonesian JI bomb experts Dulmatin, whose real name is reportedly Joko Pitono, and Umar Patek, have been hiding in Mindanao since 2003 after they were implicated in the Bali bombings in Indonesia in 2002 that killed 202 people, mostly Australian tourists.

The military has admitted that the JI has remained a threat in Western and Central Mindanao.

Military officials said the JI terrorists have joined forces with some elements of the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf group.

Military sources said the JI and Abu Sayyaf leaders have reportedly been recruiting members from local communities.

Sources said the JI has used Indonesia as the group’s main operations center, while Mindanao is the training ground, and eastern Malaysia is the source of funds of the terrorist group.

Police sources said a certain Guiday Muntasir was among the suspects in the bombing.

Muntasir was arrested by policemen in Cotabato City five years ago after a foiled attempt to bomb the Cotabato City Polytechnic College. He was released after posting bail.

Muntasir has worked as interpreter for JI operative Taufik Refke, who was arrested here in 2004 by the police.

Refke, who rented a house at the San Pablo Subdivision in Cotabato, had trained dozens of JI recruits in handling explosives.

Suspect arrested

Central Mindanao police director Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluña said the Cotabato City police had arrested Rico Aburva, 34, of Barangay Dalumangcob, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.

Cataluna said witnesses have identified Aburva as one of the bombers.

The Cotabato City police identified four of the five fatalities as Army Sgt. Recillo Collado, Ruby Ramirez, Paolo Kahar and a teenager, Prince Allen Cang-Diaz.

Investigators are now reviewing the tapes of the closed circuit television (CCTV) installed at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas regional office near the cathedral in Cotabato City to check if there is footage of the suspects.

Philippine National Police chief Director General Jesus Verzosa ordered all police units in Central Mindanao to be placed on full alert following the bombing.

He said the police had earlier picked up two persons in connection with the bombing.

One of the two suspects was released for lack of evidence while one was still under police custody.

Verzosa also ordered the local police to coordinate with the crisis management committee chaired by Cotabato City Mayor Muslimen Sema.

Many residents and Chinese-Filipino traders in Cotabato City have appealed to President Arroyo to deploy Marines to the area to prevent violence.

Local residents have apparently lost confidence in the Army’s anti-crime Joint Task Force Tugis, whose headquarters is less than 300 meters away from the site of Sunday’s bombing.

The Marines were deployed in the city from 1997 to 2003 as part of the city’s internal security force that complemented the anti-crime program of Mayor Sema and the local police.

Speaker Prospero Nograles condemned yesterday the bomb attack last Sunday in Cotabato City.

“This cowardly act should be condemned by all, Muslims and Christians alike, and this should serve as a reminder that unless Mindanaoans unite to bring those responsible to justice and end the cycle of terror and atrocities, Mindanao will always remain a land of promise,” said Nograles, who is a resident of Davao City.

House Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Simeon Datumanong, who hails from the second district of Maguindanao, urged residents in the region to be vigilant and to cooperate with the police and military to identify and arrest the bombing suspects.

“It was barbaric and so uncivilized. Let us not point accusing fingers at anybody, any group at this very tense moment. Let us, instead, pool our efforts and help authorities put the bombers behind bars,” Datumanong said.

Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, who was officiating the Sunday Mass at the cathedral when the bomb exploded, appealed for sobriety among all sectors in the city.

“I was to conclude my homily when the bomb exploded,” said Quevedo, a staunch advocate of Muslim-Christian interfaith dialogues and former president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, chairman of the ARMM’s peace and order council, said he has directed the region’s police director, Chief Superintendent Bensali Jabarani, to help the Cotabato City police in the investigation of the bombing. - With Jaime Laude, John Unson, Roel Pareño, Dennis Carcamo, Mike Frialde, James Mananghaya, Jess Diaz - By Edith Regalado (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)


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China says 156 dead in Xinjiang riot


URUMQI, China - Chinese police dispersed 200 people gathering outside a mosque in the Silk Road city of Kashgar, the day after ethnic riots killed 156 in the capital of the Muslim Xinjiang region, state media said on Tuesday.

Calm had settled over Urumqi, capital of western Xinjiang region, after 20,000 police, troops and firefighters reclaimed the streets from rioters who burnt and smashed vehicles and shops, and clashed with security forces over Sunday night.

Over 700 people had been detained, the official Xinhua news agency reported, although local residents told Reuters police were making indiscriminate sweeps of Uighur areas.

But despite heightened security some unrest appeared to be spreading in the volatile region, where long-standing ethnic tensions periodically erupt into bloodshed.

Police dispersed around 200 people "trying to gather" at the Id Kah mosque in the centre of Kashgar city on Monday evening, the day after the Urumqi rioting, Xinhua said. Kashgar is in the far west of Xinjiang.

The report did not say if police used force, but said checkpoints had been set up at crossroads between Kashgar airport and downtown.

Police also had "clues" about efforts to organise unrest in Aksu city and Yili prefecture, the latter a border region that was racked by unrest in the late 1990s, Xinhua said.

Along with Tibet, Xinjiang is one of the most politically sensitive regions in China and in both places the government has sought to maintain its grip by controlling religious and cultural life while promising economic growth and prosperity.

But minorities have long complained that Han Chinese reap most of the benefits from official investment and subsidies, while making locals feel like outsiders in their own homes.

Almost half of Xinjiang's 20 million people are Uighurs, while the population of Urumqi, which lies 3,270 km west of Beijing, is mostly Han Chinese.

Chinese officials have already blamed the unrest on separatist groups abroad, who it says want to create an independent homeland for the Muslim Uighur minority.

A Xinjiang public security spokesman told Xinhua that people outside China used telephones to "direct mobs in Xinjiang to stage the violence," and said calls for protests were posted Saturday evening on Internet forums by sympathisers.

Last year, Beijing also blamed unrest across Tibetan areas on a "clique" led by the exiled Dalai Lama.

But exile groups deny organising the violence and say it was an outpouring of pent-up anger over government policies and Han Chinese economic dominance.

In Washington, the White House said it was concerned about the deaths but it would be premature to speculate on the circumstances. "We call on all in Xinjiang to exercise restraint," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

CHASM BETWEEN SIDES

Muslim Uighur and Han Chinese residents of Urumqi gave accounts of bloodshed that are likely to deepen the chasm between the two sides.

Uighur residents, speaking softly in alleyways away from patrolling police and troops, complained about the growing Han Chinese presence. Some said many of those arrested were youths caught up in indiscriminate police sweeps of the rundown concrete apartments where many Uighurs live.

"They've been taking away all the young people, going into our homes and taking them away," said Amina, a middle-aged woman in a Muslim headscarf sitting on the steps of a mosque. She said her own son had been taken but did not want to give his name.

"They don't care who they take, as long as you're between 17 and 20 and they don't like the look of you," she said as her neighbours shook their heads and clucked in sympathy.

Nearly all Uighurs traced the protests on Sunday back to their own anger over a confrontation in far southern China in late June, when Han Chinese fought Uighurs working in a factory in Shaoguan, leaving two Uighurs dead, after a false allegation that some of them had raped a Han Chinese woman.

The government said two Uighurs died in that clash. But many Uighur residents of Urumqi said they were sure that many more died at the factory, and gave vivid accounts of how 20, 50 or a 100 of the workers were killed in their sleep -- stabbed, strangled or poisoned. And some said a Uighur woman was raped.

There is no independent evidence to support those claims, but Uighur residents said they were angry the details of the factory clash were not more fully aired by the government.

"We know that 100 workers were killed," said a young Uighur, who gave his name as Memet. "Now who cares about their deaths? Why all these police for us, but nothing when they died?"

Han Chinese residents said the toll from the riots was likely to rise and their deepened fears of the Uighurs were unlikely to abate.

Chen, a driver, said his wife who shares driving duties with him had suffered a badly cut eye when a Uighur youth attacked their car, and now she was afraid to venture far from home.

"Why doesn't the United States classify them as terrorists?," said Chen, who would not give his full name. "What they did to us is terrorism, isn't it?"

He said the rioters appeared to be mostly Uighur men in their twenties, many of them unemployed. Riot victims recovering in a Urumqi hospital described groups of men who targeted Han Chinese and attacked them with purposeful efficiency.

"They didn't really talk to you," said Huan Zhangzhao, with two broken ribs and a bloodied eye. "When they saw you, when they saw a Han person coming along, they started to attack. When a bus came along, they started to attack."



By Chris Buckley
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NYPD rookie makes arrest moments after graduation


NEW YORK – A New York Police Department rookie just couldn't wait to get started.

One of the NYPD's newest officers made his first arrest Thursday just minutes after graduating from the Police Academy in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden.

Officer Dariel Firpo, 23, was leaving the midtown Manhattan ceremony when he saw a 79-year-old man being robbed of his wallet and thrown to the ground by a mugger, police said.

The mugger tried to run away, but Firpo caught him without incident, they said.

"Officer Firpo made us all proud," police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "He's off to a great start."

The man Firpo arrested, Jeffrey Grant, was being charged with robbery. Grant, 47, has 48 previous arrests and was just released last week from Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, N.Y., after serving time for a robbery conviction, police said.

Grant, of Manhattan, was in custody late Thursday and couldn't be contacted. The name of his attorney wasn't yet on record.

The mugging victim was treated at a hospital for a broken wrist.

Firpo's feat "may be the fastest police action upon graduation in department history," said chief police spokesman Paul Browne, who was at the graduation ceremony for the class of 250 new officers.

Firpo, who graduated from Lehman College in January with a degree in political science, said he wants to focus on community affairs while working in the nation's biggest police department.

"I'm really trying to stick in the community," he said.


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Friday, July 3, 2009

Air France Flight 447 'didn't break up in mid-air'


PARIS (AFP) - – The Air France jetliner that crashed in the Atlantic a month ago with 228 people on board did not break up in mid-air, the French bureau leading the investigation said Thursday.

"The plane was not destroyed while in flight," said Alain Bouillard from the BEA accident investigation agency, which released its first report on the June 1 disaster.

"The plane appears to have hit the surface of the water in flying position with a strong vertical acceleration," he added, explaining that the plane hit the water belly-first.

The crash of Flight 447 from Rio to Paris was the worst in Air France's history.

There had been speculation that problems with the Airbus' airspeed sensors, or pitot tubes, may have caused the plane to stall or fly dangerously fast, causing a high-altitude breakup.

Brazil decided on June 27 to call off the recovery operation but France has maintained its nuclear submarine, research vessel and other boats in the area on a final hunt for the black boxes.

The BEA lead investigator said the search would continue until July 10.

The homing beacons on the flight recorders emit signals for about one month after the crash and the BEA hopes that they will have a longer-than-usual shelf life.

Investigators have been scrutinizing some 640 pieces of debris recovered from the crash zone for any clue as to what brought down the plane as it flew through turbulence over the Alantic.

Autopsies were being performed on 51 bodies pulled from the disaster area, some 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) off Brazil's coast.


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DFA identifies Pinay in Yemeni plane crash


The Department of Foreign Affairs will make representations with Yemenia on behalf of the family of the lone Filipino fatality in the passenger plane that crashed last Tuesday.

“Mrs. Lucia Libron said Yemenia has not contacted the family and is seeking assistance from the DFA,” the DFA said in a text message to abs-cbnNEWS.com.

The DFA identified that Filipino Camille Lou Castillo Libron, 26 years old, single, was on board the Yemeni Airline plane.

“The family of Camille Lou Castillo Libron informed the Department of Foreign Affairs today that they received confirmation from the in-flight manager of Yemeni Airways that Ms. Libron was on board the Yemeni Passenger plane that crashed off the Comoros Islands last June 30,” said the DFA.

Two of Libron’s co-workers identified as Jane Garcia Tamah and husband Khalid Tamah also confirmed that she was on the Yemeni Flight.

A radio dzMM report, meanwhile, said that Libron was a fine arts graduate from the University of Cebu.

The report stated that according to the Filipina's uncle, Greg Lidron, she was not supposed to be on board the ill-fated Yemenia Airways flight. The uncle said Libron was assigned to take the spot of an on-leave Malaysian stewardess, the radio report added.

The uncle said Libron’s mother has flown to Manila to wait for her remains. The Filipina's father is a seafarer, the report said.

Agence France Presse reported that only a 14-year-old girl survived the crash and is now recovering.

The Yemeni Airbus had 153 passengers.


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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Flight diverted after passenger undresses in seat

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A US Airways flight to Los Angeles was diverted to Albuquerque after a passenger removed all of his clothing mid-flight, forcing flight attendants to cover him with a blanket before he was arrested, authorities said Wednesday.

Keith Wright, 50, of the Bronx in New York, was taken into custody by airport authorities after he disrobed while sitting in his seat in the back of Flight 705 on Tuesday evening, authorities said. The plane was carrying about 148 passengers from Charlotte to Los Angeles, the airline said.

Wright was unresponsive when a flight attendant asked him to put his clothes back on, said Dan Jiron, a spokesman for the Albuquerque airport. "She asked him on more than one occasion to put on his clothes. She covered him with a blanket and he took that off," Jiron said.

Wright punched and kicked the flight attendant, who asked two off-duty law officers for help, according to a criminal complaint. A Los Angeles police officer and sheriff's deputy helped the flight attendant subdue and handcuff Wright before the flight landed, Jiron said.

Roger Finzel, an assistant federal public defender representing Wright, said he has not yet met with his client and had no information about the case other than what was in the complaint.

Wright told the FBI he is suffering from a bipolar disorder and had not taken his prescribed medication before leaving New York that morning, the criminal complaint said. Wright told the FBI he recalled nothing about the flight or his behavior, it said.

Wright had been seen dancing in a crowded boarding area before the flight, but when approached by Flight Service Supervisor Claudia Kearney, he told her he had drunk one beer. Kearney told the FBI she did not smell alcohol on him and determined he was well enough to travel, the complaint said.

US Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder could not confirm that Kearney worked for the airline.

Passenger Ginny Keegan of Detroit was sitting in the front of the plane, when there was commotion coming from the back. The people on the flight were notified of a violent passenger as the plane began to approach Albuquerque, but Keegan said no one was fearful.

"No one was really panicking. The flight attendants seemed to handle it very well," she said. Keegan said the man was "completely naked" as he was taken in handcuffs off the plane.

As the plane took off again, Keegan said the usual announcement to please fasten your seat belts came over the loudspeakers with a twist. The message included "a reminder to everybody to please keep your clothing on. It got a couple chuckles," Keegan said.

The flight attendants also were dealing with an unrelated onboard medical emergency at the same time, which exacerbated the situation, the FBI said. The aircraft was diverted because of the medical emergency, and Wright's actions were a secondary reason for the unplanned landing, the complaint said.

Wright is in federal custody on a federal charge of interfering with flight crew members and attendants. He is expected to appear in federal court in Albuquerque on Thursday.


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RP's H1N1 flu cases balloon to 1,709


MANILA - The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday said it is stepping up its mitigation efforts against influenza A (H1N1), as the number of cases in the country rose to 1,709 from 861 last Friday.

In its July 1 update, the DOH said the Philippines had a total of 1,709 cases of influenza A (H1N1) since May 1, but the DOH said 86 percent or 1,485 patients have already recovered from the illness.

The remaining 224 patients (14 percent of total) are still under treatment, most of them under home management, the DOH said.

Only one A (H1N1)-related death has been recorded so far.

The DOH is also monitoring the case of a five-month-old patient, the youngest victim of the virus so far.

"All cases exhibited mild symptoms with the most common as fever, cough, and nasal congestion," Duque said.

"The ages of cases range from 5 months to 79 years old, with 18 years old as median age. Most of them belonged to the 10-19 years age group (831 cases). Majority of the cases were male (894 cases)," Duque described.

Duque disclosed that of the 1,709 reported cases, 1,568 (92 percent) were Filipinos; the rest were American (with 17), Japanese (8), Chinese (4), Korean (3), German (2), and one each from Australia, Canada, India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Sweden, Thailand, and Turkey.

"Two hundred eighty-five had history of travel to a country which has reported A (H1N1) cases. Most came from the USA, China, Japan and Singapore," Duque noted.

Most of the cases come from the National Capital Region, Regions IV-A, III, and VIII.

Globally, as of June 29, the World Health Organization has recorded a total of 70,893 cases, with 311 deaths, from 109 reporting countries.

Mitigation efforts

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said the DOH is stepping up its efforts against the disease as they anticipate more cases in the coming months.

"As we anticipate more cases in the coming months, we must institute effective mitigation measures to save lives and prevent deaths and to reduce the impact of the pandemic to our nation and the economy," he said.

This comes after Duque convened another DOH Command Conference, attended by members of the A (H1N1) task force, DOH regional directors and chiefs of hospitals, and representatives form the private sector.

With the move towards mitigation, the DOH said that they are ensuring all government hospitals, at all levels, have the capacity to administer care to high-risk patients, in accordance with the directives of President Arroyo.

Duque has also called for meetings with the member-agencies of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) to "engage them... in strengthening the involvement of local government units in the A (H1N1) response."

"We have also requested the NDCC member agencies, especially DepEd, CHED and TESDA and PIA to help us in our nationwide campaign against A (H1N1). This is to make sure that our information and education activities reach all schools, barangays and provinces in the country," Duque added.

The DOH will also meet with medical and health associations, such as the Philippine Medical Association and the Philippine Hospital Association regarding treatment and management of A (H1N1) patients.

'Preparedness plans'

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), meanwhile, is urging the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to compel large firms employing more than 500 workers to submit their "preparedness plans" in dealing with the spread of the virus.

"The DOLE has to ensure that business establishments, particularly the labor-intensive ones, are taking adequate measures to monitor, prevent and control the potential proliferation of Influenza A(H1N1) among their workforces," TUCP secretary-general Ernesto Herrera was quoted in a statement.

The DOLE earlier issued Department Advisory No. 4, providing "Guidelines on Influenza A(H1N1) Prevention and Control at the Workplace," for all employers and workers in the private sector.

Herrera, however, said the guidelines were not enough, saying the DOLE's Occupational Health and Safety Center (OHSC) should require large employers to submit their plans to deal with influenza A (H1N1).

TUCP earlier said that the virus, if left unchecked, could soon invade the country's factories and impair labor productivity.-- With a report from Jing Castañeda, ABS-CBN News


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