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Fighting rages in
Iraq’s FALLUJA, IRAQ, Nov 10: US warplanes launched air strikes in the Iraqi city of Falluja today amid fierce fighting between US-led forces and rebels. .....more Dutch
mourn murdered AMSTERDAM, Nov 10: The Netherlands mourned filmmaker Theo Van Gogh killed last week by a suspected Islamic militant, while Dutch Muslims ....more Stalled
immigration reform MEXICO CITY, Nov 10: Revamping US immigration laws to let more Mexicans work legally in the United States is a high ...more Indo-US
ties to strengthen WASHINGTON, Nov 10: Noting that Indo-US ties had been gaining momentum .. .......more |
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US rules out deals KABUL, Nov 10: A senior US official said today deals should not be done with hostage-takers ahead of the latest deadline set by Afghan Islamic .....more Renee
Zellweger plans LOS ANGELES, Nov 10: One would not know it from the way she is all over the media promoting her latest "bridget Jones" film, but Oscar-winning .....more Japan
navy mobilised after TOKYO, Nov 10: Japan’s navy was mobilised today after an unidentified submarine was detected...more Congo
mine, source of UNITED NATIONS, Nov 10: A mine in the democratic republic of Congo that provided uranium for the US atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 — the first nuclear weapons used in warfare...more |
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Fighting rages in Iraq’s Falluja after night lull FALLUJA, IRAQ, Nov 10: US warplanes launched air strikes in the Iraqi city of Falluja today amid fierce fighting between US-led forces and rebels. Machinegun, mortar and rocket fire shook the Sunni Muslim city as planes made several bombing runs over the northwestern Jolan district within 15 minutes, a reporter said. Smoke was rising from houses just beyond Falluja’s captured rail station, where Marines and Iraqi forces have a base. Marines said their opponents showed no signs of giving up, even though US forces penetrated to the centre of the city, west of Baghdad, after an offensive launched on Monday night. Marine tanks that pushed through central Falluja last night met tough resistance. Gunnery sergeant Ishmail Castillo, a member of one tank crew, told insurgents along the main road that cuts through Falluja fired Machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades after they had come under US mortar fire. Another reporter said explosions and smoke marked heavy fighting in Jolan and the eastern Hay-al-Askari district. The Pentagon said yesterday evening that at least 10 us and two Iraqi soldiers had died in the offensive unleashed by 10,000 US soldiers and Marines and 2,000 Iraqi troops. The assault on Falluja, where residents say wounded children are dying from lack of medical help, food shops are closed and power is cut, angered Sunni clerics who urged Iraqis to boycott January elections seen as vital to peace. Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who imposed a night curfew on Baghdad yesterday for an indefinite period, got a personal taste of Sunni anger at a Ramadan iftar meal the same day. "You have to stop fighting for four or five hours," Adnan-al-Dulaimi, a Sunni official in the Religious Affairs Ministry, urged Allawi before the evening meal, a pool reporter said. "There are a lot of injured that have to be taken care of. Give them time to rescue the injured. There are civilians getting killed in Fallujah. You are responsible for their lives in front of God," Dulaimi declared. "As you know, we tried every alternative before resorting to military force," Allawi replied. "We have nothing against the civilians of Falluja...They are the sons of this country." Allawi and his US backers have vowed to retake rebel-held areas before the January polls. They say disgruntled Baathists and militants led by Jordanian-al-Qaeda ally Zarqawi have turned Falluja into the epicentre of Iraq’s bloody insurgency. Metz said Zarqawi and other senior rebels have probably already fled Falluja, leaving the fighting to lesser ranks. The Falluja assault has fuelled insecurity among Sunni Arabs, who make up some 20 per cent of Iraq’s 25 million people, but who wielded disproportionate power under Saddam Hussein. In a move which could undermine the January 27 polls, the influential Muslim clerics’ association urged a boycott. "The clerics call on the ... People of Iraq to boycott the coming elections that they want to hold on the remains of the dead and the blood of the wounded from Iraqi cities like Falluja and others," said Harith-al-Dhari, its top official. US Marines poured hundreds of rounds into rebel positions and blasted buildings with tank shells yesterday, but also took casualties with bloodied troops stretchered away. American aircraft destroyed one building in Falluja with a laser-guided bomb after US and Iraqi forces came under fire from insurgents inside, the US military said. Explosions could be heard across Falluja after nightfall, but large-scale fighting appeared to have eased. "I think we are looking at several more days of tough urban fighting," said the US commander in charge of day-to-day military operations in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Thomas Metz. Briefing reporters in Washington by video teleconference from Iraq, Metz said the 2,000-3,000 rebels were in Falluja putting up a scattered resistance with "little coherence". Rebel casualties were higher than expected and civilian losses were low, Metz said, without giving details. But residents say scores of civilians died and for those struggling to live in the city, life is grim. Many of the city’s 300,000 people had fled to escape air strikes and artillery bombardments preceding the assault. The US military said about 150,000 residents had left. Those left behind say they have no power and use kerosene lamps. They keep to ground floors for safety, some living in shattered homes because it is too dangerous to move. (AGENCIES) |
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Dutch mourn murdered filmmaker amid revenge fears AMSTERDAM, Nov 10: The Netherlands mourned filmmaker Theo Van Gogh killed last week by a suspected Islamic militant, while Dutch Muslims rallied to urge reconciliation yesterday after a wave of attacks on Mosques and Churches. A 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan has been charged with the murder last Tuesday of film director Van Gogh, whose criticism of Islam enraged Muslims. His funeral, attended by friends and family, was broadcast live on national television. About a thousand people stood outside the crematorium on a frosty evening in Amsterdam to watch the service on a television screen. They carried flowers and candles and held placards including one that read: "Never submit to fundamentalism". "It is time for the silent majority to speak out because the fundamental rules of our society are at stake," Bram Peper, a former Mayor of Rotterdam, told the funeral service. Since Van Gogh was shot and stabbed as he cycled to work, a wave of arson attacks has targeted at least eight mosques. A small bomb also damaged a Muslim school in Eindhoven on Monday. Van Gogh’s father and sister told the funeral the film director would have deplored the attacks on Muslim buildings. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende demanded a return to the Dutch tradition of tolerance. "Let us keep cool heads. Let us break through the spiral of violence and insecurity," he told Dutch television. "This violence is unacceptable. I am angry that this has happened here. The Netherlands has always been a fine country with respect for different cultures." In the latest attack on Tuesday, arsonists set fire to a Muslim school in the southern Dutch village of Uden, where the attackers left a message referring to Van Gogh’s killing, Dutch television said. Nobody was hurt but nos showed firefighters battling flames leaping out of the roof of the building. Earlier in the day, two Churches in the Central towns of Utrecht and amersfort and two others in the city of Rotterdam were slightly damaged in what appears to be tit-for-tat attacks. A little-known Islamist group threatened to hit the Netherlands on Tuesday after the attacks on Muslim buildings. The Netherlands had already been the subject of several threats by Islamic militants over the presence of 1,300 troops in Iraq. "Stop the attacks on our mosques, schools and the Muslim community in Holland...Before you pay a heavy price," said the statement attributed to the Islamic Tawhid brigades, which claimed responsibility for bombings last month in Egypt. Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk met Muslim groups yesterday to discuss the escalating tension. The Netherlands is home to almost a million Muslims or about 6 percent of the population. About 60 young Dutch Muslims wearing orange shirts with the slogan, "we won’t put up with extremism any more," cycled through amsterdam to protest against Van Gogh’s murder. They then joined a Dutch-Moroccan rally of several hundred in a park near the street where Van Gogh was killed. "It is action, reaction. Extremism is not only Islamist but also the right wing," said Mustapha Laboui, a 39-year-old Dutch-Moroccan. "It’s not good to divide people into foreigners or Dutch. We have to solve these problems together." In Groningen, one of the towns where a Mosque was attacked, a Muslim community leader was due to join Jewish elders at a demonstration against racism and anti-semitism to mark the Nazi "Kristallnacht" attacks on Jews on Nov 9, 1938. Van Gogh was cremated in a simple wooden coffin strewn with flowers. His production company said he would not have wanted a repeat of the flamboyant funeral two years ago of murdered politician Pim Fortuyn, whose white hearse was showered with flowers as it drove through the streets. Hundreds of people have laid flowers, candles and messages at the spot where Van Gogh was killed. They also left cactuses, a tribute to the filmmaker’s prickly nature, and bottles of beer. Dozens of people circled the site on Tuesday. (AGENCIES) |
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Stalled immigration reform high priority for Bush MEXICO CITY, Nov 10: Revamping US immigration laws to let more Mexicans work legally in the United States is a high priority, Secretary of State Colin Powell said though Congress could still block the plan. Immigration reform has been a source of Mexican frustration with the United States as it languished low on a US Government agenda dominated by Iraq, homeland security and this year’s national elections. "The President remains committed to comprehensive immigration reform as a high priority in his second term and he will work closely with our congress to achieve this goal," Powell said yesterday at a ceremony before talks with Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez. President George W Bush proposed in January that millions of illegal aliens, mostly Mexicans, be allowed to gain legal status for an initial three-year period if they can prove they have jobs in the United States. Many businesses applauded the idea, but it met stiff opposition in Congress before last week’s US elections and stayed on the shelf. Some lawmakers fear the proposal would make it more difficult to keep the border secure, a major concern since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Powell warned that the new Congress, with an expanded republican majority, might be just as lukewarm toward immigration reform when it gets down to work in January. "At the same time we don’t want to overpromise. What I told Secretary Derbez is that ... We will make an assessment with the new Congress of the pace with which we can proceed with the temporary workers’ program," he told a news conference. Republican lawmakers have traditionally been wary of loosening US immigration laws, although some encourage Mexican immigration as a source of cheap labor, particularly in states where agriculture dominates. In an interview with Mexico’s televisa network, Powell dashed hopes of a broad deal involving full legalization of millions of Mexican workers, a plan Mexico once described as the "whole Enchilada". "We are not using that expression anymore. We are taking little bites of the Enchilada," Powell said. Mexican President Vicente Fox is Bush’s closest ally in Latin America despite disagreements over the Iraq war, and has long sought to improve the rights and legal protection of Mexican migrants who flock north in search of work. Mexican political analysts say the country might be willing to cooperate more closely with the United States on security in exchange for a deal on immigration. "There could be something on security at Mexican airports, like having US agents at the pre-check-in stage, or increased intelligence cooperation," said political scientist Jorge Chabat. Despite concerns that the (2,000-mile) 3,200-km border with Mexico is a weak spot in US security, there have been no verified cases of terrorists entering the United States there. US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, accompanying Powell in Mexico, said the Bush immigration plan could help deter terror. "A temporary worker program could contribute to enhanced security in the United States. We would have identified individuals and afforded them a status in the United States which assures us they are there to work and not to engage in terrorist activities," he said. (AGENCIES) |
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Indo-US ties to strengthen further during Bush’s 2nd term WASHINGTON, Nov 10: Noting that Indo-US ties had been gaining momentum under President George W Bush’s administration, America has said relations between the two countries are expected to strengthen further during his second term. "I think you can expect that we will work together. We have, I think, had a continuing relationship that has been strengthening under this administration with India, and I think we will continue to be that way with the new leadership in India. And the President, I know, had a phone call just the other day, a congratulatory call," White House Press Secretary Scott Mcclellan told reporters here yesterday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up Bush last week to congratulate him on his re-election and stressed his desire to work with him on "a robust, bilateral agenda," adding that he wanted to strengthen Indo-US cooperation in various fields. Singh had written a congratulatory letter earlier inviting him to visit India at an early date. He said the proposed visit would be a "milestone" in bilateral relations. Singh, in his letter also underlined the importance of Bush’s "personal commitment" to improving Indo-US ties and praised him for his efforts which resulted in "qualitative transformation" in the bilateral relationship during the American President’s first term. During the four years of the American leader’s first term, India saw a speedy development of so-called ‘next steps in strategic partnership’ between the two countries. (PTI) |
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US rules out deals with Afghan kidnappers KABUL, Nov 10: A senior US official said today deals should not be done with hostage-takers ahead of the latest deadline set by Afghan Islamic militants who have threatened to kill three kidnapped UN workers. The militants have demanded the release of 26 Taliban prisoners, some of whom may be in US custody, for the release of UN workers annetta flanigan from northern Ireland, Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan. But visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage appeared to rule out any prisoners being released from US custody to meet kidnappers’ demands. "It is the United States’ view that negotiating with hostage takers, compromising with hostage takers, only encourages more," Armitage told reporters. The three UN workers were abducted in Kabul on October 28 after helping to run Presidential polls won by US-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai. A Taliban splinter faction, the Jaish-e-Muslimeen (army of Muslims), says it is holding them. The group has threatened to kill the three and several deadlines for the release of the militants’ 26 imprisoned comrades have passed. The latest was set for 11 a.m. 12:00 hrs IST today. The militants say they have been negotiating through intermediaries with Afghan Government and UN officials but authorities have declined to comment. Armitage also declined to comment on efforts to free the UN workers. "These matters have to be handled very delicately," he said. One of several men claiming to speak for the militants, Mullah Sabir Momin, has said the woman from Kosovo, Hebibi, would be killed first and her "beheading" shown on video. Momin said Hebibi seemed the most important hostage. "She says she is a Muslim. If a Muslim helps infidels or America, that Muslim will be punished first." The fate of the other two would depend on the response of the Government and United Nations, he said. The kidnappers have said all three were suffering from the bitter cold and poor food, but two of the hostages were allowed to phone home on monday and said they were being well treated. The Government has expressed hope for the release of the hostages but it has also indicated it was unwilling to meet the kidnappers’ demands. In an interview with CNN, President Hamid Karzai said yesterday the Government was working hard to secure the trio’s release, adding: "Let’s hope they will be free very soon." "We are working on it on a minute-to-minute basis, day and night," he said. The Taliban, forced from power by US-led forces in the wake of the September 11 attacks, had vowed, but failed, to disrupt to October 9 Presidential election. The abductions have raised fears among the 2,000-strong western community in Afghanistan that militants have begun copying tactics of insurgents in Iraq. Taliban attacks have seriously disrupted aid and reconstruction work, especially in the south and east of the country, and some aid groups have pulled out of Afghanistan because of worry over security. (AGENCIES) |
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Renee Zellweger plans a break from acting LOS ANGELES, Nov 10: One would not know it from the way she is all over the media promoting her latest "bridget Jones" film, but Oscar-winning Renee Zellweger is taking an extended break from acting. After "Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason" begins playing in theaters on Friday, Zellweger, 35, said she plans to step away from the limelight, stop acting for a while and learn what it is like to be "Just A Girl." "I don’t see myself climbing into a makeup chair any time soon and taking another role. I feel like I need to take a minute and have a little bit of life experience," Zellweger told in a recent interview. She declined to say how her break from filming would last and she has already made a film that will open in 2005, Ron Howard’s "The Cinderella Man," in which plays the wife of depression-era boxer Jim Braddock. The first "Bridget Jones’ diary" in 2001 made Zellweger a top box office star as audiences fell in love with her portrayal of the plump, single British woman who drinks, smokes, curses and bungles her way through her love life. It racked up 254 million dollars at worldwide box offices. She followed "Bridget Jones" with her Oscar-nominated role as murderess Roxie Hart in musical "Chicago" and capped three years of success with the US film industry’s top film honor in February for best supporting actress as the hard-scrabble farm girl ruby thewes in US civil war drama "cold mountain." (AGENCIES) |
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Japan navy mobilised after sub seen in Japan waters TOKYO, Nov 10: Japan’s navy was mobilised today after an unidentified submarine was detected in Japanese waters, the top Government spokesman said, confirming a report by public broadcaster NHK. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference that the submarine had already left Japanese waters. (AGENCIES) |
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Congo mine, source of atom bombs, stays shut: UN UNITED NATIONS, Nov 10: A mine in the democratic republic of Congo that provided uranium for the US atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 — the first nuclear weapons used in warfare — is too dangerous to reopen, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The Shinkolobwe mine, which partially collapsed in July, killing eight people, is likely to further collapse and puts miners at risk of chronic exposure to radiation, UN investigators said. Some 14,000 miners, mainly youths under 18 living in the adjacent village of Shinkolobwe, once earned their living in the mine located in mineral-rich Katanga province in southwestern Congo. But the village was destroyed in early August following the collapse, and the UN team said it saw no miners at the site during an October 25-November 4 visit. "The situation in Shinkolobwe could be described as Anarchistic — there is no respect for mining safety regulations," Bernard Lamouille, a member of the UN assessment team, said in a statement. Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN environment program and the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo were among those conducting the investigation, which was requested by the Government in Kinshasa. The team will now prepare recommendations for the Government on short-term and longer-term steps regarding the mine, the statement said. (AGENCIES) Purists mock, but popera stars get tills ringing LONDON, Nov 10: Classical purists mocked when violinist Vanessa mae emerged from the sea in a wet T-shirt to publicise her album. But now even Luciano Pavarotti has recorded Italian pop songs and the big labels are constantly looking out for the next singer to bridge the gap between classical and pop. In an industry battling to keep its head above water, "crossover" is big business. Traditionalists may bridle at the hyped pop packaging of classical stars like bond and the Opera Babes, but marketing departments have a sharp eye on sales and post-war "Baby Boomers" are now buying big. Simon Cowell, known on both sides of the Atlantic for his vitriolic putdowns in the "pop idol" TV talent contests, hit the crossover jackpot launching Il Divo, a handsome quartet of opera singers dubbed "the four tenors". Il Divo achieved platinum status in just one week with their debut album, selling 130,000 copies and knocking Robbie Williams off the top of the album chart. EMI, the company behind Robbie Williams and Coldplay, is launching Keedie, a diminutive 22-year-old who said in a statement: "My ambition is to be number one in the pop charts and the classical charts — ideally at the same time." Acclaimed British Baritone Sir Thomas Allen said the commercialisation of classical music made him feel physically sick, complaining: "We have undoubtedly become a civilisation in rapid cultural decline." (AGENCIES) UN Council embraces ivory coast sanctions deadline UNITED NATIONS, Nov 10: Security Council members reached broad agreement yesterday on a resolution that would give ivory coast’s Government and rebels until Dec 1 to implement a peace deal or face UN sanctions, diplomats said. France compromised on its initial draft resolution — which would have immediately imposed an arms embargo and other measures — and agreed to allow a second Council vote before sanctions could kick in after China, Pakistan and Russia objected to immediate sanctions, the diplomats said. "My objective is to have this wrapped up tomorrow," French Ambassador Jean-Marc De La Sabliere told reporters following three hours of closed-door negotiations on the French text. Council members predicted the compromise would win the unanimous approval of the 15-nation UN body today. In addition to the arms embargo, it calls for a ban on travel and a freeze on "funds and other financial assets" to be imposed against individuals in the ivory coast who would be chosen at a later date by a Security Council committee. The measure would also denounce hate messages on national radio and television broadcasts, which UN officials said were growing more abusive in recent days. Diplomats said the broadcasts reminded them of the virulent hate messages disseminated during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide in which about 800,000 people were massacred in 100 days of bloodletting. Council members embraced the compromise after South African President Thabo Maeki launched an African union initiative to help end the violence in the world’s top Cocoa Grower. (AGENCIES) Kerry vows to press on with agenda in US senate WASHINGTON, Nov 10: John Kerry returned to the US capitol yesterday, vowed to fight on in the senate for the changes sought by supporters of his failed US Presidential bid and did not rule out another White House run. "Fifty-four plus million Americans voted for health care, they voted for energy independence, they voted for unity in America, they voted for stem-cell research, they voted for protecting social security," the four-term senator from Massachusetts told reporters as he met with two top democratic Congressional leaders. "We need to be unified," Kerry said in his first public comments since conceding defeat to President George W Bush in last Tuesday’s election. "We have a very clear agenda, and I’m going to be fighting for that agenda with all of the energy that I have and all of the passion I brought to the campaign," Kerry said. Kerry did not rule out another White House bid, but joked about a comment by his brother, cameron, in the Boston globe yesterday that such a run is "conceivable." "It’s inconceivable to me that anyone is even talking about that stuff right now," said Kerry, flanked by senate minority whip Harry Reid, a Nevada democrat, and house of representatives minority leader Nancy Pelosi, a California democrat. "We have a lot of things to talk about, a lot of things to do," Kerry said. (AGENCIES) Metabolic syndrome linked to dementia in study CHICAGO, Nov 10: A spectrum of heart-stressing symptoms called metabolic syndrome raises the risk of dementia, researchers said. "To our knowledge, this is the first study to document that the metabolic syndrome is associated with poor cognitive outcomes," Dr Kristine Yaffe of the university of California, San Francisco, wrote in this week’s issue of the journal of the American Medical Association yesterday. The American Heart Association defines metabolic syndrome as having three of five risk factors: A top blood pressure reading of more than 130 a blood glucose level of 120 or more that can indicate risk for diabetes high triglyceride levels low levels of high-density lipoprotein, or "good" cholesterol and a large waist. In the study of 2,600 patients averaging 74 years of age, those with metabolic syndrome had a 20 percent higher risk of mental impairment compared with those who did not have it. When the syndrome was accompanied by high levels of interleukin 6 and C-reactive proteins in the bloodstream, which are markers for inflammation in the cardiovascular system, the risk of dementia was 66 percent higher. Study participants who had metabolic syndrome but low levels of the inflammatory proteins did not show an increased likelihood of mental impairment. "Future studies will need to address whether preventing the metabolic syndrome or lowering inflammation prevents cognitive impairment in elderly individuals," Yaffe wrote. (AGENCIES) |
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