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| US troops tackle last rebel redoubt in Falluja FALLUJA, IRAQ, Nov 14: Resistance dwindled in the last rebel redoubt in Falluja today, US officers said, but.....more Rapper
ol’ dirty LOS ANGELES, Nov 14: Rapper ol’ dirty bastard, equally well known for his scrapes with the law and offbeat antics as....more Japan
princess TOKYO, Nov 14: Princess Sayako, the 35-year-old only daughter of the Japanese Emperor, is set to marry a commoner....more Tide of
guns leaves LUSAKA, Nov 14: Mwenya is lucky to be alive after he was blindfolded, bundled into a sack and dumped in a pit by rifle.......more |
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Many Syrians say it’s time to quit Lebanon DAMASCUS, Nov 14: Twenty years ago Ahmed Shukmarra went to Lebanon as one of tens of thousands of Syrian.....more Britain’s
druids AVEBURY, ENGLAND, Nov 14: The druid turned and raised his wooden staff, pointing to the sky......more Japan
minister TOKYO, Nov 14: Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa expressed anger on Sunday at the intrusion into Japanese......more AID convoy
reaches FALLUJA, IRAQ, Nov 14: A red crescent convoy reached Falluja on Saturday with the first aid since US-led forces........more |
US troops tackle last rebel redoubt in Falluja FALLUJA, IRAQ, Nov 14: Resistance dwindled in the last rebel redoubt in Falluja today, US officers said, but explosions still shook the smoke-wreathed city as an Iraqi red crescent convoy waited nearby to distribute relief. "Two days ago they were coming out and fighting us. Last night they were running. It looks like we are about to break their will," Captain Robert Bodisch, a US tank company commander, told . "I don’t think it will be long now." Fighting was focused mainly on the Shuhada district, viewed by US forces as a stronghold for foreign fighters led by Jordanian-al-Qaeda ally Abu-musab-al-Zarqawi. But a reporter with the red crescent convoy at Falluja’s main hospital by the Euphrates river on the western edge of the city said explosions had been sending up plumes of smoke in Central and southern areas since 6 a.m. (0830 ist). Some 10,000 US and 2,000 Iraqi troops began blasting their way into Falluja last Monday and a senior Iraqi official said more than 1,000 had been killed in the offensive. The US military says 22 American and 5 Iraqi troops have also died. Seven red crescent trucks and ambulances reached the hospital on Saturday, but have yet to cross the Euphrates into the main part of the city, where thousands of civilians have been trapped by fighting for the past six days. "Our situation is very hard," said one resident contacted by telephone in the central Hay-al-Dubat neighbourhood. "We don’t have food or water. My seven children all have severe diarrhoea. "One of my sons was wounded by shrapnel last night and he’s bleeding, but I can’t do anything to help him." The man, who gave his name only as Abu Mustafa, said he had seen US troops and Iraqi national guards in his street as explosions rang out. "There were bodies lying in the street." Abu Mustafa said he knew of six families nearby in a similar plight, before breaking down in tears. "We are still fasting, though it is the eid (end of Ramadan feast) today. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar (God is great)," he sobbed. Red crescent Secretary-General Jamal-al-Karbouli said he was still waiting for US permission to enter the city proper. "If we have any hope of entering, we will wait here, even for another night if necessary," he said. "Otherwise we will return to Amriyat-al-Falluja and distribute the goods there." At least 10,000 civilians from Falluja took refuge in nearby towns like Amriya and Habbaniya before the offensive. It is unclear how many of Falluja’s 300,000 people remain, but about half are thought to have fled before the main assault began. There has been no firm word on civilian casualties. US Marine Captain Adam Collier told at the hospital that there still appeared to be quite heavy fighting inside Falluja to "clear pockets of resistance". Iraq’s US-backed interim Government has vowed to crush a widespread insurgency before planned elections in January. US President George W Bush warned that violence could worsen, despite the Falluja operation, before the polls because guerrillas would grow more desperate. "The success of democracy in Iraq would be a crushing blow to the forces of terror, and the terrorists know it," he said on Saturday. The Falluja offensive has fuelled violence across Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland, especially in the northern city of Mosul where an uprising has left gunmen still roaming some districts. The US Commander in the north, Brigadier General Carter Ham, told all nine police stations overrun and burned last week were back in the hands of US Or Iraqi forces. But he said guerrillas had stolen police guns, flak jackets and vehicles, creating new security dangers. "I’m certain the problems are not over yet," Ham added. Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi acknowledged there were troubles in part of Mosul. "Last night, Iraqi police and special forces arrived to Mosul," he told a pool reporter yesterday. "Today more Iraqi armed units will be arriving to Mosul." He said the Falluja fighting would probably end "today or tomorrow", adding there had been "no casualties" among civilians in a "clear-cut victory over the insurgents and the terrorists". Three militant groups, including one led by Zarqawi, vowed in a video to take the fight in Falluja to all corners of Iraq. The Government said Baghdad airport, closed at the start of the Falluja offensive, would remain shut indefinitely, but it reopened two border crossings with Syria and Jordan for the feast marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Rebels attacked a military base outside Baghdad with "indirect fire", killing one soldier serving with US-led multinational forces and wounding three on Saturday evening, the US military said. It gave no details. (AGENCIES) |
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Rapper ol’ dirty bastard dead in New York LOS ANGELES, Nov 14: Rapper ol’ dirty bastard, equally well known for his scrapes with the law and offbeat antics as for his work with rap collective Wu-Tang-Clan, died suddenly in New York yesterday of unknown causes, his record label said. The Rapper, whose real name was Russell Jones, was found in a recording studio complaining of chest pains, a source told . Paramedics were unable to save him. "The world has lost a great talent, but we mourn the loss of our friend," said a statement issued by Roc-a-Fella records. Jones, who was in his mid-30s, fathered 13 children, according to a magazine profile. He was released from prison in 2003 after serving almost three years for drug offenses and probation violation. In 1998 he gained infamy after storming the stage during the Grammy awards to claim that Wu-Tang-Clan had been robbed of the prize for best rap album. Wu-Tang-Clan, which boasted 10 members, was founded in the early 1990s and released several chart-topping albums. (AGENCIES) |
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Japan princess to marry municipal official: Media TOKYO, Nov 14: Princess Sayako, the 35-year-old only daughter of the Japanese Emperor, is set to marry a commoner and leave the imperial family, Japanese media said today. The Princess, known informally as Nori, is engaged to marry a Tokyo local Government official, 39-year-old Yoshiki Kuroda, next spring, the reports said. The couple both graduated from the private Gakushuin university in Tokyo, and share an interest in wildlife, media said. Nori, youngest of three children of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, spends part of her time working at an Ornithology research institute. An official at the imperial household agency said he could not comment on the reports before an official announcement, which has been delayed to late December out of consideration for victims of an earthquake in Niigata. A series of powerful tremors beginning on Oct 23 have killed about 40 people, injured thousands and left many homeless in the region. Reports of the engagement come almost a year after Nori’s sister-in-law, crown Princess Masako, quit her public duties due to fatigue. Court officials later said she was suffering from a mental disorder brought on by the stress of adjusting to palace life. Masako’s husband, Crown Prince Naruhito, 44, is heir to the Chrysanthemum throne. (AGENCIES) |
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Tide of guns leaves Africa awash with misery LUSAKA, Nov 14: Mwenya is lucky to be alive after he was blindfolded, bundled into a sack and dumped in a pit by rifle-toting robbers who stole his car. He is just another African victim of the millions of guns washing across the world’s poorest continent after years of wars that have turned peasants into armed criminals. It was business as usual for Mwenya, a 42-year-old taxi driver in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, when three men wearing sunglasses and leather jackets hired him one balmy evening to drive them to a popular night club. "Business was poor during that evening and I was excited that I at last had some clients when the three men approached me," Mwenya said. To his surprise, one pulled out an AK-47 rifle and pointed it at Mwenya as he drove. "They told me to co-operate if I wished to live. I was frightened, but I obliged," he told . The robbers forced Mwenya to drive to nearby scrubland where they bound his hands and arms, bundled him into a grain sack and hurled him into a ditch. After his ordeal, Mwenya was found the next morning by children from a nearby township going to school. Now he is a number in police crime statistics — which show a harrowing trend of increasing numbers of hijacks, armed robberies and shooting deaths around the region. Zambian police say countless firearms from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Angolan civil wars are being used by criminals in aggravated robbery and murder cases — a pattern replicated across much of southern Africa. Precise statistics are hard to come by. The small arms survey 2003 estimated there were 23 million firearms in civilian hands across sub-Saharan Africa. "Hide and seek", a recent study by the gun free South Africa lobby and south africa’s centre for conflict resolution, found that South Africa had by far the greatest concentration of civilian-registered guns, totalling 3.7 million — equivalent to more than 8 percent of the population. Registered ownership in most other African countries is far lower, but the number of illegal guns is anyone’s guess, and countries like Zambia are particularly badly hit. (AGENCIES) |
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Many Syrians say it’s time to quit Lebanon DAMASCUS, Nov 14: Twenty years ago Ahmed Shukmarra went to Lebanon as one of tens of thousands of Syrian soldiers, believing his presence would help halt a civil war in Syria’s small neighbour. Today he sees no reason why roughly 14,000 soldiers, part of a force first deployed in 1976, should stay in Lebanon, particularly given increasing pressure from Washington and the United Nations for them to withdraw. "We went there to stop Lebanese from fighting but why we are still there ... This I can’t understand," said 43-year-old Shukmarra, who left the army and now owns a clothes shop. The United States has imposed sanctions on Syria, accusing Damascus of supporting "terrorist" organisations, insisting it should stop controlling Lebanon and saying that it must renounce Weapons of Mass Destruction. Many Syrians feel that interference in Lebanon could work against Syria and that it is time to leave Beirut alone. "I have Lebanese relatives, I like Lebanon but not as much as I love Syria," said 23-year-old student Khadijah Neaman. "If staying in Lebanon will harm us then we should leave. It’s a logical thing to do. Whether Syrian troops are there or not we will always be relatives and we will always have a special relationship," she said. In September, the United States and france drafted UN Security Council resolution 1559 condemning foreign interference in Lebanon and calling for foreign forces to withdraw, a call the Council repeated last month. Syria was not mentioned by name in the resolution, but its role as the main power broker in Lebanon has been openly criticised by Security Council members. "I think that until Syria makes up her mind to let Lebanon be Lebanon, then the international community will continue to focus on it," US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said last month. Inside Lebanon itself, many are fiercely critical of the influence Damascus wields over Beirut. (AGENCIES) |
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Britain’s druids enjoy a mystical renaissance AVEBURY, ENGLAND, Nov 14: The druid turned and raised his wooden staff, pointing to the sky. "We call upon the powers of the south, the inner fire of the sun and the island of fire," he cried. "We seek the blessing of the great stag in the heat of the chase. Spirits of the south join us now in this our sacred circle. Hail and welcome." "Hail and welcome," replied the group of Pagans, Druids and witches standing near Europe’s largest stone circle in the small English village of Avebury, 85 miles (140 km) west of London. This was the druid ceremony of Samhuin, the Celtic new year which marks the end of the harvest season. "It’s a time for remembering dead ancestors before the darkness of winter," explained priestess Morgan Adams in Avebury’s red lion pub after the ceremony. She has been a druid for 10 years and works for Britain’s main Druid organisation the order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. The order offers a three year postal course on druid basics and Adams says interest in Paganism and druidry is growing at a faster rate in 21st century Britain than ever before. "People are not finding enough insight with a Christian God," she said. "Christianity is all about having rewards when you are dead, Druids are all about living life fully and reaching out." Druids follow a personal form of philosophy, she explained, a way of getting in touch with earth’s energies. Morgan uses shamanism to communicate with spirits. "I’m not actually a Shaman, though. I’m alive and to be a Shaman you have to walk the space between the living and the dead," she added. Druidry not only appeals to Britain’s Pagans. In 2002 Rowan Williams, shortly before he became the archbishop of Canterbury, the Church of England’s top job, stirred controversy by taking part in a Druid ceremony. (AGENCIES) |
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Japan minister links sub incident and China aid TOKYO, Nov 14: Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa expressed anger on Sunday at the intrusion into Japanese waters of what Tokyo believes was a Chinese submarine and hinted at repercussions on economic aid to China. Nakagawa said on television that he could not help linking the submarine incident with a spat over a Chinese gas field project in a disputed part of the east China sea, and accused Beijing of Wanton violation of Japan’s sovereign rights. "We should not let this incident directly affect the energy issue, but these are two things that China is doing and I cannot but link them," Nakagawa said on a television talk show. He added that Tokyo needed to deal with the issues with determination. Japan concluded on Friday that a nuclear-powered submarine that intruded into its waters off the Okinawa islands, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) southwest of Tokyo, on Wednesday belonged to the Chinese navy and demanded an apology from Beijing. Asked if Japan should end its Official Development Assistance (ODA) to China, whose fast-growing economy is already one of the world’s largest and whose military spending is growing rapidly, Nakagawa stopped barely short of saying "yes". "Even though it’s halved in recent years, it’s still close to 100 billion yen ( 940 million). I don’t know how much better it would be if this could be used to help children and people suffering from illnesses in Africa or southeast Asia," he said. According to foreign ministry data, Japan’s ODA to China totalled 828 million in the 2002 calendar year. The Japanese Government is due to compile by late December a draft budget for the 2005/06 fiscal year, which starts next April, and Nakagawa said he would discuss the China issue with the Foreign Ministry and seek the most efficient use of aid money. "Our ODA programme should be one that truly assists the development of developing countries," he said. (AGENCIES) |
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AID convoy reaches Falluja, gunmen stay in Mosul FALLUJA, IRAQ, Nov 14: A red crescent convoy reached Falluja on Saturday with the first aid since US-led forces began blasting their way in five days ago, and US and Iraqi officials said only pockets of rebel resistance remained. The offensive on Falluja has fuelled violence across Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland, especially in the northern city of Mosul where guerrillas fought on and kept control of some districts. The US-backed interim Government, which has vowed to crush a widespread insurgency before planned nationwide elections in January, said Baghdad’s international airport — initially closed on Monday for 48 hours — would remain shut indefinitely. "Conditions in falluja are catastrophic," said Iraqi red crescent spokeswoman Firdoos-al-Abadi, whose organisation says there are severe shortages of food and medicine in the city. Abadi said the red crescent’s five trucks and three ambulances had arrived at the main hospital on the western edge of Falluja, some 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad. It is unclear how many of Falluja’s 300,000 people remain in the city, but about half are believed to have fled before the ground assault began on Monday. There has also been no firm word on civilian casualties. National Security Minister of State Kasim Daoud said more than 1,000 guerrillas had been killed in Falluja, which the interim Government and Washington say has been a base for Saddam Hussein supporters and foreign Islamic fighters. "The operations are almost over. There are only pockets of resistance left," Daoud told a news conference, adding that around 200 guerrillas had been captured. "The coalition and Iraqi forces have completed the move, for all practical purposes, from the north down to the south (in Falluja)," said US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "I don’t mean to suggest that it’s concluded. It’s not, for sure," Rumsfeld told reporters during a visit to Panama. US Major Clark Watson said American forces expected to overcome the rebels in their last main redoubt, the Shuhada area in the south of the city, within 72 hours but were facing tough resistance from Syrian, Chechen and other foreign fighters. Islamist groups, including one led by Al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab-al-Zarqawi, vowed in a video to take their fight in Falluja to all corners of Iraq. No independent verification of the tape’s authenticity was immediately available. (AGENCIES) Caparo group acquires five European steel companies LONDON, Nov 14: Lord Swraj Paul’s Caparo group today announced acquisition of five European steel companies with a combined annual sales turnover of approximately 135 million pounds (Rs 1090 crore) for an undisclosed sum. The acquisitions, which will increase the group’s turnover by 25 per cent, include Britain’s leading manufacturer and distributor of precision steel tubing and assemblies, tyco tube, which employs over 800 people and which has sales of approximately 83 million pounds last year. It has eight factories in west Midland region. Another new addition to the steel empire founded by the Labour Peer in 1968 is Tyco strip, a leading international supplier of specialised cold-rolled steel strips which are sold in more than 40 countries worldwide. The company had sales of approximately 36 million pounds last year and employs 400 people. Caparo did not disclose the cost of the acquisitions as it is a privately held group controlled by the Paul family. The group’s steel manufacturing factories are located in UK, USA, Canada, Spain and India, where it has set up several plants in the last two years. (PTI) |
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