At least 60 people have died due to freezing conditions caused by a cold snap in eastern and central Europe. The drop in temperatures, forcing some countries to deploy the army and set up emergency shelters, is set to continue to Friday, forecasters say.
At least 30 people – mostly homeless – have died in Ukraine. Deaths have also been reported in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, among others.
Temperatures plunged to -20C (-4F) on Monday.
Health officials in Ukraine say nearly 24,000 people have sought refuge in some 1,590 shelters over the past three days.
More than 600 people have sought treatment for frostbite and hypothermia during this time.
The authorities say they are planning to set up 150 more centres, as heavy snow was forecast in the region on Wednesday.
(BBC)
January 31, 2012 at 10:50 pm
The Afghan government is planning to meet the Taliban in Saudi Arabia in an attempt to jump-start peace talks, the BBC has learned. The landmark meeting will come in the coming weeks, before the establishment of a Taliban office in Qatar, according to Western and Afghan officials.
The Taliban have refused previously to recognise the government of President Hamid Karzai.
They have insisted they would only talk to the US and other Kabul allies.
A senior Afghan government official told the BBC: “Even if the Taliban office is established in Qatar we will obviously pursue other efforts in the region, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey.”
He continued: “Saudi Arabia has played an important role in the past. We value that and look forward to continued support and contact with Saudi Arabia in continuing the peace process.”
The Taliban, contacted by the BBC, refused to comment on the move.
(BBC)
January 29, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is acknowledging publicly for the first time that a Pakistani doctor provided key information to the U.S. in advance of the successful Navy SEAL assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound last May.
Panetta told CBS’s “60 Minutes,” in a profile to be broadcast on Sunday, that Shakil Afridi helped provide intelligence for the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collectDNA and verify bin Laden’s presence in the compound. He has since been charged by Pakistan with treason. Panetta said he is “very concerned” for the doctor.
Panetta also told “60 Minutes” that he remains convinced that someone in the Pakistani government “must have had some sense” that a person of interest was in the compound. He added that he has no proof that Pakistan knew it was bin Laden.
(USA Today)
January 28, 2012 at 11:06 am
The US will cut almost 100,000 troops as part of its plans for a “smaller, leaner” military, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has announced.
Unveiling a restructure of the armed forces, Mr Panetta said the US would boost special forces and retain the ability to defeat “any enemy on land”.
The Pentagon is facing cuts of $487bn (£310bn) over the next 10 years.
In five years, the Army will drop from a peak of 570,000 to 490,000, and the marines be cut by 20,000, to 182,000.
The military’s budget would rise, albeit at a slower rate, to $567bn by 2017.
(BBC)
January 27, 2012 at 7:14 am
Libyan militias are out of control and holding thousands of people in secret detention centres, while the weak interim government struggles to assert its authority, the UN has heard. The Security Council was told recent violence in Tripoli, Bani Walid and Benghazi highlighted the problem.
More than 8,000 pro-Gaddafi supporters are being held by militia groups, amid reports of torture, UN officials said.
Four died in clashes in Bani Walid, a former Gaddafi stronghold, on Monday.
The UN’s Libya envoy, Ian Martin, told the Security Council in New York on Wednesday that those clashes between armed residents of Bani Walid and revolutionaries had been misreported as pro-Gaddafi forces retaking the city.
Nevertheless, he said, it highlighted the challenge of reconciling the former leader’s supporters and the rebels that had defeated them.
(BBC)
January 26, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Michael Jackson’s musical legacy will undoubtedly live on for all future generations. Now a group of scientists are making sure that the King of Pop’s name goes down as in prehistoric significance as well.
A new-found species of ancient hermit crabs was recently named after the singer, not because it had a particularly unusual Moondance-like walking style, but because it was discovered on the day that he died.
There is now a type of crab named Mesoparapylocheles michaeljacksoni, insuring that the singer will not just be examined for his dance moves.
The now-famous crab was discovered by a group of international scientists on June 25, 2009- the day when Jackson died.
The team were celebrating their find in a restaurant in Alsasua, Spain when they saw news of his passing on a nearby television. ’Michael Jackson’s music will no doubt live a very long time and influence many people so I think the name is appropriate,’ said Adiel Klompmaker, one of the scientists involved in the discovery.
(Daily Mail)
January 25, 2012 at 9:16 am
Indonesia issued a tsunami warning on Wednesday after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off northern Sumatra.
The quake was 420 km (260 miles) southwest of Banda Aceh, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Indonesia’s meterological and geophysics agency, which said the quake was 7.6 magnitude on the Richter scale, routinely issues tsunami warnings for quakes over 7 magnitude.
Local people in Banda Aceh ran away in panic from buildings after news of the quake, a witness said.
(Reuters)
January 11, 2012 at 12:55 am
The International Criminal Court says Libya has not responded to a request for information about the health and status of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi before a deadline which expires on Tuesday. The former Libyan leader’s son was captured in southern Libya in November.
The ICC, based in in The Hague, has indicted him for crimes against humanity and wants to know officially whether Libya plans to hand him over.
It could refer Libya to the UN Security Council if it does not respond.
(BBC)
January 10, 2012 at 8:54 am
At least 25 people have been killed and about 100 more are missing after a landslide struck a mining village in the southern Philippines. The landslide occurred at about 3:00 a.m. on Thursday morning (19:00 GMT, Wednesday) in Pantukan, Compostela Valley province, on Mindanao island.
Civil defence chief Benito Ramos told the BBC it had been triggered by “continuous rain” over two days.
A nearby village was also hit by a landslide last year that left 14 dead.
(BBC)
January 5, 2012 at 10:56 am
The Korean peninsula is at a “turning point” and there are opportunities for change, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said in a new year speech. He said Seoul would “respond strongly” if provoked by North Korea, with whom it remains technically at war.
But he said that the biggest goal was stability, and that aid-for-disarmament talks could resume if Pyongyang halted its nuclear activities.
On Sunday North Korea told citizens to defend leader Kim Jong-un to the death.
Kim Jong-un has succeeded his father, Kim Jong-il, who died on 17 December at the age of 69.
On Friday, the country’s powerful National Defence Commission warned the outside world to expect no change from the new leadership.
(BBC)
January 2, 2012 at 9:10 am
‘Thane,’ the very severe cyclonic storm that crossed Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Friday, claimed 33 lives, and left behind a trail of destruction and human suffering.
Throwing life off course, the storm, which passed the coast north of Cuddalore at 6.30 a.m. at a speed of more than 125 km an hour, uprooted trees and electric posts, disrupted power supply and transport services and damaged homes and standing crops.
Twenty-six people were killed in Tamil Nadu and seven in Puducherry. Besides, hundreds were rendered homeless and forced into relief camps set up by the governments.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa released Rs. 150 crore towards immediate relief works.
While 21 persons died in Cuddalore district, two persons lost their lives in the neighbouring Villupuram district. One person each in Tiruvallur and Chennai were among the dead as strong wind and heavy rain lashed the coastal areas.
Ms. Jayalalithaa announced a solatium of Rs. 2 lakh each to the families of the victims. Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy said he had briefed Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on the situation.
Around 6,000 persons in Cuddalore, Villupuram, Nagapattinam, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts and Chennai and low-level areas were shifted to shelters.
Fifteen fishermen who put out to sea in Thanjavur and Pudukottai districts were reported missing. The samba crop grown on 1,700 hectares in Thanjavur district and 2,000 hectares in Tiruvarur district suffered damage.
(The Hindu)
December 31, 2011 at 8:07 am
Pope Benedict XVI has attacked the commercialisation of Christmas as he held the traditional Christmas Eve Mass at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In his homily, he urged worshippers to “see through the superficial glitter of this season and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem”.
Benedict, 84, used a moving platform to cater for his mobility issues.
The pontiff will deliver his annual Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World) speech in a few hours.
Meanwhile, Christian pilgrims and tourists from around the world last night converged on Bethlehem for Christmas.
Celebrations culminated in Midnight Mass at the 1,700-year-old Church of the Nativity, built on the spot where it is believed Jesus was born.
About 120,000 visitors were in the Palestinian West Bank town, 30% up on last year, officials said.
(BBC)
December 25, 2011 at 8:00 am
Cuba says it will release 2,900 prisoners, including some convicted of political crimes, in the next few days. President Raul Castro said the move was a goodwill gesture after receiving numerous requests by relatives and religious institutions.
But US national Alan Gross, who is serving 15 years for crimes against the state, is not among those to be freed.
On the separate issue of foreign travel for Cubans, President Castro said it was too early to lift restrictions.
The president told the National Assembly that those who urged a lifting of travel restrictions “are forgetting the exceptional circumstances under which Cuba lives, encircled by the hostile policy… of the US government”
(BBC)
December 24, 2011 at 8:54 am
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has urged the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq to hand over fugitive Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi. An arrest warrant was issued for Iraq’s most senior Sunni Arab politician on Monday on terrorism charges.
Mr Hashemi denies the charges and his entire political bloc is boycotting parliament and the cabinet.
Tensions between Sunnis and the Shia Arab majority appear to be coming to a head, a BBC correspondent says.
Mr Hashemi is currently in Irbil, under the protection of the Kurdistan regional government. The warrant was issued a day after US troops pulled out of Iraq.
(BBC)
December 22, 2011 at 6:05 am
North Koreans are in mourning after the death of their leader, Kim Jong-il. People wept openly on the streets of the capital, Pyongyang. State media said he had suffered a heart attack on Saturday, aged 69. He had been unwell.
The official news agency KCNA described one of his sons, Kim Jong-un, as the “great successor” whom North Koreans should unite behind.
Mr Kim’s death was announced in an emotional statement on national television.
The announcer, wearing black, struggled to keep back the tears as she said he had died of physical and mental over-work.
KCNA later reported that he had died of a “severe myocardial infarction along with a heart attack” at 08:30 local time on Saturday (23:30 GMT Friday).
He had been on a train at the time, for one of his “field guidance” tours, KCNA said.
The state news agency said a funeral would be held in Pyongyang on 28 December and Kim Jong-un would head the funeral committee. A period of national mourning has been declared from 17 to 29 December.
(BBC)
December 19, 2011 at 11:14 am
Flash floods sparked by a tropical storm in the southern Philippines have killed more than 200 people and left hundreds missing, officials say. Many of the victims were asleep when it struck Mindanao island, killing many in Iligan City and Cagayan de Oro.
Tens of thousands of people have fled to higher ground, the authorities say. Benito Ramos, head of the national disaster rescue agency, said reports were still coming in and the casualty figures could rise.
Mr Ramos said the floodwaters had risen alarmingly fast overnight as people slept.
(BBC)
December 17, 2011 at 11:57 am
The U.S. military officially ended its war in Iraq on Thursday, rolling up its flag at a low-key ceremony with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta nearly nine bloody years after the invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
“After a lot of blood spilled by Iraqis and Americans, the mission of an Iraq that could govern and secure itself has become real,” Panetta said at the ceremony outside Baghdad’s still heavily-fortified airport.
Almost 4,500 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis lost their lives in the war that began with a “Shock and Awe” campaign of missiles pounding Baghdad, but descended into sectarian strife and a surge in U.S. troop numbers.
U.S. soldiers rolled up the flag of American forces in Iraq and slipped it into a camouflage-colored sleeve in a brief, symbolically ending the most unpopular U.S. military venture since the Vietnam War of the 1960s and 70s.
The remaining 4,000 American troops will withdraw by the end of the year, leaving behind a country still tackling a weakened but stubborn Islamist insurgency, sectarian tensions and political uncertainty.
“Iraq will be tested in the days ahead, by terrorism, by those who would seek to divide, by economic and social issues,” Panetta told the rows of assembled U.S. soldiers and embassy officials at the ceremony. “Challenges remain, but the United States will be there to stand by the Iraqi people.”
Saddam is dead, executed in 2006, while an uneasy politics is at work and the violence has ebbed. But Iraq still struggles with insurgents, a fragile power-sharing government and an oil-reliant economy plagued by power shortages and corruption.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who made an election promise to bring troops home, told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that Washington will remain a loyal partner after the last troops roll across the Kuwaiti border.
(Reuters)
December 15, 2011 at 8:45 pm
