6.5 magnitude earthquake hits Philippines

6.5 magnitude earthquake hits Philippines

6.5 magnitude earthquake hits Philippines

Posted: 24 Jul 2010 12:39 AM PDT

WASHINGTON — A 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck the Philippines today. 83 miles south southwest of Cotabato, Mindanao, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It initially put the quake's strength at 6.7 and then revised it downward to 6.5. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a destructive tsunami was not generated, "based on earthquake and ...


Nigerian city on alert for Taliban uprising anniversary

Posted: 24 Jul 2010 12:01 AM PDT

MAIDUGURI, Saturday 24 July 2010 (AFP) -- Police searched for weapons and residents were on edge here Saturday ahead of the one-year anniversary of a deadly uprising by the Nigerian Taliban, with fears it would strike again.

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6.5 magnitude earthquake hits Philippines - USGS

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 11:30 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck the Philippines on Saturday. 83 miles (134 km) south southwest of Cotabato, Mindanao, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.


US missile strike kills 11 militants in Pakistan

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 01:50 PM PDT

PESHAWAR: A US drone today fired four missiles into a compound used by Islamist fighters in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt, killing at least 11 militants, security officials said.

The missiles targeted the compound in Dwasarak village, about 40km west of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan district, a senior Pakistani security official who wished to remain anonymous said.

"Two US drones fired four missiles, 11 militants have been killed in this attack," he said.

Two intelligence officials, one in Wana and one based in Peshawar, also confirmed the attack.

South Waziristan, considered a militant stronghold, was the scene of a major Pakistani offensive last year.

Dwasarak is close to the Afghan border in Angoor Adda area of South Waziristan. Officials said militants belonging to local commander Maulana Halimullah were killed in the attack, the second time that US drones have targeted his men.

On June 29, a compound in Karikot village, about 10km southwest of Wana, belonging to Halimullah was destroyed in a drone attack which killed six militants.

More recently, at least 10 militants were killed in a drone strike on July 15 in neighbouring North Waziristan district.

Washington has branded the rugged tribal area on the Afghan border a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth.

Nearly 1,000 people have been killed in more than 100 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, including a number of senior militants. However the attacks fuel anti-American sentiment in the conservative Muslim country.

Tribal terrain

The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy pilotless drones in the region.

Militants based in the rugged tribal terrain attack US-led forces across the border in Afghanistan, where the Afghan Taliban are waging a nearly nine-year insurgency to evict the estimated 140,000 foreign troops.

On June 1, Al-Qaeda said its number three leader and Osama bin Laden's one-time treasurer Mustafa Abu al-Yazid had been killed in what security officials said was an apparent drone strike in North Waziristan.

Waziristan came under renewed scrutiny when Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American charged over an attempted bombing in New York on May 1, allegedly told US interrogators he went there for bomb training.

The United States has been increasing pressure on Pakistan to crack down on Islamist havens along the Afghan border.

Pakistani commanders have not ruled out an offensive in North Waziristan, but argue that gains in South Waziristan and the northwestern district of Swat need to be consolidated to prevent their troops from being stretched too thin.

- AFP

BP spill work on hold as storm enters Gulf

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 10:48 PM PDT

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The approach of a major storm on Saturday forced BP Plc to halt efforts to permanently plug its gushing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and the system could regain strength after it weakened on Friday.


US says Chavez break with Colombia is "petulant"

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 10:48 PM PDT

CARACAS (Reuters) - The United States on Friday criticized Venezuela's breaking of ties with U.S. ally Colombia as "petulant" and urged President Hugo Chavez to address charges by Bogota of Colombian rebels sheltering in Venezuela.


Brazil's Rousseff widens lead in election - poll

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 10:48 PM PDT

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's ruling party candidate Dilma Rousseff has widened her lead in October's presidential race over opposition candidate Jose Serra, a poll showed on Friday.


Selangor BN Youth to send memo to Sultan on water, sand mining

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 09:47 PM PDT

Selangor Barisan Nasional (BN) Youth will send a memorandum to the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah,on Thursday on the sand and water issues in the state.

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Mass grave discovered in Mexico

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 08:32 PM PDT

Soldiers find at least 21 bodies in a mass grave in part of northern Mexico at the centre of a violent battle between drug gangs.


Chavez says U.S., Colombia seek pretext for "invasion"

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 10:18 PM PDT

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday dismissed Colombian charges that he harboured leftist Colombian rebels as "a hoax" and pretext for a possible U.S.-backed invasion of his oil-producing country.


Botswana opens path for Bushmen to study at university

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 01:10 PM PDT

By Refentse Tessa

FEATURE GABORONE: Growing up in a dusty hunter-gatherer village in Botswana's Kalahari game reserve, Bihela Sekere never even knew what a university was, much less thought of becoming a graduate.

His childhood was spent in one of Africa's most marginalised communities, among the San Bushmen who were southern Africa's first inhabitants but have faced centuries of exclusion and discrimination.

"It was never easy growing up as a San child, especially those who wanted to go school because the nearest school was kilometres away," the 28-year-old said.

But Sekere is about to finish his master's degree in development studies through the new Research Centre for San Studies, which was launched earlier this year.

"I am happy that I can now address people as a learned San youth," he said.

The centre is housed at the University of Botswana and is meant to formalise local studies of San culture, which currently were based mainly at overseas universities.

The San have been locked in a long legal battle with the government of Botswana over their right to live in the game preserve, which the government says was a voluntary effort to turn the hunter-gatherers into settled farmers.

The relocations were needed to provide the San with schools and other public services, according to the government. Critics accused authorities of clearing the land for tourism and diamond mining projects.

Sekere was among the communities that say they were forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands, an argument that Botswana's courts agreed with in a landmark 2006 ruling that allowed the San to return to the game reserve.

They are now locked in a new legal battle over water rights, a contentious issue for people living on the fringes of the Kalahari desert.

For Kuela Kiema, a San author who wrote about the evictions in his book "Tears for my Land", the research centre is somewhat a consolation for their suffering.

"At least the government has finally realised that we are part of Botswana and that we deserve better. We may still be having issues with the government but at least they have done something for our benefit," he said.

The centre's acting director Maitseo Bolaane the goal is to become the leading research centre for San studies while helping more San youth access higher education.

Norway has funded the centre's start-up with a US$1.9 million (RM6.1 million) grant, which provides scholarships to San students to study either at the University of Botswana or overseas.

"We hope to get other financiers so that we can be able to assist more San youth who wish to pursue their studies," said Bolaane, adding that about 10 youth are already going through the programme.

Few San children go to university for the simple reason that they struggle to receive decent, basic education.

"Their environment is different because thy have to walk long kilometres to their nearest schools, a thing which negatively impacts on their performance," she said.

About 100,000 Bushmen remain spread across Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. In all three countries they struggle to protect their ancestral lands, while coping with 21st century curses of unemployment, poverty, alcohol abuse and AIDS.

Sekere said he hoped the centre would help make higher education possible for more people in his community.

"It is my wish that more San youth would benefit from this centre. We have been undermined for a long time and it's high time we started making a positive mark in this country," Sekere said.

- AFP

Judge rules Conrad Black must stay in US for now

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 01:07 PM PDT

By Dan Dorfman

CHICAGO: Disgraced media mogul Conrad Black must remain in the United States after his release on a US$2-million (RM6.4-million) bond until he provides more details of his financial assets, a judge ruled yesterday.

US District Judge Amy St Eve said Black would not be allowed to leave the country until he provided a fuller accounting of his financial assets.

"I want more certainty on this," she told Black, who appeared in court sporting a blue blazer and a salmon-pink tie. "I need more information to make a fully informed decision."

Black wants to return to Canada, where he was born, but St Eve said he would have to remain in the United States for now, and scheduled an Aug 16 hearing for him to provide additional financial details.

The 65-year-old has served more than two years of a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence. He is appealing his fraud conviction on the basis of a Supreme Court ruling in his favour last month.

He said little during the 18-minute hearing, leaning in to confer with his lawyer at times as spectators looked on in the packed courtroom.

His attorney, Miguel Estrada, told the judge that Black preferred to return to Toronto during the summer instead of staying at his Florida home.

"There are some health issues with Mrs Black that make it unsuitable for the summer period," Estrada said. "So the only abode he has possible is in Toronto."

Favourite tool

Black and his wife, Barbara Amiel, left the court hand in hand. His only comment to reporters, when asked how he was doing, was "tres bien" in French ("very well").

Black once ran the world's third largest media empire with such titles as Britain's Daily Telegraph and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Flamboyant in lifestyle and brutal in business, he counted politicians and popstars among his entourage as he built a towering newspaper empire.

But he was forced to quit as head of the Hollinger holding company when he was charged with siphoning off millions of dollars from the firm, notably when it began divesting its Canadian and US publications in 2000.

Black and his associates were convicted of stealing US$3.5 million by awarding themselves tax-free bonuses from the newspaper sell-offs, without the approval of Hollinger's board. They were accused of skimming off some US$60 million in all between 1999 and 2001.

But the US Supreme Court ruled last month that a 1998 law that allowed corporate bosses to be prosecuted for depriving shareholders of "honest services" had been too broadly interpreted.

The clause was a favourite tool for white-collar crime prosecutors precisely because of its broad language, but the highest court in the land ruled it could only be narrowly applied to cases involving bribery or kickbacks.

- AFP

US sides with Colombia in escalating row with Venezuela

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 01:05 PM PDT

By Nina Negron

BOGOTA: The United States threw its support behind key ally Colombia yesterday in a row with Venezuela that has seen the South American neighbours break ties amid escalating military tensions.

Colombia's allegations that Venezuela was harbouring 1,500 Colombian rebels in camps on its territory -- the trigger for the dispute -- "need to be taken very seriously", the US State Department said.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington, however, that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's decision on Thursday to sever all diplomatic relations with Colombia and put border troops on alert was "a petulant response".

Venezuelan Attorney-General Luisa Ortega said soldiers were being mobilised to border towns to boost security. And Defence Minister Carlos Mata said that, while the frontier was currently calm, the army was ready to "give a robust response" if Colombian forces attacked.

Fear the confrontation could spill over into military action galvanised other countries in the region.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was to make an Aug 6 trip to Venezuela to try to defuse the situation with Chavez, his office said.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said he was seeking a meeting of leaders from the Unasur regional bloc to help resolve the row.

Long-simmering tensions

UN chief Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, urged both sides to avoid further escalation.

The row revived long-simmering tensions between Colombia, the biggest US military ally in the region, and Venezuela, a friend of Cuba that has used its oil wealth to accumulate an arsenal of modern Russian warplanes and weaponry.

The two countries almost went to war in 2008 over a raid Colombia made into Ecuador to destroy a rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) camp.

Last year, Chavez froze ties with Colombia after Bogota agreed to give the US military access to seven of its bases to fight cocaine production and trafficking -- activities in which Colombian rebels are deeply involved.

Colombia now claims Venezuela is serving as a rear base for insurgents from the FARC and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN).

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe -- who hands over the reins of power to his former defense minister early next month -- launched the allegation last week.

On Thursday, his envoy to the Organization of American States (OAS) produced photos, videos, coordinates and satellite maps he said proved rebels were operating out of more than 80 camps in Venezuela.

Putative camps

Chavez, denying the allegations, said his army pursued any Colombian insurgents in Venezuela. He accused Uribe of using the putative camps as a pretext "to attack us and cause a war."

The Venezuelan government gave Colombia until the end of the weekend to withdraw its diplomats and close its Caracas embassy.

The United States -- which has funnelled US$8 billion (RM25.6 billion) in military aid to Colombia over the past decade, coincidentally the same period Chavez has been in power -- made it clear it supported Bogota.

"Venezuela has an obligation to Colombia and to the international community to fully investigate this information and move to prevent the use of its sovereign territory by terrorist groups," the State Department said in a statement.

Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said that "if Venezuela fails to cooperate in whatever follow-on steps are made, the United States and other countries will obviously take account of that".

US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Judith Hale is also due to make a four-day trip to Colombia starting tomorrow to boost ties.

- AFP

Online tool to find aliens in US custody

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 01:03 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO: US immigration officials yesterday launched an online tool to help people find illegal aliens who have been placed in US custody.

The Online Detainee Locator System (ODLS) is designed "to assist family members, attorneys and other interested parties in locating detained aliens" being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The search service is available at the ice.gov website.

"The ODLS is an easy, accessible tool that allows family members and counsel to locate an individual in ICE custody in a matter of minutes," said Phyllis Coven, acting director of ICE's office of detention policy and planning.

People can search by alien registration number or by name, birthday, and country of birth to learn where a person is being held, and telephone numbers to the facility as well as the ICE office in the region.

ICE said that the tool is part of a promised effort to modernise and improve operations at the agency, including reform of its detention systems.

- AFP

US sides with Colombia in escalating row with Venezuela

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 01:03 PM PDT

By Nina Negron

BOGOTA: The United States threw its support behind key ally Colombia yesterday in a row with Venezuela that has seen the South American neighbours break ties amid escalating military tensions.

 

Colombia's allegations that Venezuela was harbouring 1,500 Colombian rebels in camps on its territory -- the trigger for the dispute -- "need to be taken very seriously", the US State Department said.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington, however, that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's decision on Thursday to sever all diplomatic relations with Colombia and put border troops on alert was "a petulant response".

Venezuelan Attorney-General Luisa Ortega said soldiers were being mobilised to border towns to boost security. And Defence Minister Carlos Mata said that, while the frontier was currently calm, the army was ready to "give a robust response" if Colombian forces attacked.

Fear the confrontation could spill over into military action galvanised other countries in the region.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was to make an Aug 6 trip to Venezuela to try to defuse the situation with Chavez, his office said.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said he was seeking a meeting of leaders from the Unasur regional bloc to help resolve the row.

Long-simmering tensions

UN chief Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, urged both sides to avoid further escalation.

The row revived long-simmering tensions between Colombia, the biggest US military ally in the region, and Venezuela, a friend of Cuba that has used its oil wealth to accumulate an arsenal of modern Russian warplanes and weaponry.

The two countries almost went to war in 2008 over a raid Colombia made into Ecuador to destroy a rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) camp.

Last year, Chavez froze ties with Colombia after Bogota agreed to give the US military access to seven of its bases to fight cocaine production and trafficking -- activities in which Colombian rebels are deeply involved.

Colombia now claims Venezuela is serving as a rear base for insurgents from the FARC and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN).

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe -- who hands over the reins of power to his former defense minister early next month -- launched the allegation last week.

On Thursday, his envoy to the Organization of American States (OAS) produced photos, videos, coordinates and satellite maps he said proved rebels were operating out of more than 80 camps in Venezuela.

Putative camps

Chavez, denying the allegations, said his army pursued any Colombian insurgents in Venezuela. He accused Uribe of using the putative camps as a pretext "to attack us and cause a war."

The Venezuelan government gave Colombia until the end of the weekend to withdraw its diplomats and close its Caracas embassy.

The United States -- which has funnelled US$8 billion (RM25.6 billion) in military aid to Colombia over the past decade, coincidentally the same period Chavez has been in power -- made it clear it supported Bogota.

"Venezuela has an obligation to Colombia and to the international community to fully investigate this information and move to prevent the use of its sovereign territory by terrorist groups," the State Department said in a statement.

Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said that "if Venezuela fails to cooperate in whatever follow-on steps are made, the United States and other countries will obviously take account of that".

US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Judith Hale is also due to make a four-day trip to Colombia starting tomorrow to boost ties.

- AFP

Irish photographer recalls day he found butcher Duch

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 11:50 AM PDT

By Didier Lauras

BANGKOK: In March 1999 an old man wandered up to an Irish photographer on his day off in a village in Cambodia. It was Duch, the torture chief of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime who many assumed was long dead.

On Monday, the former prison chief, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, will hear the verdict in his trial at a UN-backed court in Phnom Penh on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and premeditated murder.

The story behind the remarkable encounter began in 1989 when Nic Dunlop left Ireland aged 19 for Cambodia, where Khmer Rouge rebels were still waging an insurgency a decade after being routed by invading Vietnamese forces.

"Cambodia was the first place where I realised the world wasn't quite right. What has occurred under the Khmer Rouge was so far beyond my understanding... that ignoring it became impossible," said Dunlop.

He visited Tuol Sleng, or S-21, the Phnom Penh prison that has been transformed into a genocide museum, and saw the walls covered with photographs of the victims' faces. Duch's picture was also there.

"If there was one person that could provide something close to an explanation as to what happened, it would be him," Dunlop said in an interview in Bangkok, where he now lives.

By the late 1990s, Dunlop was on a quest to find the maths teacher turned revolutionary, who is accused of overseeing the execution of some 15,000 prisoners at S-21. Dunlop even carried a photograph of him in his wallet.

He began to ask Khmer Rouge defectors if they recognised Duch, but with no success.

"I was trying to work out whether they were trying to hide something or telling me the truth because he was a terrifying figure by any standard," Dunlop said.

False name

Then one day, during a walk in a village in western Cambodia, he came face to face with Duch, who was working for a Christian aid agency under a false name.

"It was Duch. Immediately I knew it was him," Dunlop recalled. "He was very disarming and friendly. We talked a lot. I tried to ask him questions that would not arouse his suspicion."

For a journalist it was the scoop of a lifetime. Dunlop, worried about what might happen to Duch if his whereabouts became widely known, notified the United Nations in Phnom Penh of his discovery.

He returned to see the former jailer several times in an attempt to learn more about him. Then Dunlop decided to give Duch the chance to defend himself for a magazine article he was writing.

Three times in one day he denied being the chief of Tuol Sleng, before suddenly confessing.

"Suddenly he was talking about running S-21, responsibilities, his remorse, the fact that he felt he'd been betrayed by the communist party because he wanted to be a good communist and not an executioner."

Duch was arrested a few weeks later and has spent more than a decade in prison.

Life sentence

Dunlop has requested interviews with him for his biography, "The Lost Executioner", but Duch indicated he would only talk after the end of the trial.

Initially called to testify at the tribunal, the photographer was later dropped from the list of witnesses, without explanation.

To those who say Monday's verdict might never have come about without him, Dunlop smiles.

"It was just a matter of time before somebody else would discover him. What's strange for me in the end is that he should walk up to me and I should recognise him immediately."

Duch is the first Khmer Rouge cadre to be prosecuted in an international court.

He is also the first to have confessed -- although he also asked to be acquitted and released -- and the tribunal is relying on his testimony in the planned trial of four regime leaders.

"Whatever you make of his confession, contrition, lack of contrition or arrogance, the fact that we had somebody talking about that period of history is very significant," said Dunlop.

Prosecutors have demanded Duch be sentenced to 40 years in prison -- in effect a life sentence for the 67-year-old.

Dunlop does not plan to be in court for the verdict.

"It's not my story. It's the Cambodians' story," he said.

- AFP

N.Korea declares "sacred war" on U.S., South

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 09:46 PM PDT

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday it would begin a "sacred war" against the United States and South Korea at "any time necessary" based on its nuclear deterrent, in response to "reckless" military exercises by the allies.


Philippines' Aquino set for angry 'State of Nation' address

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 09:33 PM PDT

MANILA, Saturday 24 July 2010 (AFP) -- Philippine President Benigno Aquino is set to launch a blistering attack on his predecessor and flesh out an anti-corruption drive when he makes his first "State of the Nation" address on Monday.

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Irish photographer recalls day he found KRouge torturer

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 09:31 PM PDT

BANGKOK, Saturday 24 July 2010 (AFP) -- In March 1999 an old man wandered up to an Irish photographer on his day off in a village in Cambodia. It was Duch, the torture chief of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime who many assumed was long dead.

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Three major quakes rattle Philippines

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 09:27 PM PDT

MANILA, Saturday 24 July 2010 (AFP) -- Three major quakes measuring between magnitude 7.3 and 7.6 hit the southern Philippines early Saturday, seismologists said, but there were no reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued.

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