Friday, November 25, 2011

Violence Breaks Out in Yemeni Capital

A man carries a wounded protester during clashes in Sana'a, Yemen,  Nov. 24, 2011.
A man carries a wounded protester during clashes in Sana'a, Yemen, Nov. 24, 2011.


At least five protesters were killed and scores of others wounded Thursday in the Yemeni capital Sana'a after gunmen in civilian clothes opened fire on them. Violence broke out despite the signing Wednesday, by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, of a plan to hand over power and hold new elections in three months.




Witnesses say gunmen in tribal attire opened fire on the crowd of mostly young protesters Thursday after they began marching from their main encampment at what is now called “Change Square.”

Arab satellite channels said the shootings took place as the protesters began marching in the direction of the presidential palace. Journalist Tom Finn also tweeted that “thousands of angry men marched out of Change Square.....saying they're heading for the palace.”

Al Arabiya TV showed video of the bodies of five dead protesters, along with images of ambulances ferrying wounded protesters to hospitals.

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who signed a Gulf Cooperation Council plan Wednesday to transfer power to his vice president along with new presidential elections in three months, condemned the killings and ordered an investigation into what happened.

"The government wants people to feel that if Saleh leaves everything will turn chaotic," said
Hakim Almasmari, who is Editor-in-Chief of the Yemen Post newspaper.  He insists that supporters of President Saleh are behind the shootings.

"Most of the protesters today blamed the ruling family for the attacks and eyewitnesses said that they saw gunmen escape the scene of the attacks in government vehicles," he said.










Kamal Ganzouri Appointed Egypt's New PM

Egyptian Army soldiers stand guard atop a concrete block barricade on the street between Tahrir Square and the interior ministry in Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 24, 2011
 Egyptian Army soldiers stand guard atop a concrete block barricade on the street between Tahrir Square and the interior ministry in Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 24, 2011
 

Egyptian media said Thursday the country's military rulers have appointed former Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri to form a new government after the previous civilian Cabinet of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf resigned.

State newspaper Al Ahram said on its website that Ganzouri agreed in principle to lead a national salvation government after meeting with the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

The council also insisted that parliamentary elections will go ahead as planned Monday, despite escalating violence that has left at least 35 people dead.  After days of excusing the violent crackdown on demonstrators, the council reversed course Thursday and apologized for the deaths.
Meanwhile, thousands of Egyptian protesters and police observed a fragile truce Thursday, but the crowd remained in Cairo's Tahrir Square to press ahead with demands for the immediate resignation of the military leaders.
Watch a Related Report by Elizabeth Arrott

 Major General Mukhtar el-Mallah, of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said the move would amount to a "betrayal" of trust.  " We [Military Council] will not leave the power according to some demands and empty slogans.  If l leave power now, I would be a traitor of the people and history and it would be written in the history that the Military Council abandoned and betrayed its people," he said.

Protest organizers said they would hold another mass demonstration on Friday
In another development, an Egyptian court has ordered the release of three American students arrested during a protest in Cairo earlier this week.

Egyptian media said the Americans, who were students at the American University in Cairo, were detained along with other protesters while throwing petrol bombs at police

4th ASEAN-UN Summit in Bali will discuss enhancing cooperation between the two parties

Nusa Dua, ASEAN Community-The 4th ASEAN-United Nations (UN) Summit will be convened in Bali, Indonesia on 19 November 2011. The Summit will be co-chaired by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, H.E. Dr. H. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as Chair of ASEAN, and H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Summit will be attended by the Heads of State/Government of the ASEAN Member States and the Secretary General of ASEAN.
The Summit will be discussing on efforts to enhance partnership between ASEAN and the United Nations, including UN assistance to ASEAN in the implementation of the MDGs; collaboration through exchanges of best practices and capacity building initiatives aimed at enhancing the promotion and protection of human rights; exchange of experiences and best practices through a series of ASEAN-UN seminars, workshops and trainings on issues such as preventive diplomacy, conflict resolution, peace-keeping and peace-building; maritime security and anti piracy, preparation and implementation of the ASEAN-UN Strategic Plan of Action on Disaster Management 2011 – 2015.
Other topics to be discussed at the Summit will also include economic and financial issues and other international and regional issues of common concerns. The ASEAN-UN Summit is expected to adopt Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Partnership between ASEAN and the UN and issue a Co-Chair Statement on the 4th ASEAN-UN Summit









6th East Asia Summit expected to adopt Bali Principle and Connectivity

Nusa Dua, ASEAN Community-The 6th East Asia Summit (EAS) will be convened in Bali, Indonesia on 19 November 2011. The Summit will be chaired by H.E. Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic of Indonesia, as Chair of ASEAN and attended by Heads of State/Government of ASEAN Member States, Australia, China, India, Japan, ROK, and the USA. Besides, the Summit will also be attended by the Foreign Ministers of New Zealand and the Russian Federation to represent their respective leaders. The Secretary General of ASEAN will also be present at the Summit.
 The 6th East Asia Summit (EAS) will consist of two sessions: plenary and retreat, and will discuss on various broad and strategic issues of common concern at the regional and international levels, with the view to promote and maintain peace and stability in the region. Furthermore, the Summit is expected to discuss on ways to enhance and strengthen the cooperation within five priority areas of the EAS namely finance, energy, education, communicable diseases, and disaster management.
At the Summit, the Leaders are expected to adopt two declarations as the outcome documents of 6th East Asia Summit (EAS), namely (1) Declaration of the EAS on the Principles for Mutually Beneficial Relations, and (2) Declaration of the 6th East Asia Summit on ASEAN Connectivity. The first Declaration contains basic norms and common principles taken from various previous basic documents including the UN Charter, TAC and other arrangements among EAS participating countries, which will serve as guidance for the conduct of EAS participating countries towards promoting and maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the region.
The second Declaration includes connectivity as one of key area of cooperation of the East Asia Summit besides the existing five priorities. This Declaration will inter alia support and facilitate further cooperation between ASEAN and the other EAS participating countries in the Connectivity initiative, development of a regional public-private partnership (PPP) development agenda and promote greater engagement and cooperation in people-to-people connectivity.









Monday, October 31, 2011

Suicide Bombing of NATO convoy kills 18










Afghanistan (AP) – A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into an armored NATO bus Saturday on a busy thoroughfare in Kabul, killing 17 people, including a dozen Americans, in the deadliest strike against the U.S.-led coalition in the Afghan capital since the war began.
The blast occurred on the same day that a man wearing an Afghan army uniform killed three Australian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter in the south — attacks that show the resiliency of the insurgency and are likely to raise new doubts about the unpopular 10-year-old war and the Western strategy of trying to talk peace with the Taliban.
A spokesman for the fundamentalist Islamic movement, which was ousted in the 2001 invasion for its affiliation with al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, saying the bomber had used 1,540 pounds of explosives.
The Taliban and related groups have staged more than a dozen major attacks in Kabul this year, including seven since June, in an apparent campaign to weaken confidence in the Afghan government as it prepares to take over its own security ahead of a 2014 deadline for the U.S. and other NATO countries to withdraw their troops or move them into support roles.
Underscoring the difficulties ahead, the brazen assault occurred just hours after top Afghan and Western officials met in the heart of Kabul to discuss the second phase of shifting security responsibilities to Afghan forces in all or part of 17 of the country's 34 provinces. Afghans already have the lead in the Afghan capital.
Heavy black smoke poured from the burning wreckage of an armored personnel carrier, known as a Rhino, in Kabul after the bomber struck. The bus had been sandwiched in the middle of a convoy of mine-resistant military vehicles when it was hit along a four-lane highway often used by foreign military trainers in the southwestern part of Kabul.
The landmark Darulaman Palace, the bombed-out seat of former Afghan kings, was the backdrop to the chaotic scene: Shrapnel, twisted pieces of metal and charred human remains littered the street.
U.S. soldiers wept as they pulled bodies from the debris, said Noor Ahmad, a witness at the scene. One coalition soldier was choking inside the burned bus, he said.
"The bottom half of his body was burned," Ahmad said.
NATO said five of its service members and eight civilian contractors working for the coalition died in the attack.
A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to release the information before a formal announcement, said all 13 were Americans. However, Lt. Col. Christian Lemay, a Canadian defense spokesman, told the Associated Press that one Canadian soldier was among the troops killed. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.
It was the deadliest single attack against the U.S.-led coalition across the country since the Taliban shot down a NATO helicopter on Aug. 6 in an eastern Afghan province, killing 30 U.S. troops, most elite Navy SEALs, and eight Afghans.
The Afghan Ministry of Interior said four Afghans, including two children, also died in Saturday's attack. Eight other Afghans, including two children, were wounded, said Kabir Amiri, head of Kabul hospitals.
In all, there were three attacks Saturday against NATO and Afghan forces across the country.
A teenage girl also blew herself up as she tried to attack an Afghan intelligence office in the capital of Kunar province, a hotbed of militancy in northeast Afghanistan along the Pakistan border, the coalition said. Abdul Sabor Allayar, deputy provincial police chief, said the guards outside the government's intelligence office in Asad Abad became suspicious and started shooting, at which point the bomber detonated her explosives, killing herself and wounding several intelligence employees.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi said officials were investigating whether the man who opened fire on a joint NATO-Afghan base in the restive southern Uruzgan province was an actual soldier or a militant in disguise.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp. said the attack occurred during a morning parade at a forward patrol base in southern Kandahar province, and the gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform was later killed. The discrepancy in the location of the attack could not immediately be clarified.
In Canberra, the Defense Department said three Australlian soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were killed in the attack, and seven Australian soldiers were wounded.
"It's a huge loss," said U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. "Our deepest sympathies go out to their comrades and families, but it will not deter us from our mission. It's a shock, but we will not let these guys win."
Just a day earlier, the Pentagon issued a progress report saying that the number of enemy-initiated attacks in Afghanistan was trending downward. Since May of this year, the monthly number of these attacks has been lower than the same month in 2010, something not seen since 2007, it said.
However, the Pentagon also noted that the insurgency's safe havens in Pakistan and the limited capacity of the Afghan government could jeopardize efforts to turn security gains on the battlefield, primarily in the south, into long-term stability in Afghanistan.
Saturday's attack broke a relative lull in the Afghan capital, which has experienced a number of attacks in recent years that are often blamed on the Haqqani network, an al-Qaida and Taliban-linked movement that operates out of Pakistan.
The most recent attack in Kabul was the Sept. 20 assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani by an insurgent who detonated a bomb hidden in his turban. The attacker was posing as a peace emissary coming to meet Rabbani, who was leading a government effort to broker peace with the Taliban.
That occurred about a week after teams of insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons struck at the U.S. Embassy, NATO headquarters and other buildings in the heart of Afghanistan's capital, leaving seven Afghans dead.
On Saturday, NATO and Afghan forces sealed off the blast area as fire trucks and ambulances, sirens blaring, rushed in. Coalition troops carried a badly burned body on a stretcher and several black body bags to two NATO helicopters that landed nearby to airlift casualties from the scene.
The Taliban identified the bomber as Abdul Rahman and said he was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV containing 1,540 pounds (700 kilograms) of explosives and targeting foreigners providing training for Afghan police. The Taliban, who frequently exaggerate casualty claims, said that 25 people were killed by the blast.
A similar attack occurred on the same road in May 2010 when a suicide bomber struck a NATO convoy, killing 18 people. Among the dead were five U.S. soldiers and a Canadian colonel.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid42806360001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAABvaL8JE~,ufBHq_I6FnzBUSGLmd_ayLQM0b50i830&bctid=1248543433001

Flood-wary Bangkok is contrast of misery, normalcy

On one side of Bangkok, you'll find the victims of Thailand's worst flooding in half a century. They float down trash-strewn waterways, paddling washtubs with wicker brooms over submerged neighborhoods.
Just a few miles (kilometers) away, you'll find something else entirely: well-heeled shoppers perusing bustling malls decorated with newly hung Halloween decorations and couples sipping espresso in the air-conditioned comfort of ultrachic cafes.


Although catastrophic flooding has devastated a third of this Southeast Asian nation and submerged some of the capital's northernmost districts, life is going on for the majority of this sprawling metropolis of 9 million people.
The desperate images of disaster contrast sharply with scenes of total normality -- from night-owls drinking cocktails in red-light districts to tourists enjoying relaxing foot massages in faux-leather chairs downtown.
An exodus of thousands of Bangkok residents to nearby resorts and a government-ordered five-day holiday have left the notoriously congested city unusually easy to maneuver by taxi and three-wheeled tuk-tuk.
"It's better, in a way," Nicole Attwater of Sydney said Sunday, adding that she was happy to brave some flooding to see the Grand Palace, the gold-studded former seat of the Thai monarchy, with far lighter crowds than normal on a sunny weekend morning.
"It's a good time to come, because it's quiet," she said.
Most of Bangkok is dry, with little to indicate that anything is wrong -- except for the ominous walls of sandbags stacked around hotels and homes, and the apocalyptic predictions of everyone from expatriate bloggers to some members of the Thai government.
Yet, the threat of floodwaters sweeping through the city is still real. Nationwide, 381 people have died in the flooding over the last three months, and 110,000 more have been displaced -- 10,000 of them in Bangkok, according to government figures. The catastrophe has put hundreds of thousands of people out of work and cost billions of dollars in damage -- a bill that grows larger by the day.
Among items struck from tourists' agendas: shopping for crafts at the popular Chatuchak weekend market and dinner cruises down the city's Chao Phraya river -- all canceled due to the high waters. The river swelled to a record high level early Sunday, spilling into some neighborhoods.
Fears over worse-case scenarios and travel warnings issued by foreign governments have slashed visitors by half at sites like the Grand Palace and the giant gold-plated Reclining Buddha inside Bangkok's Wat Pho temple complex.
But the biggest problem by far, said tour guide Keerati Atui, is the media, which he said have given the impression that most of Bangkok is under water.
"Look around," he said, gesturing to lines of tourists streaming into the palace. "It's dry. Everything here is normal