A train packed with birthday gifts for North Korea’s leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-un derailed this month in a possible act of sabotage, a Seoul-based radio station which broadcasts across the border reported today.
Open Radio for North Korea, a non-profit station which often cites sources in the reclusive, impoverished North, said the train laden with gifts, including televisions and watches, came off the rails on December 11 near North Korea’s border with China.
“The security service has been in an emergency situation because a train departing Sinuiju and headed for Pyongyang derailed on December 11,” the radio station quoted a source in the security service in North Phyongan province as saying.
The city of Sinuiju is a North Korean trading gateway.
“The tracks and rail beds are so old it is possible there was decay in the wood or nails that secured the tracks could have been dislodged but the extent of damage to the tracks and the timing of the incident points to a chance that someone intentionally damaged the tracks,” the source said.
“It’s highly likely that it was someone who is opposed to succession to Kim Jong-un,” the source said, according to the radio station.
Very little is known about Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of ailing leader Kim Jong-il. In his mid-20s, he was appointed to key military and government positions this year, suggesting that he is the chosen successor. His birthday is believed to be January 8.
His father appears to have lavish tastes. This month a Viennese court found an Austrian man guilty of selling luxury goods believed to be destined for Kim Jong-il in a yacht deal worth 3.3 million euros (RM13.5 million).
The deal included several top-end Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars and musical instruments such as a Steinway grand piano, the court heard.
The sale of luxury goods to North Korea is banned under a UN resolution in response to the country’s nuclear testing programme but Kim is said to hold opulent receptions where he displays yachts and other expensive items procured abroad.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
China rebuffs Vatican on religious freedom
The Vatican must “face the facts” about religious freedom in China, the Foreign Ministry said today, rebuffing the pope’s Christmas Day message, which decried the persecution of Catholics in China.
“We hope the Vatican can face the facts of China’s religious freedom and the development of Catholicism in China, and take concrete actions to promote positive conditions for China-Vatican relations,” ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news briefing. She did not elaborate.
Pope Benedict on Saturday — Christmas Day — denounced limits on freedom of worship in China and encouraged Catholics there to persevere.
An editorial yesterday in the English-language edition of the Global Times, run by Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, was more blunt it its criticism, saying the pope acted “more like a Western politician than a religious leader”.
“The Vatican has to face the fact that all religious beliefs are free in China, as long as they do not run counter to the country’s laws,” it said, adding that citizenship supersedes religious identity.
China’s 8 to 12 million Catholics are divided between a state-sanctioned church that names bishops without the Vatican’s approval and an underground church wary of government ties.
China rankled the Vatican earlier this month when it forced several Chinese bishops and priests loyal to the pope to attend a meeting of a state-backed church that does not have the pope’s approval.
Last month, the Vatican condemned China for naming a bishop without the pope’s approval, calling the episode a “painful wound” hampering dialogue between the Holy See and Beijing.
China says it protects religious freedom, but does not recognise the authority of the pope and refuses to establish formal relations with the Vatican until the Holy See — the Church’s governing body — severs ties with Taiwan, which China considers a renegade territory.
“We hope the Vatican can face the facts of China’s religious freedom and the development of Catholicism in China, and take concrete actions to promote positive conditions for China-Vatican relations,” ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news briefing. She did not elaborate.
Pope Benedict on Saturday — Christmas Day — denounced limits on freedom of worship in China and encouraged Catholics there to persevere.
An editorial yesterday in the English-language edition of the Global Times, run by Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, was more blunt it its criticism, saying the pope acted “more like a Western politician than a religious leader”.
“The Vatican has to face the fact that all religious beliefs are free in China, as long as they do not run counter to the country’s laws,” it said, adding that citizenship supersedes religious identity.
China’s 8 to 12 million Catholics are divided between a state-sanctioned church that names bishops without the Vatican’s approval and an underground church wary of government ties.
China rankled the Vatican earlier this month when it forced several Chinese bishops and priests loyal to the pope to attend a meeting of a state-backed church that does not have the pope’s approval.
Last month, the Vatican condemned China for naming a bishop without the pope’s approval, calling the episode a “painful wound” hampering dialogue between the Holy See and Beijing.
China says it protects religious freedom, but does not recognise the authority of the pope and refuses to establish formal relations with the Vatican until the Holy See — the Church’s governing body — severs ties with Taiwan, which China considers a renegade territory.
Suspect package disarmed in Rome
Bomb disposal experts disarmed a device sent to the Greek embassy in Rome today, days after parcel bombs claimed by an Italian anarchist group wounded two people at the Swiss and Chilean missions.
An official of the carabinieri, Italy’s paramilitary police, said the device found at the Greek embassy bore similarities to one discovered in the Rome metro last week.
The metro device was found in a box with cables, batteries and antennas but had no detonator.
Suspect packages found at the Venezuelan, Danish and Monaco embassies turned out to be false alarms. There were other false alarms last week at the Irish and Ukrainian embassies in Rome as authorities stepped up checks on mail deliveries.
Last week, an Italian anarchist group called the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI) claimed responsibility in a note for parcel bombs that wounded two people at the Swiss and Chilean embassies.
The incidents bore similarities to an episode in Greece last month in which far-left militants sent parcel bombs to foreign governments and embassies in Athens.
Moreover, the note was signed by the “Lambros Fountas revolutionary cell” of the FAI, which Italian media said was a reference to a Greek anarchist killed in a clash with Greek police in Athens in March.
Investigators have noted the past preference of anarchist splinter groups for attacks over the Christmas period and have said that more are likely and Italian embassies abroad have been put on alert.
Small blast at Karachi’s main university
A blast reported at the main state-run university in Karachi today was probably caused by a firecracker, police said.
“It was a low-intensity blast and was caused most likely by a cracker,” Karachi police chief Fayyaz Leghari told Reuters.
Leghari said three people were wounded in the incident, though a senior university official estimated at least six.
“The blast took place outside the main cafeteria of the university and at least six people were wounded,” said Kaleem Raza Khan, registrar of the University of Karachi.
This is the first such incident at an educational institution in Karachi, though the campus often sees regular violent clashes between rival student groups.
Leghari said the incident today might be related to these rivalries but added police were investigating.
Last year, two suicide bomb blasts at the International Islamic University in Islamabad killed six people, including the bombers, and wounded at least 20.
Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, has been subject to recent instability. The dominant political force, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, said yesterday that its two ministers in the federal cabinet would resign, in a move that raises questions about the government’s future.
The movement said in a statement that the ministers’ resignations were a first step and a decision on whether to stay part of the federal as well as the provincial Sindh government would be taken soon.
The MQM cited corruption, and issues over law and order and rising prices among the reasons for the decisions to leave the cabinet.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Christmas Eve explosions kill 32 people in Nigeria after two churches are targeted
Explosions in Nigeria's central region killed 32 people on Christmas Eve and six people died in attacks on two churches in the northeast of Africa's most populous nation, officials said on Saturday.
On Friday night, a series of bombs were detonated during Christmas Eve celebrations in villages near the central city of Jos, killing at least 32 people while 74 were in a critical condition, the state police commissioner said.
Nigeria's army chief said the blasts were not part of religious clashes which flare up sporadically as tensions bubble under the surface in a country where the population is split roughly equally between Muslims and Christians.
It (Jos explosions) was caused by a series of bomb blasts. That is terrorism, it's a very unfortunate incident,' Azubuike Ihejirika said in the southern city of Port Harcourt.
The attacks come at a difficult time for President Goodluck Jonathan, who is in running a controversial campaign ahead of the ruling party's primaries on January 13
A ruling party pact says that power within the People's Democratic Party (PDP) should rotate between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south every two terms.
Jonathan is a southerner who inherited office when President Umaru Yar'Adua, a northerner, died during his first term this year and some northern factions in the ruling party are opposed to his candidacy.
Jonathan faces a challenge from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for the ruling party nomination, and some fear any unrest in Africa's most populous nation will be exploited by rivals during campaigning.
'What happened (in Jos) was not religious it was political ... the aim of the masterminds is to pit Christians against Muslims and start another round of violence,' the governor of Plateau state said.
In a separate incident, at least six people were killed in what appeared to be religiously motivated attacks on two churches in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
Attackers threw petrol bombs late on Friday at a church in the city, killing five people, including a Baptist pastor. A security guard at a nearby church died in a similar assault.
'This is a worrisome situation and the government will do all it can to fish out the perpetrators of this evil act,' the governor of Borno State, Ali Sheriff, said on Saturday.
'We must ensure that adequate security is provided for all citizens to worship freely without fear of molestation.'
Hundreds of people died in religious and ethnic clashes at the start of the year in the 'Middle Belt', the central region where the mostly-Muslim north meets the predomnantly Christian south.
There have been localised outbreaks of violence since then.
The tension is rooted in decades of resentment between indigenous groups, mostly Christian or animist, who are vying for control of fertile farmlands and for economic and political power with migrants and settlers from the north.
Heavy snow strands Christmas travellers in Europe
Heavy snow stranded thousands of Christmas travellers in Europe today, with Belgium’s main airport closed for landing and icy roads in Sweden choked with traffic.
Cold weather during the busy Christmas period has disrupted travel and business across Europe this week, and the prolonged period of severe weather is expected to clip economic growth in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy.
A spokesman for the Brussels airport warned travellers to prepare to spend the night in Brussels, saying no flights would be allowed to land until 4pm (1500 GMT).
“It is extremely difficult to handle flights,” said Jan Van der Cruysse. “We had 25 centimetres of snow overnight and there are huge surfaces to be cleaned. There is nothing we can do about it.”
Delays and cancellations of outbound flights would likely continue throughout the day even when the airport opens to landing flights, he said. “I can’t remember the weather being this bad in December,” he said.
In Sweden, heavy snowfall across southern parts of the country caused major traffic problems on roads and railways for the second day running today.
The Swedish Transport Administration predicted tough weather conditions to disrupt travel on Christmas Day, with many trains likely to be cancelled.
About 2,000 people were forced to spend yesterday night at two main airports in Paris as snowfall in the north and east of the country continued to disrupt transport services.
The French government expects hundreds of people to spend Christmas Eve night at Roissy, where rows of army-style folding beds and blankets filled terminal areas, largely due to a lack of de-icing fluid.
In Netherlands, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport was operating normally today but Eindhoven was shut briefly. The Brussels airport had also briefly run out of de-icing fluid because of the prolonged cold snap.
Today’s disruptions follow travel chaos earlier in the week, when tens of thousands were stranded across Europe as delays and cancellations of flights and high-speed trains were confounded by road travel restrictions.
Authorities throughout Europe warned about further disruptions in the coming days.
In Italy, flights and rail services were running normally today but heavy rain in the north caused problems in some cities including Venice, where shoppers and tourists were forced to wade through knee high water in Saint Mark’s square.
In Vicenza, to the west of Venice, there were fears that the Bacchiglione river could burst its banks and some residents were evacuated from their homes.
Britain’s main air travel hubs had some cancellations and delays today but London’s Heathrow, the world’s busiest international airport, said both of its runways were open.
Most main roads in England remained clear, but the Highways Agency warned motorists about the danger of icy roads as Britain headed for its coldest December in decades.
Parts of Scotland and possibly northeast England were forecast to have a white Christmas.
Attack fears cloud Christmas for Baghdad Christians
Santa Claus toys are displayed for sale during Christmas Eve along a street in Baghdad on December 24, 2010.
Normally on Christmas Eve, Ban Zaki puts on festive clothes and takes her family to Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation church for lively holiday celebrations.
Not this year.
Dressed in black and fighting back tears, she has brought her three children to the church to honour her late husband, who was killed along with 51 others when Iraqi forces stormed it after militants took hostages during Sunday mass on Oct 31.
“He died on this spot,” 49-year-old Zaki said, pointing to the marble floor of the Catholic church.
“This year, there will be no festivities, no celebrations. The images of the attack and how they killed my husband here in this place are still in front of my eyes. Those were four hours I won’t forget for the rest of my life,” she said.
The attack triggered a fresh exodus of Christians from some Iraqi cities amid renewed fears that Sunni Islamist militants were trying to drive Christians out of their homeland.
The UN refugee agency said last week that some 1,000 Christian families, roughly 6,000 people, had fled to Iraqi Kurdistan from Baghdad, Mosul and other areas.
Iraq’s Christians once numbered about 1.5 million. There are now believed to be about 850,000 out of a population estimated at 30 million.
In its latest threat, the Islamic State of Iraq, the local affiliate of al Qaeda, said this week that Iraqi Christians risked further attacks unless they pressured the Christian church in Egypt to release a group of people it said the church was holding after they had converted to Islam.
The group also warned Iraqi Christians against proselytising and fraternising with occupation forces.
Fearing further bloodshed, several church leaders in Iraq have urged Christians to keep Christmas low-key and limit celebrations to prayers and mass.
On Christmas Eve, the only sign of the holiday at downtown churches was a group of children rehearsing carols at Our Lady of Salvation. Their parents stood nearby, watching them anxiously.
CHURCH LIKE A FORTRESS
The threat of fresh attacks has led Iraqi security forces to erect high blast walls topped with barbed wire around Our Lady of Salvation and several other churches in Baghdad.
“These are a part of new security measures for the churches in Baghdad,” said fire-fighter Abed Aswad Mohammed, standing beside his fire truck at the Sacred Heart Church in the Karrada district in Baghdad.
For some parishioners, the protective walls are a depressing reminder of the dangers they face.
“I swear I burst into tears when I saw it for the first time,” said Khalid Yousif, a worshipper who came to Our Lady of Salvation with his two children.
“Look at it. It doesn’t look like a church. It looks like a fortress or a prison.”
He gestured at the church walls which still bear the marks of the attack. Beneath decorations of elegant Arabic calligraphy, the walls are riddled with bullet holes and in some places speckled with blood. All the windows are shattered.
On a green carpet before the altar, worshippers have placed pictures of the two priests and dozens of others killed in attack. Bouquets, wreaths and sprays of flowers adorn the spot.
Zaki, who was shot in the abdomen during the Oct. 31 attack, said she was planning to leave Iraq now, despite calls from religious leaders to keep the faith and stay.
“I was here on this ground bleeding,” she said, her voice breaking. “My husband was there, two or three meters a way from me, but I couldn’t reach him. I was afraid that if I move, they will kill me or my children, whom I held in a tight embrace.”
“I am not ready to make any more sacrifices,” Zaki said. “This is enough.”
Flu kills 27 in Britain
Flu has killed 27 people in Britain since the influenza season began in October and transmission of the virus is picking up across the European Union, health officials said on Thursday.
Latest data from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) showed that 24 people died with the H1N1 flu strain that spread around the world as a pandemic in 2009, and three with from a strain known as flu type B. Eighteen of those who died were adults and nine were children.
“The level of flu activity we are currently seeing is at levels often seen during the winter flu seasons, but due to the fact that H1N1 is one of the predominant strains circulating at the moment, we are seeing more severe illness in people under the age of 65 than we would normally expect,” said John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases department at the HPA.
European health experts have said other European countries should see the severe flu hitting Britain at the moment as a warning of what might be coming to them soon.
“Influenza transmission is now picking up across the European Union,” Marc Sprenger, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which monitors disease in the region, said in a statement.
The H1N1 strain is among the seasonal flu vaccines being offered across the world this year after the WHO advised it was likely to be the most dominant strain of the northern hemisphere’s 2010/2011 flu season. Flu vaccines are made by several drugmakers including GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis.
Sprenger said the ECDC’s advice was that all those who are recommended to have the influenza vaccine by their national authorities should get vaccinated as soon as possible.
“Vaccines and vaccination can be an emotive issue and citizens rightly ask for assurance,” he added. “The scientific evidence shows that seasonal influenza vaccines are effective and very safe. They provide a protection of up to 80 percent against influenza on an individual basis.”
For most people, flu infection is just a nasty experience, but for some it can lead to more serious illness. The most common complications of flu are bronchitis and secondary bacterial pneumonia.
“Flu can be an extremely serious illness for people in ‘at risk’ groups, including pregnant women, the elderly and those with other underlying conditions such as heart problems, diabetes, lung, liver or renal diseases and those who have weakened immune systems,” said Watson.
Health officials said on Tuesday that more than 300 people were in intensive care with flu in hospitals across Britain.
H1N1 flu was discovered in Mexico and the United States in March 2009 and spread rapidly across the world. The World Health Organisation, which declared the pandemic over in August, said about 18,450 people died from the virus, including many pregnant women and young people.
North Korea nuclear test ‘possible’ in new year
A North Korean Scud-B missile (centre) and South Korean Hawk surface-to-air missiles are seen at the Korean War Memorial Museum in Seoul, on December 24, 2010
North Korea could carry out a third nuclear test next year to strengthen the credentials of its young leader-in-waiting, Kim Jong-un, a research report from a South Korean Foreign Ministry institute said yesterday.
The report came a day after Pyongyang vowed a nuclear “sacred war,” using its nuclear deterrent, after the South vowed to be “merciless” if attacked again and held a major military drill near the border.
The North, which carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, has yet to show it has a deliverable weapon as part of its plutonium arms programme, but a third test would raise tensions further on the divided peninsula and rattle global markets.
South Korean media reported earlier this month that the North was digging a tunnel in preparation for a nuclear test.
“There is a possibility of North Korea carrying out its third nuclear test to seek improvement in its nuclear weapons production capability, keep the military tension high and promote Kim Jong-un’s status as the next leader,” the report said, referring to ailing Kim Jong-il’s youngest son.
“Tension between the two Koreas will remain high with chances of additional North Korean attacks on the South staying high,” the Foreign Ministry-run Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security said.
“US ENTIRELY TO BLAME”
Tension on the peninsula is at its highest since the 1950-53 Korean War, after a deadly naval clash in March and the North’s artillery attack on a South Korean island last month which killed four people. The two Koreas are technically still at war as their civil conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty.
The North’s KCNA news agency, which regularly threatens total destruction of the rich capitalist South, yesterday lay the blame on Washington and called South Korea one of its “shock brigades.”
“The US is entirely to blame for the alarming developments on the peninsula this year as it used the peninsula for realising its strategy to dominate East Asia,” KCNA said in a commentary.
Analysts said recent tensions have managed to turn back the clock on ties between the rivals by more than a decade.
“In the South, impatience with Pyongyang is growing, and there are demands from the right in Seoul for more robust terms of military engagement in the event of future clashes,” said Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group.
Still, the risk of all-out war is low, and the North’s threats of destruction are seen as largely rhetorical.
A North Korean Scud-B missile (centre) and South Korean Hawk surface-to-air missiles are seen at the Korean War Memorial Museum in Seoul, on December 24, 2010
Pyongyang’s tactic of boasting about nuclear advances is a ploy aimed at restarting talks between itself, the South, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, from which it hopes to wring concessions, analysts say.
The Foreign Ministry report said six-party talks, which North Korea walked out of two years ago, will likely resume in 2011 but progress on reining in the North on its nuclear programme will remain elusive.
China, the North’s only major ally and vital financial backer, sees the forum as the best place to begin dialogue, but Seoul, Washington and Tokyo say they first need proof that Pyongyang is committed to dismantling its nuclear facilities.
North Korea could carry out a third nuclear test next year to strengthen the credentials of its young leader-in-waiting, Kim Jong-un, a research report from a South Korean Foreign Ministry institute said yesterday.
Powerful earthquake strikes South Pacific sparking tsunami alert
A powerful earthquake struck under the sea near Vanuatu early Sunday, generating a small tsunami in the South Pacific.
No damage or injuries were immediately reported.
The 7.3 magnitude quake struck Sunday just after midnight about 140 miles south of Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila.
The U.S. Geological Survey said it was about 15 miles below the ocean floor.
A tsunami wave measuring about 6 inches was recorded on some coastlines at Vanuatu, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.
New Caledonia and Fiji also were warned a tsunami was possible on their coasts, but the warning was cancelled about an hour-and-a-half after the temblor.
Vanuatu is part of the Pacific 'ring of fire' - an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching from Chile in South America through Alaska and down through the South Pacific.
A 7.5 quake that struck under the sea floor just 25 miles from Port Vila in August panicked residents but did not cause significant damage.
US urges Yemen to step up fight against al Qaeda
President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser has pressed Yemen to step up its efforts against al Qaeda, the White House said yesterday, as US agencies stayed alert around the first anniversary of a Christmas Day plot to down an American passenger jet.
John Brennan, an Obama aide at the center of US intelligence efforts to thwart attacks by militants, spoke with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Thursday.
Brennan called to “emphasise the importance of taking forceful action against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in order to thwart its plans to carry out terrorist attacks in Yemen as well as in other countries, including in the US homeland,” the White House said.
The US government is taking extra precautions against an attack during this holiday season. Brennan convened a call yesterday between key officials to review the additional security measures being taken, the White House said.
Yemen is squarely on the radar.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has emerged as a major international security concern since it claimed responsibility for last December’s botched attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound aircraft.
The Nigerian suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, allegedly tried to bring down the plane on Christmas Day last year with explosives hidden in his underpants.
US officials say he told investigators he got the bomb and training from al Qaeda militants in Yemen.
The militants have since claimed credit for two US-bound parcel bombs that were intercepted in Britain and Dubai in October.
Brennan also “emphasised the need to strengthen the already close cooperation between Yemeni and US counter-terrorism and security services ... including the timely acquisition of all relevant information from individuals arrested by Yemeni security forces,” the White House said.
Obama, on a family holiday in Hawaii, is receiving daily briefings from security staff.
Brennan said last week that US-Yemen relations had been strained by Washington’s desire for a quicker pace of economic and political reforms, which it hopes would slow the recruitment of Yemenis by militants.
Relations have also been tested by WikiLeaks’ disclosure of State Department cables alleging President Saleh had offered to mask US strikes in Yemen on al Qaeda targets.
Brennan “expressed regret” in his call to Saleh for WikiLeaks’ actions and thanked him “for his explicit commitment to ensure the full cooperation of the Yemeni government and his pledge never to retreat in the face of al Qaeda,” the White House said.
Russia agrees to buy French helicopter carriers
Russia has agreed to buy two helicopter carriers from a French-led consortium, the French and Russian governments said yesterday, in Moscow’s first major foreign arms purchase since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Under the long-discussed deal, the Mistral-type amphibious assault ships will be built by French shipyard companies DCNS and STX along with Russia’s state-run United Shipbuilding Corporation, known as OSK.
Some of France’s NATO allies had voiced concern, urging Paris not to sell Moscow high-tech systems that could be used against Russia’s former communist neighbours, especially since Russia’s brief 2008 war with neighbouring Georgia.
Here is some background to the deal.
MISTRAL CAPABILITIES
The Mistral-class ships can carry up to 16 helicopters such as Russia’s Ka-50/52. They also carry landing barges and hovercraft, allowing vehicles, tanks and soldiers to be taken ashore — an important capability if Russia had to fight a war similar to the one it waged with Georgia in 2008.
The Mistral can carry 450 troops for up to six months, but that number can rise to 700 for shorter periods.
COASTAL CONTROL
Russia failed to gain control of Georgia’s Black Sea coast in its five-day conflict with Tbilisi. It currently depends largely on helicopters and unmanned planes to control its coastal regions on the Baltic and Black Seas. The Mistral will give Moscow much greater command of its coastlines.
FOREIGN PURCHASES
The Mistral purchase of is the first major defence import deal since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, showing Russia’s need for foreign technology in the sector. The deal was a surprise as Moscow’s defence procurement strategy to 2015 did not include construction or purchase of any large combat ships.
BOON FOR NAVAL DEFENCE INDUSTRY
One of the main sticking points in Russia’s negotiations over the Mistral is whether it will get access to the same technology used on French ships, giving Russia a glimpse of more advanced naval weapons and defence systems.
The reputation of the Russian naval defence industry had been tarnished by an Indian order of the Admiral Gorshkov heavy aircraft carrying cruiser. Moscow-based defence analysts Cast say Russia has nearly tripled the price and delayed delivery of the cruiser by four years since signing the contract in 2004.
Karzai warms to idea of talking to Taliban in Turkey
President Hamid Karzai said yesterday the Afghan government would welcome any offer by Turkey to facilitate talks with the Taliban that could help bring an end to the conflict in his homeland.
More than 700 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year — nearly a third of the total in over nine years of war.
While US-led Nato forces have applied a surge strategy there is also a search on for ways to bring about a political solution as a countdown begins for the withdrawal of troops.
US President Barack Obama has promised to begin pulling out US forces in 2011, and Nato has agreed to end combat operations and hand security responsiblity to the Afghan army by the end of 2014.
Speaking in Istanbul at the end of a trilateral summit between Turkey, Afghaninstan and Pakistan, Karzai said “dignitaries” close to the Taliban had suggested Turkey could become a venue for talks if the Taliban were allowed to establish some kind of representation there.
“The idea of Turkey serving as a place where gatherings can take place, where representation can be established in order to facilitate reconstruction and reintegration has been discussed,” Karzai told a joint news conference with his counterparts from Turkey and Pakistan.
“If Turkey can be kind enough to provide such a venue we, the government of Afghanistan, will be happy and pleased to see this facilitation take place.”
Karzai had been asked to comment on an interview with a former Taliban official, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef by Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The proposal for the Taliban to be allowed to establish some kind of diplomatic presence in Turkey surfaced in the interview.
President Abdullah Gul of Turkey said he had not seen the report but voiced support in general terms.
“Whatever will serve the future reconstruction of Afghanistan — we will be there,” Gul said.
This was the fifth in a series of the trilateral summits held in Turkey, with the aim of building greater trust between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Whereas Western government can tend to apply pressure in dealings with the Afghan and Pakistani governments, Turkey is able to operate at a different level diplomatically, being a fellow Muslim country with historically warm ties with both.
Turkey has troops serving in non-combat roles with Nato forces in Afghanistan, and also has well established military-to-military contacts with Pakistan.
The Afghan and Pakistani militaries are cooperating with Nato forces to fight the Taliban and Islamist militants who run with al Qaeda.
But according to some analysts, Afghan and Pakistani intelligence agencies suspect each other of secretly encouraging militant factions to launch attacks to destabilise each other’s governments in the hope of winning greater influence once Western forces leave the region.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari denied that the Pakistan military’s Inter-Services Intelligence was supporting the Taliban, but said there were “non-state actors” who were helping the militants.
“Let me assure you that the ISI is not involved with the Taliban,” Zardari said.
Gul stressed the need for the intelligence services to work together and a statement issued at the end of the summit said the heads of three countrie’s intelligence agencies had met in Istanbul on Dec. 2-3.
Woman suicide bomber kills 42 people in attack on food distribution centre in northern Pakistan
A woman suicide bomber detonated her explosives-laden vest in a crowded aid distribution centre in northwest Pakistan today, killing at least 41 people and wounding dozens waiting for food stamps, officials said.
The attack appeared to be the first suicide bombing staged by a woman in Pakistan, and it underscored the resilience of militant groups in the country's tribal belt despite ongoing military operations against them.
The bomb hit the main city in Bajur, a region near the Afghan border where the military has twice declared victory over Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents.
It also came a day after some 150 militants killed 11 soldiers in a coordinated assault in a neighboring region where the army also has carried out operations.
The bomber, dressed in a traditional women's burqa, first lobbed two hand grenades into the crowd waiting at a checkpoint outside the food aid distribution center in the town of Khar, local police official Fazal-e-Rabbi Khan said. The attacker then detonated her explosives vest, he said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Khan said the victims were from various parts of the Bajur tribal region who gather daily at the center to collect food tokens distributed by the World Food Program and other agencies to conflicted-affected people in the region.
The people were displaced by an army offensive against Taliban militants in the region in early 2009.
Islamist militants battling the state have attacked buildings handing out humanitarian aid in Pakistan before, presumably because they are symbols of the government and Western influence.
Local government official Tariq Khan said the blast also wounded 60 people, some of them critically, of about 300 who were at the scene.
Tariq Khan and another local official, Sohail Khan, said an examination of the human remains has confirmed the bomber was a woman.
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based security and political analyst, said the suicide bombing appeared to be the first carried out by a woman in Pakistan.
'It is no surprise. They can use a woman, a child or whatever,' Rizvi said. 'Human life is not important to them, only the objective they are pursuing' of undermining state power, he added.
Male suicide bombers often don the burqa - an Islamic head-to-toe dress that also covers the woman's face - as a disguise.
In 2007, officials initially claimed Pakistan's first female suicide bomber had killed 14 people in the northwest town of Bannu but the attacker was later identified as a man.
Akbar Jan, 45, who sustained leg wounds in the bombing, said from his hospital bed that people were lining up for the ration coupons when something exploded with a big bang.
'We thought someone had fired a rocket,' he said. He said within seconds he saw the ground strewn with the wounded.
'I realized a little later that I myself have suffered wounds,' he said. 'Everybody was crying. It was blood and human flesh everywhere.'
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the bombing and said Pakistanis are 'united against them.'
Bajur is on the northern tip of Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal belt, bordering Afghanistan and the so-called 'settled' areas in Pakistan. It has served as a key transit point and hideout for al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Bajur and other parts of the tribal regions are of major concern to the U.S. because they have been safe havens for militants fighting Nato and American troops across the border in Afghanistan.
The U.S. has long pressured Pakistan to clear the tribal belt of the insurgents.
The military first declared victory in Bajur following a six-month operation launched in late 2008.
But the army was forced to launch a follow-up operation in late January this year and declared victory again about a month later. Still, violence has persisted in the region.
The army also has taken steps to clear Mohmand, a tribal region next to Bajur that also has witnessed militant activity.
On Friday, however, around 150 insurgents attacked five security checkpoints in that region, killing at least 11 soldiers and wounding a dozen more in a show of their ongoing strength.
The attack appeared to be the first suicide bombing staged by a woman in Pakistan, and it underscored the resilience of militant groups in the country's tribal belt despite ongoing military operations against them.
The bomb hit the main city in Bajur, a region near the Afghan border where the military has twice declared victory over Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents.
It also came a day after some 150 militants killed 11 soldiers in a coordinated assault in a neighboring region where the army also has carried out operations.
The bomber, dressed in a traditional women's burqa, first lobbed two hand grenades into the crowd waiting at a checkpoint outside the food aid distribution center in the town of Khar, local police official Fazal-e-Rabbi Khan said. The attacker then detonated her explosives vest, he said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Khan said the victims were from various parts of the Bajur tribal region who gather daily at the center to collect food tokens distributed by the World Food Program and other agencies to conflicted-affected people in the region.
The people were displaced by an army offensive against Taliban militants in the region in early 2009.
Islamist militants battling the state have attacked buildings handing out humanitarian aid in Pakistan before, presumably because they are symbols of the government and Western influence.
Local government official Tariq Khan said the blast also wounded 60 people, some of them critically, of about 300 who were at the scene.
Tariq Khan and another local official, Sohail Khan, said an examination of the human remains has confirmed the bomber was a woman.
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based security and political analyst, said the suicide bombing appeared to be the first carried out by a woman in Pakistan.
'It is no surprise. They can use a woman, a child or whatever,' Rizvi said. 'Human life is not important to them, only the objective they are pursuing' of undermining state power, he added.
Male suicide bombers often don the burqa - an Islamic head-to-toe dress that also covers the woman's face - as a disguise.
In 2007, officials initially claimed Pakistan's first female suicide bomber had killed 14 people in the northwest town of Bannu but the attacker was later identified as a man.
Akbar Jan, 45, who sustained leg wounds in the bombing, said from his hospital bed that people were lining up for the ration coupons when something exploded with a big bang.
'We thought someone had fired a rocket,' he said. He said within seconds he saw the ground strewn with the wounded.
'I realized a little later that I myself have suffered wounds,' he said. 'Everybody was crying. It was blood and human flesh everywhere.'
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the bombing and said Pakistanis are 'united against them.'
Bajur is on the northern tip of Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal belt, bordering Afghanistan and the so-called 'settled' areas in Pakistan. It has served as a key transit point and hideout for al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Bajur and other parts of the tribal regions are of major concern to the U.S. because they have been safe havens for militants fighting Nato and American troops across the border in Afghanistan.
The U.S. has long pressured Pakistan to clear the tribal belt of the insurgents.
The military first declared victory in Bajur following a six-month operation launched in late 2008.
But the army was forced to launch a follow-up operation in late January this year and declared victory again about a month later. Still, violence has persisted in the region.
The army also has taken steps to clear Mohmand, a tribal region next to Bajur that also has witnessed militant activity.
On Friday, however, around 150 insurgents attacked five security checkpoints in that region, killing at least 11 soldiers and wounding a dozen more in a show of their ongoing strength.
Pope Christmas message urges peace,admonishes China
Pope Benedict prayed for a rebirth of peace in the Middle East and encouraged Catholics in Iraq and communist China to resist persecution in his Christmas message read amid heightened security today.
In the “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message, he said the Christmas message of peace and hope was always new, surprising and daring and should spur everyone in the peaceful struggle for justice.
Speaking from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica to thousands of people braving the chill and drizzle in the square below, he delivered Christmas greetings in 65 languages, including those spoken in the world’s trouble spots.
“May the light of Christmas shine forth anew in the Land where Jesus was born, and inspire Israelis and Palestinians to strive for a just and peaceful coexistence,” he said.
He hoped Christmas would bring consolation to Christians in Iraq and all the Middle East, where the Vatican fears that violence such as an October attack by militants on a Baghdad church that killed 52 people is fuelling a Christian exodus from the region.
Benedict also directly criticed China, where recently Catholics loyal to the pope were forced to attend a series of events by the state-backed Church which does not recognise his authority, bringing relations with the Vatican to a low point.
He prayed that Christmas would “strengthen the spirit of faith, patience and courage of the faithful of the Church in mainland China” and decried “the limitations imposed on their freedom of religion and conscience...”
Benedict asked God to “grant perseverance to all those Christian communities enduring discrimination and persecution, and inspire political and religious leaders to be committed to full respect for the religious freedom of all”.
HIGH SECURITY AFTER ROME BOMBS
Police were on heightened security in the Vatican and in Rome two days after parcel bombs exploded at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome. Anarchists claimed responsibility for the attacks, which injured one person at each embassy.
More police than normal were seen along the main street leading from the Tiber River to the Vatican but the atmosphere in the square was festive despite the security and the rain.
In his sermon at last night’s Mass for some 10,000 people inside the basilica, the pope, celebrating the sixth Christmas since his election, prayed for oppressors to be punished.
Vatican guards were more vigilant on Friday night following security breaches for two consecutive years at Christmas Eve masses by the same woman, Susanna Maiolo.
Last year the woman, who has had a history of mental problems, jumped over a barricade as the pope walked up the basilica’s main aisle and managed to pull him to the floor. The year before, she was stopped before she could reach him.
“His guardian angel will protect him and each one of us will be protected,” said tourist Gayle Savino, from New York, as she entered the basilica for the pope midnight mass on Friday night.
“It’s just a blessing to be here on such a wonderful night on Christ’s birthday,” she said.
In his message today, he also called for peace in Somalia, Darfur and Ivory Coast, reconciliation between the two Koreas and respect for human rights in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The group claiming responsibility for the parcel bomb attacks in Rome two days, the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), is well known to Italian police and was described in an intelligence report to parliament last year as “the main national terrorist threat of an anarchist-insurrectionist type”.
It gained notoriety in 2003 with a so-called “Santa Claus campaign” against EU institutions which included a parcel bomb sent just before Christmas to Romano Prodi, a former prime minister who at the time was head of the European Commission.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
China urges North Korea to accept nuclear inspectors
China yesterday urged North Korea to follow through on its offer to allow United Nations nuclear monitors into the country as a way to alleviate international tensions during a standoff with South Korea.
China, North Korea’s only major ally, has continually urged dialogue to resolve the crisis and has been reluctant to blame its neighbour for the shelling of a South Korean island last month, in which two Marines and two civilians were killed.
South Korea held further live-fire drills on the island on Monday, raising fears of all-out war, but the North did not retaliate. Instead, it offered to accept nuclear inspectors it has kicked out of the country previously.
“North Korea has the right to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes, but also at the same time must allow IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors in,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing.
“All parties should realise that artillery fire and military force cannot solve the issues on the peninsula, and dialogue and cooperation are the only correct approaches.”
The United States continued to voice scepticism over North Korea’s intentions, and said it was too early to consider resuming long-stalled six-party talks over its nuclear programme as Beijing and Pyongyang hope.
“Right now the action must come not from their words, but from their deeds,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said on his return from a visit to Pyongyang, where he acted as an unofficial envoy, that North Korea had promised to allow in inspectors to make sure it was not processing highly enriched uranium.
He told reporters North Korea had shown a “pragmatic attitude” in his unofficial talks.
“The specifics are that they will allow IAEA personnel to go to Yongbyon to ensure that they are not processing highly enriched uranium, that they are proceeding with peaceful purposes,” Richardson said in Beijing, referring to North Korea’s main nuclear site.
But analysts said it was unclear how much access IAEA inspectors would get because North Korea had limited their oversight in the past. They also said the worry was whether there were other nuclear sites hidden outside of Yongbyon.
“The question that remains is whether this is the only facility,” said Andrei Lankov at Kookmin University in Seoul. “A uranium enrichment programme is much easier to hide than a plutonium one.”
South Korea and the United States suspect Pyongyang, which carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and last year, has more sites geared to enriching uranium outside Yongbyon, the complex that is at the heart of the North’s plutonium weapons programme.
It consists of a five-megawatt reactor, construction of which began in 1980, a fuel fabrication facility and a plutonium reprocessing plant, where weapons-grade material is extracted from spent fuel rods.
Lankov said the North’s suggestion of compromise after provocation was a “usual tactic” of the impoverished state that had worked in the past to win aid.
“They create a crisis, they show that they are dangerous and drive tensions high,” he said. “Then they show they could make some concessions.”
If IAEA inspectors were allowed to carry out monitoring, it could help to address a key concern about North Korea’s uranium enrichment work because highly enriched material can be used in atomic weapons.
Seoul shares rose 0.8 per cent, broadly in line with other regional markets, to end at a three-year high yesterday, as anxiety over tension on the Korean peninsula eased, but the won currency remained under pressure.
The mood on Yeonpyeong Island had eased after the previous day’s drill, with military personnel visibly relaxed and preparing to sail back to the mainland.
North Korea, which has refused full IAEA oversight since 2002 and expelled inspectors last April, has said it only wants to enrich uranium to the low level used to make fuel for a civilian atomic power programme.
But in order to check this, the IAEA would need continued, unfettered access to all of North Korea’s uranium enrichment activities. It would usually require frequent inspections, video cameras and special seals to ensure that none of the material is being diverted for military use.
Richardson said of the North’s offer: “I believe that’s an important gesture on their part, but there still has to be a commitment eventually by the North Koreans to denuclearise, to abide by the 2005 agreement that says they will terminate their nuclear weapons activities.”
Richardson suggested the offer might pave the way for the resumption of six-party talks that also involve the United States, Russia, Japan, China and South Korea — although Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have been cool to this idea, reluctant to reward perceived bad behaviour.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said US officials had not been briefed on Richardson’s trip and said the onus was on Pyongyang to demonstrate its sincerity.
“We and others have had conversations with North Korea before,” he said. “The real issue is what will North Korea do. So we’re not going to judge a moment on a conversation between the governor and officials in North Korea.”
A key South Korean government official said the recent aggression by the North was closely linked to the succession from ailing leader Kim Jong-il to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, and was intended for its domestic audience as much as for anybody.
“We don’t want to give them the misperception that their provocations will help their national interest,” he said.
The UN Security Council remained deadlocked in its efforts to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but North Korea’s refraining from retaliation and the nuclear offer made to Richardson offered some breathing space.
But the South Korean government official, who declined to be identified, said Seoul could not take the North Korean offer seriously as it was not official. He said the five parties had to agree first on what to offer the North.
“Then we can pursue six-party talks. But the next six-party talks will be the grand bargain. That means a target year (for dismantlement) and the whole picture in the next round, not partial elements.”
US Senate close to approving Russia arms treaty
Missile defence sticking point with Republicans
President Barack Obama wrapped up enough support yesterday to win Senate approval for a strategic nuclear arms pact with Russia later this week, a key step in his drive to improve ties with Moscow and curb atomic weapons proliferation.
The new START treaty cleared a procedural hurdle in the US Senate by a vote of 67-28 as 11 Republicans joined Democrats in a decision to limit further debate. The treaty will move to a final vote today after lawmakers deal with a rash of last-minute amendments.
Obama’s Democrats need a two-thirds majority in the 100-member Senate for final approval of the treaty. Senator John Kerry, who led floor debate as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he expected 70 senators to ultimately vote in favour of the accord.
“We are on the brink of writing the next chapter in the 40-year history of wrestling with the threat of nuclear weapons,” Kerry said.
The treaty, which would cut strategic atomic weapons deployed by each country to no more than 1,550 within seven years, was signed by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April.
It is a centrepiece of Obama’s bid to “re-set” relations with Russia, which has been increasingly cooperative on issues related to US national security, from curbing Iran’s nuclear programme to the war in Afghanistan.
“This treaty will make America safer and restore our leadership in global efforts to stop nuclear proliferation,” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said.
Senators yesterday debated and defeated a series of amendments aimed at changing the treaty’s handling of weapons inspections, data exchanges and other issues. Changes that would amend the treaty would effectively kill it by forcing a renegotiation with Russia.
At least 12 Republicans have said that they will vote with Democrats to approve the pact, which would give Obama his third major victory on Capitol Hill in less than a week.
He earlier won repeal of the US ban on gays serving openly in the military, and passage of an US$858 billion (RM2.69 trillion) deal with Republicans to extend expiring tax cuts and spur economic growth.
Republican opponents of the accord, angered by the their inability to stop the march towards passage, charged the Obama administration had negotiated a bad treaty that let Russia limit US missile defence options when the real strategic threat was not Moscow but states such as North Korea and Iran.
“Nothing that he has done has convinced me that he is committed to missile defence,” Senator Lindsey Graham told a news conference, saying Obama was effectively “giving the Russians a veto” over US missile defence plans.
The Senate’s top two Republicans — Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip Jon Kyl — have announced they will vote against START, saying lawmakers haven’t had enough time to fully consider the treaty.
But the chamber’s third-ranking Republican, Lamar Alexander, joined Democrats yesterday in agreeing to end debate and move to approve the pact.
“I will vote to ratify the New Start Treaty . . . because it leaves our country with enough nuclear warheads to blow any attacker to kingdom come, and because the president has committed to an $85 billion, 10-year plan to make sure that those weapons work,” Alexander declared in a Senate speech.
Alexander’s state of Tennessee is home to one of the nuclear facilities that will receive billions of dollars in modernisation funding under an agreement worked out between lawmakers and the White House.
There has been far less public or political debate over the treaty in Russia. The Russian State Duma has yet to approve the accord and Medvedev has made clear that parliament should not ratify the treaty until US Senate approval is certain.
Konstantin Kosachyov, the pro-Kremlin chairman of the international affairs committee, said Russian lawmakers would carefully examine the US Senate’s resolution of ratification and other declarations before proceeding with their own vote, which could conceivably be held this year.
New York taxi drivers to wear bulletproof vests in pilot scheme
New York taxi drivers are notable for their unique yellow cabs.
But soon they could have something else to distinguish them: bulletproof vests.
A dozen Big Apple cab drivers, who have to work in suburbs with high crime-rates, have been selected to pilot the scheme.
The president of the New York Federation of Taxi Drivers, Fernando Mateo, believes the vests will provide another - potentially vital - layer of protection for drivers in high-crime areas.
Mr Mateo said there are some 300 robberies and assaults against New York taxi drivers every month.
'One shooting is a lot and whatever we can do to help improve the safety of our drivers is something that we will do,' he said.
The pilot program is being launched in honor of cab driver Cesar Santo, who was fatally shot in June. And the vests are being donated by Security USA.
The NYFTD also is asking retired New York Police Department officers to donate their old vests.
Initially, the dozen police-issue flak jackets - which fit under a shirt or coat- will be given to drivers of cabs in tough areas of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.
However, the New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, says he doesn't think it's necessary. But he says they have the right to wear the vests if they choose.
'I do not think they need to do that,' Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quoted by Examiner.com as saying.
Mr Mateo responded that drivers knew best and said: 'Neither the mayor nor the commissioner drive a cab.'
Reflecting tensions over driver safety in New York, Mr Mateo caused a stir in December when he urged drivers to think twice before picking up African American or Hispanic passengers.
'You know sometimes it's good that we are racially profiled because the God's-honest truth is that 99 per cent of the people that are robbing, stealing, killing these drivers are blacks and Hispanics,' he had said.
Mr Mateo was accused by some commentators of racism, but others in the city supported him, while he claimed he could not be racist since he was part Hispanic and part African American himself.
Heathrow boss is shamed into giving up his bonus as it is revealed airport 'failed' to order enough de-icer to cope with heavy snow
Heathrow's chief executive relinquished his bonus today amid claims bosses 'failed' to buy enough de-icer, ruining Christmas getaway plans for more than a million people.
The world's busiest airport has drawn widespread criticism after holidaymakers were left to sleep on cold terminal floors during the festive period as thousands of flights were cancelled or delayed.
Furious airlines have now hit out at Heathrow's owners BAA, insisting the company did not stock up on enough de-icing fluid to keep its two runways open.
Boss Colin Matthews later bowed to calls to relinquish his six-figure bonus.
Lord Jones of Birmingham said Mr Matthews, the owner of a ski lodge in the French Alps and a £1.9million west London home, should 'not be getting a bonus when he has diminished Britain's global brand'.
He branded the airport the 'laughing stock' of Europe.
Mick Rix, the GMB union's national officer for the aviation industry, echoed his remarks, saying 'a huge bonus' would be 'an absolute slap in the face to the thousands of people who have been stranded at Heathrow for the past three days'.
BAA's accounts revealed its chief executive was paid a total of £1.6million last year, including a £994,000 salary and benefits with a further £174,000 in pension contributions.
He was expected to receive an additional - and undisclosed - cash bonus this year, linked to BAA's profits during a three-year period. BAA predicts its pre-tax profits will be more than £972 million for 2010.
Mr Matthews said: 'I have decided to give up my bonus for the current year.
'My focus is on keeping people moving and rebuilding confidence in Heathrow.'
Welcoming Mr Matthews' decision, Mr Rix said: 'For once, a British senior director has done the right thing.
'Anything else would have been an outrage and an insult to the thousands of people who have been badly disrupted.'
However, at the airport, passengers relied on the Salvation Army who handed out free tea and coffee from a van more usually brought out during civil disasters.
Heavy snow and ice meant two thirds of flights were grounded at the airport yesterday, while passengers were advised to stay away from Terminals One and Three which were unable to cope with the volume of travellers.
Prime Minister David Cameron expressed his 'frustration' at the continued disruption.
Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, chief executive of airline BMI, said: 'What is really incredible is that 10cm (4in) of snow closed the airport down for two days and then it operated at one-third capacity. It is completely unacceptable.
'BAA was not prepared. It did not have enough de-icing fluid.
'The Prime Minister has stepped in and de-icing fluid has been released from other sources.
'This should have been possible without this kind of intervention.'
Heathrow's second runway finally reopened at 5pm yesterday but Mr Matthews warned not to expect normal services immediately and urged people to check before going to the airport.
Bosses were hopeful that more flights would be able to take off today but many holidaymakers were still facing the prospect of being separated from their families over Christmas.
Flight cancellations were predicted to go on 'beyond Christmas Day'.
Mr Cameron said: 'If it's understandable that Heathrow had to close briefly, I'm frustrated on behalf of all those affected that it's taking so long for the situation to improve.'
Some 180,000 people were scheduled to fly in or out of the airport every day this week, with up to 200,000 expected to pass through Heathrow on its busiest day.
Mr Matthews has pledged to investigate how the situation was dealt with and why it took so long to clear snow from aircraft but only after the 'short-term' aim of getting passengers to where they needed to be had been achieved.
Asked about the plight of the thousands of passengers affected by the shutdown, he said: 'It is heartbreaking - the stories which we hear of people who are missing holidays, weddings, important family events and looking at whether or not they can get home for Christmas.
'That's why we are focused as hard as we can be on building up the rate at which aircraft come and go to get passengers where they want to be.'
But sources from leading airlines claimed the airport lacked the necessary de-icing resources.
BAA rejected the accusations.
We have comfortable stocks of de-icer planned all week and they have been robust and in place throughout,' a spokesman said.
The airport has turned down an offer of help from the Army to remove snow from the southern runway, stands and taxiways.
White House admits national intelligence chief was left in the dark about UK terrorism arrests
Red-faced White House officials admitted today that the nation’s top intelligence chief was mistakenly left in the dark about key terrorist arrests in London.
The humiliating confession came after Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stumbled when he was asked about the raids by ABC anchor Diane Sawyer.
The British arrests to foil an alleged al Qaeda terror plot got wide coverage on TV news shows and newspapers. But the spy chief appeared stumped when asked whether there were any US links.
Sawyer was talking to Mr Clapper, Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano, and John Brennan, the president's assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism.
Mr Clapper was caught totally off guard by Sawyer's reference to the London arrests, and Mr Brennan hastily broke in to comment on the situation.
Sawyer told Mr Clapper she was 'a little surprised' that he 'didn't know about London', to which he replied: 'I'm sorry, I didn't.'
The slip was an embarrassment both to President Obama, who will be concerned his appointee was left out of the loop, as well as Mr Clapper - whose effectiveness as the central figure in charge of America’s myriad intelligence agencies is increasingly being questioned.
The job, created after the 9/11 attacks, is widely seen as failing to live up to its billing as a way of channeling information from the different agencies.
Today, Mr John Brennan admitted that Mr Clapper should have been kept abreast of the UK arrests.
He said Mr Clapper was focused on escalating tensions between North and South Korea and a nuclear weapons treaty with Russia, adding: 'He was engaged in a variety of classified matters.
‘Should he have been briefed by his staff on those arrests? Yes. And I know there was breathless attention by the media about these arrests, and it was constantly on the news networks.
'I'm glad that Jim Clapper is not sitting in front of the TV 24 hours a day and monitoring what's coming out of the media.
‘What he is doing is focusing on those intelligence issues that the president expects him to focus on, and to make sure that we don't have conflict in different parts of the world.’
Mr Brennan said there was ‘no action’ required of Mr Clapper concerning the 12 arrests in the UK.
The suspects, aged between 17 and 28, are accused of preparing Al Qaeda-inspired attacks on ‘mass casualty’ targets such as shopping malls and nightclubs.
They were taken into custody after more than 150 officers from four forces swooped on homes in London, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham and Cardiff.
Senior security sources described the arrests as ‘hugely significant’.
Obama weighs review process for Guantanamo detainees
The Obama administration is considering the creation of a review process for Guantanamo Bay detainees who are deemed too dangerous to be released but who cannot be tried in either civilian or military courts.
An administration official confirmed that an executive order had been drafted that would establish “periodic reviews” for prolonged detentions. But the official said the order had not yet gone to President Barack Obama.
The order may be greeted warily by human rights groups. While the administration sees the process as a way to provide clear standards for cases of indefinite detentions, many rights groups oppose any formalisation of such detentions.
The Washington Post, which first reported that the draft order was under consideration, said it would create a system that would allow detainees and their lawyers to challenge incarcerations, possibly every year.
It would also establish a more “adversarial” process for reviews than the system put in place by the administration of former President George W. Bush, the newspaper said.
There are still 174 detainees at the Guantanamo prison and about three dozen were set for prosecution in either US criminal courts or military commissions. Republicans have demanded that the trials be held at Guantanamo.
In a May 2009 speech in which he underscored his pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, Obama said there was a need for “prolonged detention” for some terrorism suspects who could not be tried but posed a threat to security.
US officials say trials are not possible in some cases because evidence was obtained through torture or is classified.
“We must have clear, defensible and lawful standards for those who fall in this category,” Obama said in the speech. “We must have fair procedures so that we don’t make mistakes. We must have a thorough process of periodic review, so that any prolonged detention is carefully evaluated and justified.”
Obama has vowed to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay amid international condemnation of the treatment of detainees, but he has run into political resistance at home.
The formalisation of the policy on prolonged detentions comes as the Obama administration struggles with how to prosecute other terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The administration has had to scramble to lobby against legislation pending in Congress — surprisingly put forward by some of Obama’s fellow Democrats — that would ban bringing suspects to US soil for prosecution in criminal courts.
Attorney General Eric Holder has pushed for criminal trials for many terrorism suspects and has urged lawmakers to not interfere with the administration’s powers to decide how to prosecute them.
Elisa Massimino, head of Human Rights First, said an executive order “limited to certain Guantanamo cases” was preferable to broader legislation on prevention detentions.
But she added that preventive detention policies, whether by the administration or Congress, “pose a serious threat to fundamental rights and are no substitute for criminal justice”.
“Reliance on indefinite detention as a path of least resistance is part of how we ended up in the Guantanamo mess in the first place,” Massimino added.
Saudi king leaves hospital in good health
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has left a New York hospital in good health, the kingdom’s state news agency said today.“King Abdullah left the Presbyterian Hospital on Tuesday evening . . . as God gave him good health,” the Saudi Press Agency said.
“He moved to his place of residence in New York to recuperate and continue with physical therapy,” the statement said, but did not say when he might return to Saudi Arabia.
Earlier this month, the state news agency said the king, believed to be 86 or 87, had a successful second operation to stabilise vertebrae in his spinal column.
The second operation was the completion of earlier surgery after a blood clot complicated a slipped disc.
Crown Prince Sultan, who has health problems of his own, returned from abroad to govern the world’s largest oil exporter while Abdullah is away.
King Abdullah, who came to power in 2005, is the sixth leader of the top exporter among the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and US ally, whose political stability is of regional and global concern.
Police told royal squad NOT to drive Prince Charles and Camilla on riot route after sergeant warned of 200-strong baying mob
Royalty protection officers were warned by a police colleague not to drive down Regent Street 15 minutes before Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall were attacked by a baying mob, the Daily Mail can reveal.
A police sergeant told a member of the couple’s protection team that the area surrounding the road should be avoided because up to 200 thugs were in close proximity.
But the advice – logged in official police records – was not followed and Charles and Camilla’s royal limousine was driven straight into a splinter group of anarchists who had attended the student protests against the raising of tuition fees.
Details of the apparently unheeded warning are disclosed in an urgent internal Scotland Yard report, which has been handed to the Home Secretary, Theresa May.
The report was written by Met Commander Ian Quinton and, according to sources, it pulls no punches about who was to blame for the fiasco.
There are no plans to make it public but a security source said: ‘If the Quinton report was ever published, it would make extremely uncomfortable reading.’
The most shocking revelation is that according to a minute-by-minute ‘decision and action’ log kept by a riot squad chief, royalty protection officers were specifically advised to avoid driving along Regent Street, Piccadilly and Haymarket in London’s West End because of concerns about a mob nearby.
The log was kept by Chief Supt Mick Johnson of the Met’s Territorial Support Group, who was ‘silver commander’, or deputy head, of policing the student demonstrations.
Chief Supt Johnson was based in a police control room in Lambeth, South London, on the night of the riots on December 9.
It was there, shortly after 7pm, that one of his trusted aides sitting nearby, Sergeant Adam Nash, received a phone call from a member of Charles and Camilla’s protection team as they prepared to drive the couple through the West End to attend the Royal Variety Performance at the Palladium.
Sergeant Nash told the royal bodyguard that although Regent Street was then clear, they should not drive along it and the surrounding area because a group of thugs were in nearby streets.
Nevertheless, the chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce headed into Regent Street at about 7.18pm.
Last night it was unclear why the advice was not acted upon. One possibility, not confirmed, was that the royal couple wanted to take that route. The revelation is a huge embarrassment to Scotland Yard chiefs and will pile pressure on the head of the Royalty Protection Squad, Commander Peter Loughborough, who has now overseen three major royal security blunders.
First was the 2003 break-in at Windsor Castle by an intruder dressed as Osama Bin Laden who gatecrashed Prince William’s 21st birthday party. The following year, a Fathers 4 Justice campaigner dressed as Batman staged a protest on the Buckingham Palace balcony. But the fiasco in Regent Street is widely regarded as the worst of the bungles.
Camilla cowered on the floor of the vintage Rolls-Royce after an anarchist somehow managed to push a stick into the royal limousine and jab her in the ribs.
It is thought one of the highly distinctive car’s rear windows had been opened in error as protesters chanted ‘off with their heads’ and ‘Tory scum’ at the heir to the throne and his wife.
MPs have demanded a full independent inquiry, similar to the one carried out into the security blunder at Windsor Castle, but Yard chiefs insist that no such probe is necessary.
Privately, Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson is said to be ‘extremely disappointed’ about the role played in the bungle by the Royalty Protection Squad.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, he said Regent Street had been ‘recced’ – reconnoitred – by royalty protection officers just a few minutes before the royal car arrived and it was clear.
Last night Dai Davies, former head of the Royalty Protection Squad, demanded an independent probe into the matter. He told the Mail: ‘It looks like royalty protection officers were given sound tactical advice. The big question is why was it ignored and why wasn’t an alternative route taken?’
Since the fiasco, security around Prince Charles has been massively increased.
The Yard’s watchdog, the Metropolitan Police Authority, is also investigating the riot tactics used by officers in the student demonstrations.
A police sergeant told a member of the couple’s protection team that the area surrounding the road should be avoided because up to 200 thugs were in close proximity.
But the advice – logged in official police records – was not followed and Charles and Camilla’s royal limousine was driven straight into a splinter group of anarchists who had attended the student protests against the raising of tuition fees.
Camilla was jabbed in the ribs by one protester and their car vandalised during the terrifying incident, regarded as the worst royal security lapse for decades.
Details of the apparently unheeded warning are disclosed in an urgent internal Scotland Yard report, which has been handed to the Home Secretary, Theresa May.
The report was written by Met Commander Ian Quinton and, according to sources, it pulls no punches about who was to blame for the fiasco.
There are no plans to make it public but a security source said: ‘If the Quinton report was ever published, it would make extremely uncomfortable reading.’
The most shocking revelation is that according to a minute-by-minute ‘decision and action’ log kept by a riot squad chief, royalty protection officers were specifically advised to avoid driving along Regent Street, Piccadilly and Haymarket in London’s West End because of concerns about a mob nearby.
The log was kept by Chief Supt Mick Johnson of the Met’s Territorial Support Group, who was ‘silver commander’, or deputy head, of policing the student demonstrations.
Chief Supt Johnson was based in a police control room in Lambeth, South London, on the night of the riots on December 9.
It was there, shortly after 7pm, that one of his trusted aides sitting nearby, Sergeant Adam Nash, received a phone call from a member of Charles and Camilla’s protection team as they prepared to drive the couple through the West End to attend the Royal Variety Performance at the Palladium.
Sergeant Nash told the royal bodyguard that although Regent Street was then clear, they should not drive along it and the surrounding area because a group of thugs were in nearby streets.
Nevertheless, the chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce headed into Regent Street at about 7.18pm.
Last night it was unclear why the advice was not acted upon. One possibility, not confirmed, was that the royal couple wanted to take that route. The revelation is a huge embarrassment to Scotland Yard chiefs and will pile pressure on the head of the Royalty Protection Squad, Commander Peter Loughborough, who has now overseen three major royal security blunders.
First was the 2003 break-in at Windsor Castle by an intruder dressed as Osama Bin Laden who gatecrashed Prince William’s 21st birthday party. The following year, a Fathers 4 Justice campaigner dressed as Batman staged a protest on the Buckingham Palace balcony. But the fiasco in Regent Street is widely regarded as the worst of the bungles.
Camilla cowered on the floor of the vintage Rolls-Royce after an anarchist somehow managed to push a stick into the royal limousine and jab her in the ribs.
It is thought one of the highly distinctive car’s rear windows had been opened in error as protesters chanted ‘off with their heads’ and ‘Tory scum’ at the heir to the throne and his wife.
MPs have demanded a full independent inquiry, similar to the one carried out into the security blunder at Windsor Castle, but Yard chiefs insist that no such probe is necessary.
Privately, Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson is said to be ‘extremely disappointed’ about the role played in the bungle by the Royalty Protection Squad.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, he said Regent Street had been ‘recced’ – reconnoitred – by royalty protection officers just a few minutes before the royal car arrived and it was clear.
Last night Dai Davies, former head of the Royalty Protection Squad, demanded an independent probe into the matter. He told the Mail: ‘It looks like royalty protection officers were given sound tactical advice. The big question is why was it ignored and why wasn’t an alternative route taken?’
Since the fiasco, security around Prince Charles has been massively increased.
The Yard’s watchdog, the Metropolitan Police Authority, is also investigating the riot tactics used by officers in the student demonstrations.
Greeks go on strike before austerity budget vote
Greek unions called a general strike today and Athens was paralysed by a 24-hour public transport stoppage in protest against the government’s 2011 budget, set to pass later as part of an EU/IMF bailout.
The budget, meant to help stem a debt crisis that has shaken the euro zone, includes further tax hikes and wage cuts in state-run enterprises, especially in public transport.
Fitch said yesterday it may cut Greece’s credit rating next month to junk as both other major rating agencies have done.
“Even though this news was expected, it will go down badly with the markets, there is widespread fear about downgrades coming,” said Ioanna Telioudi, analyst at HSBC in Athens.
Greece’s main public and private sector labour unions have called a 3-hour strike from 1000 to 1300 GMT in Athens. Thousands are expected to rally outside parliament.
Athens bus and subway drivers have been holding on and off strikes for two weeks, keeping Christmas shoppers from the city centre, adding to the strain of recession-hit retailers.
The government threatened today to break the public transport strikes, invoking emergency legislation it used earlier this year to dissolve labour action by truck drivers and other transport workers.
“Everyone has to show responsibility ... the state has all the powers it needs to protect the public interest,” government spokesman George Petalotis said in a television interview.
Analysts have warned the additional measures will hurt the economy even more without providing guarantees that the country will avoid a debt restructuring to cope with ballooning debt.
The government has a comfortable majority of 156 seats out of 300 in parliament and the budget is expected to be approved despite growing discontent among the ruling PASOK party ranks.
“I am giving the government a last chance,” said PASOK deputy Thomas Robopoulos during the budget debate yesterday. Since the EU/IMF bailout agreement was signed in May, Prime Minister George Papandreou has expelled four deputies for disagreeing publicly with his austerity policies
The socialists, who revealed a gaping budget deficit after coming to power last year, have braved public discontent and taken draconian measures to meet the bailout terms.
The government has cut public sector wages by about 15 per cent, increased the retirement age, frozen pensions, cut public spending but has failed to boost tax collection as much as targeted, despite a hefty VAT increase.
Greece’s lenders have said that the country was broadly on track with its fiscal programme but needed to step up reforms and spending cuts next year.
Partly as a result of the measures, the economy is seen shrinking by 3 per cent next year after a 4.2 per cent drop in 2010, with unemployment jumping to a record 14.6 per cent from an estimated 12.1 per cent this year.
Greece targets a deficit of 7.4 per cent of GDP next year, from about 9.4 per cent this year.
Greek protesters clashed with police last week and set fire to cars and a hotel in central Athens earlier this month, as some 50,000 marched against austerity in the biggest and most violent march since three died in protests in May.
Europe travel chaos eases but pain remains
A British Airways aircraft lands as another taxis for take off at Heathrow Airport in west London December 21, 2010. Airline and international train services were limping back towards normal in parts of Europe today.
Airline and international train services were limping back towards normal in parts of Europe today, but the lingering effects of ice and snow that caused widespread chaos still weighed on schedules.
The disruptions to airlines and high-speed trains in continental Europe, and linking Britain to the continent, created travel chaos for tens of thousands of travellers in the busy Christmas period following heavy weekend snowfalls.
They also brought calls for legislation to force airports to deal more effectively with snow and other bad weather.
European Union transport chief Siim Kallas said he was considering forcing airports to provide a minimum level of infrastructure support during severe weather.
London’s Heathrow, the world’s busiest international airport, and Frankfurt Airport, the biggest on the continent, said on their websites that operations were returning to normal after severe disruptions.
Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, chief executive of airline BMI, owned by Lufthansa, accused BAA of being unprepared for the heavy snow at Heathrow.
“What is really incredible is that 10cm of snow closed the airport down for two days and then it operated at one-third capacity,” he told the Times newspaper.
“BAA was not prepared. It did not have enough de-icing fluid.”
A spokesman for BAA, which is owned by Spain’s Ferrovial, denied there had been a de-icer issue at Heathrow and said lessons would be learnt.
But he added: “This was unprecedented weather which closed most of northern Europe’s airports.”
Heathrow was scheduled to operate 70 per cent of a normal day’s service, about 800 flights, but it was still advising passengers not to come to Heathrow unless they had confirmed flights, the spokesman said.
“We’re hoping by the end of the day we’ll be up to full operation,” he said.
Heathrow reopened its second runway yesterday, offering a ray of hope for thousands of passengers stranded in departure halls, some for days in scenes that British newspapers said resembled refugee camps.
“Airlines are currently operating a significantly reduced schedule while they move diverted aircraft and crew back into position,” BAA said on its website.
British Airways said that, in line with a directive from BAA, it would operate only a third of its normal flight schedule at Heathrow until 6am tomorrow.
“It will take some time to rebuild an operation of our size and complexity at our hub airport, Heathrow,” the airline said on its website.
“We ask you not to travel to the airport unless you have a confirmed booking on one of the flights that is operating.”
Frankfurt international airport was open and running at full capacity today after heavy snow shut it down on Monday for several hours and 400 flights were cancelled.
An airport spokesman said there was a backlog of about 3,500 stranded passengers, including some 600 who spent the night on emergency cots at the airport.
“The airport operation is getting back to normal,” airport spokesman Thomas Uber said . “But it will take a while to catch up.”
German rail operator Deutsche Bahn said it would add extra train services from today to cope with a surge in demand due to air travel disruptions. Deutsche Bahn board member Berthold Huber said the added service would stay in place until December 31.
Eurostar, operator of the high-speed train between London and Brussels and Paris, said it would resume normal check-in service, but asked passengers not to show up until an hour before departure “to avoid congestion and an unnecessary wait”.
Yesterday, thousands of people were forced to queue in frigid temperatures for hours around St Pancras station in north London as every available Eurostar seat was snapped up by travellers bounced from airlines.
Eurostar said nine of its 52 trains would be cancelled today but that passengers for those services would be “reallocated onto one of the next available trains”.
Although the logjam of travellers was starting to ease, many passengers were irate.
“This was our holiday of a lifetime,” a man at Heathrow who’d been planning to travel with his wife told Sky News. “And it’s a nightmare.”
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