My World Earth News

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Typhoon Ketsana and Typhoon Parmma sent storms and flooding devastating Philipina.

Benguet province had already been badly hit by storms

Rescue teams have been stretched by two massive storms in quick succession

Large areas of some provinces have been affected by flooding

People wade in the chest deep floodwater in suburban Cainta east of Manila in the Philippines

Dozens of towns have been turned into vast lakes

A NASA satelite image shows Typhoon Parma off the Philippine Islands

Map of the Philippines locating the areas most affected by floods and landslides caused by Typhoon Parma

People struggle through a flooded street in the town of Santa Cruz, south of Manila.

Citizens struggle with flood damage

Large areas of some provinces have been affected by flooding.Coffin are transported using sampan.

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At least 32 bodies have been retrieved and more were feared to have been buried alive as back-to-back storms triggered massive landslides in northern Philippines, local media reported Friday.Local television channel ANC reported that 32 bodies were recovered in the mountainous Benguet province, which is suffering continuous rains brought by the tropical depression Parma.

The government's disasters relief agency on Friday morning reported that at least 25 people were confirmed dead across the northern and central Luzon, with 39 others still missing.

Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres at the National Disaster Coordinating Council said the government has no official report indicating the missing were already dead.

"But if we sum it up, this will be over 50," Torres said.

Parma, initially a typhoon, stalled in northern Philippines for days as high air pressure over the South China Sea prevented it from moving further west. Parts of the coastal Pangasinan province were reported to be submerged in floodwaters.

The Philippines is still reeling from the devastation of tropical storm Ketsana, which poured epic rainfall to the national capital region and surrounding areas, leaving 300 people dead and nearly 40 others missing.

Dozens of landslides in the rain-soaked mountains of the northern Philippines have killed an estimated 100 people, a disaster relief official said.

Olive Luces, civil defence director for the Cordillera mountain region, said four major mudslides struck, burying almost an entire village in La Trinidad town in Benguet province.

Fresh flooding also hit about 30 towns in Pangasinan province, sending residents fleeing to rooftops and scrambling for safety after dams released excess water from recent heavy rains.

The Philippines has been hit by two major storms in the past two weeks. Floods and landslides have already left some 300 others dead.

Landslides unleashed by tropical depression Parma across the Philippine province of Benguet have killed at least 122 people and left 31 missing, officials said Friday.Four people had been found alive in debris and at least 22 had been injured by landslides that started Thursday afternoon and continued all night, affecting several municipalities, said Elmer Foria, police senior superintendent.

Parma, which had been downgraded from a typhoon, poured more rain onto sodden and already weakened ground.

Flooding had inundated 32 towns and two cities, Dagupan and Urdaneta, according to Rocky Baraan, provincial administrator of Pangasinan. Some 35,000 people had fled to evacuation centers, the official Philippines News Agency reported, citing the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council.

The worst-hit areas included Bayambang, Alcala and Basista, the news agency reported.

People clambered onto rooftops as floodwaters rose, calling and texting for help. Rescue trucks were hampered by floodwaters that reach the roofs of single-story houses, Baraan said. About 16 rubber rescue boats had been deployed.

The U.S. Navy was expected to join rescue operations in Pangasinan, according to the agency.

In the last several days, water has become the Philippines' biggest enemy, as Parma, locally known as "Pepeng," dumped as much as 36 inches (91.4 centimeters) of rain in some parts of the nation of islands, compounding misery in areas already flooded by earlier storm Ketsana.

Parma was forecast to have winds of no greater than 39 mph (63 kph) by Friday. Fresh floods have covered large areas of the northern Philippines after days of heavy rain from the remnants of Typhoon Parma.

The flooding and landslides in the northern part of the main island of Luzon have left around 100 people dead in the past week, officials said on Friday.

Tens of thousands have been evacuated from affected areas and thousands more remain trapped by high waters.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Senator Richard Gordon, the head of the Philippine Red Cross, dozens of provinces had been "totally inundated" by floods.

He said Red Cross boats had evacuated hundreds of families and more boats and relief workers were due to arrive in the region later on Friday.

The flooding was made worse after five dams began releasing excess water on Thursday from rivers and reservoirs that had swelled from the unceasing rain brought by Parma.

The opening of the dams flooded areas downstream, with dozens of towns and farmlands transformed into vast lakes.Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas, reporting from Manila, said emergency services, which are already struggling to handle the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana which hit late last month, have now been stretched even further by the fresh flooding.

Typhoon Parma first hit the Philippines last Saturday and has since weakened into a tropical depression but continues to linger around the region.

Rescue officials in the mountainous Benguet province said on Friday that at least 69 people were killed in landslides across five districts.

At least 25 people had been reported killed earlier, the National Disaster Co-ordinating Council (NDCC) said.

Between 60 to 80 per cent of the coastal province of Pangasinan has been flooded and 30,000 people evacuated, said Lieutenant-Colonel Ernesto Torres at the NDCC.

Thousands of people spent the night on rooftops or sought refuge on higher ground and the bad weather hampered rescue efforts.

Rescue calls

Amado Espino, the governor of Pangasinan province, told local radio that rescue teams were having difficulty reaching those stranded because of the strong currents and heavy rain.

Marlyn Premicias, the province's vice-governor, said she started getting frantic text messages from residents late on Thursday asking to be rescued after the San Roque dam released water along the Agno river, inundating 30 out of 46 townships in the coastal province.

In Nueva Ecija province to the east, 23 of 32 towns and cities were hit by floods, local officials said.

Roads were cut off heading north from the capital, Manila, where residents are still trying to pick up the pieces from Typhoon Ketsana.

That storm killed at least 337 people, flooded large areas in and around the capital and forced nearly half a million from their homes last week.

In addition the storm caused millions of dollars of in damage to crops, roads, bridges and schools.

UN appeal

The provincial governor of Pangasinan province, Amado Espino, told reporters that water released by the San Roque dam had flooded towns.

"The dam is supposed to be for flood control but now it is so filled it is like it is not there. The water just rushes right through from the mountains to Pangasinan."

Mr Espino said strong currents and continuing rain were making it hard to reach and rescue people in flooded areas.

The province's Vice Governor, Marlyn Premicias, told the Associated Press she had been receiving text messages from people needing to be rescued.

"Eastern Pangasinan has become one big river," she said.

Lt Col Ernesto Torres of the NDCC told Reuters news agency that 30,000 people had been evacuated in the province and 60-80% of the land was flooded.

The UN earlier appealed for $74m (£47m) to help victims of storms in the Philippines.

It says about 500,000 people have fled their homes and are still living in emergency shelters and has warned of an urgent need for food, water, sanitation facilities, emergency shelter and health care provisions.

Gwendolyn Pang of the Philippine National Red Cross told the BBC that getting aid to those in need was difficult as travelling by land was often impossible.

"Most of the areas are impassable because of landslides and because of the flood water, so we need to airlift relief food and also do rescues by airlift," she said.

Typhoon Ketsana hit Manila and surrounding areas on 26 September, causing the worst flooding in the capital in more than four decades.

Eight days later, Parma blew across the country's mountainous north, bringing more rain. Meteorologists say the storm is still lingering off the coast of the Philippines

US encounters stumbling blocks in training Afghans

An Afghan Commando pulls himself over a rope ladder in an obstacle course in Afghanistan's Wardak Province Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009.

An Afghan Commando instructor photographs a Commando as he climbs a rope in an obstacle course in Afghanistan's Wardak Province

An Afghan Commando crawls beneath barbed wire in an obstacle course in Afghanistan's Wardak Province Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009.

An Afghan Commando climbs a rope in an obstacle course in Afghanistan's Wardak Province Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009. A well-trained and disciplined Afghan force of police and soldiers is considered the fragile government's best hope of keeping power against the Taliban, and is central to the NATO strategy of curbing violence in this country.

An Afghan Commando and a U.S. Soldier from 20th Special Forces Group take part in a training exercise in Afghanistan's Wardak Province Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009. A well-trained and disciplined Afghan force of police and soldiers is considered the fragile government's best hope of keeping power against the Taliban, and is central to the NATO strategy of curbing violence in this country.

An Afghan Commando navigates monkey bars in an obstacle course in Afghanistan's Wardak Province Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009. A well-trained and disciplined Afghan force of police and soldiers is considered the fragile government's best hope of keeping power against the Taliban, and is central to the NATO strategy of curbing violence in this country.

An Afghan Commando pulls himself along a rope in an obstacle course in Afghanistan's Wardak Province

Even before the American paratroopers entered the Afghan barracks, the lack of discipline was evident: torn screens, trash collecting in the hallways, bedrooms and bushes. The checkpoints were even worse, they said, with used syringes littering the ground.

But the training effort has been drastically slowed by rampant corruption, widespread illiteracy, vanishing supplies, lack of discipline — and the added burden of unifying a force made up of a patchwork of often hostile ethnic groups.

At the same time, the police and the Afghan army face a growing insurgency whose determination was evident in last weekend's battle in Nuristan province, when hundreds of militants stormed an outpost, killing eight American troops and capturing about 20 Afghan police and soldiers.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal's plan to double the number of Afghan security forces from about 200,000 to about 400,000 hinges on units like the 82nd's 4th Brigade Combat Team, whose paratroopers in Lashkar Gah are struggling to instill discipline in the local men serving as police reserves.Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, is one of the front lines against the Taliban. U.S. and British forces have struggled to hold the region and struggled even more to build up infrastructure that will let them leave it in Afghan hands. The Afghan forces' disarray was unwelcome news.

The lack of readiness on the part of the police and soldiers should be expected from any new force, said Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay, the chief spokesman for the international forces in Afghanistan.

"From a systemic perspective, it shows you these are very young soldiers," he said.

Young or not, in Helmand they will be key.

U.S. and British forces are holding a narrow 90 mile (150 kilometers)-long strip of the Helmand River valley and gradually expanding that safety net outward. The Afghan government in Kabul is dispatching district chiefs in areas once firmly in the Taliban's grip, and residents are slowly getting services including electricity and clean water.

These are the gains that a local police force must safeguard, even as officers fend off the Taliban violence that targets them as much as international forces.

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Airstrikes against Taliban militants left 10 insurgents dead in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province Wednesday night, a statement of U.S.-led Coalition press office in southeastern religion issued here said on Thursday.

Armed militants attacked a coalition military convoy in Gomal district Wednesday night and forces called on war plane killing 10armed militants on the spot, the statement added.

Taliban militants fighting Afghan and international troops have yet to make comments.

Eastern Afghanistan has been the scene of Taliban-led insurgency as the top U.S., NATO commander in his military assessment required up to 40,000 more additional troops to combat insurgency in the post-Taliban country.

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Taliban attack Indian Embassy with Car bomb

Rescuers carry an wounded at the blast site in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Oct. 8, 2009.

A soldier walks past a damaged car at the blast site in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Oct. 8, 2009. A powerful suicide blast targeting Indian embassy in Kabul left at least seven people dead and 67 others wounded Thursday morning.

A powerful car bomb exploded outside the Indian Embassy in the busy center of Afghanistan's capital early Thursday, killing at least 12 people, destroying vehicles and blowing off the walls of shops, officials said.

Eleven of the dead were civilians and one was an Afghan police officer, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

At least 84 people, including members of Afghan security forces, were wounded in the attack, which struck a shop-lined road between the Indian Embassy and the Interior Ministry, said Health Ministry spokesman Ahmad Farid Raaid.

The blast hit shortly after 8:30 a.m., just as residents were arriving for work. It shattered glass and rattled buildings more than a mile (kilometer) away. A huge brown plume of smoke was visible in the air as ambulances raced to the scene and carried away the wounded.

One 21-year-old man named Najibullah said he had just opened his shop when the explosion went off, knocking him unconscious.

When he awoke, he said, he couldn't see anything.

"Dust was everywhere. People were shouting," said Najibullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name. "You couldn't see their faces because there was so much dust."

His white clothes were covered in blood after helping load four injured onto ambulances.

In New Delhi, India's Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the Indian Embassy was the target.

"I believe the suicide bomb was directed at the embassy since the suicide bomber came up to the outer perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives," Rao told reporters.

Three Indian paramilitary soldiers on guard duty at the embassy's watchtower were wounded by shrapnel, Rao said.

She said the intensity of the blast was similar to the one that occurred outside the building on July 7, 2008, that killed dozens of civilians. The road in front of the embassy has been barricaded since then. The Afghan Interior Ministry is just across the street Indian Embassy.

The explosion hit a day after the Afghanistan war reached its eighth anniversary and as President Barack Obama considered a request for between 10,000 and 40,000 additional troops prepared by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.

The Afghan capital has been hit numerous times by suicide bombers and roadside bombs, several since the run-up to the country's disputed Aug. 20 election. The attacks usually target international military forces or government installations, but Afghan businesses and civilians are also often killed or injured.

In the most recent attack in mid-September, a suicide car bomber rammed into an Italian military convoy on a road leading to the airport. That blast killed six Italian soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said Thursday's explosion was also a suicide car bomb, but he had no details and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The Indian news channel CNN-IBN cited Jayant Prasad, Indian ambassador in Kabul, as saying there has been "extensive damage to the chancery." He said that the vehicle-borne bomb was so powerful that it blew off the some the embassy's doors and windows.

President Hamid Karzai's office condemned the attack.

AP Television News footage from Kabul on Thursday showed local residents and soldiers pulling a charred, severed leg out of a destroyed vehicle. Others carried an apparently lifeless body on a stretcher to an ambulance.

On another stretcher, a man lay face down, one arm hanging downward, his back left leg covered in blood.

Two sport utility vehicles nearby were badly damaged, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. One of them had U.N. markings on its side.

U.N. spokesman Dan McNorton confirmed two of the world body's vehicles were near the blast and one was damaged. Both vehicles had only a driver inside, and neither was wounded. The United Nations typically uses armored vehicles in Kabul that are designed to withstand such attacks.

The blast could be heard miles (kilometers) away. Windows in dozens of surrounding shops at the scene of the blast were shattered, and walls of buildings were badly damaged in the blast, though none of the multistory buildings along the commercial thoroughfare had collapsed.

One injured man said the force of the explosion threw him into the air. Mohammad Arif said he was leaving the Indian Embassy when the blast tossed him against a concrete barrier. The left side of his head was bleeding as he spoke.

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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Aid pours into quake-hit Indonesia-

There is little hope any more survivors will be found beneath the debris seven days after the quake

Between 170,000-200,000 homes are thought to have been damaged in the quake

Aid groups struggle to deliver to Indonesian quake victims.

Hundreds of people remained buried beneath massive landslides

The death toll from the 7.6 magnitude quake in West Sumatra rose to 704, and 295 others remained missing, Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency said on Tuesday.

Spokesman of the agency Priyadi Kardono told Xinhua that 101,653 houses were also seriously damaged and 97,983 others suffered from damages.

He said the quake has destroyed 887 units of education facilities and damaged 1,032 others.

Some international troops which had participated in the rescue operation, have left the province as they consider there are no more survivors in the debris.

Some other rescuers in the province have shifted their mission to humanitarian assistance.

Fresh international earthquake aid flowed into Indonesia on Tuesday as schools and shops re-opened amid the stench of death from bodies still trapped beneath the rubble.

At the crumpled Ambacang Hotel in the city centre, excavators briefly ceased digging when workers thought they heard a woman's cries for help, but a search revealed no further signs of life.

"There's no one alive. I stopped all the machinery to ensure that the family of the victims were satisfied," the commander of the clean-up operation, Haris Sarjana, told AFP.

Another 10 bodies were pulled from wreckage around Padang, including six from the Ambacang, provincial disaster management operation head Ade Edward said.

"We've also started to spray disinfectant to get rid of the stench and are clearing up the debris using heavy machinery," he added.

In the rugged hills to the east and north of the city, hundreds of people remained buried beneath massive landslides that swallowed villages when the 7.6-magnitude quake struck off the coast of western Sumatra last Wednesday.

A Red Cross official said the final death toll would exceed 3,000, although the national Disaster Management Agency put the latest toll at 704, with 295 missing.

Between 170,000-200,000 homes were damaged, with about half this number completely destroyed, said Bob McKerrow, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Indonesia. Related article: Anger over shoddy building standards

Helicopters dropped vital supplies to cut-off farming communities which relief workers could not reach by road.

More choppers were on their way aboard US Navy ships in a multimillion-dollar effort to aid victims of the earthquake, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington.

About 45 metric tonnes (50 tons) of relief goods from US Agency for International Development stockpiles were due to arrive in Padang on Tuesday.

"This includes plastic sheeting, hygiene kits, generators and this will all be distributed via the Red Cross," Kelly told reporters.

Meanwhile, a US Navy field hospital that will treat up to 400 people a day was opened in Padang and would start treating patients on Wednesday, a US official said.

The United States is also sending a seven-person mobile field surgical team and two warships with helicopters that will fly to the hardest-hit rural areas.

Australia has sent military engineers and medics on the ground, and two C-130 aircraft transporting personnel, equipment and stores between Jakarta and Padang, the Australian embassy said.

Most foreign search and rescue teams are leaving the country, with almost no hope any more survivors will be found beneath the debris seven days after the quake.

As the aid effort shifted gear, the city began to show signs of recovery. Related link: Padang picks up the broken pieces.

"Sixty percent of markets have reopened, the schools have all reopened, people have gone back to work and fishermen have gone back to sea," Padang Mayor Fauzi Bahar told AFP.

The UN children's agency UNICEF said almost 70,000 children, or about 40 percent of the city's students, were back in class Tuesday.

"This is an important sign that life will return to normal for children affected by this tragedy," UNICEF country representative Angela Kearney said.

The government has pledged six trillion rupiah (624 million dollars) for reconstruction efforts in Sumatra, but many fear the money will be lost to corruption as it flows through the local government.

"It gets thinner and thinner and then just a mouse's tail comes out the bottom. That's Indonesia," housewife Edib Mulyati told AFP in the village of Bunga Pasang on the outskirts of Padang.

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Afghan, US troops kill 40 militants in east-Obama aids told to keep Afganisthan policy advice quiet.

Originally constructed for 12,000 people, the Kandahar base now has between 30,000 and 40,000 occupants

The United States has deployed the majority of the 21,000 extra soldiers to Kandahar and the neighbouring Helmand

Kandahar is Afghanistan's second city and the Taliban movement's spiritual home.Close to opium production also.

The US Army faces a major challenge to win back the Taliban's historic stronghold of Kandahar -- a key battleground in the increasingly bloody fight to control Afghanistan.

"Kandahar city is nationally critical," said Steve Biddle, from the Centre of Foreign Relations think tank in Washington. "It's one of the small number of places where a true setback could be a war loser."

A combat brigade of about 4,000 US soldiers has been sent to the volatile 54,000-square-kilometre (21,000-square-mile) southern province.

Until their arrival, just 2,800 Canadian troops had spent the last three years trying to ensure security for the province's 900,000 people.

"Taliban have always viewed Kandahar city as the jewel of the south and as their ultimate goal," said US intelligence officer Captain Mark Richardson. "They believe that what Kandahar does, all the Afghans will do."

"If we retake Kandahar, if the people are satisfied and development works, that will spread everywhere in Afghanistan. Afghans say that change comes from Kandahar," said a Western official familiar with the situation.

Three months after their arrival, US troops tasked with securing the main supply routes leading to Kabul, maintain they have had some successes.

"We have made incredible progress," said Richardson, pointing to the Taliban withdrawal from its stronghold in Arghandab district, north of Kandahar.

But it has come at a price. About 20 US soldiers have already been killed, most of them in attacks by the insurgents' weapon of choice, improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

In a sign of its importance to the NATO coalition, the heavily-guarded military base to the south of the city has grown into the second-biggest behind Bagram, near the capital Kabul.

Originally constructed for 12,000 people, the base now has between 30,000 and 40,000 occupants from all countries participating in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operations -- and is getting bigger.

Armoured vehicles stretch as far as the eye can see, as Black Hawk helicopters, F-16 fighter jets and cargo planes take off and land in conveyor-belt succession.

The United States has deployed the majority of the 21,000 extra soldiers sent by President Barack Obama to Kandahar and the neighbouring province of Helmand, which produces most of the world's opium.

"Taliban have been very active in the south and I think we ignored them for the most part and concentrated our effort in the east, where Al-Qaeda was more active," a Pentagon military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We really lost control of areas in the south."

As the Afghan conflict enters its ninth year, the Taliban in Afghanistan now control most of the 17 districts in the province and have spread into Kandahar, Afghanistan's second city and the movement's spiritual home.

And the battle is far from won, faced with a tenacious enemy and difficult terrain.

"Kandahar is a microcosm of the strategic problems of the country," said Biddle.

"There has to be a serious security force presence in the city. And the perception that it's better if it'd be Afghan is exactly right. However the Afghan government in Kabul has not been particularly supportive."

The Western official added: "The Taliban and others are taking advantage of the debate about troops and saying, 'the foreigners won't stay beyond two years'. That has had a negative impact on the population."

In addition, people here are victims of intimidation and racketeering by the Taliban, who often act with impunity. Several local leaders, fearing for their lives, do not even live in their own districts.

International forces accept that they have come up against the problem of corruption of local authorities, which is hampering efforts to win the support of the population.

The underpaid Afghan police are widely seen as corrupt. Many Afghans also accuse the head of the provincial council, Ahmed Wali Karzai whose brother is the Afghan president, of involvement in criminal activities including drug trafficking.

Rampant corruption is laying the foundations for insurrection, a number of international observers said on condition of anonymity.

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China, NKorea reaffirm relations-Premier Wen visit to NKorea fruitful-NKorea will to continue nuclear talks.-USA target banks using illicit NKorea $$

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (left) shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at Pyongyang Airport.Kim Jong Il (right) told Wen Jiabao that he was willing to take part in multilateral talks, state media reported

South Koreans watch a TV news program about Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, second from left, meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, second from right, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009. North Korea is in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities, a news report said Tuesday, as Kim expressed a conditional willingness to end Pyongyang's boycott of international nuclear talks.

Delegations from China (right) and North Korea (left) meet in Pyongyang

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) shakes hands with Kim Jong Il, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), during a meeting in Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK, Oct. 5, 2009.
North Korea is in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities, a news report said Tuesday, as leader Kim Jong Il expressed a conditional willingness to end Pyongyang's boycott of international nuclear talks.

South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities reached the conclusion after scrutinizing about 10 atomic facilities in North Korea since April when the communist regime vowed to restart its nuclear program in anger over a U.N. rebuke of its long-range rocket launch.

Pyongyang claimed the launch was a peaceful attempt to put a satellite into orbit, but the liftoff was widely condemned as a test of the North's long-range missile technology.

The report came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao that his country was prepared to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks depending on progress in its two-way negotiations with the United States.

Kim's comments, carried by official North Korean and Chinese media, were the clearest sign yet that Pyongyang was readying to resume the six-nation talks it withdrew from after conducting missile tests in April and a second nuclear test in May.

The stalled talks involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the U.S.

In their meeting late Monday, Kim said that North Korea "is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, depending on the progress in its talks with the United States," China's Xinhua News Agency said in a report issued early Tuesday.

North Korea has long sought one-on-one negotiations with the U.S., claiming that it was compelled to develop nuclear weapons to cope with what it calls the "U.S. hostile policy" and "nuclear threats" against the regime.

Yonhap also cited the government source as saying that North Korea has conducted missile engine tests a few times recently on the country's west coast at a new missile launch site that is in the final stage of construction.

News reports said earlier this year that the North had moved a long-range missile to the new site for a possible test launch, but Yonhap said Tuesday that the missile has been moved elsewhere. The report did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that the youngest son of Kim Jong Il could be officially named an heir to the communist dynasty as early as next year. The paper cited a South Korean government report to a ruling party lawmaker.

Talk of who will take over North Korea after Kim Jong Il intensified after Kim reportedly suffered a stroke last year. The third son, Kim Jong Un, is widely believed to be the favorite.

China Premier visit to NKorea
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is rich in content, weighty in outcome and significant in meaning, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Tuesday.

Yang stressed that the three-day visit had achieved two major results -- further deepening the traditional China-DPRK friendship and boosting their good-neighborly relations of cooperation as well as promoting the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a positive way.

As an important country in Northeast Asia and a host of the six-party talks, China has once again played its due role and shouldered its due responsibility, he said.

The foreign minister said that China and the DPRK are two friendly neighbors, and this year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations and is the China-DPRK Friendship Year.

Wen was greeted at the airport by DPRK's top leader Kim Jong Il,top legislator Kim Yong Nam, and his DPRK counterpart Kim Yong Il.Hundreds of thousands of residents in Pyongyang gave the Chinese premier a warm welcome along the city's streets.

During their talks, both the Chinese and the DPRK sides agreed that the China-DPRK friendship forged by old generation revolutionaries is in line with the common wishes and fundamental interests of both the Chinese and DPRK people, said the foreign minister. Premier Wen had sincere and in-depth talks with the DPRK leaders on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and made much headway on the promotion of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, Yang said.

The commitment to the objective of making the peninsula nuclear free, and to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia as a whole, serves the interests of all the parties concerned, including the DPRK, Wen was quoted as saying.

To realize denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and consultation is a common understanding of the international community and the only way to solve the peninsula's nuclear issue, Wen said.

China is willing to make concerted efforts with the DPRK and other parties concerned to contribute to realizing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and maintaining peace, stability and development in the Northeast Asian region, Premier Wen said.

Through bilateral meetings between the DPRK and the United States, the hostile relations between the two countries must turn into peaceful ones. The DPRK is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, based on the progress in the DPRK-U.S. talks, the DPRK side said.

US targets banks in effort to restart NKorea talks.

Obama administration also learn from previous Bush Administrator how to force NKorea into talk. The Obama administration's push to settle a tense nuclear standoff with North Korea is being spearheaded not by soldiers on a battlefield or big-name diplomats but by government officials knocking on the doors of banks throughout Asia.

American officials are traveling around Asia, targeting private banks that might have North Korean ties. They hope to block money that could be used for missiles and nuclear bombs and, ultimately, to drive North Korea back to stalled disarmament talks.

The strategy is simple, according to interviews with past and current U.S. officials responsible for implementing it. And, they say, it works, which has not been the case with tortuous nuclear negotiations with the North.

The officials tell bankers that North Korea uses its accounts to hide counterfeiting of U.S. currency, to launder money, to smuggle cigarettes and drugs. The banks could face potentially dire consequences if they are seen as helping illicit activities.

U.S. officials say bankers find their visits difficult to ignore.

"It's having an effect. We think that the word is out," said Philip Goldberg, President Barack Obama's point man on implementing new United Nations sanctions on North Korea. The effort encourages banks to "give heightened scrutiny to any transaction that may be coming through with a North Korean label on it."

Coincidence or not, as the United States steps up financial pressure, the North has begun making conciliatory moves, showing a new willingness to resume nuclear talks.

The Obama administration can point to a U.N. resolution that decrees financial sanctions against designated entities that may be involved in missile or nuclear weapons financing or proliferation. Victor Cha, Bush's former senior Asia adviser, said the resolution makes "a huge difference" in getting banks' attention.

The White House also has at its disposal a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of dealing with the North: the story of Banco Delta Asia, a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau accused of helping North Korea launder money and other illicit activities.

The threat of the U.S. blacklisting BDA in 2005 effectively led to the North being severed from the international financial system, as institutions worried about jeopardizing their U.S. connections voluntarily stopped dealing with the bank and the North.

Even if they have little risk of being blacklisted, financial institutions try to avoid activities that would tarnish their reputations and scare away current or future customers.

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Pakistan Taliban claim UN attack

An unidentified man, who was injured in the suicide bombing in U.N. food agency's office, talks on his cell phone near the site in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Oct. 5, 2009. A suicide bomber disguised as a security officer struck the lobby of the U.N. food agency's Pakistan headquarters Monday, a day after the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban vowed fresh assaults, authorities and witnesses said.

A Pakistan police officer stands over a wall as smoke erupts from U.N. food agency's office after a suicide bombing in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Oct. 5, 2009. A suicide bomber disguised as a security officer struck the lobby of the U.N. food agency's Pakistan headquarters Monday, a day after the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban vowed fresh assaults, authorities and witnesses said.

Pakistani police commandos stand guard at the main entry gate of U.N. food agency's office after a suicide bombing in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Oct. 5, 2009. A suicide bomber disguised as a security officer struck the lobby of the U.N. food agency's Pakistan headquarters Monday, a day after the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban vowed fresh assaults, authorities and witnesses said.

Pakistan security officials gather at the site of a suicide bombing in U.N. food agency's office in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Oct. 5, 2009. A suicide bomber disguised as a security officer struck the lobby of the U.N. food agency's Pakistan headquarters Monday, a day after the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban vowed fresh assaults, authorities and witnesses said.

A woman cries next to the body of a person killed in a suicide attack in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, Oct. 5, 2009. A bomber disguised as a security officer blew himself up Monday in the lobby of the U.N. food agency in Islamabad, a day after the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban vowed fresh attacks, authorities and witnesses said.

Pakistani security officials and rescue workers survey the site of a bomb blast in Islamabad.

Four Pakistanis and an Iraqi were killed in the suicide attack Monday

The Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a blast at a United Nations office in the capital which left five aid workers dead, a spokesman for the insurgents told AFP.

"This attack was launched by us -- we claim responsibility," Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Four Pakistanis and an Iraqi were killed Monday when a man dressed in military uniform breached strict security measures and detonated explosives in the heavily-fortified office of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Islamabad.

"The WFP is promoting the US agenda. They are silent on massacres and do not comment on killings in Waziristan and other areas," Tariq said, referring to a lawless tribal district where the US has launched missile strikes.

Pakistan's military has said it is readying for an assault on the northwest tribal belt near Afghanistan, a bastion of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan movement and an alleged hideout and training ground for Al-Qaeda fighters.

"Pakistan has been threatening a military operation. We also reserve the right to retaliate. We will give them a befitting response," Tariq said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has already blamed the blast on Taliban militants, saying they were avenging a military push against them in northwest Swat valley launched in late April which left more than 2,000 militants dead.

The Taliban have also vowed attacks to avenge an August 5 US drone missile strike in South Waziristan that killed insurgent commander Baitullah Mehsud.

U.N Food HQ is a well known target.

"All the security arrangements were in place at the U.N. office," he said.

The United Nations considers itself a major target in Pakistan. Many of its offices are surrounded by 12-foot-high blast walls. Its staff members are driven in bulletproof cars and not allowed to bring their families with them on assignment in the country.

The World Food Program compound, which employs more than 70 people, is surrounded by square metal cages filled with sand and small stones used to protect against blasts and projectiles.

"This was one of the best-protected U.N. centers in all of Pakistan," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters at the world body's headquarters in New York. "We were really quite heavily guarded at least at that compound. How that person got in — that is still being investigated, and we're trying to find out from surveillance cameras."

It was unclear whether the attack Monday singled out the World Food Program because of its work in Pakistan or was simply aiming to kill foreigners or those working with them. The dead were four Pakistanis and an Iraqi.

Extremists in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq seeking to attack high-profile Western targets have shown no hesitation in striking foreign humanitarian agencies, including the United Nations, regardless of the work they are doing in relieving the suffering in the countries. A blast in June on a luxury hotel housing many foreign aid workers in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed two U.N. staffers and wounded others.

The attack came a day after the new Pakistani Taliban leader met reporters close to the Afghan border, vowing more attacks in response to U.S. missile strikes on militant targets in Pakistan. Ending speculation he had been killed, Hakimullah Mehsud denied government claims the militants were in disarray and said his fighters would repel any army offensive on their stronghold in South Waziristan.

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Sunday, October 4, 2009

Sumatra earthquake rescue operation scaled back .

Rescue workers have started scaling down their efforts in the Indonesian port city of Padang as hopes of finding any more survivors from last week's earthquake faded.

Padang Alai four days after the earthquake

Indonesia's health minister estimated the death toll from the 7.6 magnitude quake would reach 3,000 when those listed as 'missing' were included among the dead. The confirmed total now stands at 1,300.

As relief efforts began to concentrate on delivering food, medicine and shelter to survivors, many of whom are living outside in remote villages in the Sumatran jungle, heavy machinery was moved in to clear fallen buildings in the city.

Peter Old, of the Rapid UK search and rescue charity, said: "We are doing final checks before we can declare the rescue phase is over. We think it's the end of the rescue phase.

"There's very little chance of finding people alive. It's the beginning of a ramping down in rescue work."

In Padang city excavators moved over the crumpled remains of the Ambacang hotel, where until Saturday there had been hopes of finding survivors after police received a SMS phone message from someone trapped inside.

Swiss rescue teams with specialist audio equipment also reported hearing tapping sounds on Friday, but no further noises had been heard within the last 24 hours. The hotel was packed with delegates attending an insurance company conference.

"I think the chances of finding survivors are very slim," the team leader of the Newmont Emergency Rescue Team, said at the scene of the ruined Dutch colonial-era hotel.

"We are taking an aggressive approach today to remove about 140 bodies that we believe are buried near the swimming pool." In the city's main Mjamil hospital which was largely destroyed by the quake, survivors were being treated in tents that also served as operating theatres, many languishing in the suffocating humidity, being fanned by relatives.

The sound of wailing drifted from the morgue as families picked up their dead. One group stopped in the car park to nail together a crude coffin for three family members. Others stared at pictures of dreadfully mutilated faces posted on the wall for identification purposes.

A 65-strong British search and rescue team, including search dogs, finally arrived in Padang after long delays due to aircraft technical problems to find that their search skills were no longer required.

They transferred their attention to relief efforts, driving along Sumatra's east coast to assess damage levels and hand out shelter kits and emergency rations to families who were sleeping out under the palms.

For one couple, Zainal, 33 and Samawati, 30, who were sitting in the ruins of their home with their three-year-old daughter Laura, happily accepted a shelter kit from a member of Kent fire brigade.

"Everything was destroyed, the earthquake took everything from us," said Zainal, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, "when the rain comes we have no where to keep dry.

"We are very grateful but this is the first help we have received since the disaster, please tell them we need help to rebuild our home." In the remote villages in the hills north of Padang, most of which are accessible only on foot, relief supplies were only just beginning to reach survivors who were desperately in need of shelter as torrential rain began to fall last night.

In Jumanak village, some 200 to 300 wedding guests were buried alive, including the bride according to her 15-year-old brother, Iseh.

"When the landslide came, the party had just finished. I heard a big boom of the avalanche. I ran outside and saw the trees fall down," he said. "I tried to get in front of the house with my brothers. We were so afraid. Landslides started coming from all directions. I just ran."

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The quake also leveled more than 22,000 buildings and damaged over 16,000 others.

It is predicted more than 1,000 people have been killed by the catastrophe. Thousands of people now live in simple makeshift buildings.

Foreign aids in the form of human forces, some equipment and medicine, and domestic assistance such as foods, medicine and tents, have already arrived in the province, officials said here on Saturday.

Earlier, the Indonesian government has said that the country did not really need logistic assistance from foreign countries.

The countries which have sent their aids include Japan, Australia, China's Hong Kong, Switzerland, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Singapore, Germany, South Korea and Malaysia.

The United Nations, the European Commission, foreign non-governmental organizations have also provided assistance, according to information from the United Nations.

Food, medicine, tents and financial assistance have poured in the province, but they seem to have been distributed up to district administration level and have not reached the survivors.

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