Train with gifts for N.Korea heir derails

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.

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.

Suspect package disarmed in Rome

Last week, an Italian anarchist group claimed responsibility for parcel bombs that wounded two people at the Swiss and Chilean embassies 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

Security officials survey the site of the blast at the University of Karachi campus December 28, 2010.

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.

Many killed in Ecuador bus plunge

Christmas Eve explosions kill 32 people in Nigeria after two churches are targeted

A policeman standing guard at the entrance of the police headquarters in Jos. A series of Christmas Eve church attacks and explosions have left at least 14 people dead in Nigeria

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.

Suspected Islamist sect members attacked three churches in northern Nigeria on Christmas Eve, leaving six people dead and one of the churches burned

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

 Airline travellers stand in a queue at Zaventem international airport near Brussels December 24, 2010. Unusually heavy snow caused air traffic chaos in Belgium today, with its main airport closing to travellers arriving for Christmas and severe delays disrupting departing flights.

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.”

Pope Speaks to the World's Catholics on Christmas Day

Flu kills 27 in Britain

A patient is given a H1N1 swine flu vaccination at the University College London hospital, on October 21, 2009.


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.