Enjoy Italy 'offers to arm rebels' as Gaddafi forces destroy oil tanks

We are saw now enjoy Italy 'offers to arm rebels' as Gaddafi forces destroy oil tanks



Anti-Gaddafi rebels say Italy has offered to arm them with "whatever they need to liberate Libya". A rebel spokesman in the eastern city of Benghazi, declined to specify what kind of weapons would be provided, and last night the Italian foreign ministry denied the claim.

The confusing reports came after Libyan government forces attacked a Misrata oil depot, causing a huge fire. Fuel tanks were still engulfed in flames hours after the early morning attack. The depot contains vital stores of fuel for cars, trucks, ships and generators powering hospitals and other key sites.

Rebel spokesman Ahmed Hassan said: "Four fuel tanks were totally destroyed and a huge fire erupted which spread to the other four. We cannot extinguish it because we do not have the right tools. Now the city will face a major problem. Those were the only sources of fuel for the city. These tanks could have kept the city for three months with enough fuel."

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Mr Hassan said government forces used small planes normally used to spray pesticides for the overnight attack in the Qasr Ahmed neighbourhood. He later told Al-Jazeera television that three helicopters bearing Red Crescent insignia conducted the attack.

Another rebel spokesman, who gave his name as Abdelsalam, said a government helicopter conducted a reconnaissance mission over the port and two hours later at around midnight local time government forces fired rockets that hit three fuel tanks belonging to the Brega Oil Company.

Footage of the incident posted on YouTube by Libyan students in Misrata showed firefighters turning water hoses on a raging fire in a vain attempt to extinguish it.

Rebels notified Nato about the planes before the attack but there was no response, Mr Hassan said. Government forces flew at least one helicopter reconnaissance mission over Misrata last month, according to rebels. The loss of the oil is likely to be a significant development in the battle for control of Misrata, the only city in western Libya still in rebel
Coppied by http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/italy-offers-to-arm-rebels-as-gaddafi-forces-destroy-oil-tanks-2280818.html

Watches Curfew as hardline Kashmir separatist calls protest

Curfew as hardline Kashmir separatist calls protest


Syed Ali Shah Geelani (arms raised) has long been a thorn in the side of the Indian Kashmir authoritie
A day-long curfew has been imposed by the authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir to foil a protest march called by a hardline separatist group.

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who is under house arrest, has urged demonstrators to march to his residence in Srinagar.

More than 100 civilians have been killed since June in protests, but it has been nearly a month since the security forces fired on protesters.

Continue reading the main story
KASHMIR FLASHPOINT

Voices of fury
Autumn of woe
Desperate housewives
Back to frontline
This is the first curfew in Kashmir for more than a week.

Mr Geelani's calls for shutdowns have frequently brought life in the valley to a standstill, says the BBC's Altaf Hussain in Srinagar.

The authorities say Tuesday's curfew has been imposed to avoid a situation in which police would have to open fire.

Last month, the federal government announced measures to address surging violence in the valley.

They included compensation for families of those killed during recent clashes between pro-separatists and Indian security forces.
Coppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11520451

Watches this Rescue workers near their goal as Chile awaits

Rescue workers near their goal as Chile awaits


Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- There may be light at the end of a nearly completed tunnel for the 33 men trapped since August 5 almost half a mile below ground, with rescuers expected to reach them within a day, Chile's mining minister said Friday afternoon.
"Hopefully before that," Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told reporters about the time when a rescue drill is expected to pierce the roof of the mine. As of Friday afternoon, it was 40 meters (about 130 feet) away. "Maybe tomorrow morning, early Saturday. We have to wait and see."
Once the mine has been reached, the rescue process could begin within three to four days, Golborne told reporters. But mine engineers must decide first whether they need to encase the shaft with steel tubing to prevent rockfalls and further collapses during the extraction process. "If we do a full casing of the hole, those three to four days could go to eight to 10 days," Golborne told reporters.
One of the rescue coordinators, Rene Aguilar, an engineer for state copper company Codelco, said this week they may encase just the first 100 meters (328 feet) of the shaft, a process that could take just 10 hours.
Before anyone can be rescued, the hole must be widened so that the rescue capsule -- dubbed the Phoenix -- can land cleanly inside the tunnel without getting hung up on obstructions, Golborne said. To accomplish that, explosives will be lowered to the miners for use in widening the shaft, said Golborne, who expressed little concern that the subterranean pyrotechnics would pose any danger to the men.
"We have to take into consideration that we are talking here about miners that have experience, many of them are licensed to use explosives, they know how to manipulate them, they have already made the holes that they need to set the right quantities of explosives. ... So it will be a very controlled explosion that will be made after we break into the tunnel."
Then, authorities will lower a doctor and a rescuer into the chamber, Health Minister Jaime Manalich said. Medical and rescue personnel will be in place to start extracting and treating the miners Monday night, he said.
Once the miners have been extracted, they will undergo about two hours of health checks at a field hospital set up at the mine.
Barring complications, it will take about 24 to 36 hours to remove all the miners through the 2,300-foot hole, Manalich said. They will then be flown by helicopter to a hospital in the town of Copiapo -- approximately a 15-minute flight.
coppied by http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/08/chile.trapped.miners/index.html?hpt=T1

Excited At least 53 dead as car bombs target Iraq police

At least 53 dead as car bombs target Iraq police


AFP – An injured child is carried by her mother following a car bomb in a residential neighbourhood in the
BAGHDAD (AFP) – More than a dozen apparently coordinated car bombs targeting Iraqi police and other attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda killed 53 people on Wednesday, just days before the US military ends its combat mission.
The trail of bloodshed started in the capital Baghdad before stretching to the north and south of the country, hitting 10 cities and towns in quick succession in tactics that bore the hallmark of the jihadist network.
Some 250 people were also wounded, security officials said, as a total of 14 car bombs wrought havoc for police and soldiers whose ability to protect the country is under close scrutiny as US forces have drawn down.
In the deadliest attack, a car bomb at a passport office in Kut, southeast of Baghdad, killed 20 people, including 15 police, and wounded 90 others, most of them police, Lieutenant Ali Hussein told AFP.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle at a police station in the northeastern suburb of Qahira, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more, security and medical officials said.
The attack in the mixed Sunni-Shiite neighbourhood took place at around 8 am (0500 GMT), according to an interior ministry official who gave the toll. "The victims included policemen and civilians," he said.
A doctor at Medical City Hospital said they had received the bodies of two women, two children and two police officers, and that 44 other people were receiving treatment.
A spike in unrest over the past two months has triggered concern that Iraqi forces are not yet ready to handle security on their own, especially with no new government formed in Baghdad since a March 7 general election.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed Wednesday's attacks on Al-Qaeda and remnants of the Baath party of now executed dictator Saddam Hussein, who he said wanted "to shake people's confidence in the security forces."
"They (the security forces) are ready to bear the responsibility after US (combat) forces withdraw at the end of August," Maliki said in a statement.
The US army announced on Tuesday that troop levels were below 50,000 in line with President Barack Obama's directives as part of a "responsible drawdown" of troops, seven years on from the invasion which ousted Saddam.
The reduction has raised fears that Qaeda-linked insurgents will step up their attacks.
A separate car bomb in Baghdad killed two police and wounded seven civilians in the city centre, while two other police were shot dead in Al-Amel, a southern district, the interior ministry official said.
In the north of the country, a car bomb in the ethnically divided, oil hub of Kirkuk killed one person and wounded 11, said Colonel Adel Zain al-Abideen, the city's acting chief of police.
In Iraq's main northern city of Mosul, a car bomb killed four civilians and gunmen killed a lieutenant colonel at a police checkpoint.
In Muqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded as a police patrol passed, killing three civilians. When troops arrived to investigate, a second bomb exploded, wounding six soldiers.
In western Iraq, three people, two of them police, were killed and 16 wounded in two car bombs, one of them at a police checkpoint in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, a security official said.

coppied by http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100825/wl_afp/iraqunrestpolice

Watch As the US troops depart, bombs rip through Iraq

As the US troops depart, bombs rip through Iraq


US soldiers at the site of an explosion yesterday in Kut, 100 miles south-east of Baghdad. A suicide car bomber killed at least 19 people and wounded scores in the attack on a police station, a police officer said
Al-Qa'ida showed that it has the strength to strike all over Iraq yesterday by making a string of attacks that left at least 56 dead, half of them policemen and soldiers, and 250 wounded, across at least thirteen cities and towns.

The bombings came a day after the US cut the number of its troops in Iraq to below 50,000 and withdrew the last of its combat brigades. The attacks undermine the Iraqi government's claim to have succeeded in greatly improving security and weakening al-Qa'ida.

The heaviest casualties were in the city of Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad on the Tigris river. A suicide bomber in a car penetrated security barriers and detonated his explosives between a police station and provincial government headquarters, killing 19 people, 15 of them policemen.
coppied by http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/as-the-us-troops-depart-bombs-rip-through-iraq-2062208.html

Cities braced in Sindh as rising water threatens to break levees

See the Cities braced in Sindh as rising water threatens to break levees


A Pakistani man walks with a boy as they wade through floodwaters near the village of Basira in Punjab
By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent
Workers frantically piled sandbags and stones and tried to repair leaking levees as surging water threatened two more cities in the southern province of Sindh yesterday.

Pakistani troops have built around 10 miles of defences to protect Shadad Kot and Qambar, but as water continued to pour into the Indus river last night, the authorities were deeply worried that the lines could be breached.

Already, hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from Shadad Kot and the surrounding area. Almost a month after the floods began devastating Pakistan's north-west, in the far south water levels are still rising as the floods make their way towards the sea.

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The crucial question is whether they can be stopped and diverted before destroying more communities. Spread across a huge swathe of the country, more than six million people have been left homeless.

"It is the last-ditch effort to save the city," Brigadier Khawar Baig, who was overseeing efforts to save Shadad Kot, told the Associated Press. "We are trying to block the water here. If it crosses over, we fear it will go further south and inundate more towns."

Officials told reporters that the eastern side of the city was threatened by water more than 9ft deep. Levees were constantly being repaired with stones and sand-bags, but the authorities were unsure whether they would be able to do enough.

The scale of the flooding that has spread across Pakistan would have challenged the logistical capabilities of any government. But the slow response of the civilian administration headed by President Asif Ali Zardari has continued to anger those who have lost everything.

Yesterday in Punjab province, hundreds of people who fled the rising waters blocked a major road near the town of Kot Adu in demonstration. They complained that they had been camped out nearby for several days without the authorities bringing any emergency supplies.

The constant concern of aid organsiations is the possible spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera. With so many people forced from their homes, emergency shelters, clean water and food is also going to be required for weeks.

A spokesman for the UN's humanitarian organisation suggested millions of people were currently short of food.

Adding to the country's turmoil, more than 36 people were killed yesterday in a series of bomb attacks in the north-west of Pakistan.

In an attack on the outskirts of Peshawar, the leader of an anti-Taliban militia was killed as he passed through a market, while in South Waziristan, a pro-government cleric and more than 20 other people died in a suicide attack on a mosque inside a religious school which also injured 40.
Coppied by http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/cities-braced-in-sindh-as-rising-water-threatens-to-break-levees-2060145.html

Jennifer Aniston's new movie The Switch bombs at box office as The Expendables stays at No.1 for a second week

Jennifer Aniston's new movie The Switch bombs at box office as The Expendables stays at No.1 for a second week


Talk to the hand: Jennifer Aniston arrives at the Jon Stewart Show in New York last week
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html#ixzz0xPBs8M1r
The turkey baster mover starring Jennifer Aniston is officially a turkey. 'The Switch,' performed badly in its opening weekend at the U.S. box office scoring only eighth place and grossing a mere $8.1 million dollars.
Even Aniston's recent regrettable and forgettable comedy Bounty Hunter with Gerard Butler earned $20 million in its opening weekend.
Reviewers panned the film with Us Weekly's Thelma Adams stating that Aniston 'treads on all-too-familiar ground; there isn't an exasperated hair flip we haven't already seen 100 times.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html#ixzz0xPBoJfca
The sperm donor film starring the 41-year-old actress and Jason Bateman was no match for the Sylvestser Stallone vehicle The Expendables, which maintained its number one spot for the second weekend running. The film has now grossed $64.9 million.
The Switch was also beaten at the box office by the Twilight spoof Vampires Suck, which grabbed second place with $12.2 million, Bow Wow's Lottery Ticket at number 4 with $11 million and Piranha 3-D at number six with $10 million.
Following this latest flop for the former Friends star, the New York Post contemplated whether Aniston chooses her movies based on what is happening in her life at the time.
The Post notes: 'In her newest movie, The Switch, Aniston plays a character that has no husband or boyfriend, which is decidedly inconvenient considering her time to have a child is running out.
'It's funny, cause that's the exact same situation the real Aniston wakes up to each and every morning (minus the stupendous dimmers that Brad Pitt personally installed in the house they lived in together, and the weighted knowledge that he now has six children that she did not give him).'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html#ixzz0xPByrOVb

Tender moment: Aniston and co-star Jason Bateman share a quiet moment in The Switch, which only reached No.8 in the U.S. box office in its opening weekend

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html#ixzz0xPCGuo5s
Both Aniston's career and her love life have been chequered with her former beaus including Brad Pitt, Vince Vaughn and John Mayer.
Now Aniston is having to talk about a date she went on with American comedian and talk show host Jon Stewart over a decade ago.
Last week, Aniston was a guest on Jon's show, 'The Daily Show' - one of many she went on to plug her movie- when he reminded her of a romantic Italian dinner they shared in New York.
However, they both had conflicting recollections of the evening.
Said Stewart: 'I asked you out and it was lovely. I remember you brought so many of your friends.
'And I remember thinking, "She's so excited to be on a date with me, she wants me to get to know her posse."'
However, Aniston responded: 'If I remember correctly, wasn't it sort of like, "Hey, a group of us are going out, do you want to join?"'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html#ixzz0xPCJiQXy

Sylvester Stallone and his co-stars have plenty to smile about as their movie The Expendables topped the US box office for the second week running

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html#ixzz0xPCig7wS
Coppied by http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html

Ed Miliband welcome for disgruntled Liberal Democrats as Charles Kennedy denies defection

Watch Ed Miliband welcome for disgruntled Liberal Democrats as Charles Kennedy denies defection

Labour accused Nick Clegg of turning into ‘a kind of Tory’ yesterday as it invited disgruntled Liberal Democrats to defect.
Leadership candidates Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and Andy Burnham all attempted to exploit the growing discontent in Lib Dem ranks over the Deputy Prime Minister’s closeness to David Cameron.


Exploiting: Ed Miliband has been making of the most of the discontent in the Lib Dem ranks whilst Charles Kennedy has been forced to deny he was on the brink of defecting to Labour

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305340/Ed-Miliband-welcome-disgruntled-Liberal-Democrats-Charles-Kennedy-denies-defection.html#ixzz0xP5daqcz
Former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy yesterday denied that he had been on the verge of changing parties, saying: ‘I will go out of this world feet first with my Lib Dem membership card in my pocket.’
But senior Labour figures, who have held private talks with several Lib Dem MPs about crossing the floor, stepped up their efforts to woo disgruntled Lib Dems.
Ed Miliband, the Shadow Energy Secretary, said: ‘I am definitely putting the welcome mat out for anyone who wants to join the Labour party, particularly ex-Liberal Democrats.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305340/Ed-Miliband-welcome-disgruntled-Liberal-Democrats-Charles-Kennedy-denies-defection.html#ixzz0xP5gCqzG

Closet Tory: Nick Clegg is accused of forgetting his roots and becoming too Tory for Lib Dem party members

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305340/Ed-Miliband-welcome-disgruntled-Liberal-Democrats-Charles-Kennedy-denies-defection.html#ixzz0xP6AiWB2
'Nick Clegg has rather revealed himself as a kind of Tory, very close to being a Tory.
‘The reason why he and David Cameron are getting on so well and sending each other text messages is because I think they have the same ideology and I don’t think that is the ideology of most Liberal Democrat members.’
Mr Burnham said Lib Dems could join the Labour Party free of charge.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305340/Ed-Miliband-welcome-disgruntled-Liberal-Democrats-Charles-Kennedy-denies-defection.html#ixzz0xP6DRcBI
coppied by http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305340/Ed-Miliband-welcome-disgruntled-Liberal-Democrats-Charles-Kennedy-denies-defection.html

Fears over Latvia brain drain as economy struggles

Watch this Fears over Latvia brain drain as economy struggles
Every four years, more than 12,000 students and children gather on a giant stage in Riga to sing national folk songs.

Wearing brightly-coloured folk costumes, they are visibly moved as they sing traditional songs reminding them of Latvia's brave struggle for freedom from 20th-Century Soviet occupation.

But many of the young people here today may soon be forced to say goodbye to the homeland they love so much.

Latvia is losing more than 1% of its population annually, as the country's young people head abroad to find work.

With 2.2 million inhabitants, Latvia is already one of Europe's least populous countries. But every year around 30,000 people emigrate.

Engineer to strawberry-picker

Martins Neimanis is one of those planning to leave Latvia within the next few months. Today he has come to GP Recruitment, an agency in Riga which finds work abroad for Latvians.

Engineer to strawberry-picker

Martins Neimanis is one of those planning to leave Latvia within the next few months. Today he has come to GP Recruitment, an agency in Riga which finds work abroad for Latvians.


Martins Neimanis is one of thousands of unemployed young people in Latvia
Mr Neimanis lost his job in 2008 when the economic crisis struck. And although he is an experienced civil engineer, he will probably end up picking strawberries or packing vegetables in England.

But, like many Latvians, he is stoical about the future.

"I'll do any job. I have to earn my living to survive. To do that, I'm prepared to give up the dreams I had about my career," he explains as he waits for his consultation.

Mr Neimanis is not alone. Since the beginning of 2010, this agency has seen a 50% increase in Latvians wanting to find jobs abroad.

The work usually means living in a caravan and earning about 4.50 euros, or £3.75 an hour working in the fields.

All of the applicants here today are young and well-qualified - exactly the people Latvia can least afford to lose.

"Very often we have school teachers with a high education and reasonably good English, and they will end up simply sorting or picking fruit or vegetables," says Ginters Purins, director of GP Recruitment.

Dying countryside


Houses in the Latvian countryside are being abandoned
The results of this trend can be seen out in the Latvian countryside, where schools are closing and some villages are simply dying out.

Rural depopulation is common in many former Soviet countries. But in Latvia, where the economy shrank 18% last year, the economic crisis has exacerbated the situation. Unemployment rates, which are hovering around 20%, are the highest in the EU, forcing people to seek work abroad.

With its turbulent history of foreign occupation, Latvia has a long tradition of emigration. But, until recently, birthrates were high - typically three or four children per woman.

Today, partly because of financial insecurity, the birthrate is below 1.4 children per woman - not enough to sustain the population, even without emigration. This means that the Latvian nation is not only shrinking, but also ageing.

According to social anthropologist and government adviser Roberts Kilis, this abstract demographic trend will soon have very real consequences for people - hitting them in the pocket. By the end of the year, he says, the government will no longer be able to cover pension payments.

"That would be the first major shock, when people see a change in the way the pension system operates," Mr Kilis says.

Back at the festival, the songs provoke strong emotions as Latvians think back with pride to the events two decades ago which led to the establishment of their own nation.

But since then the country has lost a fifth of its people. So now voices are being raised not just in song, but also in protest, calling for the government to enable Latvia to have not just a past to be proud of, but also a future.
coppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10913098

Watched beng this China Passes Japan as Second-Largest Economy

Enjoy China Passes Japan as Second-Largest Economy
SHANGHAI — After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures released early Monday.
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The Takeaway: David Barboza on the Chinese Economy

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The milestone, though anticipated for some time, is the most striking evidence yet that China’s ascendance is for real and that the rest of the world will have to reckon with a new economic superpower.

The recognition came early Monday, when Tokyo said that Japan’s economy was valued at about $1.28 trillion in the second quarter, slightly below China’s $1.33 trillion. Japan’s economy grew 0.4 percent in the quarter, Tokyo said, substantially less than forecast. That weakness suggests that China’s economy will race past Japan’s for the full year.

Experts say unseating Japan — and in recent years passing Germany, France and Great Britain — underscores China’s growing clout and bolsters forecasts that China will pass the United States as the world’s biggest economy as early as 2030. America’s gross domestic product was about $14 trillion in 2009.

“This has enormous significance,” said Nicholas R. Lardy, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “It reconfirms what’s been happening for the better part of a decade: China has been eclipsing Japan economically. For everyone in China’s region, they’re now the biggest trading partner rather than the U.S. or Japan.”

For Japan, whose economy has been stagnating for more than a decade, the figures reflect a decline in economic and political power. Japan has had the world’s second-largest economy for much of the last four decades, according to the World Bank. And during the 1980s, there was even talk about Japan’s economy some day overtaking that of the United States.

But while Japan’s economy is mature and its population quickly aging, China is in the throes of urbanization and is far from developed, analysts say, meaning it has a much lower standard of living, as well as a lot more room to grow. Just five years ago, China’s gross domestic product was about $2.3 trillion, about half of Japan’s.

This country has roughly the same land mass as the United States, but it is burdened with a fifth of the world’s population and insufficient resources.

Its per capita income is more on a par with those of impoverished nations like Algeria, El Salvador and Albania — which, along with China, are close to $3,600 — than that of the United States, where it is about $46,000.

Yet there is little disputing that under the direction of the Communist Party, China has begun to reshape the way the global economy functions by virtue of its growing dominance of trade, its huge hoard of foreign exchange reserves and United States government debt and its voracious appetite for oil, coal, iron ore and other natural resources.

China is already a major driver of global growth. The country’s leaders have grown more confident on the international stage and have begun to assert greater influence in Asia, Africa and Latin America, with things like special trade agreements and multibillion dollar resource deals.

“They’re exerting a lot of influence on the global economy and becoming dominant in Asia,” said Eswar S. Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell and former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division. “A lot of other economies in the region are essentially riding on China’s coat tails, and this is remarkable for an economy with a low per capita income.”
coppied by http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/business/global/16yuan.html