exited news Massive floods kill 26 in Vietnam; 9 missing

Massive floods kill 26 in Vietnam; 9 missing


HANOI, Vietnam—Helicopters dropped food aid Wednesday to people in villages cut off by high water as the death toll from flooding this week in central Vietnam rose to 26, with nine people missing, disaster officials said.
In the worst-hit province of Quang Binh, 11 people were dead while authorities searched for five sailors from a sunken barge, disaster official Nguyen Ngoc Giai said.
Giai said two helicopters dropped food and water to several villages still cut off by floodwaters while rescuers rushed food aid to other villages over land.
In other central provinces, seven people were reported dead and one missing in Ha Tinh province, five dead and three missing in Nghe An and three dead in Quang Tri, disaster officials there said.
Light rains were reported in the region Wednesday and floodwaters began receding slowly, officials said. Forecasters said a tropical depression was expected to bring rains to the region in the coming days, but they were unlikely to cause major floods.
Rail service in Quang Binh province has been disrupted since Tuesday and many parts of the track remain under water, the Vietnam Railway Corp. said.


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Watch Afghan leaders, Taliban reportedly in high-level talks to end war

Afghan leaders, Taliban reportedly in high-level talks to end war


WASHINGTON — Taliban representatives and the government of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan have begun secret, high-level talks over a negotiated end to the war, according to Afghan and Arab sources.

The talks follow inconclusive meetings, hosted by Saudi Arabia, that ended more than a year ago. While emphasizing the preliminary nature of the current discussions, the sources said that for the first time they believe that Taliban representatives are fully authorized to speak for the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban organization based in Pakistan, and its leader, Mohammad Omar.

“They are very, very serious about finding a way out,’’ one source close to the talks said of the Taliban.

Although Omar’s representatives have long publicly insisted that negotiations were impossible until all foreign troops withdraw, a position seemingly buoyed by the Taliban’s resilience on the battlefield, sources said the Quetta Shura has begun to talk about a comprehensive agreement that would include participation of some Taliban figures in the government and the withdrawal of US and NATO troops on an agreed timeline.

The leadership knows “that they are going to be sidelined,’’ the source said. “They know that more radical elements are being promoted within their rank and file outside their control. . . . All these things are making them absolutely sure that, regardless of [their success in] the war, they are not in a winning position.’’

A half-dozen sources directly involved in or on the margins of the talks agreed to discuss them on the condition of anonymity. All emphasized the preliminary nature of the talks.

The United States’ European partners in Afghanistan, with different histories and under far stronger domestic pressure to withdraw their troops, have always been more amenable to a negotiated settlement.

“What it really boils down to is the Americans both supporting and in some cases maybe even participating in talking with the enemy,’’ a European official said.

“If you strip everything away, that’s the deal here. For so long, politically, it’s been a deal breaker in the United States, and with some people it still is.’’
Coppied by http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2010/10/06/afghan_leaders_taliban_reportedly_in_high_level_talks_to_end_war/

Watch this 5 Afghan Children Among 9 Killed Kandahar Blasts

5 Afghan Children Among 9 Killed Kandahar Blasts


KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - President Hamid Karzai condemned the "enemies of Afghanistan" on Wednesday after a series of roadside bombs in southern Kandahar city killed nine people, including five children, as insurgents fight back against intensified NATO-led operations.

Bombs targeting a police vehicle ripped through an intersection Tuesday night, the Interior Ministry said, killing nine and injuring 30, including many police. The attack occurred a day after four officers died in coordinated bombings also aimed at police.

Control of Kandahar, the Taliban movement's birthplace, is seen as key to reversing Taliban momentum in the war. Afghan and NATO forces are engaged in a major operation to improve security in and around Kandahar to keep insurgents from staging attacks inside the city.

However, Taliban militants are fighting back hard against U.S. and Afghan forces as they push into areas long held by insurgents.

"President Karzai strongly condemns the multiple explosions in Kandahar city that killed a number of civilians, including children,"
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Watch this Aston Martin sells assets and trading rights amid 30% sales drop

Aston Martin sells assets and trading rights amid 30% sales drop


Aston Martin's owners, Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund, Investment Dar, has raised £18.4m from sale of some assets. Photograph Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images

The Kuwaiti owners of the luxury British carmaker Aston Martin have embarked on a sale of the carmaker's assets and rights after reporting a 30% slump in sales last year.

Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund Investment Dar has sold off some of the Warwickshire-based car maker's land and buildings, the distribution rights to sell cars in the Middle East and North Africa and the right to use the name in merchandise such as clothing.

Investment Dar bought a majority stake in company from Ford for about £500m in 2007, using a £200m loan from WestLB bank which is repayable in 2015.

Aston Martin's accounts, seen by the Guardian, reported a pre-tax profit of £6.9m for 2009, a fall of 20% from the previous year. The company said it had slightly increased its market share – by 0.2% – because sales by all luxury car makers fell 32% last year when the global economic downturn was at its most severe.

The accounts also show that the cost of servicing its debt is rising and that £4.5m was spent on advisers fees when it refinanced last year.

The company slashed its spending on research and development by more than half last year, to less than £13m. Analysts said it typically costs hundreds of millions of pounds to launch a new model.

Tim Urquhart, from IHS Global Insight, said: "Admittedly 2009 was a terrible year for most car manufacturers. But it's a question of what damage has been done to the balance sheet while riding out the storm. Unless Aston Martin finds another substantial partner they will struggle to launch a brand new range. They are still using a lot of the technology developed by Ford. Perhaps Investment Dar, which acquired Aston Martin at the peak of the boom in the ultra-premium car market, is starting to find this out."

Investment Dar, which had to restructure its investments in March because of the credit crunch, had been rumoured to be looking to sell its 51% stake in Aston Martin last year.

More recently, David Richards, Aston Martin chairman, said the company could bring on board a partner to access new technology and investment to help launch new models.
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Commitment this Netanyahu, Abbas and the legitimacy deficit

Netanyahu, Abbas and the legitimacy deficit
The Palestinian president is too weak and compromised to accept any final settlement with which Netanyahu can live


Palestinian president Yasser Arafat shakes hands with with Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 2004. Photograph: Avi Ohayon/EPA
Since its inception in Oslo almost two decades ago, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been stymied by the dysfunctional political systems of both sides. Hostage of an impossible coalition and of a settlement movement of freelance fanatics, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's leadership is seriously compromised. His Palestinian counterparts are hardly in a better position.

Today, the clique that surrounds Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas embodies the bitter deception that the peace process has meant for the Palestinians. Moreover, the Palestinian Authority has come neither to represent the majority of Palestinians nor to rule by democratic means.

Abbas's presidential term has expired, and elections are constantly being postponed. The PA's prime minister, Salam Fayyad, like his Hamas counterparts in Gaza, rules by decree, keeps parliament inactive, and silences the opposition. With no institutionalised democratic legitimacy, the PA is bound to rely on its security forces and on those of the occupier, Israel, to enforce its will.

Of course, throughout history, national liberation movements have had to marginalise their own radicals and fanatics in order to reach the Promised Land. This was true of Zionism, of the Italian Risorgimento, and most recently of the Catholics in Northern Ireland. But never did the outcast faction actually represent the democratically elected majority. A peace process conceived as a means to weaken and isolate the winners of an election – Hamas – is unlikely to gain much traction.

Like George W Bush, President Barack Obama confines his diplomatic engagement largely to friends rather than adversaries. This, more than anything else, explains the growing disconnection between Arab public opinion and the Obama administration.

The assumption – dear to the architects of the current process – that peace can be achieved by driving a wedge between "moderates" and "extremists" is a fatal misconception. The paradox here is double. Not only does one negotiate with the illegitimate "moderates", but it is precisely because of their legitimacy deficit that the moderates are forced to be unyielding on core issues, lest the radicals label them treasonous.

The Palestinian negotiators' dangerous lack of legitimacy – and, indeed, the disorientation of the entire Palestinian national movement – is reflected in the return of the PLO to its pre-Arafat days, when it was the tool of Arab regimes instead of an autonomous movement. The green light was given to the current negotiators by the Arab League, not by the elected representatives of the Palestinian people.
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We are saw this Hajj medical team for UK pilgrims scrapped

Hajj medical team for UK pilgrims scrapped
Move due to reduced demand and better Saudi healthcare rather than cost-cutting, Foreign Office says

People leave the Grand Mosque in Mecca during the hajj. British pilgrims will no longer have a dedicated medical team. Photograph: Hasan Sarbakhshian/AP
The Foreign Office has denied scrapping its medical delegation to the Islamic annual pilgrimage as part of a cost-cutting drive, saying it made the decision because of a declining demand for the service and an improvement in local healthcare facilities.

More than 25,000 Britons are due to travel to Saudi Arabia for the hajj in the next few weeks and groups representing them fear that the absence of a dedicated team from the UK will have far-reaching effects on individuals, their communities and work colleagues, and even the NHS.

For the past 11 years the Foreign Office has paid for the flights and accommodation of about eight GPs, who have treated thousands of people over three weeks. They are not paid for their work, taking annual leave or privately funding other doctors to cover their surgery work. The medical team treated 5,967 Britons in 2007 and 2,504 last year.

Dr Mohammed Jiva, who has been part of the medical team for five years, said: "Although the Saudi authorities provide healthcare facilities during the hajj period, we have been aware of concerns related to access to healthcare as all the pilgrims from throughout the world would rely on the Saudi facilities.

"There is no home-visiting service equivalent to what the British hajj delegation provided for those pilgrims too ill to travel and reflecting on a major incident a few years ago which resulted in mortalities as well as amputations and severe injuries, the Saudi facilities did not have the manpower or facilities to look after these pilgrims in the community. The delegation undertook clinic and home visits to support and change dressings whilst the pilgrims completed their hajj."
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Watch Drone killed 'British Taliban' plotter, reports say

Drone killed 'British Taliban' plotter, reports say
Abdul Jabbar, a UK citizen who lived in Pakistan, had links to Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, according to analysts


In this file photograph, a Pakistani soldier patrols the border with Afghanistan in North Waziristan, where Abdul Jabbar is said to have met with Taliban and al-Qaida militants Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian
A British militant killed in a recent American drone strike had ties to the failed Times Square bomber and was planning to set up a British chapter of the Taliban, according to reports.

Abdul Jabbar, a British citizen living in Pakistan, had "some links" to Faisal Shahzad, who has been jailed for life, but the nature of those ties was not clear, a Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters.

Jabbar was planning to lead a new group calling itself the Islamic Army of Great Britain, the BBC said, quoting a senior security sources overseas.

Three months ago Jabbar reportedly attended a meeting of 300 Taliban and al-Qaida militants in North Waziristan, the main hub of militant activity in Pakistan. At the meeting he was allegedly tasked with organising Mumbai-style attacks on targets in Britain, France and the UK. Jabbar received militant training in North Waziristan and survived a US drone strike targeting the network of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a major militant leader. Jabbar was killed in a second drone attack in September.

The emergence of Jabbar adds to a flurry of reports linking European militants based in Pakistan's tribal belt, and particularly North Waziristan, with plots against European cities.

After a drone strike that killed five German nationals in North Waziristan, German media carried details of alleged plots against prominent Berlin landmarks including a television tower. The US, UK, Japan and Sweden have warned their citizens to be vigilant against possible attacks while travelling in Europe. France has warned its citizens that a terror attack in the UK is "highly likely."

Jabbar reportedly arrived in Pakistan in May 2009. He was not a previously well-known jihadist leader but western intelligence agencies are worried about European militant wannabes streaming into the tribal belt.
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