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Bomber Kills 25 Police Officers in Southern Afghanistan
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Taliban insurgents have claimed responsibility for the attack in southern
Afghanistan, which is the center of their insurgency
Officials in southern Afghanistan say a suicide bomber has attacked a police
training center, killing at least 25 officers and wounding 20 others. A Taliban
spokesman claims responsibility for the blast.Officials in Tirin Kot, the
provincial capital of Uruzgan province, say the bomber entered the city's
police training compound while a group of officers was exercising. Local
officer Gulab Khan says officials are still trying to tally the casualties from
the attack, hours after the explosion. He says the suicide bomber was wearing a
police uniform when he entered the training compound. He says the attacker
then detonated his bomb, killing 19 police, at the scene.Officials say other
officers are in serious condition. A Taliban spokesman called local and foreign
news outlets, soon after the attack, claiming responsibility. The Afghan
Defense Ministry later released a statement saying security forces arrested
three suspected suicide bombers in Uruzgan province. The statement says the
suspects were found with suicide jackets, outfitted with explosives. Southern
Afghanistan remains a stronghold of the Taliban and the center of the country's
massive opium industry. United Nations officials estimate seven provinces in
the south, including Uruzgan, account for 98 percent of the country's total
opium poppy crop in 2008. The opium trade is believed to be an important source
of income for militants and helps fuel widespread corruption, throughout the
Afghan government. The region is mainly patrolled by Canadian, British, Dutch
and Australian troops, but American commanders have recommended that some of
the more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops expected in the coming months are
sent to the south. This year, the United Nations estimates smugglers exported
about $3.5 billion in opium, earning Taliban militants as much as $500
million. But overall opium production is lower than in 2007, which U.N.
analysts mainly attribute to low opium prices and high wheat prices. Officials
say the overproduction of opium, in recent years, led to a 20 percent decrease
in price this year.
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In Sri Lanka, Aid Agencies Say Hospital Hit by Shells
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Hospital is inside a 300-square-kilometer area in the northeast, in which Tamil
rebels have been confined following a year-long military operation
In Sri Lanka, aid agencies say a crowded hospital in the northern war zone has
been shelled, killing at least nine people. The attack on the hospital comes
amid growing concerns for an estimated 250,000 civilians caught in the fighting
between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels. The United Nations spokesman in
Colombo, Gordon Weiss, said Monday that shells have hit the "largest remaining
functioning hospital" in the Wanni region, where the army is on an offensive to
crush Tamil Tiger rebels. "Throughout the day Sunday there were series of
artillery and rocket strikes quite close to the hospital and there were at
least three direct hits on the hospital, the last of which was around midnight,
last night, when what we think is about five shells hit the pediatric ward
killing and wounding a number of people," Weiss said.The hospital is inside a
300-square-kilometer area in the northeast, in which Tamil rebels have been
confined following a year-long military operation. Scores of wounded people,
caught in the crossfire between the two sides, have been heading to the medical
facility in recent weeks. Aid agencies say many patients are lying on
mattresses in corridors. The spokesperson for the International Committee of
Red Cross in Colombo, Sophie Romanens, says the Red Cross team working at the
hospital paints a grim picture. "The staff there are under acute stress,"
Romanens said. "They are surrounded by the sound of the ongoing fighting and
the constant influx of patients. There are ambulances constantly arriving.
People are also brought by wagon, pick up trucks, tractor, any vehicles
basically."Aid agencies have expressed shock at the shelling and call it a
significant breach of international humanitarian law. They say medical
facilities must not be attacked, under any circumstances.The army says it is
not responsible for the shelling and blames it on the rebels.Aid agencies say
about 250,000 ethnic Tamil civilians trapped in the area face hunger as food
supplies dwindle. The Red Cross has urged both sides to allow safe passage for
the wounded civilians. Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse has
accused some diplomats and several media organizations of sensationalizing
civilian hardships and warns that they will be expelled, if they seem to favor
the Tamil Tiger rebels.The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for a separate
Tamil homeland. In the last year, they have suffered huge reverses, losing
most of the territory they controlled for nearly a quarter century.
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Israeli Air Strike Kills Palestinian
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Hamas says Israeli aircraft bombed unoccupied police station and at least six
tunnels, used to smuggle weapons and goods from Egypt into Palestinian enclave
Palestinians inspect a damaged car following an Israeli air strike in Rafah,
southern Gaza Strip, 02 Feb 2009Medical officials in Gaza say an Israeli air
strike on a vehicle has killed a Palestinian militant.The officials say at
least three other people were wounded in the strike Monday in Rafah, near the
Egyptian border. Israel bombed Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, hours after its
Cabinet on Sunday threatened a "harsh and disproportionate" response to new
Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks into southern Israel.Hamas said Israeli
aircraft bombed an unoccupied police station and at least six tunnels, which
are used to smuggle weapons and goods from Egypt into the Palestinian enclave.
No comment from Hamas on new attacks Earlier, Palestinian militants fired at
least seven rockets and mortar shells into Israel, wounding two people.Hamas
has not taken responsibility for, or condemned, the new attacks. Some of the
attacks have been claimed by members of the militant al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades.Hamas demanded that Israel open its border crossings with Gaza as part
of a cease-fire.Israel said that will not happen until Hamas releases a captive
Israeli soldier held in Gaza for two and a half years.
Surveillance cameras, motion sensors installed Also Monday, Egypt began
installing surveillance cameras and motion sensors on its border with Gaza as
part of efforts to crack down on tunnels used by weapons smugglers. The
Egyptian government is trying to work out a long-term truce acceptable to both
sides. It also is trying to reconcile Hamas with the Palestinian Authority,
which Hamas ousted from Gaza in 2007.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is in
Cairo Monday for discussions with Egyptian leaders. He will then go to
France. A Hamas delegation also is in the Egyptian capital for talks. Some
information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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Obama: More Banks Likely to Fail
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Mr. Obama urges lawmakers to pass economic stimulus package; Senate Republicans
warn they will not vote unless changes are made
U.S. President Barack Obama said he expects more banks to fail before the
troubled U.S. financial system stabilizes.In a television interview with NBC-TV
broadcast Monday, Mr. Obama said it is likely that banks have not acknowledged
all the losses they will experience. He said some banks, in his words, "won't
make it."Pres. Barack Obama meets with Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, 02 Feb 2009,
in the White House The president also said he has asked Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner to set clear guidelines for financial institutions that
receive assistance from the federal government. Last week, Mr. Obama
criticized companies that paid big bonuses to their executives while they were
asking for federal aid.The president also is continuing to urge lawmakers to
pass an economic stimulus bill designed to create jobs. The Senate Monday
begins debate on the measure, which calls for about $820 billion in new
spending and tax cuts.A version of the bill was approved in the House of
Representatives last week, without a single Republican voting for
it.Republicans also have warned that they will not vote for the Senate version
unless it is revised to include more tax cuts and changes to how the money is
spent.The U.S. economy - the world's biggest - is in a recession. The country
lost 2.6 million jobs last year and already has seen tens of thousands more
layoffs this year.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
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World Economic Slowdown Causes Millions to Lose Jobs in China
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New figures show 20 million migrant workers out of work as factories take
measure to cope with global decrease in demand for Chinese-made goods
Migrant workers arrive at Beijing Railway Station (Dec 2008 file photo)A
Chinese official says an estimated 20 million migrant workers have lost their
jobs because of the global economic crisis. This comes amid government
warnings that rising unemployment could fuel social unrest. Official
statistics compiled at the end of 2008 put the overall number of China's
migrant workers at 130 million. These are people who leave their homes, often
in rural areas, to work in big cities where there are better job
opportunities.Chen Xiwen, director of the office that advises Chinese Communist
Party leaders on policies affecting the country's farmers, said roughly 20
million migrant workers, or more than 15 percent, are out of work.Demand for
exports downChen says this is because the global financial crisis has caused
what he described as "a slump" in external Chinese export demand in eastern and
coastal parts of the country.China's economy has plunged in recent months as a
sharp decline in demand for Chinese-made goods, globally, has forced thousands
of factories to close.Chen said the matter is exacerbated because those who are
out of work are also competing with six million others who seek to enter the
migrant worker job market each year.Government looking for ways to create
jobsChen estimates a total of 26 million rural migrant workers are facing
employment pressure. He says the government is looking at ways to create jobs
and ensure public welfare, as a way of promoting social stability.The latest
figures were based on a Ministry of Agriculture survey of 165 villages in 15
provinces. The survey was conducted before the Lunar New Year holiday, which
was celebrated the last week in January and is a time when people traditionally
return home.Chen's news conference in Beijing Monday comes one day after the
government issued its first big policy document for 2009, focusing on rural
development.The document calls on the government to better address so-called
"sensitive" issues - such as the unlawful requisitioning of farmers' land and
pollution. Chen said the document shows that China's Communist Party and
government take very seriously the issue of rural migrant worker employment, as
well as the importance of maintaining social harmony and stability. Chen
acknowledged there were recent incidents of mass demonstrations by unemployed
rural migrant workers, in different parts of China. But he said these protests
happened largely because the lawful rights and interests of the rural residents
were not well-protected.
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World Bank Predicts Up to 50% Decline in Africa's Economic Growth This Year
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Experts say World Bank is urging US and other developed countries not to turn
inward at this time of economic uncertainty
The World Bank is predicting growth rates in Africa in 2009 could fall to half
what they have been in the past few years.
World Bank Vice President for Africa Obi Ezekwesili, attending the African
Union summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, says, unless wealthy
countries help quickly, the financial downturn spreading across the globe could
ruin Africa's long spell of promising economic growth."Remember that this
continent, until a decade ago, was growing at a negative rate of growth on the
average. At most it would grow at two percent," Ezekwesili said. "In the last
decade or so, this same continent was growing at a rate of 5.8
percent."Ezekwesili says the downturn is likely to dry up the important
private-sector investments that have seen huge advances in telecommunications
infrastructure that have led Africa's impressive economic performance."Once the
enabling environment for the private sector to operate, deregulation, happened
in the telecommunications sector, the private sector turned out, and today they
are really cleaning up, big time," added Ezekwesili. "So it's evident the
market has been a source of good outcome for the continent."Ezekwesili says the
World Bank is urging the United States and other developed countries not to
turn inward at this time of economic uncertainty. He wants them to start a
vulnerability fund to ensure more resources are available to help African
countries keep developing the infrastructure they need to sustain economic
growth."What we have seen is that, with adequate infrastructure, productivity
can improve by 40 percent on the continent," Ezekwesili said. "With adequate
infrastructure, the continent can add two percent growth to its current growth
estimates."Ezekwesili says it is important that market-oriented African
countries receive help to ensure they do not abandon the reforms they have
embraced, just as they were beginning to pull people out of poverty. She says
concerned African leaders should be reassured that, in her words, "The idea
that the market has failed is not right," and despite the atmosphere of
uncertainty, she says they must continue policies that foster economic growth.
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UN Envoy Meets with Detained Burmese Opposition Leader
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Ibrahim Gambari, met for more than an hour Monday with Aung San Suu Kyi and
other opposition leaders at the state guest house
The United Nations' special envoy on Burma has met with detained Burmese
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, to discuss political reform in the
military-run country. But it is not clear if the military's top leader will
grant him a similar meeting.Burma's detained opposition leader Aung san Suu Kyi
and Ibrahim Gambari, U.N. special envoy to Myanmer, during their meeting at the
state guest house in Yangon, Myanmar (2008 file)The U.N. envoy on Burma,
Ibrahim Gambari, met for more than an hour Monday with Aung San Suu Kyi and
other opposition leaders at the state guest house.Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed
to leave her villa compound, where Burma's military-led government has kept her
under house arrest for most of the last 18 years.Aye Win is a U.N. spokesman
based in Burma. "Certainly that he's been able to meet her this time is, in
itself, very significant. But, of course, we don't know what was discussed,"
Win said. The meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi is a step forward, compared to the
envoy's last visit in August. During that visit, she declined to meet the
envoy after he was refused a meeting with Burma's top military leader, General
Than Shwe.It is not clear if General Shwe will meet with Gambari during his
four-day visit, which ends Tuesday.Shortly after the meeting with Aung San Suu
Kyi, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party called for the
release of political prisoners. Human rights organizations say there are more
than 2,000 political prisoners in Burma.Gambari is in Burma to encourage the
release of political prisoners and implementation of political reform.The
military government says it will hold multi-party elections in 2010, as part of
its "road map to democracy." But the generals have already written a new
constitution that will ensure the military stays in power. Thailand-based
political analyst Win Min says the military leaders have shown no concessions.
"I doubt it will be a free and fair election, given the restrictions, and the
regressions the military has been doing," Min said. "So, I doubt there will be
free and fair elections, if the situation continues like this." The military
has ruled Burma since 1962, crushing any opposition. The military leaders
allowed an election in 1990 that Aung SanSuu Kyi's party won by a landslide.
The military then refused to honor the results, imprisoned opposition leaders
and placed Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.
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American UN Official Kidnapped In Southwest Pakistan
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kidnapping occurred in Quetta, the regional capital of Pakistan's Balochistan
province
Gunmen in southwest Pakistan have kidnapped an American working for the U.N.
refugee agency and killed his Pakistani driver. The kidnapping occurred in
Quetta, the regional capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province. American John
Solecki and his Pakistani driver, Syed Hashim Raza, were driving to the local
office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, where Solecki works as the
top official. Police officer Khalid Masood told reporters the two men were
ambushed after leaving Solecki's home.He says the gunmen intercepted the car
and shot the driver. He says the driver later died at the hospital. Quetta
police say they sealed roads out of the city and searched cars. Officials have
not said if there are any groups suspected to be behind the attack. The
foreign ministry called the ambush a "dastardly terrorist act." Pakistan's
impoverished Balochistan province has experienced decades of fighting from
ethnic-separatist groups who oppose the central government. In recent years,
Taliban fighters have also operated in the region. But most of the violence is
between the Pakistani military and separatist fighters - abductions of
foreigners are rare. In northwest Pakistan, suspected Taliban militants have
kidnapped several foreigners in the past year. Last September's bombing of the
Islamabad Marriott Hotel caused the United Nations and other foreign
organizations to tighten their security policies. The United Nations released a
statement strongly denouncing the abduction and killing. It did not say if
operations in Pakistan would be affected. Spokeswoman Ishrat Risvi says many
workers are shocked and dismayed by the incident, but they also want to
continue their work. "The United Nations stands committed to continuing its
development and humanitarian work and expecting improved security
arrangements," she said.Balochistan province borders Iran and Afghanistan and
hosts more than one-fifth of all refugees in Pakistan. U.N. officials say the
refugee agency office in Quetta supports health care, water, education and
sanitation programs for some of the province's nearly 400,000 registered Afghan
refugees.
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Iraq's Main Shi'ite Party Denies Election Setback
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Results from 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces not expected for several days as vote
counting continues
Iraq's main Shi'ite religious party has denied reports that it suffered a major
setback to rival Shi'ite parties in provincial elections on Saturday.The
Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council said Monday it finished in first or second place
in most Iraqi provinces that took part in the vote. It also promised to remain
a key player in Iraqi politics.Iraqi election officials examine ballot after
polls closed in Karbala on 31 Jan 2009Iraqi media said unofficial election
results suggest that many Iraqis turned away from the Council and other
religious parties they blame for fueling sectarian tensions. The reports said
that sentiment benefited allies of Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki, who campaigned on a law-and-order platform rather than religious
themes. Official results from the elections in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces are
not expected for at least several days as vote counting continues. Saturday's
elections took place without any major violence. Fifty-one percent of eligible
voters are said to have taken part.In another development, U.S. President
Barack Obama said a substantial number of U.S. troops in Iraq could be home
within one year.In an interview on U.S. television, NBC, late Sunday, Mr. Obama
said Iraq's provincial elections were "very significant" and signaled that
Iraqis are ready to handle more of their own security.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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Panel Created to Oversee Zimbabwe Unity Government
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Committee has three chairmen, one from each of the country's main parties
The Zimbabwe Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee to oversee a unity
government, when it is formed, has been established in Harare. The committee's
job will be to ensure that a unity government proceeds according to the
political agreement signed last September. The Zimbabwe Joint Monitoring and
Implementation Committee has three chairmen, one from each of the country's
main parties.They are Elton Mangoma, from the MDC, which has the largest number
of seats in parliament, Nicholas Goche from the former ruling ZANU-PF party,
and Welshman Ncube from the smaller MDC. The committee of 12, four from each
party, is still looking for an office and funds to establish infrastructure for
its task. The committee is intended to ensure the speedy and full
implementation of the September 2008 global political agreement, signed by
leaders of all three parties. The panel will attempt to resolve disputes among
the parties or government agencies through dialogue, but if it fails the
disputes are to be referred to the Southern Africa Development Community and
the African Union. A SADC statement last week said the committee is required to
be a catalyst in creating and promoting trust and understanding. On the streets
of Harare, some businessmen and civil-rights workers appeared to be hardly
aware the committee has been formed, nor did they know about its mandate. One
political analyst said the committee will have to embark upon a publicity
campaign to educate the public. Analysts say the committee's most immediate
task will be to obtain the release of more than 30 MDC officials and supporters
accused of trying to topple Mr. Mugabe from power.Another complaint which is
certain to be lodged with the committee is the reappointment of Gideon Gono as
governor of the central bank. This happened soon after last September's
agreement, and the MDC is against the reappointment. Gono, who is also
President Robert Mugabe's personal banker, is blamed by the MDC for aggravating
the extraordinary collapse of the economy. The economic failure accelerated
after productive white-owned, foreign-currency earning farms were seized and
handed over to ZANU-PF loyalists after 2000. In a monetary policy statement
Monday he slashed 12 zeroes from the Zimbabwe dollar, the third time he
massively devalued the currency since 2006. Gono also canceled all special
dispensations and guarantees signed by the government with platinum producers
20 years ago to keep their earnings off shore. Gono blames international
sanctions for the country's ills, although sanctions against Zimbabwe are
targeted against President Mugabe and his associates, such as leaders of his
ZANU-PF party, some of its companies, and a handful of other
businessmen. Economists say the real reason Zimbabwe cannot raise money
internationally is because it cannot pay its bills. Zimbabwe trades normally
with all countries including the West.
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