2nd TYPHOON LASHES NORTHERN PHILIPPINES
MANILA, Philippines – Powerful winds toppled power poles and trees Saturday in the northern Philippines as the second typhoon in eight days bore down on the country. Farther north, Taiwan began evacuating villages also in the path of the storm.
- The Philippines is still reeling from a Sept.
- 26 typhoon that caused the worst flooding in 40 years, killing 288. Officials said the risk of another major disaster was easing because the new storm, Typhoon Parma, had changed direction slightly and was no longer headed for heavily populated regions of the main island of Luzon.
- But heavy rain was falling across a swath of Luzon that is still flooded, and violent winds were battering the far-north province of Cagayan.
- Trees were uprooted and power pylons toppled in the provincial capital of Tuguegarao, local government official Bonifacio Cuarteros told The Associated Press by telephone.
- "We pray that we won't have a worse outcome, but with this kind of situation, we cannot really say," he said.
- Parma was due to strike the Philippines' northeastern tip on Saturday night, instead of hitting north-central Luzon on Saturday afternoon, as earlier forecast. It was packing sustained winds that had also weakened slightly, to 108 mph (175 kph), down from 121 mph (195 kph) on Friday.
- The better news for the Philippines was bad news for Taiwan, which issued a storm warning and began moving people out of villages in the southern county of Kaohsiung, said local official Lin Chun-chieh. Flash flooding from the last typhoon to hit the Kaohsiung killed about 700 people in August.
- Typhoon Ketsana last month damaged the homes of more than 3 million people in the Philippines. It went on to hit other Southeast Asian countries, killing 99 in Vietnam, 14 in Cambodia and 16 in Laos.
- It was part of more than a week of destruction in the Asia-Pacific region that has claimed more than 1,500 lives so far: an earthquake Wednesday in Indonesia; a tsunami Tuesday in the Samoan islands; and Typhoon Ketsana across Southeast Asia.
EUROPE'S FUTURE IN IRISH HANDS
The future of the European Union hangs in the balance as Ireland votes Oct. 2 on a treaty to strengthen the EU. Two historic events should push them toward "yes" – the "great recession" of 2009 and Russia's invasion of Georgia last year.
Source: Yahoo News
- Friday's vote is a do-over for Ireland. In 2008, its voters said "no" to a proposed pact that would streamline EU decision-making and raise Europe's profile on the world stage. They worried that the Lisbon Treaty – a revamped European "constitution" – would override national rights on near-and-dear issues of abortion, corporate taxes, and military neutrality.
- Dublin has since worked out guarantees for this check list, and polls show an inclination to approve. But Europe is still holding its breath. The leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic have yet to sign the treaty, although their parliaments have approved it. They would likely fall into line if Ireland gives the nod.
- The prospect of EU membership has been a stabilizing force in Europe. It reinforced political and economic reform in central Europe. It moved the tinderbox Balkans in a peaceful direction. It's pushing NATO-member Turkey toward a stronger democracy and free-market economy. But it's hard to see Europe taking on more new members without a Lisbon Treaty.
- With it, a future Europe can be more stable. It can continue to attract reform-minded members – and repel aggression among states. That's worth voting for.
SITUATION SERIOUS IN AFGHANISTAN, ACCORDING TO U.S TOP GENERAL
The top US general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, has expressed serious concerns over the growing Taliban insurgency in the war-ravaged country.
- McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, told military and defense experts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London that the situation was serious and time was running out.
- "The situation is serious and I choose that word very, very carefully."
- The insurgency has intensified in the eastern and southern provinces, as pressure is mounting on the US and its Western allies to pull troops out of the country amid rising troop causalities.
- McChrystal also continued to press his case for 40,000 more troops in the country where insurgency has skyrocketed over the past months.
- The speech comes after he warned that the NATO mission would “likely result in failure” unless more troops are deployed across Afghanistan.
- However, Barack Obama has expressed skepticism about whether sending more troops without a 'strategy' would make a difference in the conflict-torn country.
ECUADOR'S SHUAR INDIANS REINFORCED A HIGHWAY BLOCKADE
MACAS, Ecuador – Several hundred Shuar Indians wearing black war paint and toting wooden spears on Thursday reinforced a highway blockade that police failed to break up earlier in a bloody melee that left one Indian dead and at least 40 police injured.
- Police pulled out of the southeastern jungle region on orders from leftist President Rafael Correa, who is in an intensifying dispute with indigenous groups that say proposed legislation would allow mining on their lands without their consent and lead to the privatization of water.
- The Shuar maintained a traffic blockade of burning tires and wire fencing they had mounted on Monday, and vowed not to lift it until he comes to negotiate with them — personally. Correa says talks can't start until Indians abandon the blockades.
- "With us its all dialogue, no force," Correa told Publica radio Thursday.
- Ecuador's government and indigenous groups traded blame for Wednesday's clash in which police used tear gas to try to break up the roadblock.
- The government says Indians responded with shotgun fire. Ecuador's Amazon Indian federation, CONFENAIE, said 500 police provoked the violence by attacking the Shuar and one indigenous leader accused Correa of "declaring a civil war."
- Witnesses did not back claims by CONFENAIE that nine natives were wounded by police gunfire in the clash.
- The government initially said many riot police were wounded by shotgun pellets but journalists were not allowed to photograph or interview injured officers as they arrive in the capital, Quito. None of their injuries looked life-threatening in photos released by police.
MAOIST REBELS KILLED 16 IN INDIA
Suspected Maoist rebels have killed 16 people in an attack on a village in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.
A senior police official in the Khagaria district, 200km north of the regional capital Patna, told AFP on Friday that "more than 50 armed Maoists attacked the village and started killing people".
A senior police official in the Khagaria district, 200km north of the regional capital Patna, told AFP on Friday that "more than 50 armed Maoists attacked the village and started killing people".
- Ajay Pandey, a deputy superintendent of polilce, said that five children were among the dead. "The victims were sleeping in their houses".
- The attack in Amausi Bharen village reportedly took place after farmers defied Naxal demands.
- A journalist working for the private NDTV television station said land disputes and caste issues were also likely behind the attack.
- The provincial government has sent two Special Task Force units to investigate, though acces to the remote area is difficult.
- Bihar has seen a number of deadly Maoist attacks in the last couple of months.
- On August 23, five policemen were killed and two others injured in an attack in Sono Bazar area of Bihar's Jamui district.
- In the first half of 2009, 56 Maoist attacks have been reported.
- The Maoists in India are also known as Naxals, given that the first armed uprising took place in a small village called Naxalbari in the neighbouring state of West Bengal some 40 years ago.
U.S MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ WAR AT 4,347 AND 773 IN AFGHAN
As of Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009, at least 4,347 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003,
- At least 773 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT.
Of those, the military reports 594 were killed by hostile action.
- The figure includes nine military civilians killed in action. At least 3,473 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
- The AP count is three fewer than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT.
- The British military has reported 179 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, one death each.
- Source: AP
AMONG OTHERS, FUJIMORI GUILTY OF CORRUPTION
Alberto Fujimori, a former president of Peru who has already been sentenced to 25 years in jail for human rights abuses, has received a six-year prison term for corruption after his final trial.
- Fujimori, who had admitted bribing opponents, wiretapping and the illegal purchase of a media outlet, said that he would appeal Wednesday's sentence.
- The court in Lima, the Peruvian capital, also ordered the 71-year-old former president to pay a $8m fine to the state and $1m to political leaders and journalists that he targeted.
- Multiple prison terms do not accumulate in Peru, so Fujimori's maximum prison term will stay at 25 years.
- But Fujimori could be released earlier if his daughter, Keiko Fujimori, is elected president in 2011.
- Keiko Fujimori, who is leading some opinion polls as the election approaches, has said that she will grant her father a pardon if she becomes leader.
- Prosecutors had accused Fujimori of ordering Vladimiro Montesinos, a former intelligence chief, to use state funds to secretly spy on 28 politicians, journalists and businessmen.
- Fujimori was also accused of authorising bribes to be paid to 13 congressmen so that they would join his party, and allegedly bought off a TV station and a newspaper editorial board to support his re-election campaign in 2000.
- Montesinos, who is serving a 20-year term for bribery and selling weapons to Colombian rebels, said during his own trials that he made the payments on Fujimori's behalf. Fujimori said that he knew nothing of the money.
- Fujimori, who was extradited to Peru from Chile in 2007, has also been convicted by a three-member panel of crimes against humanity for authorising military death squads, abuses of power, and of embezzlement.
TYPHOON KETSANA KILLS 331
HOI AN (VIETNAM): Typhoon Ketsana extended its destructive rampage through Southeast Asia on Wednesday, blowing away whole villages in Vietnam,
Cambodia and Laos as the regional death toll rose to 331.
Cambodia and Laos as the regional death toll rose to 331.
- Flood waters rose and mudslides buried houses in Vietnam while storm winds flattened houses in Cambodia on Wednesday as Typhoon Ketsana left a destructive path across Southeast Asia, killing at least 323 people.
- Vietnamese government officials said it could confirm that 66 people were killed during the storm, some by landslides and some by falling trees. Cambodian authorities put the death toll there at 11.
- Ketsana killed 246 people in the Philippines while still a weaker tropical storm, before strengthening over the South China Sea and smashing into Vietnam on Tuesday, leaving another 74 dead from flooding and landslides. It moved inland to lash Cambodia overnight, killing 11 more people, and caused meter-high floods in Laos on Wednesday.
Source: AP
INDONESIA QUAKES KILL 1,100, THOUSANDS TRAPPED
JAKARTA, Indonesia – A powerful earthquake rocked western Indonesia Wednesday, trapping thousands under collapsed buildings — including two hospitals — and triggering landslides. At least 1,100 people were killed on Sumatra island and the death toll was expected to climb sharply.
- The magnitude 7.6 quake struck at 5:15 p.m. local time (1015GMT, 6:15 a.m. EDT), just off the coast of Padang city the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was along the same fault line that spawned the massive 2004 Asian tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries.
- A tsunami warning for countries along the Indian Ocean was issued, and panicked residents fled to higher ground fearing giant waves. The warning was lifted about an hour later.
- Initial reports received by the government said 1,100 people were killed, but the real number is "definitely higher than that," Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters in the capital, Jakarta.
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
