Somalia’s future debated at UN

UNITED NATIONS: Two dozen countries debated the future of Somalia at the United Nations on Friday, weeks after a plan was launched to lift the country out of a political impasse.

The roadmap adopted on September 6 demands the end of the transitional government, which has proven incapable of restoring peace and authority to a country ravaged by 20 years of civil war.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed the roadmap as a “crucial step toward building a stable, prosperous future for the Somali people” as she urged Somali leaders to take up the task.

“If Somali leaders do not follow the roadmap that has been negotiated by Africans for Africans, then I don’t know that the international community will be here next year and the year after with support. It is now up to Somalis,”the top US diplomat said.

One of the most delicate topics concerns finding agreement on a new government structure in a Somalia riveted by significant tribal tensions and bitter political rivalry.

“The Horn of Africa is the most complex, volatile and climatically challenged region in Africa today,” a senior US official said ahead of the UN meeting.

“Somalia is at the center of these many challenges and faces a humanitarian crisis, a security crisis and a political set of challenges.”

Meeting participants “stressed the importance of conducting popular consultations on the draft constitution and the reform of parliament to enable adoption of a new constitution by a representative body without delay,” a UN statement said.

“The meeting affirmed the importance of the development of government institutions and civilian capacity building across Somalia.” Delegations also expressed concern about the “expanding reach and increased levels of violence” of Somali pirates, and discussed the role of the African Union Mission in Somalia.

Last week, Somalia made a request at the UN Security Council for AMISOM’s personnel limits is nearly doubled from 12,000 to 20,000 peacekeepers.

The UN was expected to devote an entire meeting to the humanitarian crisis triggered by a drought in the region.

Some four million Somalis have been hit by famine and 750,000 could die, according to the United Nations. And the international community has increasingly denounced the Shebab for preventing aid to reach the needy, forcing a massive exodus to Kenya and Ethiopia.

Hunt for Gaddafi continues as rebels facing resistance

Rebels advance towards Gaddafi s birthplace of Sirte has also been blocked in the town of Bin Jawad.

With the whereabouts of Moamer Gaddafi still unknown, rebels have issued a reward of $1.7 million for the elusive strongman, dead or alive.

Diplomatic efforts have been launched at the United Nations and in Qatar by backers of the insurgents to secure the unlocking of billions of dollars of Libyan assets for the rebels.

Washington says Libya s stockpile of weapons of mass destruction had been secured.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he has invited the countries he regards as "the friends of Libya" to talks in Paris on September 1 on the future of the country after Gaddafi.

Libya s new masters meet their Western backers in Turkey on Thursday to secure funds and make plans for a future without Muammar Gaddafi after they announced a million dollar bounty for his capture.

In Tripoli, rockets and shooting kept largely kept civilians indoors and gunfire rang out in the centre. Most were anxious but hopeful the war would soon end, and with it the worsening shortages of food, water and medical supplies -- both for hundreds of wounded and for the sick.

"The end will only come when he s captured, dead or alive, said Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC), who offered amnesty to any of Gaddafi s entourage who killed him and announced a reward worth more than $1 million for his capture.

Jalil said on Sunday rebel forces would halt their offensive if Gaddafi announced his departure and give him and his sons safe passage out of the country.

There was no clear indication of where Gaddafi is, though his opponents surmised he was still in or around Tripoli after what Gaddafi himself described as a "tactical" withdrawal from his Bab al-Aziziya compound before it was captured on Tuesday.

But Western leaders and the rebel government-in-waiting have lost no time readying a handover of Libya s substantial foreign assets. Funds will be required to bring relief to war-battered towns and develop oil reserves that can make Libya rich.

After talks with Arab and Western allies in Qatar on Wednesday, a senior rebel leader said the NTC would seek to have $5 billion in frozen assets released to jump-start the country s economy and provide vital relief to its citizens. The amount is higher than a previously given estimate of $2.5 billion.

Meanwhile, the United States submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council to unfreeze $1.5 billion in Libyan assets. No vote was held on the draft on Wednesday, but diplomats said a vote could come on Thursday or Friday.

US helping Pakistan to make it stronger: Munter

ISLAMABAD: US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter on Tuesday said his country had been providing assistance to Pakistan to make it strong and with improved basic needs of life available to the people living in different parts of the country.

He was addressing a function here at the National Library to commemorate completion of renovation work of schools in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Malakand areas which were damaged by militant attacks.

Referring to the repair of schools in Fata and Malakand under USAID assistance, he said: “It is our effort to improve the education system in Pakistan especially in the under developed areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”

“It is the common task for Pakistan and US to secure the future of children through imparting education,” he said.

“We want that Pakistani children be stronger and stronger…be provided with maximum facilities especially educational facilities at their door steps.”

The ambassador said a strong and stable Pakistan was in the interest of America, therefore, USAID and other organisations were working in Pakistan to improve the country’s infrastructure.

He said more than 700 schools in Fata and Malakand had been repaired and equipped with books, furniture and other basic needs at the schools with training to the teachers.

The project started three years ago and continued despite many hardships especially security issues in areas where the military started its operation against militants.

He also appreciated the KP leadership for taking strong and difficult decisions to fight militants and reviving the educational system especially for girl students.

With cooperation and joint efforts, “we can fulfil our dreams” for a better, prosperous and progressive Pakistan, he said.

Speaking at the occasion, KP Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak said the USAID provided valuable support in repairing educational institutions and reviving facilities.

The minister said some people were involved in propaganda that Americans were not Pakistan’s friends, which he said was wrong, adding that the real enemies of Pakistan were those who destroyed the educational institutions and threatened the country’s peace and security.

Appreciating the contribution of USAID and other international donor agencies, the minister said, there was a need to promote education. He said educated people could be in a better position to identify their enemies.

He further said that the people of KP sacrificed their lives for the province’s security and prosperity and assured that they would continue to give sacrifices in the future for national interest.

USAID Pakistan Chief Dr Andrew Sisson and other officials also attended the function.

Ambassador Munter also interacted with some of the students who especially visited Islamabad from Fata and Malakand schools to attend the ceremony.

On a question ‘why the US is helping them?’ asked by one of the students, the US ambassador said: “We want to make you strong, so that you can make a strong Pakistan as a strong Pakistan is in our interest.”

Fighting in Western Libya continues

Heavy clashes between opposition rebels and national leader Muammar Gaddafi's army, have broken out in Libya's Western Mountains. Saturday's escalation comes as insurgents look to push toward Tripoli.

At least 10 rebels were reportedly killed, with about 170 wounded, during an attack on the eastern oil port of Brega. Meanwhile, sustained gunfire and volleys of artillery could be heard in the village of Bir Ayad, 15 kilometers south of the frontline in nearby Bir Ghanam.

Opposition fighters hold the high ground outside that town, their closest position to the country's capital, which sits just 80 kilometers away. Rebels have made progress in the Western Mountains in recent weeks, after repelling multiple assaults by Gaddafi's military.

Their next goal is Garyan, a town that controls the highway running south from Tripoli. The insurgents are vowing to force the administration's troops to withdraw.

Fathi Zintani, Rebel Commander from Zintan, said, "Of course these rebel fighters from Zintan forced the Gaddafi loyalists to withdraw. They are now 4 kilometers away, and the rebels are still going after them. And we call upon the Libyan youth who are loyal to Gaddafi, telling them that his regime has collapsed, and he has lost his legitimacy, and he is finished. We hope they will stop the fight, and stop following him. Anybody who wants to join the rebels is better than the forces loyal to Gaddafi."

China landslides kill 13, trap hundreds: report

Landslides triggered by torrential rain across China left 13 people dead and hundreds trapped in their cars, state media said on Saturday.

Five people were killed when a bus and truck were "damaged" by a mudslide in the northern province of Gansu, the official Xinhua news agency reported, while eight more died later en route to or in hospital. The report did not say whether the vehicles crashed or how the victims died. 

Xinhua also reported that more than 800 people in over 300 vehicles had been stranded on a highway in southwest China's Yunnan Province after the road was blocked by mud and rocks, citing local police. No casualties have been reported, the agency said, and rescuers were clearing the road.

Libya rebels breach Brega: military

BENGHAZI ,Libya: Libya’s rebels said a light mobile force had breached the strategically vital oil town of Brega late Friday, before pulling back in anticipation of a renewed offensive at daybreak.

Mohammed Zawi, a spokesman for the rebel army, told AFP a group of reconnaissance troops had entered the city from the north, then pulled back four kilometres (2.5 miles) before midnight (2200 GMT).

The probing raid deep into Qadhafi-held territory came around 32 hours after the rebel command launched a three-pronged attack to wrest control of the town back from Moamer Qadhafi’s troops.

While the rebels’ forward position to the north was four kilometres from the town centre, a second unit attacking from due east of Brega faced stiffer resistance and was about 10-20 kilometres (six to 12 miles) from the town.

“Most of Qadhafi’s troops seem to be at the centre,” said Zawi.

To the south of the town, where the rebels had made initial gains but suffered large numbers of casualties, Qadhafi forces had pushed back harder.

With fighting in the dusty desert terrain difficult, Zawi said him expeced fighters on both sides to dig in for the night.

Rebels were also trying to dispose of more than 100 landmines placed around the town. “Tomorrow we can take Brega, God willing,” he said.

Brega, nestled at the southeastern tip of the Gulf of Sirte, has changed hands multiple times during Libya’s civil war, which soon enters its fifth month.

In recent weeks the rebels have been holed up at a forward position 40 kilometres (25 miles) from both Brega and Ajdabiya, inching forward and clearing mines so their handful of T-72 tanks and infantry fighting vehicles can have a freer rein.

The town’s vast oil refinery and storage facilities – if intact – could provide fuel and a much-needed income stream for the rebels.

A victory would also provide a major boost for rebel morale, which had been sagging amid months of stalemate.

Obama vows to keep pressure on crippled Al-Qaeda

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Wednesday vowed to keep pressure on the Al-Qaeda terror group following the death of Osama bin Laden in last month’s daring US raid in Pakistan.

US military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan have served to “severely cripple Al-Qaeda’s capacities,” Obama said at a White House press conference.

“Osama bin Laden got the most attention, but before that we decimated some of the upper ranks of Al-Qaeda,” he said.

The terror group is “having a great deal of difficulty operating and financing themselves. We’ll keep the pressure on,” Obama said.

He stressed that it was in the US national interest “to make sure that you did not have a collapse of Afghanistan in which extremists elements could flood the zone once again, and over time Al-Qaeda may inbound a position to rebuild itself.” US military forces will be withdrawn from Afghanistan “in a responsible way that will allow Afghanistan to defend itself and will give us the operational capacity to continue to put pressure on Al-Qaeda until that network is entirely defeated,” he said.

One week ago Obama announced plans to bring all 33,000 US surge troops home from Afghanistan by mid-2012.

Obama insisted that Kabul is “much safer than it was” but said he expected attacks like the one on the Intercontinental Hotel to continue for “some time.” Nine heavily armed Taliban militants, some in suicide vests, stormed the hotel late Tuesday, sparking a ferocious battle with Afghan commandos and a Nato helicopter gunship that left at least 21 dead including the attackers.

The brazen attack, which left the landmark hotel on a hill overlooking the capital ablaze for hours, was seen as a direct rebuttal from the Taliban to Obama’s claims of progress as he seeks to wind up the 10-year-old war.

It came only days after Obama announced the “beginning of the end” of the conflict in Afghanistan and tried to reassure American voters ahead of his 2012 reelection campaign that the “tide of war is receding.” In his first public comments on the Intercontinental attack, Obama insisted that the Afghan forces who are responsible for security in Kabul are doing “a reasonably good job” and their capacity is increasing.

“Keep in mind, the drawdown has not begun, so we understand that Afghanistan is a dangerous place, and the Taliban is still active and there will be events like this on occasion,” he said.

“Kabul is much safer than it was, and Afghan forces in Kabul are much more capable than they were,” he told a White House press conference.

“That does not mean there will not be events like this taking place. That will go on for some time. Our work is not done.”The attack came weeks before the first foreign forces begin withdrawing from Afghanistan ahead of the planned close of combat operations at the end of 2014.

Some 10,000 US troops are slated to leave this year and a further 23,000 before the end of next September. That will leave less than 70,000 US troops in Afghanistan to prop up President Hamid Karzai’s fragile hold on power.

The brazen Intercontinental Hotel attack provides fodder for some of the president’s critics who argue that he caved in to domestic political pressure and is pulling out US forces to quickly.

Military leaders, including the commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, had wanted to keep more forces in place through next summer’s fighting season to cement progress in the south and renew efforts in the east.

Joy as French reporters freed in Afghanistan

Two French television journalists kidnapped in Afghanistan were released Wednesday after spending 18 long months as prisoners of the Taliban.

The pair, cameraman Stephane Taponier and reporter Herve Ghesquiere of state network France 3, were seized in November 2009 in the mountains of Kapisa, an unstable region east of the Afghan capital Kabul.

Their employer said they were in good health and spirits and were due to fly back to the Villacoublay air base outside Paris on Thursday to be reunited with their families.

“Obviously, I’ll be there to welcome them,” said Ghesquiere’s overjoyed partner Beatrice Coulon. “It’s a shock. Hearing about it like this, it’s hard to talk,” said Taponier’s brother Stephane.

“It’s wonderful,” declared Taponier’s mother Arlette. “I know that they’re free, I don’t know much else,” she told AFP, after she was given the news by President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office.

“For the past few hours, our two hostages in Afghanistan have been in the hands of French forces at the base in Tagab,” Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliament to a chorus of cheers.

“Our two hostages are in good health and in a few hours they will be on French soil,” he said, paying tribute to French forces and agents serving in Afghanistan as part of the Nato-led coalition.

France has nearly 4,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting against the Taliban, alongside a much larger US force and contingents from European allies.

In a statement, Sarkozy’s office said: “The president is delighted at the liberation of our two compatriots, Stephane Taponier and Herve Ghesquiere, as well as their interpreter Reza Din.” The abduction had been claimed by the Taliban, the hardline militants who ruled Afghanistan until a US-led invasion in 2001 and are now in revolt against the Kabul government. The guerrillas accused the journalists of spying.

In January al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatened France in an audio tape message and said that the journalists’ release would depend on France’s withdrawing soldiers from Afghanistan.

Bin Laden was killed in a US commando raid in Pakistan last month, and Sarkozy announced last week that “several hundred” French troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan before the end of the year.

There was no immediate word, however, on why the kidnappers had decided to release the men and whether France had many any concessions.

The pair’s release brought relief to French media colleagues, some of who broke down in tears of joy when they heard the news at a pre-planned vigil being held in Paris to draw attention to their plight.

“We congratulate the journalists themselves as well as the French government and the French nation,” spokesman Siamak Heravi told AFP in Kabul.

“This is an achievement … we welcome their release.” Several French officials used the occasion of the pair’s release to appeal for the release of several more French hostages still thought to be held by illegal armed groups around the world.

At least 10 killed in attack on landmark hotel in Afghan capital

At least 10 Afghan civilians were killed when suicide bombers and heavily armed Taliban insurgents attacked a hotel frequented by Westerners in the Afghan capital late on Tuesday, Afghan officials said.

Helicopters from the Nato-led force killed the last three insurgents in a final rooftop battle, a coalition spokesman said. Smoke rose from the roof of the Intercontinental hotel as the sun rose over Kabul after a battle lasting several hours.

“At least 10 civilians, including hotel staff, were killed when six suicide bombers attacked the Intercontinental,” Mohammad Zahir, the head of the Kabul police crime unit, told Reuters.

Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said at least six Afghans had been killed.

The attack came the night before the start of a conference about the gradual transition of civil and military responsibility from foreign forces to Afghans. The hotel was not one of the venues to be used by the conference or its delegates, an Afghan government official said.

It was also a week after US President Barack Obama announced plans for the initial withdrawal of 10,000 US troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, with another 23,000 to leave by the end of 2012.

Reuters witnesses heard at least seven blasts over the course of more than two hours, with bursts of gunfire heard during the late-night attack on the Intercontinental, one of two main hotels used by foreigners and Afghan government officials in Kabul.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said there had been gunfire coming from inside the hotel.

“Two ISAF helicopters have … engaged three individuals on the roof,” coalition spokesman Major Tim James said.

“The indications are that the three individuals on the roof have been killed.”

One Reuters witness said smoke could be seen rising from the hotel, although no fires were visible. Afghan security forces surrounded the hotel and firefighters arrived after the last of the insurgents were killed.

Sediqqi said six or seven insurgents had been involved in the attack, one of the worst in the Afghan capital in months.

“All have been killed,” he said. Zahir also said three police officers had been wounded as they cleared the hotel on the city’s western outskirts.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters from the militant group had attacked the hotel.

Mujahid, who spoke to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said heavy casualties had been inflicted.

One blast was heard at the start of the attack and then    three more at least an hour later, one of the Reuters witnesses said. Bursts of gunfire were heard over the same period and flares lit up the sky over the hotel.

Reuters television footage showed police firing tracer rounds into the air as other officers moved through the hotel. Power was cut in the hotel and in surrounding areas after the attack.

The hotel, built on a hillside in western Kabul with heavy fortifications all around it, is often used for conferences and by Westerners visiting the city.

Police threw up roadblocks immediately after the blast,    stopping people from approaching the area. Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of    May, although Kabul has been relatively quiet.

The last major attack on a major Kabul hotel used by foreigners was in January 2008, when several Taliban gunmen killed six people in a commando-style raid on the nearby Serena hotel.

The increase in violence comes as Nato-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas from next month at the start of a gradual transition process that will end with all foreign troops leaving Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

The two-day conference to discuss the transition process was due to begin in a government building in the centre of the city on Wednesday.

Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 was already at its worst levels since the Taliban were ousted by US-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

Osama’s widow to return to Yemen: brother

SANAA: The youngest widow of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden will return home to Yemen from Pakistan in the coming days, her brother said Wednesday.

Amal Abdulfattah's family was informed by "the foreign ministries of Yemen and Pakistan of plans concerning the return of Amal and her five children to Yemen in the coming days," Zakariya Abdulfattah told AFP.

"There have been diplomatic arrangements between the Yemeni and the Pakistani parties to secure her return to her country and we have received promises that it will take place soon," he said.

Her family had demanded last month that she and her children be repatriated from Pakistan where she is being detained.

Her brother had said that he has received assurances from the Yemeni ambassador in Islamabad that she is "in good health" despite sustaining a gunshot wound to the leg during the US commando raid that killed bin Laden.

US intelligence services have reportedly interrogated three of bin Laden's widows who were picked up in the US commando raid north of Islamabad in which the al Qaeda leader was killed.

Twenty-nine year old Amal was married to bin Laden in 1999 through a local matchmaker, the brother said, adding that she travelled to Afghanistan to join her husband.

Saudi-born bin Laden was already married to two other women -- the first of whom was his Syrian cousin Najwa al-Ghanem -- as Islam permits men to have as many as four wives.

 

US Army suicide rates reach yearly peak

According to CNN, May 2011 was the worst month in terms of suicides and suicide attempts as the US military reported 21 cases of ‘potential suicides’ among active-duty soldiers.

The Pentagon announced the statistics on Thursday, adding that it is still trying to solve the problem.

The US military has also noted that it has difficulty finding a reason for the suicide hike.

April saw 16 potential suicides, which is more than twice the figure released for March.

One reason could be the fact that the military keeps redeploying many of its soldiers already diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, physicians conjecture.

“Today, soldiers and marines are doing multiple tours of duty with very little break time in between each deployment. Even though they are suffering from mental trauma, from PTSD, they are often redeployed to Iraq or Afghanistan without treatment,” Dr. Dahlia Wasfi said in an interview with Press TV earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the Defense Department’s Pharmacoeconomic Center at Fort Sam Houston said last year that 20 percent of active-duty troops were taking prescribed psychotropic drugs including antidepressants, antipsychotics and sedative hypnotics.

The US military has blamed an increase in combat stress in Iraq and Afghanistan as a reason behind the higher suicide rates.

Furthermore, suicides have also increased among US soldiers who were not on active duty.

Figures released earlier this year by the US Army Vice Chief of Staff, General Peter Chiarelli, showed that the number of suicides among soldiers who have never been deployed to conflict zones had also increased sharply.

Weather changes likely in Pak, AJK due to global warming: Saeed

BRUSSELS Sijjad Saeed, first Pakistani and Azad Kashmiri PhD scholar working with German organization for measuring weather changes has said that north regions including Pakistan and Azad Kashmir would face intense weather changes due to global warming.

In an expulsive interview with “SANA” he said that intensive rains can create flood like situation and same times worst time can be came due to lack of rains in the area, adding that small dams are very necessary to tackle this kind of situation to use rain water in difficult times.

He said that global warming is changing balance of weathers and in the different regions of the world by getting intensity in both forms.

Sijjad Saeed said that level of water is decreasing in the entire world; Pakistan and Azad Kashmir are facing the same problem, and if small dams are not constructed then till 2025 may Pakistan entirely became dependent on other countries for food.

Sijaad Saeed belongs to tehsil Rawlakot and after completing his MSC degree in physics, he joined department of metrologies and now working as Deputy Director in Islamabad.

He received scholarship for Germany and doing his PhD on “weather changes and their affects on Asian moon soon”, his many research papers are published in international journals and he presented his research work in many international conferences in several countries.

New round of heavy rain hits China, causing more deaths and foring evacuation of 55,000

BEIJING, June 14 (Xinhua) : A new round of heavy rain has started to batter several southern regions, causing more deaths and triggering floods and landslides which had forced over 55,000 people to evacuate their homes as of late Tuesday, local authorities said.

Torrential rain began to lash Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou and Anhui provinces Monday evening and Zhejiang Province Tuesday morning. The rain is forecasted to last till Friday in some regions, according to local meteorological authorities.

More than 53,000 people had been evacuated from their homes in Hubei City of Xianning, as downpours had raised the level of a local river by five meters as of 7 p.m., local authorities said.

Previous heavy rainfall had already caused widespread destruction in Xianning, leaving dozens dead and over 100 injured.

Three people were killed by lightning in Guizhou late Monday and Tuesday, where more than 2,700 were evacuated from areas at risk of flooding.

Heavy downpours and hailstorms also hit the northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Monday night, killing four people and nearly 1,000 farm animals.

Flooding and landslides triggered by an earlier two rounds of rainstorms had left 105 people dead and 63 more missing in the south over the past 10 days, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Monday.

The Wuhan Central Meteorological Observatory issued four rainstorm alerts from Monday night to Tuesday morning to get residents in Hubei to brace themselves for the torrential rain.

Twenty-four counties and cities in Hubei have received over 50 mm of rainfall over the past day and the precipitation in Gong'an and Yingcheng has reached nearly 100 mm, said Xu Shuangzhu, chief weather forecaster at the observatory.

In the already hard-hit Yueyang city in Hunan, the new round of rain further damaged the embankments of several reservoirs, and last week, flash floods and landslides caused by the largest rainstorm in 300 years killed 29 people and left 20 missing.

City authorities have ordered the repair of the damaged embankments, checks on all reservoirs for problems, and the evacuation of downstream residents who might be in danger.

In the city of Huangshan in southern Anhui, water overflowed from 35 reservoirs and exceeded the warning levels in 124 reservoirs, according to the city flood control and drought relief headquarters.

The agency has also ordered precautions and checks for potential geological disasters and the relocation of threatened residents.

Families say Guantanamo ‘suicides’ were killings

WASHINGTON The families of two detainees who died in Guantanamo Bay in 2006 on Monday challenged the government’s assertion that the prisoners committed suicide, saying they were tortured to death.

Relatives of Saudi national Yasser al-Zahrani and Yemeni Salah al-Salami demanded the federal appeals court reconsider their cases in light of new information, including eyewitness accounts from four US military guards.

“They have direct eyewitness accounts of a cover-up of the actual circumstances of the deaths” their attorney, Padriss Kebriaei, said, adding that both the Bush and Obama administrations maintain they were suicides.

At the time of their deaths, Al-Zahrani, 21, and Al-Salami, 33, had been detained without charge and held incommunicado for about four years at the US base in southeastern Cuba.

The Pentagon maintains that the two men, along with a third detainee whose family is not party to the complaint, committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells.

But Joe Hickman, a US soldier who was on guard duty in a watchtower the night of their deaths, said he had seen three detainees escorted by van to a secretive site outside the main compound known as ‘Camp No.’ “Guards nicknamed the facility ‘Camp No’ because anyone who asked if it existed would be told, ‘No, it doesn’t,’“ the families’ petition said.

The van later dropped off the the three bodies at a medical facility, where Hickman was told the prisoners had swallowed rags.

Last November the Justice Department concluded that “the gist of Sergeant Hickman’s information could not be confirmed.”But Talal al-Zahrani, the father of one of the inmates, said that when he was invited to retrieve the body he saw “all the traces of torture, on his face, on his chest, on his head.”“I refused to sign the form that was given to me by the authorities claiming falsely that he had committed suicide. It was very clear he didn’t.”A subsequent medical exam revealed that his son’s esophagus had been ripped out and his body bore signs of torture, including several injection marks on his hands, according to Zahrani.

Bangladesh teenagers drive outsourcing growth

DHAKA: Like many teenagers, Abdullah Al Zahid spends most of his time holed up in his bedroom in his family’s modest Dhaka apartment glued to his computer.

But Zahid, 16, is not checking Facebook or chatting to friends – he’s working as a freelance web developer, part of a new wave of young, tech-savvy Bangladeshis who are transforming their country’s nascent outsourcing sector.

“There is so much demand for outsourcing, I am struggling to cope. I have to turn down many, many job offers,” said Zahid, who earns around $1,000 a month from several outsourcing contracts and is his family’s main breadwinner.

“Many of my friends are interested in this work. I hope to set up my own office one day and hire other people like me to do more outsourcing,” said Zahid, who is still at school and wants to go on to university.

The Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) estimates there are some 15,000 freelancers like Zahid in Bangladesh doing outsourced work for technology companies from across the globe.

The country also has some 500 registered IT outsourcing companies which collectively employ an additional 20,000 workers.

Compared to neighbouring India, which accounts for around 55 per cent of the $3.4 trillion global market and employs 2.54 million people directly in the sector, Bangladesh is an outsourcing minnow.

But as outsourcing costs rise in other countries like India, China and the Philippines, impoverished Bangladesh, currently better known for cheap garment exports for top Western brands, may be able to cash in.

“New companies are approaching with new orders now and that’s what we need to boost the industry as global IT spending is expected to rise over the next few years,” BASIS president Mahboob Zaman told AFP.

“We are just getting entry into the global industry but we have real potential,” he said, adding that Bangladesh’s low cost labour pool was a key competitive advantage.

The average wage of an outsourced IT sector employee is around $8 per hour in Bangladesh compared to $20 per hour in India and $10 to $15 an hour in the Philippines.

Moreover, Bangladesh has one of the largest and youngest populations in Asia, with 150 million people of whom some 65 per cent are under 25, Zaman said.

Last December, leading technology research company Gartner ranked Bangladesh for the first time in its annual list as one of its top 30 countries for IT services outsourcing in 2010 thanks to its low costs and huge labour pool.

Bangladesh began developing an outsourcing sector in 2004 and it is now worth around $120 million. The country exported some $36 million worth of IT services last year, according to BASIS figures.

The government has declared developing the IT outsourcing industry to be a key priority, which fits with their ongoing campaign to create a ‘Digital Bangladesh’ by 2020.

But there are major challenges which must be addressed before the industry can flourish: Gartner gave Bangladesh a “poor” rating in three vital areas – infrastructure, language skills and data, and intellectual property security.

Poor infrastructure, including frequent power crises and slow and unreliable Internet connections are the most immediate problems for Ahmadul Hoq, president of the Bangladesh Association of Call Centre and Outsourcing (BACCO).

“We have told the government that we need an uninterrupted power supply and a second connection with high bandwidth,” Hoq told AFP, adding that progress on these issues was slow.

Bangladesh’s businesses have long suffered from an acute power crisis, as plants generate only around 5,000 megawatts of electricity a day, but demand is over 6,000 megawatts and growing at a rate of 500 megawatts a year.

The country has only one submarine Internet cable and desperately needs a second line to prevent frequent disruptions, Hoq said.

“We are connected to submarine cable network SEA-ME-WE-4, which provides an Internet bandwidth of 24 gigabytes, but more speed needed and an alternative connection is essential to woo overseas clients,” Hoq said.

The government should also set up IT software parks in the capital Dhaka and at universities across the country to attract more graduates to the sector and ensure the right skills training is available, Hoq said.

For BASIS president Zaman, Bangladesh should aim for its outsourcing service industry to export $500 million worth of services by 2014, a goal he said was within reach.

“Two decades ago, many people could not imagine Bangladesh’s garment industry would become the country’s highest export earner – but it did. I believe the outsourcing industry has the same potential,” Zaman said.

Bangladesh’s garment industry accounts for 80 per cent of the country’s $16-billion-plus of export earnings and employs over three million workers, mostly women.

The country’s biggest advantage in terms of outsourcing, Zaman said, is its people – particularly the younger tech-savvy generation who are already helping the sector to take off without any government support.

“Young men like Zahid (the freelance web developer) adapt to new technologies quickly and it is going to be them who will drive the outsourcing industry forward,” he said.

Kashmir shuts down to honour those dead in protests

SRINAGAR: Kashmir’s separatist leaders imposed a general strike Saturday in the disputed Himalayan region to honour those killed in three summers of anti-India protests.

Most shops, businesses and schools were closed Saturday while public transportation was not running in the main city of Srinagar. Armed police and paramilitary officers patrolled the city’s streets.

Police say separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani called for the strike after being placed under house arrest on Thursday to prevent him from leading any demonstrations against Indian rule.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety. However, discontent with India’s heavy-handed rule has fuelled street protests by hundreds of thousands of rock-throwing youths. About 180 people have been killed in three years of India cracking down on protesters.

The violence has tented to escalate in the warmer summer months and ended with the cold of winter.

”People in Europe…also vent their anger by hurling stones, eggs and tomatoes, but they are not showered with bullets in response,” Geelani said in a statement Friday.

”India has enforced the law of the jungle.”

More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since 1989 when the separatist militants began a campaign of violence and attacks to press for either independence from India or a merger with neighbouring Pakistan.

The armed rebellion has largely been suppressed by Indian forces, and resistance is now shown mainly in street demonstrations.

Yemeni president arrives in Saudi, not quitting: official

RIYADH: Yemen’s beleaguered President Ali Abdullah Saleh, wounded in shelling of his compound in the capital Sanaa, arrived late Saturday in Riyadh for treatment but has not stood down, a Saudi official said.

“President Saleh has arrived in Riyadh for treatment, but he will return to Yemen,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

In Sanaa, a presidential palace source confirmed his departure but refused to say any more.

Under Yemen’s constitution, Saleh will be replaced during his absence by Deputy President Abdel Rabbo Mansur Hadi.

Saleh has refused to give up the power he has held for nearly 33 years despite four months of angry and violent protests against his rule.

He notably refused to sign a plan worked out by the Gulf Arab monarchies, headed by Saudi Arabia, for a peaceful transfer of power.

Saleh, 69, arrived aboard a Saudi medical aircraft while a second plane carried members of his family, the Saudi official said.

His eldest son Ahmad, commander of the elite Republican Guard, remained in Yemen. The opposition says Ahmad was preparing to take over from his father before the popular uprising started.

Saleh was immediately taken to the Saudi capital’s military hospital, the official said.

Saleh was wounded on Friday when a shell hit the presidential palace’s mosque during prayers, killing 11 and wounding 124 people, according to a government official.

In an audio statement broadcast on state television late Friday as he was being treated at the defence ministry hospital in Sanaa, Saleh said he was “well, in good health.”The embattled leader suffered “burns and scratches to the face and chest,”an official said after the ruling General People’s Congress said he was “lightly wounded in the back of the head.”His regime has blamed the attack on powerful dissident tribal leader Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, whose fighters have been battling government forces in the Yemeni capital since a truce crumbled on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar and four other senior Yemeni officials wounded in the shelling of the presidential compound were also transferred to Saudi Arabia for treatment, Yemen’s state news agency Saba reported.

A precarious calm meanwhile returned to Yemen’s capital on Saturday as Saleh vowed to hit back after the mosque attack and a top general defected to the opposition.

Sporadic shelling and rocket fire rattled Al-Hassaba district of northern Sanaa where Ahmar has his base, witnesses said.

The clashes left one person killed and dozens wounded, a medical official said before the fighting subsided later.

A source close to Sheikh Sadiq said the powerful tribal chief was “committed to a ceasefire based on mediation efforts led by Saudi King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz despite the continuous shelling” by Saleh forces.

Saleh, in power in Sanaa since 1978, hit out in his broadcast at “the sons of Al-Ahmar” – Sheikh Sadiq and his brothers – and urged “the security forces to purge state institutions of these gangs.”Washington condemned the violence, including the palace attack, and called for Saleh to transfer power.

Russia expressed its concern at the “terrible civil war” in Yemen and urged the leadership to accept a Gulf Cooperation Council-sponsored plan for him to step down in return for immunity.

The parliamentary opposition on Saturday called for an “immediate”ceasefire and condemned “the dangerous twist which the clashes have taken in targeting the homes of citizens, the presidential palace, and vital installations.”After Saleh last month refused to sign the GCC deal, opposition tribesmen seized public buildings in Sanaa, sparking clashes with Saleh forces.

Amid the latest escalation, the European Union activated a mechanism to evacuate its citizens, and Germany ordered the closure of its embassy.

After Friday’s presidential compound attack, Yemeni troops shelled the home of Sheikh Hamid, a brother of Sheikh Sadiq, in apparent retaliation.

Shelling in Hada neighbourhood also targeted the homes of two other Ahmar brothers, Hemyar and Mizhij, and that of dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar.

The attack on Sheikh Hamid’s home killed 10 people and wounded 35, his office said.

More than 70 people have now been confirmed killed in the fighting in Sanaa since a fragile four-day truce collapsed between Ahmar tribesmen and Saleh loyalists.

In the flashpoint city of Taez, the commander of the 33rd armoured division, General Yahya al-Hashidi, joined protesters calling for Saleh to quit, a military official told AFP.

Hashidi’s division controls Yemen’s southwest which includes the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the strategic entrance to the Indian Ocean from the Red Sea.

Nationwide, more than 200 demonstrators have been killed since the anti-Saleh protests erupted, according to an AFP tally based on reports from medics and rights activists.

First Nato strikes in Libya with attack copters: official

BRUSSELS: Nato announced Saturday it had for the first time used attack helicopters in Libya, striking military vehicles, military equipment and forces backing embattled leader Colonel Moamer Qadhafi.

“Attack helicopters under Nato command were used for the first time on 4 June 2011 in military operations over Libya as part of Operation Unified Protector,” the Atlantic Alliance said in a statement.

“The targets struck included military vehicles, military equipment and fielded forces,” said the statement, without detailing exactly where the strikes had taken place.

“The use of attack helicopters provides the Nato operation with additional flexibility to track and engage pro-Qadhafi forces who deliberately target civilians and attempt to hide in populated areas,” the statement went on.

Nato forces “are constantly reviewing their operations and use of available assets, including attack helicopters, to best maintain the momentum and increase the pressure on pro-Qadhafi forces.”

The statement recalled that Nato’s operation was being conducted under UN Security Resolution 1973, “which calls for an immediate end to all attacks against civilians and authorized all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in Libya.”

Dubai police face charges in prisoner abuse case

DUBAI: Local media say Dubai prosecutors have charged 13 police officers with beating a Pakistani prisoner so badly that he later died.

The National and Gulf News newspapers reported the allegations on Wednesday after they were made public during a court hearing the previous day.

The officers reportedly face multiple charges including abuse of power, excessive use of force and torture. The Pakistani man was being held as part of an investigation into an alleged kidnapping and murder case.

The officers charged are mostly Emirati, though two are Pakistani and another two are Omani. Their names were not released. All have pleaded not guilty and are out on bail.

Two new deaths in German E. coli outbreak

Two new deaths linked to a mysterious bacterial outbreak in Europe blamed on tainted vegetables were reported Tuesday, including the first outside Germany.

The deaths brought to 16 the total number of fatalities linked to the E. coli outbreak, with northwestern Germany the hardest-hit region.

Hospital officials in Boras, Sweden, announced the death of woman in her 50s who was admitted on May 29 after a trip to Germany. In Paderborn, Germany, the local council said an 87-year-old woman who also suffered from other ailments had died.In Germany, the national disease control centre said 373 people were sick with the most serious form of the outbreak - haemolytic uraemic syndrome, or HUS, a rare complication arising from an infection most commonly associated with E. coli. That figure was up from the 329 reported on Monday.

Susanne Glasmacher, a spokeswoman for the Robert Koch Institute, said another 796 people have been affected by the enterohaemorrhagic E.coli bacteria - making a total of more than 1,150 people infected.

Hundreds of people also have been sickened in other European countries, but until Tuesday Germany had seen the only deaths.

Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment is still warning consumers to avoid all cucumbers, lettuces and raw tomatoes as the outbreak is investigated.

European Union officials have said that German authorities identified cucumbers from the Spanish regions of Almeria and Malaga as possible sources of contamination and that a third suspect batch, originating either in the Netherlands or in Denmark and traded in Germany, is also under investigation.

They have also noted, however, that the transport chain is long, and the cucumbers from Spain could have been contaminated at any point along the route.

The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration said that no traces of EHEC bacteria were found in tests conducted over the weekend.

"There is therefore nothing that indicates that Danish cucumbers are the source of the serious E.coli outbreak that has infected several patients in Germany, Denmark and Sweden," the agency said.

In the meantime, Russia's chief sanitary agency on Monday banned the imports of cucumbers, tomatoes and fresh salad from Spain and Germany pending further notice.

Spanish Agriculture Minister Rosa Aguilar on Tuesday denied that her country was the source of contamination.

"From the beginning, in Germany, Spanish cucumbers have been named as responsible for this situation. We must say that it is not true and we must demand that the Germany authorities wrap up their investigation immediately," she said.

Aguilar called for a "European solution" and slammed Germany's handling of the outbreak.

She said the situation is "extremely serious" for the agriculture sector, estimating Spain's vegetable sale losses at "more than 200 million euros ($A269.41 million) a week"