South Asia news

40 people killed in Nepal as crowded bus falls into river;
                                 

                           KATHMANDU: At least 40 people were killed on Thursday when a crowded passenger bus skidded off a hilly road and fell into Sunkoshi river in eastern Nepal.

The bus plunged into the river at Ritthebhir area in Jhangajholi village of Sindhuli district, 150 km east of Kathmandu, killing 40 people and injuring 16 others, police said.

However, 11 people traveling on the roof of the bus managed to jump off as the bus went out of control. The bus was en route to the capital.

Police and rescue workers carried out rescue work with the help of locals. The injured passengers have been brought to Kathmandu for medical treatment, police said.

This is the biggest bus accident in Nepal after the Vijaya Dashami festival. Although the exact reason of the accident could not be known yet, it is presumed that overload might have caused the accident.

The dilapidated roads, old public transport vehicles and overcrowded bus are the main causes of highway accidents in Nepal.

uk today news

Philip Hammond to replace Liam Fox as new UK defence minister;  

           LONDON: Philip Hammond will become UK's new defence minister after Liam Fox quit following a spate of revelations and allegations against his former flatmate and best man, Adam Werritty.

55-year-old Hammond, who was appointed transport minister in the Conservative-led coalition in May 2010, has been pushed into the key cabinet post.

Werritty, who posed as an adviser to Fox and accompanied the latter to official meetings and foreign tours, was at the centre of the controversy that dogged Fox at every public engagement in the last week.

In his resignation letter, Fox said he had "mistakenly allowed the distinction between my personal interest and my government activities to become blurred."

New revelations today indicated that financial backers linked to Israel and a private intelligence company helped fund the travels of Werritty.

According to The Times, financial backers from Israel and a private intelligence company helped put in 147,000 pounds in a company set up by Werritty.

Responding to Fox's resignation, Prime Minister David Cameron said: "I understand your reasons for deciding to resign as defence secretary, although I am very sorry to see you go."

"We have worked closely for these last six years, and you have been a key member of my team throughout that time," he was quoted as saying by BBC.

The Oxford-educated transport secretary becomes Britain's seventh defence secretary in ten years.

Hammond, who became an MP in 1997, has worked in a variety of business environments, including manufacturing, property and construction and oil and gas. 

 

 

British defence minister Liam Fox quits;

 LONDON: British defence minister Liam Fox resigned on Friday, forced out over his close working relationship with a friend who posed as his advisor despite having no official government role.

In his resignation letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, the Conservative lawmaker admitted he had allowed the distinction between his personal and government activities to be blurred through his work with Adam Werritty.

"I mistakenly allowed the distinction between my personal interest and my government activities to become blurred. The consequences of this have become clearer in recent days. I am very sorry for this," Fox wrote.

In his letter of response, published by Downing Street, Cameron said he understood why Fox was leaving but was "very sorry to see you go" and praised his achievements in 17 months as defence secretary.

"I understand your reasons for deciding to resign as defence secretary, although I am very sorry to see you go," the prime minister wrote, adding that he hoped Fox and his wife Jesme would remain his "good friends".

In his letter of resignation, which comes after days of allegations about his relationship with Werritty, Fox said: "I have also repeatedly said that the national interest must always come before personal interest.

"I now have to hold myself to my own standard.

"I have therefore decided, with great sadness, to resign from my post as secretary of state for defence -- a position which I have been immensely proud and honoured to have held."

Fox's departure leaves a vacancy at the top of the ministry of defence at a crucial time, when British forces are still deployed on a NATO mission in Libya and continue their ten-year operation in Afghanistan.

The minister also had the job of pushing through eight percent cuts to the armed forces budget as part of a government-wide austerity drive, which saw him confront military chiefs over what he described as years of mismanagement.

"I am particularly proud to have overseen the long overdue reforms to the Ministry of Defence and to our armed forces," Fox said.

"I am proud also to have played a part in helping to liberate the people of Libya, and I regret that I will not see through to its conclusion Britain's role in Afghanistan, where so much progress has been made."

Fox is the second member of Cameron's coalition government to resign since it took office in May 2010 -- the first, Liberal Democrat minister David Laws, was forced to stand down within weeks of the election over an expenses scandal.

Cameron said Fox had done a "superb job", saying: "You can be proud of the difference you have made in your time in office, and in helping our party to return to government."

 

Murdoch's top aide quits after WSJ hit by circulation scam;

     LONDON: Rupert Murdoch's media empire, recently hit by the UK's phone hacking scandal , suffered another setback after one of its senior-most European executives resigned in the wake of an alleged circulation scam at the Wall Street Journal.  

Nick Davies of The Guardian , whose series of reports blew the lid off phone-hacking and other unethical news-gathering practices at News of the World, on Thursday reported the circulation scam at WSJ, a flagship newspaper of Murdoch's News Corporation.

Andrew Langhoff, the European managing director of WSJ's parent company, Dow Jones and Co in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, resigned on Tuesday. Dow Jones and Co was bought by News Corporation in 2007.

Dow Jones said in a statement that Langhoff stepped down "because of a perceived breach of editorial integrity".

The Guardian, however, reported that it found evidence that the WSJ had been channelling money through European companies in order to secretly buy thousands of copies of its own paper at a knock-down rate, misleading readers and advertisers about the WSJ's true circulation . Terming the scheme 'bizarre' , the report said that the scheme included a formal, written contract in which the WSJ persuaded one company to cooperate by agreeing to publish articles that promoted its activities, a move which led some staff to accuse the paper's management of violating journalistic ethics and jeopardizing its treasured reputation for editorial quality.

Internal emails and documents suggest the scam The Guardian reported, was promoted by Langhoff. The highly controversial activities were reportedly organized in London and focused on WSJ's European edition, which circulates in the EU, Russia, and Africa.

 

87 bombs found at British nudist beach;

            

            

The Royal Navy was called in after 26 bombs, including two submarine depth charges and at least six 10-pound mortars, washed up on the beach. A subsequent search unearthed 61 more explosives, The Sun reported Thursday.

The navy's elite team of bomb disposal officers detonated explosives in the sea near the shore.

A string of other items such as bullets were part of the haul found at Leysdown beach on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, the newspaper said.

North Kent coast guard manager Colin Ingram, who oversaw the controlled explosions, said: "It is quite a find. A lot of shooting and plane exercises happened around Leysdown."

"Sometimes the shells wouldn't go off when dropped from a plane or shot from a rifle," he said.

"They were cushioned by the mud and did not explode."

The east side of the beach - often called Shellness - is the official nudist area.

It is listed on the UK's Naturist Factfile, which says: "Recent reports suggest regular use by 20 to 30 naturists, with up to 100 at busy weekends."

The website adds: "This beach is a mixture of sand, shingle, shells and, in places, mud."

A sunken Second World War wreck - the SS Richard Montgomery - lies two miles off the coast and is packed with 1,400 tonnes of explosives. But the bombs on the beach are not thought to have come from the stricken US vessel which went down in 1944, according to the newspaper.

LONDON: A total of 87 bombs, some dating back to the late 19th century, washed ashore at a nudist beach in Britain, as stunned naturists gawked during a two-day sweep of the sands by the Royal Navy.

 

 

UN to reduce Haiti mission, peacekeepers at record high

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations aims to cut back its peacekeeping force in Haiti this year as the number of blue-helmet troops around the world hits a record of more than 120,000, officials said on Thursday.

The new head of UN peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, said the cutback was not linked to the sexual assault and cholera scandals that have hit the Haiti mission, known as MINUSTAH, this year.

The UN Security Council is to approve an extension of the MINUSTAH mandate on Friday.

The United Nations sent a "surge" of about 3,000 specialist engineering troops to Haiti after the January, 2010 earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people.

"We believe that it should be possible to reduce, to come back to the levels of MINUSTAH before the earthquake," Ladsous told a press conference.

At the end of August there were about 8,700 troops from 18 countries in the mission, 3,500 police and 500 civilian personnel. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has recommended reducing this by about 2,750 over the next 12 months.

The UN force in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, has been tainted by scandal.

This year a group of Uruguayan troops were accused of raping a Haitian youth. Five Uruguayan troops have been jailed by a military court for disobeying orders and dereliction of duty.

"You cannot link that terrible incident with the overall perspective of the mission in Haiti," Ladsous said when questioned about the rape.

But MINUSTAH was already facing criticism for the UN peacekeepers from Nepal who, according to a study published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, brought a strain of cholera to Haiti responsible for an epidemic that has killed 5,500 people.

"In general I think there is a desire from the government of Haiti to retain MINUSTAH," Ladsous said, quoting one survey which said 60 percent of the population wants to keep the mission.

Ladsous said there were now more than 120,000 peacekeepers around the world, including about 98,000 uniformed troops. "We are at about the highest level ever," the Frenchman added.

"It is true that we have to cut back where we can," he said. "Of course we are going to reduce numbers where we can, and of course costs."

UN peacekeeping has an annual budget of about $8 billion and the Haiti mission alone will cost about $800 million in the current financial year.

Ladsous stressed that there would be no concessions on the security of serving troops. Two Rwandan troops and a Senegalese policeman were killed when their patrol in the Darfur region of Sudan was ambushed this week.

He said his first official tour would be to Sudan and South Sudan in two weeks time.

While the UN mission in Sudan has been closed since the July 9 division of the country, a new mission has been created in South Sudan and a force of up to 4,200 peacekeepers is starting to be deployed in the disputed Sudanese territory of Abyei.

UN debates resolution on Yemen power transfer

UNITED NATIONS: Key members of the UN Security Council are considering a Yemen resolution that would call for an immediate cease-fire and transfer of power amid reports the security situation in the Middle Eastern nation is deteriorating rapidly.

The British-drafted resolution, obtained yesterday by The Associated Press, demands that Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down in return for immunity from any prosecution.

The resolution is being discussed by the five veto-wielding permanent council members, and earlier this week, Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow preferred a weaker presidential statement.

But Churkin told reporters that he was now beginning to look at a legally binding resolution.

France's United Nations Ambassador Gerard Araud said he was pessimistic Wednesday about council adoption of a resolution, but was more positive Thursday saying "the Russians are permanently moving into the direction of a resolution."

Supporters of the resolution are hoping to circulate the text to the entire 15-member Security Council, possibly Friday, and would like to see a vote next week.

Unlike the resolution on Syria which was vetoed by Russia and China last week, the Yemen draft makes no mention of sanctions or any other measures.

It backs the initiative by the Gulf Cooperation Council the alliance of Saudi Arabia and five other energy-rich nations which calls for an immediate cease-fire and demands that President Saleh transfer power to his vice president in return for immunity from any prosecution.

Saleh endorsed the deal several times only to balk at signing at the last minute. He was gravely wounded in an explosion at his presidential palace in June and went to Saudi Arabia for treatment. During his absence, mediators and opposition groups sought to convince him to stay away and transfer power to his deputy, but he declined and returned abruptly to Yemen late last month.

The Security Council was briefed Tuesday by the UN special adviser on Yemen, Jamal Benomar, who told reporters afterwards that "the security situation has deteriorated very dramatically."

US birth rates decline amid recession

WASHINGTON: A sharp drop in birth rates in the US in the past few years reflects economic recession in the country that started in 2008, said a Pew Research Center report.

According to the report released Oct 12, births have been declining since 2007, when a record high number of births - 4,316,233 - was registered, reported RIA Novosti.

"Provisional data show that in 2010 births numbered just over 4 million," the report says, citing an analysis of multiple economic and demographic data sources.

The analysis has also found evidence of a correlation between souring economy and fertility declines by race and ethnicity.

"Hispanics, whose employment levels and household wealth were particularly hard hit by the Great Recession, have experienced the largest fertility declines of the nation's three major racial and ethnic groups," the report says.

According to the report from 2008 to 2009, birth rates dropped by 5.9% among Hispanic women, by 2.4% among black women and by 1.6% among white women.

Meanwhile, the US population keeps growing due to a steady influx of immigrants from all over the world who seek better life in America, the report notes.

The Pew Research Center is a non-partisan "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It was established in 2004 as a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a Philadelphia-based public charity.

US worries over China's underground nuclear network

WASHINGTON: A leading US lawmaker who fears budget cuts could delay modernizing the US nuclear arsenal voiced concern on Friday about an extensive tunnel complex designed to house Chinese nuclear missiles.

"This network of tunnels could be in excess of 5,000 kilometers (3,110 miles), and is used to transport nuclear weapons and forces," said Michael Turner, who chairs a House Armed Services Committee panel focusing on strategic weapons and other security programs.

"As we strive to make our nuclear forces more transparent, China is building this underground tunnel system to make its nuclear forces even more opaque," he added, citing an unclassified department of defense report.

Experts also expressed their concern about the network, whose existence was revealed by official Chinese media in late 2009.

The tunnels would allow China to launch a nuclear counter-attack if it was hit by a nuclear strike. "It's almost mind-boggling," said Mark Schneider, senior analyst at the National Institute for Public Policy.

"It has enormous implications in terms of their view toward nuclear warfare, survivability of their systems and their leadership in the event of war.

"It is virtually impossible to target anything like that, irrespective of how many nuclear weapons you have," he added.

Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center said the tunnel complex could allow the Chinese army to conceal its weapons.

"Do we really know how many missiles the Chinese have today?" he asked.

Turner expressed concern that planned cuts to the Pentagon could block efforts to modernize the US arsenal.

"We need to understand the potential long-term consequences of watching as Russia and China modernize their nuclear arsenal while we sit back and simply maintain our existing and aging nuclear forces," he warned.

President Obama sending troops to aid Africa anti-insurgency

WASHINGTON: President Obama on Friday said he is dispatching roughly 100 US troops to central Africa to help battle the Lord's Resistance Army, which the administration accuses of a campaign of murder, rape and kidnapping children that spans two decades.

In a letter to Congress, Obama said the troops will act as advisers in efforts to hunt down rebel leader Joseph Kony but will not engage in combat except in self-defence.

The White House says the first troops arrived in Uganda on Wednesday. Ultimately, they will also deploy in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Congo.

Long considered one of Africa's most brutal rebel groups, the Lord's Resistance Army began its attacks in Uganda more than 20 years ago but has been pushing westward.

The administration and human rights groups say its atrocities have left thousands dead and have put as many as 300,000 Africans to flight. They have charged the group with seizing children to bolster its ranks of soldiers and sometimes forcing them to become sex slaves.

Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court under a 2005 warrant for crimes against humanity in his native Uganda.

Obama's announcement came in low-key fashion -- a letter to the leader of the House, Speaker John Boehner, in which he said the deployment "furthers US national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter-LRA efforts in central Africa."