Aurora apartment building fire kills 2, injures 15
Two people have been killed and 15 others injured in a fire that broke out in an apartment building in the city of Aurora, Colorado. Numerous people have been rescued from the upper floors of the four-story building, firefighting officials say. The building where the fire broke out is a block away from the apartment of James Holmes, who is accused of a mass-killing in an Aurora movie theater on July 20. Authorities are investigating a report of a person with a gas can leaving the scene of the fire, but there is no evidence that the incident is connected with the shooting.
Eastern China, Shanghai brace for third typhoon in week
Shanghai and nearby coastal areas rushed on Tuesday to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people as the China Meteorological Administration issued a red alert for Typhoon Haikui. It is the highest alert so far this year and the third typhoon in less than a week, AP reports. The meteorologists say the storm is likely to hit between the coastal cities of Ningbo and Wenzhou late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Heavy rains and strong winds for 48 hours are expected. Shanghai, a city with 23 million people and the country's financial hub, has banned all outdoor group activities, closed all city parks and suspended summer classes. Ships were also ordered to port.
Clinton says plan for post-Assad Syria needed after defections
The defections of Syria's prime minister and other senior officials increase the urgency of planning for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said. Speaking in the South African capital on Tuesday she said it was important to make sure that Syria’ institutions remain intact once the current regime falls. Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab defected the previous day. Clinton will raise issues of post-Assad Syria when she travels to Turkey on Saturday.
UN pulls all monitors out of Syria’s Aleppo – spokesperson
The UN has reportedly pulled all of its 24 monitors out of the Syrian city of Aleppo because of security concerns. Spokeswoman for the mission Juliette Touma told CNN that all monitors have been moved back to Damascus amid growing violence. “This is a temporary move back to Damascus and we still hope to return the team when the security situation allows,” Touma said.
Tibetan woman sets herself on fire
A 26-year-old woman has died after setting herself on fire in west-central China's Gansu province, according to a Tibetan rights group. Dolkar Kyi set fire to herself Tuesday at Tso Monastery in Tso city, London-based Free Tibet said. A Tibetan man also set himself alight on Monday in southwestern China's Sichuan province, AP said. Free Tibet identified him as Lobsang Tsultrim. The 21-year-old monk from Kirti Monastery was reported to be alive and have been taken away by police.
Minibus bomb kills 4 in Iraq
An explosion from a bomb attached to the underside of a minibus has killed four people south of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said. Five others were injured in the attack late on Monday in Haswa, 50 kilometers south of the capital, AP reports. Maj. Muthana Khalid, spokesman for the Hilla provincial police, confirmed that the sticky bomb had detonated.
Assad meets Iran's security chief, makes TV appearance
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has made a rare TV appearance as state TV broadcast his meeting with Iran's security chief on Tuesday. Assad has not been seen on state TV for several weeks. On Monday, Prime Minister Riad Hijab defected to the opposition. Iran's security chief Saeed Jalili warned in Damascus that only a “Syrian solution” would end the crisis. Tehran is Assad's key ally in the region.
Kurd party warns Turkey against interfering in Syria
A Kurdish party that is extending its power in northern Syria has warned Turkey not to interfere in the region. “Turkey has nothing to do with the Syrian Kurds,” Reuters quoted the leader of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) Mohammed Saleh Muslim as saying. “The protection of my people in my areas, in my town: that is my right, no one can deny it,” he said. Muslim said the Syrian towns of Kobani, Derik and Efrin were now under Kurdish control. Turkey earlier said it will not allow “terrorist” groups to gain a foothold across the border in Syria.
WHO warns of severe shortages of medicines in Syria
Many of the main makers of pharmaceuticals in Syria have closed down, causing severe shortages of medicines, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. Ninety per cent of Syria's medicinal drug plants are located in rural Aleppo, Homs and Damascus provinces. They have all suffered substantial damage from the escalation in fighting, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said. “Many of these plants have now closed down as a result of the ongoing clashes and increased cost of fuel,” he said, as cited by Reuters. The health facilities that have stopped functioning are located in the areas where the urgent need for medical interventions is the most prominent. The Syrian Health Ministry has said that it has lost 200 ambulances over the last few weeks.
Suu Kyi to head Myanmar's parliamentary committee
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was named on Tuesday chairman of a new parliamentary “Rule of Law and Tranquility Committee”. It will monitor and help implement the rule of law under the country's new government, AP said. The committee consists of 15 lawmakers including at least five from Kachin and Rakhine states and other ethnic areas. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s party is seeking an end to ethnic conflicts.
Philippine landslide kills 8
Eight people were killed after torrential rains in the Philippine capital Manila triggered a landslide on Tuesday. Emergency crews were trying to rescue and evacuate tens of thousands of residents, some of whom were stranded on the roofs of their homes, AP said. Eight people were killed when a landslide hit a row of shanties along a road in Manila's suburban Quezon City. Incessant downpours set off by the seasonal monsoon have overflowed major dams and rivers in Manila and surrounding provinces.
Gunmen kill 19 in Nigeria church attack
Gunmen have fired on worshippers at a church in Nigeria's central Kogi state during an evening service and killed 19 people, police said. A group of three unidentified gunmen stormed the church in the town of Okene, south of the capital Abuja on Monday, Reuters reports. Islamist sect Boko Haram has attacked several churches this year in Nigeria. The strike in Okene was further south than the group's usual targets.
Yemen limits Saleh son's powers
Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi ordered the restructuring of the army to curb the powers of former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh’s son. The president issued decrees transferring the command of some Republican Guards' units to a newly formed force called the Presidential Protective Forces under his authority, the state news agency Saba said. Other units from the elite Republican Guards, which is led by Brigadier General Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, the ex-president's son, were placed under different regional command.
Palestinian PM urges separate parliament vote in West Bank
The Palestinian prime minister in the West Bank has said Palestinians should hold parliamentary elections in the territory soon instead of waiting for reconciliation with Gaza's Hamas movement. PM Salam Fayyad’s comments late Monday challenged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Hamas rivals, AP said. Both said earlier the elections should follow a unity deal. Fayyad stressed that Palestinians have a “strong desire for elections” in the climate of the Arab Spring.
Saudi Arabia allocates $3.7 million for Syrian relief aid
Saudi Arabia has allocated approximately US$3.7 million for relief aid to Syrian refugees, Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri said on Tuesday. He also told Okaz newspaper that a decline in charity donations to the refugees has “prompted Saudi Arabia to set up eight reception and shelter centers.” The Saudi plan would provide relief aid for 8,000 Syrian families. The UN is helping around 34,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon, while their total number in the country is estimated at close to 90,000.
Taliban bombing kills 8 near Kabul
A Taliban bomb killed eight people and wounded five on the outskirts of Kabul on Tuesday, police said. A remote-controlled mine struck a civilian minibus in Paghman district, Kabul police chief General Ayoub Salangi told AFP. The man who set off the bomb had been captured with the cooperation of local residents. Salangi described him as a member of the Taliban. “People caught him while he still had the remote detonator in his hand,” Salangi said.
Eleven killed in Nepal bus accident
A bus has veered off a highway and into a river in Nepal, killing at least 11 people. Police say 25 more people were injured. The driver apparently lost control of the bus while on the way to Katmandu on Tuesday morning, AP reports. The bus fell 50 meters into the Trishuli River. The Prithvi highway, where the accident occurred about 80 kilometers west of Katmandu, is the main route connecting the Nepalese capital with the rest of the country.
Police end Sudanese sit-in near UNHCR office in Lebanon
Lebanese police have ended a protest by Sudanese refugees blocking the main entrance to a UN office. More than a dozen Sudanese refugees began a protest in June in front of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office in the Beirut suburb of Jnah. They called for their status as refugees to be settled. Police intervened on Monday after the office said the protesters impeded aid work, AP said. Protesters first began with a hunger strike, then blocked the main entrance of the UNHCR’s office at the end of July. Sudanese refugees have no legal right to stay in Lebanon because the country did not sign an international refugee convention in 1950.
Afghan bomb blast kills at least 8 civilians
A bomb has exploded, hitting a minibus close to the Afghan capital of Kabul, killing at least eight civilians, report local officials. The attack was allegedly meant to have struck a police patrol in the Paghman district. A man has been taken into custody in connection with the bombing.
Fire underway after unspecified 'emergency' at California oil refinery
Authorities in two Northern California towns have told residents to "shelter-in-place" due to a fire at a Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, in the San Francisco Bay. The fire, first reported at 6:40 pm local time Monday, has caused a cloud of black smoke to spread out over Richmond and neighboring San Pablo. It's not currently known what caused the fire, but an automated message sent out by local health officials says there was simply an emergency at the refinery. Television footage shows large flames with think black smoke coming out of the facility.
16 die in Mexico road accident
Sixteen people died Monday in the northern Mexican state of Sonora, when two vehicles collided head-on, Reuters reports. One of them, a pickup truck, was full of passengers and burst into flames upon impact, killing 14 of them. Two other victims died in the tractor-trailer, including a 10-year-old boy. Four people were hospitalized with serious injuries.
Thousands in Pakistan protest NATO supply route
Thousands of people have taken to the streets Monday in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, to protest the government's decision to reopen the NATO supply route from the country into Afghanistan. The border had been closed off since November in response to a US drone attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Months after the incident, Washington offered an official apology but many Pakistani citizens feel Islamabad's latest move will only fuel the insurgency.
Iranian TV aired ‘confessions’ in killings of nuke scientists
Iranian state television has broadcast the purported confessions of 14 suspects in the killings of five of the country's nuclear scientists in recent years. The Sunday broadcast showed suspects re-enacting the assassinations in Tehran. The documentary also featured pictures from a military garrison in Israel, with claims that the suspects were trained there. Tehran believes the killings were part of a campaign by Israel and the West to disrupt its development of nuclear power.
British bank accused of laundering Iran money
New York’s financial regulator has accused a UK bank of scheming with the Iranian government to launder $250 billion from 2001 to 2007, leaving the United States’ financial system “vulnerable to terrorists,” AP reports. State Financial Services Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky called the London-based Standard Chartered Bank a rogue institution and signed an order requiring it to answer his questions. This follows an investigation into “wire stripping," the practice of removing crucial identifiers in financial transactions. He quoted one of the bank’s executive as as saying: "You (expletive) Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we're not going to deal with Iranians.''
No comments:
Post a Comment