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Sunday, April 12, 2009

Captain freed from Somali pirates

A US merchant vessel captain has been freed from captivity and three Somali pirates reportedly shot dead in an operation in the Indian Ocean.Richard Phillips, the captain of theMaersk Alabama, was freed after an operation against the pirates on Sunday, Laura Tischler, a spokeswoman for the US state department, said."I can confirm that Captain Phillips has been safely recovered," she said.Three of the four pirates holding Phillips were killed in the operation while the fourth was taken into custody, US officials said."US forces are reported to have attacked the lifeboat when the pirates were expecting a diplomatic exchange ... [and] have taken the remaining pirate to one of their ships in these waters.""The ransom money pirates have been getting is so huge, that many more people have been drawn into the activity."It is something that has become a very lucrative trend."

MI6 intelligence from Pakistan led to UK raids: report

Police officers stand guard outside a property in the
 Cheetham Hill area of Manchester 

KARACHI The recent anti-terror raids carried out in the UK were based on intelligence acquired from Pakistan-focused MI6 operations, the Guardian reported on Saturday. Intelligence provided from within the UK and ‘abroad’ warned security agencies of an ‘imminent attempt of bomb attacks in the UK’ but no such evidence was found during the raids carried out on Thursday.‘One senior source said ‘nothing of huge significance’ had been found, and accepted it was possible that no evidence could emerge before the 28-day limit to hold terrorism suspect expires,’ the paper adds According to the report, the MI6 carried out intelligence operations inside Pakistan ‘two to three weeks’ back and led the investigators to believe that ‘al Qaeda driven’ terror plots were being hatched in the UK, which led the security agencies to launch a massive surveillance operation.While early clues were based on suspects taking photographs of crowded areas in Manchester, the urgency in carrying out the operation was caused first by the careless handling of raid plans by a police official and later, following surveillance acquired from ‘discussion about dates, including the Easter bank holiday weekend, taken as a reference to a possible date to stage the attack.’All intelligence agencies involved in the operation concluded that this information was sufficient to launch the raids. One driving factor was the scale of feared casualties. ‘Is this territory where you can take a risk; no it’s not,’ said a source quoted by the paper.The operations have been ‘scaled-down’ but have managed to stir fear among people living in the Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire localities from where the suspects were arrested.

Maoist rebels kill Indian troops

Suspected Maoist rebels have killed 10 paramilitary troops and injured 11 others in an ambush in central India ahead of next week's general elections, police say.More than 125 Maoists, armed with AK-47s, attacked Central Reserve Police Forces(CRPF)patrolling Chintagufa, a forested area about 445km south of Raipur in Chattisgarh state."It was an ambush. Ten CRPF men, including a deputy commandant, were martyred and eight other personnel received bullet wounds in a three-hour-long gun battle," Rahul Sharma, the local superintendent of police, said on Saturday.The Maoists, who are very active across much of India, claim to be fighting on behalf of peasants, farmers and labourers, demanding land and jobs. They are active in almost half of India's 28 states.The rebels have called for people to boycott the upcoming polls to elect a new parliament.Thousands have died as a result of the Maoist insurgency in India. The rebels are also known as Naxalites, derived from Naxalbari - a village in North Bengal where peasants rose up in an uprising in 1967, triggering a countrywide upheaval.Manmohan Singh, India's prime minister, has described the insurgency as one of the greatest threats to India's domestic security.

Suicide bomber targets Sunni militiamen

At least nine people were killed on Saturday when a suicide bomber targeted Sunni Arab militiamen, or Sahwas, at their headquarters, south of Baghdad. The US-allied patrolmen have been playing a crucial role in cutting down violence in Iraq.A suicide bomber targeted a group of Sunni Arab militiamen south of Baghdad on Saturday as they queued at an Iraqi army post to collect pay cheques, killing 9 and wounding 31, police said.The U.S.-sponsored Sunni patrolmen, or Sahwas, helped cut violence in Iraq after they turned on al Qaeda and other insurgent groups, but ties between them and the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad have been strained in recent weeks by the arrest of Sahwa leaders.The attack took place in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of the Iraqi capital, which was once part of an area known as the "Triangle of Death" where Sunni Islamist extremists frequently attacked Shi'ite Muslims.The bombing occurred as the men were waiting to get overdue money from the authorities. Delays in paying the Sahwas, also known as "Awakening Councils," have contributed to tensions between them and the government.

Polar Bear Attacks Woman At Berlin Zoo

Dramatic Pic Of Woman Attacked By Polar Bear

This is the moment a woman was mauled by a polar bear after she jumped into its enclosure at Berlin Zoo.The intruder was attacked just yards away from Knut, the abandoned bear who became famous around the world.Zookeepers managed to push the bear away and carry the woman from the cage.The mauling took place inside an enclosure occupied by four polar bears not far from Knut's home.Heiner Kloes, a Berlin Zoo spokesman, said the enclosure is surrounded by a fence, a line of prickly hedges and a wall.The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment.Police did not say why she jumped in with the bears."The woman has proved herself to be careless by jumping into the enclosure," a police spokesperson said."Logic tells us that polar bears will do this type of thing in this situation."Last December, a man who later described himself as "lonely" jumped into the cage of the zoo's most famous polar bear.

PM Abhisit lifts state of emergency in Pattaya

Asian leaders due to attend the ASEAN summit in Pattaya - now postponed indefinitely - were evacuated in helicopters on Saturday after thousands of anti-government protestors stormed the venue. An earlier state of emergency has been lifted.A summit of Asian leaders in Thailand was cancelled on Saturday after anti-government protesters swarmed into the meeting’s venue, renewing doubts about the durability of the government.The events will pile more pressure on an economy teetering on the brink of recession, especially if foreign tourists are put off by the scenes of chaos and emboldened protesters intensify the fight to kick out Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.Abhisit imposed a state of emergency for a few hours in Pattaya, a resort about 150 kms (90 miles) south of Bangkok best known for its racy nightlife and as a port of call for U.S. sailors, which was to host the East Asia Summit.He lifted it after the foreign leaders had left the country. About half of them had had to be evacuated by helicopter from the venue to a nearby military airbase.The summit fiasco is a huge embarrassment for Abhisit’s government, which came to power in December through parliamentary defections that the opposition says were engineered by the army.The weekend’s events will also raise questions about how enduring his government can be.Four prime ministers over the past 15 months have failed to resolve Thailand’s deep political rift between the royalist, military and business elite on the one hand, and a rural majority loyal to ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on the other.Asked by Reuters after his statement about lifting the emergency, if he planned to resign, Abhisit said: “We have to restore law and order.”

Somali pirates hijack tugboat

Somali pirates have seized a US-owned and Italian-flagged tugboat in the Gulf of Aden.The tugboat, which was hijacked on Saturday, carries 10 Italian citizens among its 16-member crew, according to Nato alliance officials on a Portuguese warship in the area.Sergio Carvalho, a lieutenant on theNRB Corte-Real, said the tugboat issued a distress call before communications went silent six minutes later.Andrew Mwangura, an official from the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, a regional maritime group, said the crew were believed to be unharmed on the tugboat, which he said was operated from the United Arab Emirates.The hijacking is the latest in a series of raids in the region. At least a dozen ships have been seized off the Somali coast, with more than 200 crew members being held hostage.Somali pirates have continued to operate despite the presence of an international task force gathered to defend shipping in what is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.