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Quake toll reaches 179, rescue workers say

The death toll from the devastating earthquake in central Italy has reached 179, according to rescue workers, and has left an estimated 50,000 homeless. Rescuers toiled through the night to find survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings.Rescuers used mechanical diggers and their bare hands to search through the night on Tuesday for survivors of Italy's worst quake in three decades which killed nearly 180 people.More than 24 hours after the quake shook the central Italian region of Abruzzo, emergency workers dug out two students early on Tuesday from collapsed buildings in L'Aquila, the medieval mountain city of 68,000 people worst hit by the disaster.Rescuers have pulled some 100 people from the rubble but with other missing, civil protection officials said hopes were dimming of finding many more alive.Early on Tuesday morning civil protection officials put the number of dead at 179. There were at least 34 people missing and 1,500 injured. They said the number of homeless was at least 17,000, far less that the some 50,000 estimated on Monday.The quake, measuring between 5.8 and 6.3 on the Richter scale, struck shortly after 3:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) on Monday, catching residents in their sleep and flattening houses, ancient churches and other buildings in 26 cities and towns.Aftershocks rattled the area, some 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome in the rugged Abruzzo region, well into the night as thousands of people sheltered in their cars and in tent camps.

Pakistani Teen Purportedly Shown in Flogging Video Now Says It Never Happened

A Pakistani teenage girl at the center of national outrage over a video purporting to show her public flogging at the hands of the Taliban now reportedly says the incident never happened.The video, shown last week by Pakistani television and widely posted on the Web, shows the crying 17-year-old girl being held down by a man identified as her brother even as a member of the Taliban beats her.The incident reportedly took place between two and five weeks ago in the Swat Valley village of Kala Killay. The video has sparked nationwide demonstrations challenging the government's decision to allow Sharia law into the Taliban-controlled region.Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called for an immediate inquiry and condemned the flogging as being contrary to Islamic teachings, which teach men to treat women "politely and gently."Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry — only recently restored to office — said the flogging was cruel and in violation of fundamental human rights, and ordered local officials to conduct an investigation.But the girl, identified as Chand Bibi, reportedly told an Islamic judge and a government commissioner that the incident never happened.The Times of India reported Monday that the girl claimed she was married to the man she was accused of having illicit relations with, and that reports that both of them were flogged by the Taliban and forced to marry were untrue."She requested the judge and the commissioner to spare her from appearing in the court in Islamabad," provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told local media, the Times reported.Hussain claimed the video was a fake that was distributed to disrupt the peace process in the region."We condemn the acts of repression against women. ... But the incident depicted in the videotape never took place in Swat," he said.Pakistani officials had no comment Monday on the girl's claims, a day after thousands of women turned out across the country to protest her alleged treatment.But a spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Washington said the government is investigating "The people of Pakistan were outraged by this video and there are many questions: if this has been manufactured by some groups of vested interest, or if it is real. And so investigations are still going on," said Nadeem Kiani, press attache for the embassy."On the face of it people are outraged, the government has condemned this and shown their resolve that they would never allow this thing to happen in Pakistan at any cost."Kiani, who said the act of public violence against women was "unheard of" in Pakistani.The government will take "all possible steps so that ... no incident of violence takes place against women anywhere in Pakistan, may it be Swat or Islamabad or Lahore."Meanwhile, the man who videotaped the flogging told Pakistan's Dawn News that the girl was being punished for refusing a marriage proposal from a Taliban militant.

Tokyo prepares new $100 billion stimulus plan

Japan is preparing its third stimulus package since last autumn, this time to the tune of 100 billion dollars, Prime Minister Taro Aso announced on Monday. This latest cash injection would be the country's biggest ever supplementary budget.Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Monday ordered fresh stimulus spending of at least 100 billion dollars to rescue Asia's biggest economy from its worst slump since World War II.It would be Japan's biggest ever supplementary budget, highlighting mounting fears in Tokyo about the tanking economy, which has been battered by a plunge in worldwide demand for Japanese cars and high-tech goods."Japan's economic growth rate is expected to fall the most among advanced nations," Aso told reporters.He said world leaders, who met recently in London for a Group of 20 summit on the crisis, were determined to cooperate by boosting public spending.Aso, facing key elections this year, instructed his finance minister to draw up an extra budget of at least two percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for the 2009 financial year starting this month.That would make the package worth 10 trillion yen (100 billion dollars) or more.The prospect of a fresh economic boost helped the Tokyo stock market continue its recent recovery, with the Nikkei rising 1.2 percent to a three-month high. The index has gained about one quarter in less than a month.The package comes on top of stimulus measures approved by parliament since October that were worth a combined 75 trillion yen, of which actual fiscal spending was about 12 trillion yen.Japan's economy logged its worst performance in almost 35 years in the last quarter of 2008, contracting at an annualised pace of 12.1 percent. The government has described the financial crisis as the worst since World War II.

Report says Sun rejects IBM takeover bid

According to The Wall Street Journal's website, the planned takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc by IBM is on the verge of collapse, Sun having reportedly broken off negotiations. Last week, IBM cut the price it was willing to offer for Sun. IBM's seven-billion-dollar takeover bid of Sun Microsystems Inc appears to be on the verge of collapse, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website Sunday, citing people familiar with the talks.The daily reported that "a person familiar with the situation" said that Sun has sent a notice terminating IBM's agreement for exclusive negotiations on a buyout, effectively breaking off the talks.In return IBM has withdrawn its offer to buy Sun, said a person with knowledge of the transaction, the financial daily reported.Sun's board rejected a formal acquisition offer by IBM on Saturday, believing that Big Blue's offering price was too low, according to the Journal.IBM last week cut the price of its takeover bid to between nine and 10 dollars per share.According to the newspaper, the combined companies would create a virtual juggernaut, accounting for 42 percent of total server market revenue and 65 percent of the market for servers based on the Unix operating system.

Charity chief held in arms probe

Security forces in Bangladesh have arrested the head of a UK-based charity who had been sought after weapons were found at a school it funded.Officials said Dr Faisal Mostafa, who runs the Manchester-based Green Crescent, was arrested with a local aide on Monday.Security officials raided the Islamic school, or madrassa, last month in the southern district of Bhola.A large cache of weapons and bomb making equipment was found, police say.

Tamil Tigers may be wiped out after 420 are killed, says military

Sri Lanka's defence ministry has said the country's rebel Tamil Tigers face "total annihilation", after at least 420 were killed in three days of clashes.At least 420 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in three days of clashes in northeast Sri Lanka, the military said on Sunday, as troops moved to wipe out the guerrillas after decades of conflict.Security forces won control of the village of Puthukkudiriruppu where the bodies of 250 rebels were found on Sunday alone, spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said."We have recovered 420 bodies in the past three days," Nanayakkara said, adding that the Tigers had now been pushed into a 20-square kilometre (eight square mile) no-fire zone designated by the government.There was no immediate comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have admitted losing territory to advancing government forces in the coastal district of Mullaittivu.The remaining LTTE fighters were "now facing total annihilation as the soldiers are engaged in man-to-man combat against them in the last terror pocket," the defence ministry said in a separate statement.The Tigers have been encircled for months in a small area of jungle by government troops who appear close to ending the separatists' long campaign for a Tamil homeland.

Eight dead, 80 hurt in India blasts

NEW DELHI, India Suspected insurgents triggered five explosions in India's northeastern state of Assam Monday, killing eight people and injuring 80 others, state police chief G.M. Srivastava told CNN.Seven people died and 80 were injured in Assam's main city of Guwahati when a bomb went off in a busy marketplace, sub-inspector H. Ali at the state police control room.One person was killed in a separate blast in another district of the state, he said. Of the five explosions hitting different parts of Assam, two were grenade attacks, he added.Assam police chief G.M. Srivastava told earlier the Guwahati market blast was a bicycle bomb.Most of the casualties were from a fire that started when motorcycles parked in the same compound were set ablaze by the explosion at 2:30 p.m. local time, he said.Another blast, a low-intensity explosion, occurred near a mobile phone store in another district of the state, leaving four injured, according to police.Police mainly the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) insurgent groups for the attacks.

S. Korean president vows 'stern' response to rocket launch

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said in a radio address that North Korea's rocket launch "could not be justified under any circumstances." Along with the US and Russia, South Korea claims the satellite never made it to space.South Korea Monday vowed a stern response and Japan threatened new sanctions after North Korea's rocket launch, but the United Nations struggled for agreement on whether to punish the communist state."North Korea's reckless act that threatens regional and global security cannot be justified under any circumstances," Seoul's President Lee Myung-Bak said in a radio address, promising a "stern" response to provocations.Japan's government will decide Friday on new bilateral sanctions, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said. Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said it hoped the Security Council would agree a new resolution to condemn North Korea.The council adjourned Sunday after three hours of closed-door talks with no accord on a response to what Western members called a clear breach of UN resolutions.Members were to continue consultations.North Korea on Sunday announced that a long-range rocket had placed into orbit a communications satellite which was beaming "immortal revolutionary songs" in praise of its former and current leaders, Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il.Kim Jong-Il was present at the launch and "warmly encouraged" scientists and technicians before having his picture taken with them, state media said Monday.South Korea and the US military say a satellite never made it into space. A senior Russian military source also said there were no signs of a satellite.

No survivors in Indonesia air crash

An Indonesian military aircraft carrying 24 people has crashed into an airport in West Java, killing everyone on board, air force officials say.The Fokker-27 was attempting to land during a regular training flight when it crashed and burst into flames during stormy weather on Monday, 110km southeast of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, the officials said.The aircraft was carrying six crew members, an instructor and 17 special forces trainees.Witnesses told the Antara state news agency that the aircraft, which was said to be over three decades old, was shaking before it erupted into a giant fireball upon impact.Bambang Sulistio, an air force spokesman, said an investigation was under way, but that it was too early to discuss the possible causes of the crash."Before we fly there are procedures and checks to make sure the plane is in good condition," he said."We're setting up an investigation team to see if there was human error or aircraft failure. From our information, it crashed, there was some sort of explosion and it caught fire."Accidents are not uncommon to the Indonesian military's fleet of ageing aircraft.

Obama: 'US not at war with Islam'

During his first visit to a Muslim nation, Barack Obama, the US president, has said the US "is not and will never be at war with Islam''.In an address to the Turkish parliament in Ankara on Monday, he called for a greater partnership with the Muslim world. Obama described Turkey as an important US ally in the fight against terrorism, the war in Afghanistan and the Middle East peace process.The comments came shortly after private talks between him and Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president.In what was the first address given to the Turkish parliament by a US president since Bill Clinton in 1996, Obama said: "Let me say this as clearly as I can: The United States is not at war with Islam ... if we are joined together in delivering that message East and West, to the world, I think we can have an extraordinary impact."

Earthquake kills at least 150, flattens buildings

A powerful earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale rocked central Italy early on Monday, killing more than 150 people, according to rescue workers. Rescuers combed through the debris of collapsed buildings, desperately seeking survivors.Rescue workers desperately combed through the rubble trying to reach trapped survivors after a quake struck the university town of L'Aquila around 3:30 am local time on Monday, killing at least 150, according to hospital sources, and causing residents to flee in the dead of night.Tremors could be felt in the Italian capital of Rome more than 80 kilometers away.Rubble from collapsed buildings – including old churches – in the historic town blocked many streets. A number of people are believed to be buried in the debris and officials fear the death toll could rise.Rescue workers were searching through the rubble and they were aided by local residents who had come out to help the rescue mission.“What we don’t really know so far is what has happened in the small villages around this town in this mountainous region,” said Masciarelli. “There are a lot of places that are quite remote, bridges have fallen, so it’s very difficult to get information from these places.”A medieval town of about 60,000 inhabitants, L’Aquila is a popular tourist destination dotted with picturesque Romanesque and Renaissance churches. Local authorities said thousands have fled their homes as officials were still calculating the material damage from the quake.