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Australia: No. of fire death toll rises
Feb 8th
Victoria: Australian disaster crews are stepping up their hard work to undertake wildfires in the state of Victoria, as the death toll rises to 65.
About 30,000 firefighters are battling a number of main fires, and the number of dead is probable to go up.
Victoria Premier John Brumby said he had accepted an propose from the federal government to send in the army.
Whole towns have been ruined in the fires, fanned by high temperatures and random winds.
Forecasters are predicting further enormously hot weather in the region – which has seen record temperatures of 47C (117F) in recent days.
Officials say they are battling in opposition to the most horrible fire circumstances in the state’s history.
Witnesses described seeing walls of flames, trees blowing up and the skies raining ash, as fires tore across 30,000 hectares (115 sq miles) of forests, farmland and towns.
Kevin Rudd: ‘it’s an appalling tragedy for the nation’
At least 600 homes have been shattered in Victoria and about 14,000 homes are with no power.
Most of the people who died came from a bunch of small towns to the north of Melbourne.
At least 12 people died in the town of Kinglake, four at Wandong, four at St Andrews and three at Strathewen.
One Strathewen resident told ABC local radio how people had witnessed “absolutely horrific” scenes as they had helped battle the flames.
“The school’s gone, the hall’s gone… some people left it too late. We’ve lost friends, and we’re just waiting for more – children, loved ones,” she said.
The town of Marysville, with about 500 residents, was said to have been burned to the ground.
Local fire officer Greg Esnouf said: “We’re starting to get some reports in now that are very saddening. This latest report says Marysville possibly one building left standing – that’s just shocking.”
One person was declared dead in Marysville, but mainly residents managed to cover from the fire in a local park.
Tens of thousands of firefighters have been tiresome to hold blazes in two other states – New South Wales and South Australia – but the fires there were basically restricted or burning away from residential areas.
The fire service is using water-bombing aircraft to hold fires and thousands of volunteers are using water hoses.
“It’s obviously a tragic day and a tragic week in our history,” Mr Brumby said.
Late on Sunday, he said he had acknowledged an offer from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to send in troops to ease overstretched crisis crews.
“Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours,” said Mr Rudd.
Bushfires are regular in Australia, but the existing blazes are the most deadly since 1983, when 75 people died on a day that became known as Ash Wednesday.
Argentina storm: 5 dead, 300 evacuated
Feb 4th
Buenos Aires: On Tuesday 5 people died, 40 were wounded and 300 evacuated when a storm packing high winds and hailstones tore through a region of central Argentina overnight, officials said.
The storm lashed the town and distant areas of Rosario.
Intense rain and “winds gusting at more than 90 kilometers an hour” hit the area, the region’s governor, Horacio Ghirardi, said.
2 people died when a porch tent set up by an evangelical church tumbled on them. Another 2 were electrocuted when the storm brought down high-tension lines.
A girl also died in the village of San Pedro, the civil defense service said.
Bureau Report
Farc hostages released: Colombia
Feb 2nd
4 people who had been held hostage by Colombia’s left-wing Farc rebels since 2007 have been released.
A helicopter collected the 3 police officers and a soldier from a pre-arranged mark in the jungle and flew them to Villavicencio, east of Bogata.
They were the first hostages to be unilaterally released by the rebels in almost a year.
The Farc have suffered current setbacks as the Govt. takes them further into mountain and jungle areas.
They said that they mean to free two politicians in the coming days.
The 4 were greeted by group waving flowers after they landed in Villavicencio.
They had been among 28 “political hostages” held by the group, which requires to utilize them to make safe the release of some of their own jailed members.
In danger
The group had been collected by a designation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Senator Piedad Cordoba, a left-wing politician who had helped agent the contract to free them.
They had flown into the jungle of Caqueta state to a pre-arranged spot to collect the hostages.
Jorge Botero, a journalist travelling with the task, said before it had been on the edge of being aborted, a report denied by a senior government official.
Mr Botero said the army, which had decided to finish its operations in the area for a partial period to let the handover, had put it in danger by pursuing the mission’s helicopter.
“This pursuit was ordered by military commanders,” Botero told Venezuelan TV. “The operation was basically on the verge of being aborted.”
Colombian peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo said Botero’s accusations were “baseless”.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) said the release would be followed by that of a former lawmaker, Sigifredo Lopez, and a former governor, Alan Jara, by Wednesday.
The Farc, who have been struggle the government since the 1960s, are supposed to grasp hundreds of hostages.
George Obama arrested on charge of marijuana possession
Feb 1st
NAIROBI, Kenya – The half brother of President Barack Obama, has been arrested by the Kenyan police on a charge of possession of drugs.
According to Inspector Augustine Mutembei, the officer in charge, said Obama was arrested on charges of possession of cannabis. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday, Mutembei said.
He has been kept at Huruma police post in the capital of Nairobi. George Obama has denied the allegations.
He said, “They took me from my home. I don’t know why they are charging me.”
The fact remains that the president and George Obama barely know each other, though they have met before. George Obama was among one of the president’s few close relatives who did not go to the inauguration in Washington last week.
Sri Lanka court: Arrest warrant against LTTE chief
Jan 27th
Colombo: On Monday the High Court issued arrest warrants against Tamil Tiger rebels’ chief Velupillai Prabakaran and three others for the murder of Sri Lanka’s former foreign minister.
The police, however, told the court that Prabakaran’s arrest was not possible due to the continuing military operation in the north, where he is believed to be hiding. The case will be heard again on May 13.
Previous foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was shot dead in his home in August 2005. Kadirgamar had led the government’s international campaign to ban the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Prabakaran and other members of the group are presently on the run. The assumption is rife that he might have fled the country through the sea route. The LTTE lost its administrative headquarters in Kilinochchi early this month. Its last stronghold, Mullaithivu, was also captured by the troops on Sunday.
Sri Lanka’s Army Chief Sarath Fonseka said 95 per cent of the task to remove terrorism from the country has been achieved.
The LTTE has been combating the government troops for more than two decades to make a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east of the country, claiming discrimination at the hands of Sinhalese dominated regimes. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the clash.
US: Another Indian techie died
Jan 23rd
Muthyala Purushottam, a 27-year-old software engineer from Andhra Pradesh, was found lifeless in his flat in Indianapolis in the US, family sources said Thursday. This is the second incident of the loss of a techie from the Indian state in the US this month.
Purushottam’s family in Anantapur town got a phone call from the US Wednesday informing them that he was found dead in the bathroom of his flat Tuesday night.
He was working for Triton Infotech and was married to 25-year-old Praveena Reddy, who as well as from Anantapur.
The families of the couple refused to talk to the media. Nevertheless, according to sources close to Purushottam’s family, he supposedly committed suicide. The police were said to have found a suicide note written by him stating that no one was responsible for his death.
Praveena, also a software engineer, reportedly made phone calls to her husband Tuesday night. When he did not answer her calls, she returned home and found the doors bolted from inside. She required the help of the police, who broke open the door and found Purushottam dead.
Purushottam, son of police sub-inspector M Nagalingam, wedded his classmate Praveena in Anantapur three years ago. While he went to the US about two years ago, his wife tied him a few months later.
The news of Purushottam’s death came close on the heels of a 26-year-old techie from Andhra Pradesh being shot dead in Arkansas. Akshay Vishal, who was an employee of the scam-hit Satyam Computer Services, was killed by anonymous persons as he was returning home on January 13.
His murder was the seventh case of students and professionals from Andhra Pradesh being killed in the US in the last 13 months.
In November last year, Nerusu Lakshminivasa Rao, a software programmer from Krishna district, strangely vanished from his home in Detroit in the US after his wife and two children were found murdered. The US police believe that he fled the country after killing them.
5,000 jobs will be slashed: Microsoft
Jan 23rd
New York: As the effects of the world economic crisis Microsoft has announced plans to slash up to 5,000 jobs. It would be the first job reductions ever in the company’s history.
The Seattle, Washington-based firm, in making the announcement, also said that its earnings in the second quarter of its present 2008-2009 business year fell by 11 per cent, to $4.17 billion.
The earnings in the quarter ending December 31 came on sales revenues of $16.63 billion, down 2 per cent, Microsoft said.
In the job reductions, some 1,400 will instantly carried out, with the remaining to take place over the next 18 months, Microsoft said, while other cost reduction efforts across a broad spectrum would also be implemented.
Microsoft said that in vision of the unsure world economic environment, it might not give any detailed earnings projections, but that the second half of the present business year was nearly sure to show lower profits and sales.
Gaza: Hamas announces ceasefire
Jan 18th
Hamas (The Palestinian militant group) today declared an immediate ceasefire with Israel in Gaza. In a statement by Hamas spokesman it is quite clear that the group would hold fire for a week to provide Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip. This move came hours after a unilateral Israeli ceasefire came into effect.
Moussa Abou Marzouk (Hamas’ deputy chief in Syria) today said the ceasefire was in the name of all “Palestinian resistance factions”.
“We… announce a ceasefire of our factions in the Gaza Strip and we stress that our demand is the withdrawal of the enemy forces from the Gaza Strip within a week, along with the opening of all the crossings for the entry of humanitarian aid, food and other necessities for our people in the Gaza Strip.”
Israelis and Palestinians gave their views on Israel’s ceasefire announcement. The group said the ceasefire would be temporary unless Israel met these long-standing demands.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, did not comment directly on the Hamas demands. But he told the BBC that troops would be withdrawn from the Gaza Strip “in good time” if there was “a total halt to attacks by Hamas”.
As per Israeli security sources, gradual withdrawal of troops from the Gaza Strip has started.
