World News Thread & Breaking News!!

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kliu0

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(CNN) -- The World Health Organization raised the swine flu alert to level five Wednesday indicating it fears a pandemic is imminent.

On Wednesday, the outbreak grew in terms of confirmed cases, people killed and countries with infections.

Health officials are scrambling to get more information about the virus for which there is no vaccine.

"All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans," said Dr. Margaret Chan, the World Health Organization's director-general.

She added: "We do not have all the answers right now but we will get them."

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A 23-month-old child in Texas has died from the new H1N1 swine flu, becoming the first US death from the virus, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official said yesterday.

It is the first death from swine flu reported outside Mexico, the country hardest hit by the outbreak. US officials have confirmed 65 cases of swine flu, most of them mild but with five hospitalizations in California and Texas.

“Unfortunately, this morning I do have to confirm that we have the first death of a child from H1N1 flu virus. And this is in Texas, a 23-month-old child,” Dr Richard Besser, acting head of the CDC, told the CBS Early Show.

A US government source said the child had recently traveled to Mexico, but gave no further details.

Besser had predicted that as they searched for cases, CDC experts would find severe infections and deaths in the US, even though most of the patients had mild illnesses.

“As we look, we’re going to find more cases. We’re going to find more severe cases and I expect that we’ll continue to see additional deaths,” Besser told NBC’s Today show.

He said additional details would be released by Texas authorities.

Mexico had previously reported the only deaths — 159, based on symptoms and initial tests, with seven deaths so far confirmed by additional laboratory analysis at the WHO.

Influenza regularly kills people around the world, with an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 deaths from the seasonal virus every year. Every year at least a few perfectly healthy children die from seasonal influenza in the US.
 

kliu0

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(CNN) -- The world's fastest man Usain Bolt has escaped serious injury in a car crash in his native Jamaica which wrecked his high-speed sports car.

The IAAF, the world governing body of athletics, gave graphic details of Bolt's lucky escape on its official Web site
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The 22-year-old, who was driving his BMW M3 with two female passengers, lost control and went off a rain-soaked road.

The car ended up in a ditch and Bolt and his passengers had to clamber out through a bed of thorns before being taken to hospital in Spanish Town as a precaution.

Bolt was released after three hours with his feet strapped with bandages. Both his passengers appeared to escape serious injury.

He told a local reporter: "Me good man. Me all right, a just few cuts man, me all right."

But questions marks remain over how his early season schedule will be affected.

Bolt is due to race in the IAAF meeting in Jamaica on Saturday and his manager Norman Peart said his charge would have to have to be examined again before deciding whether he can run..

"We can't say right now. We'll do further checks, which we have organized already, so we'll have to wait on those." Peart was quoted.

Bolt is also set to come to England in mid-May to run in a special 150 meters street race in Manchester.

Bolt set world records in winning the 100 and 200 meters gold in the Beijing OIympics and claimed a third gold as Jamaica took the 4x100 meters relay.

He was given the BMW by his sponsors as reward for his incredible success which catapulted him to global stardom.

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Russia has confirmed Nato has expelled two of its diplomats from Brussels, reportedly in retaliation for a spy scandal involving an Estonian official.

A Russian foreign ministry told the Interfax news agency it was "clarifying the circumstances of the expulsions to determine possible actions".

The Russian diplomats reportedly worked as undercover intelligence agents.

In February, Herman Simm was jailed for 12 years in February by an Estonian court for passing secrets to Moscow.

The court where the former head of Estonia's national security system was tried did not reveal which country he spied for, but investigators said Mr Simm passed nearly 3,000 documents to Russia.

They said he received 1.3m kroons (£74,000; $110,000) for the data. The Kremlin denied any involvement.

Nato made no comment at the time, but the case, Estonia's biggest spy scandal since the Cold War, was seen as an embarrassment for the former Soviet state, which joined the alliance in 2004.
 

kliu0

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GENEVA, Switzerland (CNN) -- The World Health Organization began distributing antiviral doses to 70 nations Saturday as the number of confirmed cases of swine flu rose to 658 across the globe.

The increase in confirmed cases was attributed to completed testing of numerous backlogged suspected cases in Mexico, where the flu strain scientifically known as H1N1 is believed to have originated, WHO officials said.

Mexico has the most confirmed cases, with 397 infected people, and 16 deaths attributed to the virus, WHO said. Mexico's health minister said Saturday that his nation's total had reached 443, although that number was not reflected in the WHO's total.

"What the increase reflects is that we are moving forward in confirming many of the cases that have been left untested for some time, so in an way that's reassuring," WHO spokesman Paul Garwood said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also confirmed on Saturday a higher total of confirmed cases, 161, up from Friday's total of 141.

President Barack Obama spoke with Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Saturday afternoon to discuss both countries' "efforts to limit the spread of the 2009 H1N1 flu strain and the importance of close U.S.-Mexican cooperation," the White House said in a statement.

About one-third of Americans sickened by swine flu recently visited Mexico or had contact with someone who has, a doctor at the CDC said Saturday.

The U.S. figure represents cases in 22 states. Four more states joined the CDC list -- Connecticut, Florida, Missouri, and Rhode Island, the CDC said.

Most of people infected with the flu in the United States are under 20 years old, but people from 1 to 81 have come down with it, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's interim deputy director for science and public health. The median patient age is 17.

In an effort to prepare countries for the virus, the organization began distributing 2.4 million antiviral doses to 72 countries, said Dr. Michael J. Ryan, the WHO director of its global alert and response team.

Ryan did not name the countries set to receive Tamiflu, except for Mexico -- the epicenter of the global outbreak, saying the agency would announce the other nations on Sunday. Distribution of the drug is targeting "the poorest countries with the greatest need," he said.

The drug should be taken within 48 hours of experiencing symptoms, according to the drug's Web site.

Ryan said the World Health Organization was still preparing for a pandemic.

"I would still propose that a pandemic is imminent because we're seeing the disease spread to other countries. We have not seen yet that sustained transmission outside one WHO region," said Dr. Michael J. Ryan, the WHO's director of its global alert and response team.

"Pandemics are serious," he said, but it is important to note they describe "the geographic spread of the disease, not its severity."

However, he cautioned against reports that indicate the virus may be weaker than originally thought.

"I'd be very pleased if it turns out that this virus is weaker than it could be. I'd be the happiest man in the world. However, I think history has told us that these viruses are very, very, very unpredictable."

Other than Mexico and the United States, the WHO confirmed cases in 14 other countries: Canada, with 51; the United Kingdom with 15; Spain with 13; Germany with six; New Zealand with four; Israel with three; France, with two; and Austria, China, South Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Costa Rica, each have one.

Italy's health minister, Maurizio Sacconi, said Saturday that a man from Massa, in Tuscany, had a confirmed case of the virus. The man, who is being treated in a hospital, had recently returned from a trip to Mexico, but is recovering, Sacconi said.

And in Spain, the health ministry said it had confirmed 20 cases, seven more than were included in the WHO total for Spain. All of the cases in Spain were mild, the ministry said.

The latest developments come as parts of Asia discovered they were not immune to the spread of the virus.

Hundreds of guests and staff were under quarantine in China on Saturday after health officials determined that a hotel guest had contracted the H1N1 virus.

Nearly 200 hotel guests and 100 staff members were ordered to stay in Metro Park Hotel in Hong Kong for seven days to stop the spread of the H1N1 virus, a government spokesman said. Read more about quarantined hotel guests

The quarantine was ordered after a 25-year-old Mexican man stayed in the hotel and became sick, according to the spokesman. It is the first confirmed case of the virus in Hong Kong, local medical officials said.

South Korean officials on Saturday confirmed their first case -- a 51-year-old nun who recently traveled to Mexico for volunteer work.

As the number of swine flu cases across the globe continues to rise, scientists are racing to develop a vaccine to confront the virus.

The CDC hopes to have a vaccine for the virus available to manufacturers within a month, said Michael Shaw, the U.S. agency's lab team leader for the virus response.

"We're doing the best we can as fast as we can," he said.

Still, it would take four to six months from the time the appropriate strain is identified before the first doses become available, said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research.

"Of course, we would like to have a vaccine tomorrow. We would have wanted to have it yesterday," she said. "It's a long journey."

Producing a vaccine involves isolating a strain of the virus, which has already been done, and tweaking it so manufacturers can make a vaccine, Kieny said.

One death in the United States has been attributed to swine flu -- a toddler from Mexico whose family brought him to Texas for medical treatment.
 

kliu0

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LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Mia Farrow has ended a 12-day hunger strike she used to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's embattled Darfur region, the actress announced on her website.

Farrow, 64, had been on a water-only diet from April 27 in what the actress described as an "expression of outrage" at deaths from starvation, thirst and disease in Darfur.

Farrow ended her fast Friday after advice from a doctor.

British tycoon Richard Branson said he would take over Farrow's fast for three days in a gesture of solidarity with the humanitarian activist.

"I have been instructed by my doctor to stop my fast immediately due to health concerns including possible seizures," Farrow said on her website.

"I am fortunate. The women, children, and men I am fasting for do not have that option."

Farrow said she hoped other figures would step forward to fast for Darfur until humanitarian agencies expelled from the region in March were readmitted.

Branson said he was happy to follow in Farrow's footsteps.

"I'm honored to be taking over the fast for the next three days from Mia Farrow in her courageous stance to support the people of Darfur," he said in a statement.

Virgin boss Branson said he had been moved by the plight of Darfur's people after visiting the region.

"I was humbled and inspired by the courage of the Darfuri people and the commitment of the aid organizations that were working on the frontlines," said Branson.

"We cannot stand and watch as one million people suffer. We all need to stand up and demand that international aid is restored and that the people of Darfur are protected and given the chance to live in peace."

Farrow, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, is one of several celebrities who have campaigned relentlessly to draw attention to the conflict in Darfur.

The United Nations says 300,000 people have died -- many from disease and hunger -- and 2.7 million have been made homeless by the Darfur conflict, which erupted in 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.

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Firefighters attack California blaze
OFFENSIVE: Benign weather has enabled firefighters to increase containment of the blaze to 40 percent and fire commanders said it could be fully contained within days

AFP , SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA
Monday, May 11, 2009, Page 7

Thousands of residents forced to flee a wildfire raging in California returned home on Saturday as cooler weather allowed firefighters to gain the upper hand on the blaze.

A moist layer of marine mist from the Pacific Ocean had drifted over the coastal town of Santa Barbara after days of sizzling temperatures and powerful local gusts sent the fire roaring out of control.

The benign weather enabled firefighters to increase containment of the blaze to 40 percent, officials said. So far, the flames have destroyed or damaged some 80 homes and scorched 3,500 hectares.

Fire officials expressed optimism that the weather break would see them make further inroads into the blaze, which was now burning away from Santa Barbara and into unpopulated mountain areas.

“We’re going from a defensive in the past few days to an offensive,” fire commander Kevin Wallace said. “We’re going to start chasing the fire and not have it chase us.”

Fire commanders said the fire could be fully contained by Wednesday, but cautioned that the weather conditions which fueled the fire could return.

“The weather tends to be a little fickle around here, so we’re keeping our guard up,” anta Barbara County Deputy Fire Chief Chris Hahn.

Later on Saturday, officials said most mandatory evacuation orders — which had forced 30,500 people to leave their homes — had been lifted. Residents were allowed to return in phases throughout the day.

“I don’t have the exact figures, but the bulk of the people that have been displaced are now going to be able to go home,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at an emergency shelter to applause from evacuees.

About 15,000 people were given the green light to return home.

An army of about 4,300 firefighters tackled the fire on Saturday. Fourteen air tankers, including a retardant-dropping DC-10 jet plane and 15 helicopters were bombarding the fire in a sustained aerial assault.

So far, 13 mostly minor injuries have been reported in the fire, including three firefighters, who were overrun by flames on Wednesday. Two of the men are still being treated for burns while the third has been released.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who declared a state of emergency in the region earlier last week, toured an evacuation center on Saturday along with actor Rob Lowe, one of many celebrities who live in the region.

California is frequently hit by scorching wildfires due to its dry climate, winds and recent housing booms that have seen home construction spread rapidly into rural and densely forested areas.

In 2007, California suffered devastation from wildfires among the worst in its history that left eight people dead, gutted 2,000 homes, displaced 640,000 people and caused an estimated US$1 billion in damage.

In November, at least 100 homes were destroyed by a wildfire in the celebrity enclave of Montecito near Santa Barbara.
 

Scratch

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Ariane rocket launches two space observatories

By Laurent Marot

CAYENNE, French Guiana, May 14 (Reuters) - An Ariane rocket launched two scientific space observatories on Thursday that will help scientists better understand the formation of the universe, space officials said.

The rocket blasted off from the European Space Agency's (ESA) launch centre in Kourou, French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America at 10:12 am (1312 GMT).

Twenty-six minutes after lift-off, the rocket released into orbit the Herschel space telescope followed two minutes later by the Planck observatory.

Billed by the ESA as "two of the most sophisticated astronomical spacecraft ever built," the observatories will begin a 60-day journey to the Lagrange point, an orbital slot 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from earth.

"The instruments aboard are revolutionary," Jacques Louet, head of science projects for ESA, told Reuters at the Kourou launch site on Wednesday.

"They will be using technologies that have never been applied," he said.

LARGEST MIRROR IN SPACE

Herschel has the largest mirror of any space telescope now in orbit. Its 3.5-m (11.5 ft) diameter primary mirror is one-and-a-half-times the size of the Hubble Telescope's main reflector.

The spacecraft is a far-infrared and sub-millimetre telescope which will investigate how stars and galaxies form and how they evolve.

By studying infrared light, it will be able to see through clouds of dust that currently obscure astronomer's view of star and galaxy formation, to illuminate the processes behind them.

It also will examine the dust ejected by dying stars, which spread the heavy elements necessary for life through the universe, and will analyse the composition of comets and planets the solar system.

lanck will research an even more elemental aspect of astronomy -- the period immediately after the Big Bang.

It should provide new insights into how the cosmos came into being, and why it looks the way it does now.

George Efstathiou, a Cambridge University astronomer and member of Planck's scientific team said: "In addition to learning the physics of the early universe close to the Big Bang, we are hoping to learn about what will happen to the universe in the future."

"The universe may collapse, expand forever or it may be part of a 'multi-verse' and our universe may decay into some different kind of universe. We just don't know." he said.

Both satellites will be cooled to near absolute zero in order to function.

Prime contractor for both spacecraft was Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture company between France's Thales TCPA.PA and Italy's Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI).

The launch comes as a Nasa shuttle reached Hubble on a repair mission to give it a new lease of life.

(Additional reporting by Alexander Miles; editing by Michael Roddy)
 

Scratch

Captain
Re: World News Thread

The civil war on Sri Lanka is ending. After 25 years, a 5 month all out miitary operation brought a decission militarily. Most probably at a high cost in civillian lifes. The important question now is if this military victory by the Sri Lanken army will also translate into security for the complete island. Or if the LTTE can mount ongoing suicide attacks throughout the country.
The government won't except anything else than a complete surrender.
However, there's still the problem with all the trapped civillians in that small LTTE held bubble.

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From The Sunday Times
May 17, 2009


Fears of mass suicide as Tamil Tigers face final defeat

Rebel leaders make historic offer to disarm as Sri Lankan troops close in to end 25 years of civil war and threaten more slaughter on the battlefield

Marie Colvin

THE satellite call came in the early hours of yesterday. The Tamil Tiger leader was desperate. For the first time in their decades-long struggle against the Sri Lankan government, the rebels were offering to lay down their weapons in return for a guarantee of safety.

“Don’t say surrender,” insisted the leader, speaking calmly, despite the obvious desperation of the few survivors of the once ferocious Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), now cornered in an area roughly the size of Hyde Park with tens of thousands of civilians.

It was the sound of defeat. After more than 25 years, the civil war in Sri Lanka was over. The only question was whether it would end in an ordered fashion or a bloodbath.

The Colombo government was already triumphant. Just hours later the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, was claiming outright victory. ...
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Another news with a similar topic is the Pakistani anouncement to extent the countries battle against Taleban extremists within it's borders.
This time the leadership, civilian and - at least partly - military seem to be comitted to tackle the extremists really hart, in all parts of the country. They will need a lot of foreign help to succeed. Pakistan accepted US and British forces training pakistani forces in COIN operations.
And it's not only the military part, but also the humanitarian aspect, wich requires a lot of money. I hope the foreign powers also stay commited in providing Pakistan with what it needs, now that it acts.

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From The Sunday Times
May 17, 2009


Pakistan to attack Taliban in Bin Laden’s lair

Christina Lamb and Daud Khattak in Buner

PAKISTAN is to extend its war on the Taliban beyond Swat into the fiercely independent tribal areas bordering Afghanistan where Osama Bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda leadership are believed to be hiding.

“We’re going to go into Waziristan, all these regions, with army operations,” President Asif Ali Zardari told The Sunday Times in an interview. “Swat is just the start. It’s a larger war to fight.”

He said Pakistan would need billions of pounds in military assistance and aid for up to 1.7m refugees, the biggest movement of people since the country’s split from India in 1947.

To help take on the militants, the Pakistan army is for the first time to accept counterinsurgency training from British and American troops on its own soil. ...
 

Finn McCool

Captain
Registered Member
Re: World News Thread

^Good news on both of those.

Sri Lanka: It's a real shame that the war is ending like it is, with so many civilians trapped in small area like that, afraid of the Army and afraid of the Tigers. I can only imagine what's like in there. It must be something like Berlin 1945, with the leadership giving orders that make no sense, always the artillery pounding away, worse every time, most people just trying to survive. It must be hellish.

I hope that the Tigers leadership is all killed or captured, that will go along way towards ensuring that this war doesn't continue on a smaller scale. The Tamil people certainly seem to be tired of fighting, and I doubt there is much support for it in the Tamil community, because they basically achieved their goal (a defacto state in Northeastern Sri Lanka) and still have been crushed. Although given the fact that the Sinhalese politicians are on a victory-high right now, I doubt that they will be willing to make too many concessions to Tamil rights and recovery. So perhaps the war will drag on after all.

In Pakistan, the situation is somewhat similar in that I don't think the Taliban has much support in the wider population but the politicians could still mess up everything. If the civilian government falls to the typical Pakistani corruption and infighting then the war effort will falter. Militarily the Pakistani Army obviously doesn't get COIN, they've either been going in with guns blazing or leaving the problem to the Frontier Corps and police. Hopefully that will change with US/UK help. Combined with the increase in troops in Afghanistan, a Pakistani offensive into the FATA and Waziristan could really have some positive effects on the Afghan War, putting the squeeze on the Taliban on both sides of the border.
 

Scratch

Captain
Re: World News Thread

Follow up on the previous one:

Now that the end has come, there are two important decissions ahead. First is how to deal with the LTTE. The Tigers are stepping down a bit. But I doubt they'll fully surrender to Sir Lanken jurisdication. Then again, I don't belive the SL government will let them get away just like that. At least not the more important figures.
The second issue is how to deal with the Tamil population as a whole. Undoubtly they are to be included in the political process. Allowing them participation and a moderate degree of self governing would make for a better picture of the government internationally.

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Sri Lanka Nears End to 26-Year Conflict as Rebels Lay Down Arms

By Jay Shankar

May 18 (Bloomberg) -- Tamil Tiger rebels abandoned the defense of their self-declared homeland, handing President Mahinda Rajapaksa the task of unifying Sri Lanka while deflecting claims his army committed a “bloodbath.”

“This battle has reached its bitter end,” Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s head of international diplomatic relations, said in a statement, according to TamilNet, a Web site that gives reports from the Tamil perspective. The rebels will “silence” their guns to save civilians, mostly Tamils, trapped in the war zone.

Ignoring calls for a cease-fire led by the United Nations, Rajapaksa’s government pressed ahead with its military offensive to end the three-decade separatist campaign that has claimed 100,000 lives. At their peak, the rebels controlled a quarter of Sri Lanka’s territory and sent suicide squads by land, sea and air to strike the capital, Colombo.

Soldiers are hunting the last Tamil Tiger fighters hiding in heavily mined land on the northeastern coast near Mullaitivu, the Defense Ministry said early today.

More than 70,000 civilians were rescued from the rebels in past 72 hours “despite the speculations of a ‘bloodbath’ and a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ at the final military push” by some aid organizations, the ministry said.

The UN on May 11 said the conflict had become a “bloodbath” after more than 380 civilians died that weekend.

[...]

The government is working on a political settlement to resolve the ethnic conflict that would involve both devolution and sharing of power with the local administration in Tamil- dominated areas in the north and east, Tissa Vitharana, chairman of the All Party Representative Committee drawing up the plan, said in a Jan. 8 interview.

Sri Lanka wants the settlement to be based on a 1987 constitutional amendment on power sharing. The amendment, which came out of a peace accord with India, established provincial councils to assume some of the central government’s role. The council for the Tamil-speaking northeastern province didn’t function because of the conflict and was suspended in 1990.
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The Pakistani offensive continues and the military seems to make serious advances.
The Taleban are apperently forced to evade, however they seem to be able to do so in a disconcerting way.

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Monday, May 18, 2009

Taliban heading to Karachi for safety

KARACHI: Taliban fighters seeking money, rest and refuge from US missile strikes are turning up in increasing numbers in Karachi, according to the Taliban, police officials and an intelligence memo.

The Taliban presence in the port city shows how quickly their influence is spreading throughout the country.

Karachi is critical because it is the main entryway for supplies headed to US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and is the country’s financial hub.

Few believe the Taliban could actually take over Karachi, but there is fear that they could destabilise it through violence.

[...]

Batches: “We come in different batches to Karachi to rest and if needed, get medical treatment, and stay with many of our brothers who are living here in large numbers,” 32-year-old Taliban Omar Gul Mehsud told AP.

Shah Jahan, a 35-year-old who said he commands about 24 Taliban fighters in South Waziristan Agency, said the Taliban were scattering throughout Pakistan to avoid the US missile strikes. He said groups of 20 to 25 fighters would fight for a few months, then take leaves of up to one month in cities including Karachi.

“We are more alert and cautious following the drone attacks, and we understand that it is not a wise approach to concentrate in a large number in the war-torn areas,” he said. ...
 

Finn McCool

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Registered Member
Re: World News Thread

Sri Lanka says civil war over, rebel leader killed


By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 13 mins ago
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Following more than a quarter-century of civil war, Sri Lanka faces the daunting task of trying to reconcile and rebuild after its troops routed the last Tamil Tiger separatist rebels Monday and killed their feared leader.
One of the world's most sophisticated insurgencies, the Tamil Tigers and their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, were brought down by a string of fatal misjudgments and an unrelenting government onslaught aimed at crushing the rebellion at all costs.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who plans to officially declare victory Tuesday in a speech to parliament, has promised a power sharing deal with the Tamil minority. But the end of the war, which killed more than 70,000 people and displaced 265,000 others, could complicate efforts to forge a lasting peace.
The destruction of the rebels' conventional forces does not mean the threat is over. Insurgents hiding in the jungles of the east have emerged periodically to attack government forces and civilians, and the rebels had sleeper cells planted in Colombo and other towns.
The Tamil Tigers also retain a vast international smuggling network and the financial support of some of the 800,000 Tamil expatriates. At least one top rebel leader, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the reputed smuggling mastermind, remains at large.
"Now (there) is a historic opportunity, and hopefully things will change. But the demonstrable record so far is not particularly encouraging," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, a political analyst and executive director of the Colombo-based Center for Policy Alternatives.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. is "relieved that the immense loss of life and killing of innocent civilians appears to be over," and he urged Sri Lanka to build a tolerant society and help those hurt by the fighting.
While Velupillai Prabhakaran (Ve-LU-pi-lay PRAH-bah-ka-ran) was a hero to some, his group was branded a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union. It was accused of waging hundreds of suicide attacks, including the 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and forcibly recruiting child soldiers.
In recent months, government forces ousted the rebels from their stronghold in the north and cornered the retreating fighters in a tiny strip along the northeast coast.
On Monday morning, the troops closed in, the military said.
Prabhakaran and his deputies drove an armor-plated van accompanied by a bus filled with rebel fighters toward the tightening cordon, sparking a two-hour firefight, two military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Troops eventually fired a rocket at the van, ending the battle, and pulled out Prabhakaran's body as well as those of Soosai, his naval commander, and Pottu Amman, his feared intelligence chief, the officials said. Prabhakaran's son, Charles Anthony, was also killed, along with 250 rebel fighters, the military said.
State television broke into its regular programming to announce Prabhakaran's death, and Rajapaksa confirmed the news in a phone call to India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Indian foreign affairs spokesman Vishnu Prakash said.
"We can announce very responsibly that we have liberated the whole country from terrorism," army chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka said.
Fonseka and the commanders of the other security forces formally informed Rajapaksa in a televised ceremony Monday evening. They were then promptly promoted.
The chubby Prabhakaran turned what was little more than a street gang in the late 1970s into one of the world's most feared insurgencies, fighting for an independence for minority Tamils after years of marginalization at the hands of the Sinhalese majority.
He demanded unwavering loyalty, gave his followers vials of cyanide to bite in case of capture, and created a suicide squad known as the Black Tigers.
Full-fledged war broke out in 1983 after the rebels killed 13 soldiers in an ambush, sparking anti-Tamil riots that human rights groups say killed as many as 2,000 people.
At the height of his power, Prabhakaran controlled a virtual country in the north that had its own border control, police force, tax system and law school. He commanded a rebel army of thousands backed by artillery, a navy and a nascent air force.
Prabhakaran was renowned as a master strategist, but made a series of fatal miscalculations that eventually proved his downfall. The assassination of Gandhi alienated his supporters in India, where millions of Tamils live. His stubborn line during negotiations convinced the government it could never reach a peace deal, and a Tamil boycott he enforced in the 2005 election ensured victory for the hard-line Rajapaksa, who later vowed to destroy the rebels.
The Tamil Tigers were also badly weakened when their top commander in the east defected along with thousands of fighters.
The divergent reactions to the rebel defeat highlighted the challenge Sri Lanka faces in healing its scars. State TV played Sinhalese nationalist songs and many Sinhalese poured into the streets in celebration.
On the beaches surrounding the southern port city of Galle, overjoyed Sri Lankans ignited chains of firecrackers. Groups of motorbike riders raced through the city streets, waving flags. As night fell on the nearby beach town of Unawatuna, a group of 30 children paraded near the beach, banging homemade drums and singing.
"We are happy today to see the end of that ruthless terrorist organization and its heartless leader. We can live in peace after this," said Lal Hettige, 47, a Sinhalese businessman.
But Tamils feared the government would not be magnanimous in victory.
"The general triumphalist mood is only an indication that Tamils may never get their due place," said S. Prasanna, a sales representative.
Many other Tamils refused to speak on the record after what they said was years of police raids, harassment, arbitrary detentions and even abductions.
"I believe the arrests and detentions will only increase from now on," a 34-year-old Tamil businessman said. "The government will be suspicious with everybody, thinking the Tigers may have come out and mingled with the civilians."
Though Rajapaksa promised political compromise, the defeat of the rebels leaves a vacuum in the Tamil leadership.
Prabhakaran killed many community leaders seen as a challenge to his authority. Others moved abroad, while many of those who remained active in politics either allied themselves with the government or were linked to the rebels and effectively sidelined.
The bloody end to the war could also complicate peace efforts.
Diplomats had appealed for a humanitarian truce to safeguard civilians trapped in the war zone, but the government refused.
The battle killed at least 7,000 Tamil civilians and wounded 16,000 between January and May 7, according to the United Nations. Health officials said more than 1,000 others were killed in heavy shelling in the last week of fighting.
EU foreign ministers called Monday for an independent war crimes investigation into the deaths, declaring: "Those accountable must be brought to justice."
___

It looks like Prabhakaran and most if not all of the other rebel leaders have been killed or captured. That's good, because it means there will be less people out there trying to restart the violence and less of a framework for a "Tigers 2.0" organization to get started from. However low-level violence will continue unless the government makes some accommodation of the Tamil population, which could happen through one of the Tamil factions that allied with the government and helped make this happen.

Like I said it's just a shame that thousands of civilians had to be herded into a shooting gallery to die first. The Tigers that are most responsible are dead, and its difficult to prove that the Army did anything wrong, even if they were more "free and easy" with the arty and air strikes than they should have been.
 

kliu0

Junior Member
Re: World News Thread

WHO to declare A(H1N1) pandemic

AP , GENEVA
Friday, Jun 12, 2009, Page 1
The WHO held an emergency swine flu meeting yesterday and was likely to declare the first flu pandemic in 41 years as infections climbed in the US, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.

Health officials from Sweden, Scotland, Indonesia and Thailand said the agency would declare a swine flu, or A(H1N1), pandemic — a global epidemic — yesterday after a teleconference with leading flu experts. Officials at UN missions in Geneva also said they expected the imminent announcement of a pandemic.

WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham said only that the emergency meeting began at noon in Geneva and WHO member nations would be informed of the result.

“It is likely in light of sustained community transmission in countries outside of North America — most notably in Australia — that level 6 will be declared,” Scotland’s Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon told Scottish lawmakers.

Indonesian health minister Siti Fadilah Supari said she had been notified by the WHO that “[yesterday the level] will be declared to be phase 6.”

Phase 6 is the WHO’s highest alert level and means that a swine flu pandemic is under way. The last pandemic — the Hong Kong flu of 1968 — killed about 1 million people. Ordinary flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people each year.

Since the new flu strain, A(H1N1), first emerged in Mexico and the US in April, it has spread to 74 countries around the globe. On Wednesday, the WHO reported 27,737 cases including 141 deaths. The agency has stressed that most cases are mild and require no treatment, but the fear is that a rash of new infections could overwhelm hospitals and health authorities, especially in poorer countries.

The long-awaited pandemic announcement is scientific confirmation that a new flu virus has emerged and is quickly circling the globe.

It will trigger drugmakers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine and prompt governments to devote more money to containing the virus.

Last month several countries urged the WHO not to declare a pandemic, fearing it would spark mass panic.

Fear has already gripped Argentina, where so many people worried about swine flu flooded into hospitals this week that emergency health services in the capital have collapsed. Last month, a bus arriving in Argentina from Chile was stoned by people who thought a passenger on it had swine flu. Chile has the most swine flu cases in South America.

In Hong Kong, the government yesterday ordered all kindergartens and primary schools closed for two weeks after a dozen students tested positive for swine flu.

In Australia, swine flu cases jumped to more than 1,000 on Monday and reached 1,260 by late Wednesday.

The WHO says its pandemic announcement would not mean the situation was worsening, since no mutations have been detected in the virus to show it is getting more deadly.

In Edinburgh, Sturgeon told lawmakers that a WHO announcement means countries should immediately activate their pandemic plans.

“A move to level 6 is not a verdict on the severity of the virus,” she said. “It simply means that the extent of global spread now fulfills the definition of a pandemic.”

Serious news guys, Australia's swine flu rate is ridiculous. I watch the news everyday, and it increases by about 100 a day. And the Government is doing nothing, even some of the players of rugby teams have it.
 
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