In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful Inews Daily Wednesday 22nd February 2006 - 23rd Muharram 1427
Five dead in Yemen floods At least five people have been killed in severe flooding brought on by torrential rains in southwestern Yemen. The five drowned late on Monday in the floods that swept through Dhamar, 70km south of Sanaa. Rescue efforts were continuing on yesterday, and a main road linking Sanaa with cities to the south remained closed and about 1900 people were still trapped in their homes. The flooding occurred at the start of Yemen's rainy season. In April, 10 people were killed in torrential floods. 15 killed in Somalia clashes At least 15 people have been killed and 23 wounded in fighting between armed men loyal to warlords controlling the Somali capital and security militia yesterday. The clashes bring the death toll to 33, with dozens wounded, since they first erupted on Saturday. Residents of the capital described the fighting as the heaviest in five years. Tuesday's fighting forced several hundreds of terrified town-dwellers to flee the battlezone. Eighteen people have been killed in the past three days. Mahathir 'paid' $1.2 m to meet Bush Former prime minister Mahathir Mohammad says disgraced American lobbyist Jack Abramoff was paid $1.2 million to organise his 2002 meeting with US President George W Bush, but denied the money came from the Malaysian government. Mahathir said he was aware a payment was made to Abramoff, but he didn't know who made it. He said he was persuaded by US think tank Heritage Foundation to meet Bush. Mahathir said on Monday that paying a lobbyist to see the US leader was an accepted practice. Bomb kills 22 in Baghdad market A car bomb has exploded at an outdoor market in southwestern Baghdad, killing 22 people and wounding 28. The police said the car was parked along a street about 30 metres from a police checkpoint in a Shia part of the mostly Sunni neighbourhood of Dora. Tuesday's blast left several cars burning and some nearby stores ablaze. Dora is among the most dangerous neighbourhoods in Baghdad, where car bombings and roadside bombs have been a daily occurrence since a extremists funded by the US began their anti-government campaign began in the summer of 2003. Guantanamo actors detained under anti-terrorism laws British security officials detained two actors who portrayed the abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay after they returned home from a German festival showing their film on the US prison yesterday. Authorities stopped the actors for questioning under anti-terrorism laws on Thursday after they returned to London's Luton airport from the Berlin Film Festival, which premiered the film 'The Road to Guantanamo'. The film depicts the story of three men from the central English town of Tipton who end up at the US detention centre on Cuba's southeastern tip for two years. Scores killed in Nigeria riots At least six Muslims were beaten to death in the predominantly southern Christian city of Onitsha, witnesses said. Christian mobs which also burned two mosques there. Tuesday's violence brought to 49 the total number of people killed in sectarian violence in Nigeria since Saturday. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country of more than 130 million people, is roughly divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a mainly Christian south. Bush backs deal with Dubai port firm The US President has said that the deal allowing an Arab company to take over six major US seaports must go forward, and he would veto any congressional effort to stop it. Bush yesterday said the seaports arrangement was "a legitimate deal that will not jeopardise the security of the country." The US Senate majority leader had earlier called for the takeover to be delayed, saying the deal raises serious questions regarding the "safety and security of our homeland". The Dubai Ports World is owned by the UAE government Syrian opposition rejects US funding Secular opposition groups in Syria on yesterday rejected a US plan to allocate five million dollars to pro-reform activists. The groups, under the 'Damascus Declaration' banner, rejected "any financial assistance from any party", after the US State Department announced Friday it would give the funds 'to accelerate the work of reformers in Syria'. The Damascus Declaration, made up of several opposition groups and figures, also called for the formation of 'democratic and modern' parties in Syria and the release of all political detainees. London firm to 'redesign' Najaf The firm Llewellyn Davies Yeang, based in London, has signed a $1.6m (£916,000) contract to redesign the centre of the ancient city of Najaf. But it will not visit the site. Instead, the firm's Iraqi partners, mainly former exiles who returned to the country after the fall of Saddam Hussein, are carrying out the site work and liaising with the London team using aerial photographs. As a Shia holy city, Najaf attracts the largest number of Muslim pilgrims after Mecca and Medina, with 3 million making the journey annually, many from Iran. One of the growth areas for the city is seen as catering to those visitors with the construction of a major international airport and hotel complexes. Floods, landslides kill 24 in eastern Indonesia Landslides and floods triggered by torrential rain have killed at least 24 people in Indonesia's eastern city of Manado, search and rescue officials said yesterday. The disaster occurred in the North Sulawesi provincial capital, where parts of the city were inundated with one-metre (three foot) high floodwaters after hours of rain. Most of the dead were buried by mud from landslides in hilly parts of the city. Another search and rescue official on the scene in the seaside city said rescuers were still searching for survivors. Manado is about 2,200 km (1,365 miles) northeast of Jakarta. Jaafari rejects US sectarian warning Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari angrily dismissed US warnings to shun sectarianism in the country's new government. Speaking after talks with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who echoed the US call for a government of national unity in Iraq, Jaafari said Iraq knew its own best interests. "When someone asks us whether we want a sectarian government the answer is 'no we do not want a sectarian government', not because the US ambassador says so or issues a warning," he told a news conference. Annan visiting Qatar to calm cartoon reaction UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is making an unexpected trip to Qatar this weekend to try to calm the violent reaction to cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad at a meeting to promote religious and cultural understanding. Annan decided to seize the opportunity of a long-planned meeting of the UN-sponsored Alliance of Civilisations to publicly address the issues raised by the caricatures and emphasise his opposition to the violent outbursts and the need for tolerance, a UN spokesman said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inews Daily - No Copyright - http://www.fsphost.com/inewsdaily - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe by sending an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! 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