Rescue teams have begun to search for survivors after one of the largest earthquakes on record killed at least 300 people in Chile and sent giant waves roaring across the Pacific Ocean.
In an address to the nation, President Michelle Bachelet said that two million Chileans had been affected by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake. After touring the worst-hit areas by air, however, she said it was hard to quantify the magnitude of the disaster.
"The power of nature has again struck our country," Ms Bachelet said, declaring six of Chile's 15 regions "catastrophe zones" in the aftermath of the earthquake, one of the world's most powerful for a century.
An estimated 1.5 million homes were damaged, highways were sliced to pieces, bridges imploded and buildings collapsed as the earthquake struck the South American nation of 16 million people just before dawn on Saturday about 200 miles southwest of the capital SantiagoWaves more than 7ft high crashed into the Chilean coast after the quake struck at 3.34am (06.34 GMT) and tore out into the Pacific, killing at least five people in the remote Robinson Crusoe islands.
In the Chilean port of Talcahuano, trawlers were swept inland to the town square, where they lay marooned next to abandoned cars.
About 50 countries and territories along an arc stretching from New Zealand to Russia are braced for giant waves, five years after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster that killed more than 220,000 people.
More than 70,000 people fled vulnerable coastal areas of Japan as a tsunami hit the country's long Pacific coastline. The first wave hit Nemuro on the northern island of Hokkaido in the early afternoon. However, the Government later downgraded the tsunami warning to "normal".
Alerts in Australia and Russia were also downgraded as the threat passed.
The earthquake has raised a daunting first challenge for Sebastian Pinera, the billionaire who was elected Chile's President in January and who takes office in two weeks.
"We're preparing ourselves for an additional task, a task that wasn't part of our governing plan: assuming responsibility for rebuilding our country," he said yesterday. "It's going to be a very big task and we're going to need resources."
The US Geological Survey said it had recorded more than 51 aftershocks ranging from 4.9 to 6.9 since the quake.
In Concepcion, a city of 670,000 people 70 miles southwest of the quake's epicentre, hundreds of people spent the night outside in tents and makeshift shelters, fearful of the aftershocks.
The city's old houses appeared to have borne the brunt of the damage, but a 15-storey apartment block also collapsed, probably killing or trapping many people inside.
The city was mostly blanketed in darkness, with the only light coming from bonfires and occasional police cars. Crushed cars, downed power lines and shattered glass littered the streets.
The European Union said that it would provide €3 million in immediate assistance. Unlike Haiti, struck by a devastating earthquake last month, Chile is one of Latin America's wealthiest countries.
President Obama said that America “will be there” if Chile asks for rescue and recovery help, but Ms Bachelet said that her Government had not asked for assistance from other countries.
Source:The times
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Sunday, February 28, 2010
Brown on course to win the election
GORDON BROWN is on course to remain prime minister after the general election as a new Sunday Times poll reveals that Labour is now just two points behind the Tories.
The YouGov survey places David Cameron’s Conservatives on 37%, as against 35% for Labour — the closest gap between the parties in more than two years.
It means Labour is heading for a total of 317 seats, nine short of an overall majority, with the Tories languishing on a total of just 263 MPs. Such an outcome would mean Brown could stay in office and deny Cameron the keys to No 10.
The poll result presents the Conservative leader with one of the greatest challenges of his leadership today as he makes the keynote speech to his party’s spring forumIn an interview with The Sunday Times, Cameron defied his right-wing critics who believe the party’s modernisation has gone too far. He said: “Some people say to me, ‘Play things safe; try to win by default — the government is in a mess.’ I say, ‘No. This is the Conservative party that is offering radical change. I’m doubling up on change’.”
With the expected May 6 election now just over two months away, Cameron will seek to reconnect with voters through a series of pledges, including a plan to restore discipline in schools. In an echo of the speech that won him the Tory leadership in 2005, he will address the Brighton conference without notes.
“This is very, very clear,” he said. “I’ve made my choice. There is no going back. This election is about change and we will be offering change.”
Cameron insisted he was unconcerned about the collapse in Tory support. “The polls move around a lot,” he said. “The voters tell us that they want change. They want to know the Conservative party itself has changed.”
The narrowing of the Conservative lead has been dramatic and rapid. Until January the Tories held close to a 10-point lead. But a week ago a Sunday Times YouGov poll put the gap at six points, suggesting a hung parliament, with the Tories still on course to become the largest party.
In the last election, in 2005, support for the parties generally held steady in the run-up to polling day. YouGov polling for The Sunday Times showed Labour leads of between two and five points from January through to the June election. Labour’s margin of victory was three points.
In today’s poll, Labour has risen two points on the previous week, from 33%, while the Conservatives have dropped two from 39%. The Liberal Democrats are unchanged on 17%.
The collapse in the Tory poll lead will put pressure on the pound in financial markets tomorrow by adding to fears that a hung parliament will mean insufficient action is taken to cut Britain’s budget deficitThe last time the gap between the two main parties came this close and the Tory support was so low was in autumn 2007. That was before Brown’s honeymoon ended with his failure to call a snap general election. The Conservatives went on to peak in May 2008 with a 26-point lead.
Today’s poll suggests recent claims about Brown’s tantrums and his intimidation of staff may have actually helped him. Just 28% of people believe the prime minister is a bully and 50% agree he has a “strong sense of right and wrong”.
The survey disclosed growing concerns about Cameron’s elite background and lack of empathy with ordinary families. Just 25% think that Cameron understands problems faced by “people like me”, compared with 35% for Brown.
Furthermore, only 28% think the Conservative leader wants to do the best for “all groups in Britain”, against 39% for the prime ministerPeter Kellner, president of YouGov, the Sunday Times pollster, said that while individual polls could throw up unexpected shifts, the recent trend had been for a significant narrowing of the Tory lead.
“Our daily polls should be regarded a bit like the FTSE index: a 100-point rise or fall in a day might be a blip or a trend — often we can’t tell for a few days,” he said.
“I am confident the Tory lead is down this weekend but I can’t promise whether the latest movement will be sustained, increased or reversed in the days ahead. One of the reasons for doing daily polls is to monitor these fluctuations.”
The Tory lead of 6%, which was first reported in The Sunday Times, was maintained in YouGov’s polls in The Sun last week. The increase in support for Labour on Thursday and Friday, as the latest Sunday Times poll was being conducted, came as figures showed a strengthening economic recovery.
Under the British parliamentary system, the prime minister remains in office after a general election until he either tenders his resignation or is defeated in a Commons no confidence vote.
If the election result leaves Labour just short of an overall majority, Brown is likely to battle on, with Labour running the country as a minority government. The party would seek to do deals with minor parties such as Ulster’s Democratic Unionist party or, if necessary, Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats, to get its legislation through parliament.
If repeated in a general election on the basis of a uniform swing in all constituencies, today’s poll would leave Labour just nine seats short of the 326 needed for an overall majority in the new 650-seat House of Commons.
The Tories would be well behind on 263 seats, with the Liberal Democrats on 41. Kellner calculated that, even allowing for a larger swing to the Tories in marginal seats, where the party has spent millions of pounds on campaigning, the poll was consistent with Labour being by far the largest party.
He suggested that in such a scenario Labour might win 300 seats, with the Tories on 270 and the Lib Dems on 50.
Labour will believe it is benefiting from the upturn in the economy. For the first time in a YouGov poll since July 2007, before the financial crisis, people trust Labour more than the Tories to run the economy.
YouGov, which began polling after the 2001 election, has developed a reputation for accuracy. Its final Sunday Times poll in 2005 was precisely right, and it accurately predicted Boris Johnson’s victory in the 2008 London mayoral election and the results of last year’s Euro elections.
Source:The Times
The YouGov survey places David Cameron’s Conservatives on 37%, as against 35% for Labour — the closest gap between the parties in more than two years.
It means Labour is heading for a total of 317 seats, nine short of an overall majority, with the Tories languishing on a total of just 263 MPs. Such an outcome would mean Brown could stay in office and deny Cameron the keys to No 10.
The poll result presents the Conservative leader with one of the greatest challenges of his leadership today as he makes the keynote speech to his party’s spring forumIn an interview with The Sunday Times, Cameron defied his right-wing critics who believe the party’s modernisation has gone too far. He said: “Some people say to me, ‘Play things safe; try to win by default — the government is in a mess.’ I say, ‘No. This is the Conservative party that is offering radical change. I’m doubling up on change’.”
With the expected May 6 election now just over two months away, Cameron will seek to reconnect with voters through a series of pledges, including a plan to restore discipline in schools. In an echo of the speech that won him the Tory leadership in 2005, he will address the Brighton conference without notes.
“This is very, very clear,” he said. “I’ve made my choice. There is no going back. This election is about change and we will be offering change.”
Cameron insisted he was unconcerned about the collapse in Tory support. “The polls move around a lot,” he said. “The voters tell us that they want change. They want to know the Conservative party itself has changed.”
The narrowing of the Conservative lead has been dramatic and rapid. Until January the Tories held close to a 10-point lead. But a week ago a Sunday Times YouGov poll put the gap at six points, suggesting a hung parliament, with the Tories still on course to become the largest party.
In the last election, in 2005, support for the parties generally held steady in the run-up to polling day. YouGov polling for The Sunday Times showed Labour leads of between two and five points from January through to the June election. Labour’s margin of victory was three points.
In today’s poll, Labour has risen two points on the previous week, from 33%, while the Conservatives have dropped two from 39%. The Liberal Democrats are unchanged on 17%.
The collapse in the Tory poll lead will put pressure on the pound in financial markets tomorrow by adding to fears that a hung parliament will mean insufficient action is taken to cut Britain’s budget deficitThe last time the gap between the two main parties came this close and the Tory support was so low was in autumn 2007. That was before Brown’s honeymoon ended with his failure to call a snap general election. The Conservatives went on to peak in May 2008 with a 26-point lead.
Today’s poll suggests recent claims about Brown’s tantrums and his intimidation of staff may have actually helped him. Just 28% of people believe the prime minister is a bully and 50% agree he has a “strong sense of right and wrong”.
The survey disclosed growing concerns about Cameron’s elite background and lack of empathy with ordinary families. Just 25% think that Cameron understands problems faced by “people like me”, compared with 35% for Brown.
Furthermore, only 28% think the Conservative leader wants to do the best for “all groups in Britain”, against 39% for the prime ministerPeter Kellner, president of YouGov, the Sunday Times pollster, said that while individual polls could throw up unexpected shifts, the recent trend had been for a significant narrowing of the Tory lead.
“Our daily polls should be regarded a bit like the FTSE index: a 100-point rise or fall in a day might be a blip or a trend — often we can’t tell for a few days,” he said.
“I am confident the Tory lead is down this weekend but I can’t promise whether the latest movement will be sustained, increased or reversed in the days ahead. One of the reasons for doing daily polls is to monitor these fluctuations.”
The Tory lead of 6%, which was first reported in The Sunday Times, was maintained in YouGov’s polls in The Sun last week. The increase in support for Labour on Thursday and Friday, as the latest Sunday Times poll was being conducted, came as figures showed a strengthening economic recovery.
Under the British parliamentary system, the prime minister remains in office after a general election until he either tenders his resignation or is defeated in a Commons no confidence vote.
If the election result leaves Labour just short of an overall majority, Brown is likely to battle on, with Labour running the country as a minority government. The party would seek to do deals with minor parties such as Ulster’s Democratic Unionist party or, if necessary, Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats, to get its legislation through parliament.
If repeated in a general election on the basis of a uniform swing in all constituencies, today’s poll would leave Labour just nine seats short of the 326 needed for an overall majority in the new 650-seat House of Commons.
The Tories would be well behind on 263 seats, with the Liberal Democrats on 41. Kellner calculated that, even allowing for a larger swing to the Tories in marginal seats, where the party has spent millions of pounds on campaigning, the poll was consistent with Labour being by far the largest party.
He suggested that in such a scenario Labour might win 300 seats, with the Tories on 270 and the Lib Dems on 50.
Labour will believe it is benefiting from the upturn in the economy. For the first time in a YouGov poll since July 2007, before the financial crisis, people trust Labour more than the Tories to run the economy.
YouGov, which began polling after the 2001 election, has developed a reputation for accuracy. Its final Sunday Times poll in 2005 was precisely right, and it accurately predicted Boris Johnson’s victory in the 2008 London mayoral election and the results of last year’s Euro elections.
Source:The Times
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Paedophile priests must own up to their sins, says Vatican
Catholic clergy who have sinned by their acts or by turning a blind eye in Ireland’s paedophile priests scandal must admit blame for their “abominable acts”, a senior Vatican official said yesterday.
“Yes, storms spark fear, even those that rock the boat of the Church because of the sins of its members,” said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, in a sermon delivered to Ireland’s bishops inside St Peter’s Basilica shortly before they began two days of crisis talks with the Pope.
Cardinal Bertone said that trials that came from within the Church “are naturally harder and more humiliating”, particularly when “men of the Church were involved in such particularly abominable acts”.
However, they formed a challenge that the Church “must face”. He made his comments during a Mass, held for survivors of sexual abuse, attended by Ireland’s 24 bishopsVatican analysts said that the 11 hours of meetings held by Pope Benedict XVI with Irish bishops yesterday, and a further five-hour behind closed doors session today, were unprecedented. However, Irish victims of abuse by priests — which was revealed in two government-ordered reports last year — were unimpressed, calling on the Pope to visit Ireland to meet victims in person.
“We want the Pope to make a proper apology to Ireland, for what happened in Ireland,” Michael O’Brien, an abuse victim, said.
“We don’t want a bland apology, we want an apology to those of us in Ireland who were abused and to the people of Ireland, who are 100 per cent behind us on this.
“This is not an Irish problem. This is a Catholic Church worldwide problem.”
Irish abuse victim support groups have written an open letter to the Pope calling for the resignation of bishops “who engaged in this culture of cover up”.
In December last year the Murphy Tribunal concluded that the Church hierarchy had protected paedophile priests from prosecution, moving them from parish to parish where they could reoffend, in order to safeguard the Church’s reputation.
“The lives of thousands of Irish people have been devastated by sexual abuse by priests,” said the letter, which was also signed by Andrew Madden, a former altar boy, who in 1995 became the first Irish person to take legal action against the Catholic Church in Ireland.
“We ask you to write, not only to Irish Catholics, but to all people of Ireland, accepting fully the harm that has been caused by the acts of omission and commission of the Catholic Church and its priests and bishops in Ireland.”
Four Irish bishops have already tendered their resignations to the Pope while a fifth, Martin Drennan of the Galway Diocese, is the only senior official named in last November’s Murphy report not to have done so. He claims that he did nothing to endanger the wellbeing of children.
The Murphy report outlined in detail a “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture in which church officials had placed “protection of their own institution above that of vulnerable children in their care” and failed to inform police when abuse was discovered.
The Pope has said that he is “disturbed and distressed” by the Murphy report and shares the “outrage, betrayal and shame” felt by Irish people.
The bishops, led by Cardinal Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, will give a press conference today after their final session with the Pope. A pastoral letter from the Pope to the faithful in Ireland on the sex abuse crisis would be issued once he had “digested what the bishops had to say and taken it into account”, Vatican sources said.
Cardinal Brady said the encounter with the Pope was “one step in a process which will lead to a journey of repentance, renewal and reconciliation”. He added that there was “no disunity” over “safeguarding children in Ireland” and he hoped the process of reconciliation “will gain momentum when we get back to Ireland”.
John Kelly, of the Survivors of Child Abuse group, said victims wanted the Pope to “restore the true Church to Ireland”, which had been “severely damaged at home and abroad by the atrocities committed”. Representatives of the victims have asked the Pope for compensation and are seeking a meeting with him during his visit to Britain in September.
The Murphy report established that a series of Dublin archbishops had compiled confidential files on more than a hundred parish priests who had sexually abused children since 1940, but the files remained in private archives and were not acted on.
Source:The Times
“Yes, storms spark fear, even those that rock the boat of the Church because of the sins of its members,” said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, in a sermon delivered to Ireland’s bishops inside St Peter’s Basilica shortly before they began two days of crisis talks with the Pope.
Cardinal Bertone said that trials that came from within the Church “are naturally harder and more humiliating”, particularly when “men of the Church were involved in such particularly abominable acts”.
However, they formed a challenge that the Church “must face”. He made his comments during a Mass, held for survivors of sexual abuse, attended by Ireland’s 24 bishopsVatican analysts said that the 11 hours of meetings held by Pope Benedict XVI with Irish bishops yesterday, and a further five-hour behind closed doors session today, were unprecedented. However, Irish victims of abuse by priests — which was revealed in two government-ordered reports last year — were unimpressed, calling on the Pope to visit Ireland to meet victims in person.
“We want the Pope to make a proper apology to Ireland, for what happened in Ireland,” Michael O’Brien, an abuse victim, said.
“We don’t want a bland apology, we want an apology to those of us in Ireland who were abused and to the people of Ireland, who are 100 per cent behind us on this.
“This is not an Irish problem. This is a Catholic Church worldwide problem.”
Irish abuse victim support groups have written an open letter to the Pope calling for the resignation of bishops “who engaged in this culture of cover up”.
In December last year the Murphy Tribunal concluded that the Church hierarchy had protected paedophile priests from prosecution, moving them from parish to parish where they could reoffend, in order to safeguard the Church’s reputation.
“The lives of thousands of Irish people have been devastated by sexual abuse by priests,” said the letter, which was also signed by Andrew Madden, a former altar boy, who in 1995 became the first Irish person to take legal action against the Catholic Church in Ireland.
“We ask you to write, not only to Irish Catholics, but to all people of Ireland, accepting fully the harm that has been caused by the acts of omission and commission of the Catholic Church and its priests and bishops in Ireland.”
Four Irish bishops have already tendered their resignations to the Pope while a fifth, Martin Drennan of the Galway Diocese, is the only senior official named in last November’s Murphy report not to have done so. He claims that he did nothing to endanger the wellbeing of children.
The Murphy report outlined in detail a “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture in which church officials had placed “protection of their own institution above that of vulnerable children in their care” and failed to inform police when abuse was discovered.
The Pope has said that he is “disturbed and distressed” by the Murphy report and shares the “outrage, betrayal and shame” felt by Irish people.
The bishops, led by Cardinal Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, will give a press conference today after their final session with the Pope. A pastoral letter from the Pope to the faithful in Ireland on the sex abuse crisis would be issued once he had “digested what the bishops had to say and taken it into account”, Vatican sources said.
Cardinal Brady said the encounter with the Pope was “one step in a process which will lead to a journey of repentance, renewal and reconciliation”. He added that there was “no disunity” over “safeguarding children in Ireland” and he hoped the process of reconciliation “will gain momentum when we get back to Ireland”.
John Kelly, of the Survivors of Child Abuse group, said victims wanted the Pope to “restore the true Church to Ireland”, which had been “severely damaged at home and abroad by the atrocities committed”. Representatives of the victims have asked the Pope for compensation and are seeking a meeting with him during his visit to Britain in September.
The Murphy report established that a series of Dublin archbishops had compiled confidential files on more than a hundred parish priests who had sexually abused children since 1940, but the files remained in private archives and were not acted on.
Source:The Times
Carriage ‘obliterated’ in rail smash that leaves at least 18 dead
A commuter train pulled into the path of a late-running express during the morning rush hour in Belgium yesterday after apparently missing a “stop signal”, causing one of the worst rail disasters in Europe.
At least 18 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the collision, which happened at Buizingen outside the Flemish town of Halle, 15km (10 miles) southwest of Brussels.
Most of the dead were in the “obliterated” first-class carriage at the front of the express. The force of the crash left the two trains, which were carrying about 300 people, jack-knifed together. Emergency workers toiled for hours in temperatures of minus 3C (27F) to free the injured, carrying out several amputations in the mangled wreckage.
Throughout a snowy afternoon, teams of firefighters carried a procession of covered stretchers to a makeshift mortuary set up in a tent on the far side of the tracksOfficials suggested that while the track had been equipped with an emergency braking system to prevent trains running through red lights, the local train did not yet have the necessary technology fitted to make it work.
“I saw a body that was just a torso with no legs. I saw a man who had lost all his fingers,” said one dazed woman who had been in the third carriage of the fast train from Quiévrain to Liège, which was packed with passengers heading into Brussels. “I was just reading the newspaper and then there was carnage.”
Trains were disrupted across Western Europe, and Eurostar services will remain suspended today between London and Brussels.
Light snow was falling when the 8.28am six-car commuter train from Leuven to Braine-le-Comte pulled out of the tiny Buizingen station at a crawl and on to Line 96 of the Belgian national rail system.
According to Lodewijk De Witte, the Governor of the local province of Flemish Brabant, it was a fatal error. “Apparently it did not heed a stop light,” he said.
The driver, who was thought to be among those killed, would not have been expecting to be held up because the Brussels-bound express hurtling towards him was running about ten minutes late. The faster 12-carriage train had been given the all-clear to head along Line 96 to the capital.
Sebastian Duckers, a passenger in the fourth coach of the express, said: “I was just sitting there like normal when there was this huge bang and I was thrown on to the seat opposite. Then there was a lot of shouting and crying from all over the train.
“There was no braking at all. The windows were broken and a couple of carriages were on their sides. Outside the window was a dismembered body.Railway staff were on hand in minutes but at first ordered passengers to stay inside the carriages because some of the overhead power lines had been brought down as coaches were thrown into the air in the head-on collision.
“The first two carriages were completely squashed,” 37-year-old Hambaoui Mounir said. “I was in the carriage right behind. The train fell to one side, people fell over each other, there was no air and women and children were screaming.”
Patricia Lallemand, 40, who was in the third carriage of the express, added: “When we came out we saw dead bodies lying next to the tracks. Some of them were mutilated.”
Wira Leire, 20, who lives near by, was woken by the loud crash and leapt to his bedroom window to see the collision site directly in front of his home. “There were people lying on the ground next to the train, so I grabbed some blankets and ran into the back garden,” he said. “But I couldn’t climb over the concrete wall, so I just threw the blankets to the rescuers who were already gathering there.The 4m (15ft) concrete safety wall probably prevented the wreckage from crashing into the gardens of nearby houses, although the emergency services retrieved one broken train door from the residential side of the barrier.
A third train on a parallel rail had to hit its emergency brakes and narrowly avoided running into a carriage that was lying across its path.
The official death toll yesterday stood at 18 with another 30 seriously injured. SNCB, the national train operator, refused to comment on the cause of the accident.
Officials said that they expected the death toll to exceed the country’s worst train disaster, when a crash near Leuven in 1954 killed 20 German football fans and seriously injured 40 others. In March 2001 eight people died when a crowded train smashed into an empty train driving on the wrong tracks.
Yves Leterme, the Prime Minister, who cut short a visit to Kosovo to visit the scene, said that he was stunned by the accident, which came less than three weeks after a gas explosion at a residential block in Liège killed 14 people. Albert II, King of the Belgians, also returned from abroad to inspect the crash site.
European rail disasters
May 8, 2003, Hungary Train and German tourist bus collide near Siofok, western Hungary, killing 33
January 23, 2006, Serbia and Montenegro A packed train derails in Montenegro, leaving 47 dead
September 22, 2006, Germany High-speed maglev train crashes and kills 23 near Lathen
June 30, 2009, Italy Train carrying liquid petroleum gas explodes in Viareggio, creating a massive fireball that kills 29
Source: AFP
At least 18 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the collision, which happened at Buizingen outside the Flemish town of Halle, 15km (10 miles) southwest of Brussels.
Most of the dead were in the “obliterated” first-class carriage at the front of the express. The force of the crash left the two trains, which were carrying about 300 people, jack-knifed together. Emergency workers toiled for hours in temperatures of minus 3C (27F) to free the injured, carrying out several amputations in the mangled wreckage.
Throughout a snowy afternoon, teams of firefighters carried a procession of covered stretchers to a makeshift mortuary set up in a tent on the far side of the tracksOfficials suggested that while the track had been equipped with an emergency braking system to prevent trains running through red lights, the local train did not yet have the necessary technology fitted to make it work.
“I saw a body that was just a torso with no legs. I saw a man who had lost all his fingers,” said one dazed woman who had been in the third carriage of the fast train from Quiévrain to Liège, which was packed with passengers heading into Brussels. “I was just reading the newspaper and then there was carnage.”
Trains were disrupted across Western Europe, and Eurostar services will remain suspended today between London and Brussels.
Light snow was falling when the 8.28am six-car commuter train from Leuven to Braine-le-Comte pulled out of the tiny Buizingen station at a crawl and on to Line 96 of the Belgian national rail system.
According to Lodewijk De Witte, the Governor of the local province of Flemish Brabant, it was a fatal error. “Apparently it did not heed a stop light,” he said.
The driver, who was thought to be among those killed, would not have been expecting to be held up because the Brussels-bound express hurtling towards him was running about ten minutes late. The faster 12-carriage train had been given the all-clear to head along Line 96 to the capital.
Sebastian Duckers, a passenger in the fourth coach of the express, said: “I was just sitting there like normal when there was this huge bang and I was thrown on to the seat opposite. Then there was a lot of shouting and crying from all over the train.
“There was no braking at all. The windows were broken and a couple of carriages were on their sides. Outside the window was a dismembered body.Railway staff were on hand in minutes but at first ordered passengers to stay inside the carriages because some of the overhead power lines had been brought down as coaches were thrown into the air in the head-on collision.
“The first two carriages were completely squashed,” 37-year-old Hambaoui Mounir said. “I was in the carriage right behind. The train fell to one side, people fell over each other, there was no air and women and children were screaming.”
Patricia Lallemand, 40, who was in the third carriage of the express, added: “When we came out we saw dead bodies lying next to the tracks. Some of them were mutilated.”
Wira Leire, 20, who lives near by, was woken by the loud crash and leapt to his bedroom window to see the collision site directly in front of his home. “There were people lying on the ground next to the train, so I grabbed some blankets and ran into the back garden,” he said. “But I couldn’t climb over the concrete wall, so I just threw the blankets to the rescuers who were already gathering there.The 4m (15ft) concrete safety wall probably prevented the wreckage from crashing into the gardens of nearby houses, although the emergency services retrieved one broken train door from the residential side of the barrier.
A third train on a parallel rail had to hit its emergency brakes and narrowly avoided running into a carriage that was lying across its path.
The official death toll yesterday stood at 18 with another 30 seriously injured. SNCB, the national train operator, refused to comment on the cause of the accident.
Officials said that they expected the death toll to exceed the country’s worst train disaster, when a crash near Leuven in 1954 killed 20 German football fans and seriously injured 40 others. In March 2001 eight people died when a crowded train smashed into an empty train driving on the wrong tracks.
Yves Leterme, the Prime Minister, who cut short a visit to Kosovo to visit the scene, said that he was stunned by the accident, which came less than three weeks after a gas explosion at a residential block in Liège killed 14 people. Albert II, King of the Belgians, also returned from abroad to inspect the crash site.
European rail disasters
May 8, 2003, Hungary Train and German tourist bus collide near Siofok, western Hungary, killing 33
January 23, 2006, Serbia and Montenegro A packed train derails in Montenegro, leaving 47 dead
September 22, 2006, Germany High-speed maglev train crashes and kills 23 near Lathen
June 30, 2009, Italy Train carrying liquid petroleum gas explodes in Viareggio, creating a massive fireball that kills 29
Source: AFP
Top Taleban commander Mullah Baradar captured in Pakistan
The Afghan Taleban's top military commander has been captured in Karachi in a secret raid by Pakistani and US intelligence forces.
Pakistan confirmed this morning that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, described as the most significant Taleban figure captured since the start of the Afghanistan war, was arrested in a slum predominantly populated by Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns last week.
Mullah Baradar, who is deputy to Mullah Omar, the Afghan Taleban's supreme commander, had regularly visited Karachi, which Pakistani and Western intelligence agencies believe has become a major haven for the Afghan Taleban leadership.
Citing US government officials, The New York Times said that Baradar had been in Pakistani custody for several days and was being interrogated by Pakistani and US intelligence officers. Pakistani officials would not say where he was being detainedThe White House and the Pentagon declined to comment on the report.
The newspaper reported that officials said the operation to capture Mr Baradar was conducted by Pakistan's military spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, accompanied by CIA agents.
US officials believe that Baradar is second in influence in the Taleban only to Omar and was a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the attacks on the US in 2001, it added.
The newspaper said it was not clear if Baradar was talking to authorities, but it quoted officials as saying his capture could lead to other senior Taleban officials. The officials said he might even take them to Omar.
A spokesman for the Taleban in Afghanistan told the Associated Press that Baradar was still free, though he did not provide any evidence.
“We totally deny this rumour. He has not been arrested,” Zabiullah Mujahid told the AP by telephone. “The Taleban are having success with our jihad. It is to try to demoralise the Taleban who are on jihad in Marjah and all of Afghanistan.”
Baradar was born in 1968 in Weetmak, a village in the Oruzgan Province of Afghanistan. Terrorism experts describe him as a skilled military leader who runs many high-level meetings of the Taleban’s top commanders in Afghanistan.
He has had a leading role in the Taleban's day-to-day military and financial operations, allocating funds, appointing military commanders and deciding military tactics.
Baradar is said to be responsible for the Taleban tactic of planting "flowers" — improvised explosive devices (IEDs) — along roadsides.
His capture is seen as indication that the current Pakistani military leadership under General Ashfaq Kayani, the Chief of Army Staff, is convinced that there are close links between the Afghan and Pakistani Taleban, an alliance that presents the biggest threat to the country’s national security.
The arrest comes at the start of Operation Moshtarak, one of Nato's biggest offensives against Taleban Islamic militants in Afghanistan. The offensive in Marjah involves 15,000 US, British and Afghan troops. It is the biggest joint operation since the 2001 invasion that ousted the Taleban. The troops are fighting over an area of less than 100 square miles, with a population of 80,000.
The assault is the first test of President Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, where the Taleban has made a steady comeback since the invasion.
The New York Times said it learnt of the operation last Thursday, but delayed reporting it after a request by the White House.
The paper said it was now publishing the report because White House officials acknowledged that news of the capture was becoming broadly known in the region.
US officials were quoted as saying that in addition to the Taleban's military operations, Baradar ran the group's leadership council, often called the Quetta Shura.
Pakistani and intelligence agencies said most of the members of the Quetta Shura had moved to Karachi in recent months after reports that the Obama Administration might target Taleban sanctuaries in Baluchistan.
Source:The Times
Pakistan confirmed this morning that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, described as the most significant Taleban figure captured since the start of the Afghanistan war, was arrested in a slum predominantly populated by Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns last week.
Mullah Baradar, who is deputy to Mullah Omar, the Afghan Taleban's supreme commander, had regularly visited Karachi, which Pakistani and Western intelligence agencies believe has become a major haven for the Afghan Taleban leadership.
Citing US government officials, The New York Times said that Baradar had been in Pakistani custody for several days and was being interrogated by Pakistani and US intelligence officers. Pakistani officials would not say where he was being detainedThe White House and the Pentagon declined to comment on the report.
The newspaper reported that officials said the operation to capture Mr Baradar was conducted by Pakistan's military spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, accompanied by CIA agents.
US officials believe that Baradar is second in influence in the Taleban only to Omar and was a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the attacks on the US in 2001, it added.
The newspaper said it was not clear if Baradar was talking to authorities, but it quoted officials as saying his capture could lead to other senior Taleban officials. The officials said he might even take them to Omar.
A spokesman for the Taleban in Afghanistan told the Associated Press that Baradar was still free, though he did not provide any evidence.
“We totally deny this rumour. He has not been arrested,” Zabiullah Mujahid told the AP by telephone. “The Taleban are having success with our jihad. It is to try to demoralise the Taleban who are on jihad in Marjah and all of Afghanistan.”
Baradar was born in 1968 in Weetmak, a village in the Oruzgan Province of Afghanistan. Terrorism experts describe him as a skilled military leader who runs many high-level meetings of the Taleban’s top commanders in Afghanistan.
He has had a leading role in the Taleban's day-to-day military and financial operations, allocating funds, appointing military commanders and deciding military tactics.
Baradar is said to be responsible for the Taleban tactic of planting "flowers" — improvised explosive devices (IEDs) — along roadsides.
His capture is seen as indication that the current Pakistani military leadership under General Ashfaq Kayani, the Chief of Army Staff, is convinced that there are close links between the Afghan and Pakistani Taleban, an alliance that presents the biggest threat to the country’s national security.
The arrest comes at the start of Operation Moshtarak, one of Nato's biggest offensives against Taleban Islamic militants in Afghanistan. The offensive in Marjah involves 15,000 US, British and Afghan troops. It is the biggest joint operation since the 2001 invasion that ousted the Taleban. The troops are fighting over an area of less than 100 square miles, with a population of 80,000.
The assault is the first test of President Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, where the Taleban has made a steady comeback since the invasion.
The New York Times said it learnt of the operation last Thursday, but delayed reporting it after a request by the White House.
The paper said it was now publishing the report because White House officials acknowledged that news of the capture was becoming broadly known in the region.
US officials were quoted as saying that in addition to the Taleban's military operations, Baradar ran the group's leadership council, often called the Quetta Shura.
Pakistani and intelligence agencies said most of the members of the Quetta Shura had moved to Karachi in recent months after reports that the Obama Administration might target Taleban sanctuaries in Baluchistan.
Source:The Times
Ray Gosling refuses to talk to police after confessing he 'killed lover'
The veteran broadcaster Ray Gosling says he will not co-operate with the police investigating his on-air confession to having smothered his lover dying of Aids.
The 70-year-old presenter made the admission on the BBC East Midlands weekly programme Inside Out, broadcast at 7.30pm last night.
Nottinghamshire Police said this morning that it had launched an investigation, after learning of Mr Gosling's admission for the first time as the show was aired.
Anti-euthanasia groups criticised the BBC for failing to report the confession to the police, but the corporation denied that it had had any legal obligation to do so. Assisted suicide is a criminal offence in England and Wales, punishable by up to 14 years in jail"I'm not going to tell (the police) anything," Mr Gosling told interviewers today, when asked whether he had considered that he might go to jail over his admission.
"There are different kinds of law, you know. There's a law that's written in law books and there's a law in your heart... Different laws carry different weights at different times.
"(Going to jail) is what has to happen maybe. I will have to see what happens."
In the Inside Out programme Mr Gosling was shown weeping as he walked through a graveyard. He does not name his lover, who it is understood was not his long-term partner Bryn.
“I killed someone once... He was a young chap, he’d been my lover and he got Aids," he told the viewers, in a feature on end-of-life decisions.
“In a hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said, ’There’s nothing we can do’, and he was in terrible, terrible pain.
“I said to the doctor, ’Leave me just for a bit’ and he went away. I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead.
“The doctor came back and I said, ’He’s gone’. Nothing more was ever said.”
In an interview today, Mr Gosling said that the doctor on duty that afternoon had effectively invited him to do something, by deliberately leaving him alone with the dying man.
"Yes, of course the doctor knew (what I had done)," he said.
"There was this moment and the doctor said to me something like: 'I will pop out and have a fag now' or 'go to the canteen' or 'go to another ward – and will you still be here when I get back, Ray?' And I said, 'Ye-es'.
"It was an invitation. Why do doctors leave extra morphine for people who are in extreme pain? 'It's in the drawer, just in case you need it' ... Doctors are doing this every day.The Director of Public Prosecutions is about to announce new guidelines for prosecutors on applying the law on assisted dying, after a string of high profile cases led to calls for clarification and reform.
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said that the case showed that the law was out of step with what society needed and wanted.
“Crucially, Ray Gosling’s loved one was terminally ill and clearly asked for help to die when he was suffering unbearably at the end of his life," said Ms Wootton.
“This illustrates a need for formal assisted dying legislation to help those who want choice at the end of life, as well as protect people who may be vulnerable to coercion.”
But Dr Peter Saunders, of Care Not Killing, said that the story that Mr Gosling had described was not one of helping someone to die but of murder.
"On the basis of the testimony given, legally speaking, this is not a case of assisted suicide – helping someone to kill himself – but of murder –actively ending the life of another person," said Dr Saunders.
He added that it was a myth that patients needed to die in terrible pain, and it would be a tragedy if Mr Gosling's story fuelled that myth.
"The clinical details which have been revealed are very sketchy and it is not at all clear why this man was in pain or why his pain was not being more adequately controlled," he said.
"The case, if anything, should fuel calls to make the very best palliative care, already available to many, much more widely accessible."
Care Not Killing is now considering lodging a complaint with the BBC.
Dr Saunders said that the BBC's behaviour had been "bizarre and highly irresponsible", failing to refer the confession to the police, not airing the footage for two months, and then choosing to broadcast it just as the DPP was about to release his new guidelines.
"This will fuel concerns that the BBC is not covering this issue in an even-handed manner," Dr Saunders said. "It may even be trying to put pressure on both the DPP and Parliament by giving hugely disproportionate coverage to emotive cases in which the facts are selectively presented to an uninformed audience."
The Crown Prosecution Service said today that there is no legal obligation to report a crime.
The nearest offence is Obstructing a Police Officer (Police Act 1996) which applies only if one does something to prevent an officer carrying out his duty, so is not applicable in this case.
A CPS spokeswoman said: "Generally the advice is if you think that an offence might have been committed to contact the police as soon as possible." The CPS said suspects are not required to cooperate with the police, and many interviews are "no comment".
Source:The Times
The 70-year-old presenter made the admission on the BBC East Midlands weekly programme Inside Out, broadcast at 7.30pm last night.
Nottinghamshire Police said this morning that it had launched an investigation, after learning of Mr Gosling's admission for the first time as the show was aired.
Anti-euthanasia groups criticised the BBC for failing to report the confession to the police, but the corporation denied that it had had any legal obligation to do so. Assisted suicide is a criminal offence in England and Wales, punishable by up to 14 years in jail"I'm not going to tell (the police) anything," Mr Gosling told interviewers today, when asked whether he had considered that he might go to jail over his admission.
"There are different kinds of law, you know. There's a law that's written in law books and there's a law in your heart... Different laws carry different weights at different times.
"(Going to jail) is what has to happen maybe. I will have to see what happens."
In the Inside Out programme Mr Gosling was shown weeping as he walked through a graveyard. He does not name his lover, who it is understood was not his long-term partner Bryn.
“I killed someone once... He was a young chap, he’d been my lover and he got Aids," he told the viewers, in a feature on end-of-life decisions.
“In a hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said, ’There’s nothing we can do’, and he was in terrible, terrible pain.
“I said to the doctor, ’Leave me just for a bit’ and he went away. I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead.
“The doctor came back and I said, ’He’s gone’. Nothing more was ever said.”
In an interview today, Mr Gosling said that the doctor on duty that afternoon had effectively invited him to do something, by deliberately leaving him alone with the dying man.
"Yes, of course the doctor knew (what I had done)," he said.
"There was this moment and the doctor said to me something like: 'I will pop out and have a fag now' or 'go to the canteen' or 'go to another ward – and will you still be here when I get back, Ray?' And I said, 'Ye-es'.
"It was an invitation. Why do doctors leave extra morphine for people who are in extreme pain? 'It's in the drawer, just in case you need it' ... Doctors are doing this every day.The Director of Public Prosecutions is about to announce new guidelines for prosecutors on applying the law on assisted dying, after a string of high profile cases led to calls for clarification and reform.
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said that the case showed that the law was out of step with what society needed and wanted.
“Crucially, Ray Gosling’s loved one was terminally ill and clearly asked for help to die when he was suffering unbearably at the end of his life," said Ms Wootton.
“This illustrates a need for formal assisted dying legislation to help those who want choice at the end of life, as well as protect people who may be vulnerable to coercion.”
But Dr Peter Saunders, of Care Not Killing, said that the story that Mr Gosling had described was not one of helping someone to die but of murder.
"On the basis of the testimony given, legally speaking, this is not a case of assisted suicide – helping someone to kill himself – but of murder –actively ending the life of another person," said Dr Saunders.
He added that it was a myth that patients needed to die in terrible pain, and it would be a tragedy if Mr Gosling's story fuelled that myth.
"The clinical details which have been revealed are very sketchy and it is not at all clear why this man was in pain or why his pain was not being more adequately controlled," he said.
"The case, if anything, should fuel calls to make the very best palliative care, already available to many, much more widely accessible."
Care Not Killing is now considering lodging a complaint with the BBC.
Dr Saunders said that the BBC's behaviour had been "bizarre and highly irresponsible", failing to refer the confession to the police, not airing the footage for two months, and then choosing to broadcast it just as the DPP was about to release his new guidelines.
"This will fuel concerns that the BBC is not covering this issue in an even-handed manner," Dr Saunders said. "It may even be trying to put pressure on both the DPP and Parliament by giving hugely disproportionate coverage to emotive cases in which the facts are selectively presented to an uninformed audience."
The Crown Prosecution Service said today that there is no legal obligation to report a crime.
The nearest offence is Obstructing a Police Officer (Police Act 1996) which applies only if one does something to prevent an officer carrying out his duty, so is not applicable in this case.
A CPS spokeswoman said: "Generally the advice is if you think that an offence might have been committed to contact the police as soon as possible." The CPS said suspects are not required to cooperate with the police, and many interviews are "no comment".
Source:The Times
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
India puts GM food farming on hold
India delayed approval of its first genetically modified food crop today after environmentalists and scientists warned that it had been passed by a government safety body despite not being properly tested.
Jairam Ramesh, the Environment Minister, said that the decision to delay permission for the cultivation of Bt brinjal – a variety of aubergine into which a toxic gene that poisons insect pests has been inserted – reflected “a cautious, precautionary, principle-based approach”.
Further independent safety tests will be conducted.
The moratorium comes despite the crop being approved by India’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, a panel of government-appointed scientists charged with determining the safety of GM cropsIt also follows a series of meetings called by Mr Ramesh to canvass public opinion, many of which were disrupted by GM opponents.
Pushpa Bhargava, a scientist who sat on the committee, told The Times that the safety data on Bt brinjal presented to the GEAC had been “unacceptable and incomplete” – partly because most of it was supplied by Mahyco, the company that developed the new vegetable.
He was outvoted when the committee, which included several scientists with ties to Mahyco, gave its approval in October.
Opponents had warned that not enough was known about the effects of the new variety on humans and the environment. Long-term toxicity and the risk of dangerous mutations had not been ruled out, they argued.
Leaders of farmers' unions had reacted angrily at the prospect of relying on overseas suppliers for expensive new seeds.
Source:The Times
Jairam Ramesh, the Environment Minister, said that the decision to delay permission for the cultivation of Bt brinjal – a variety of aubergine into which a toxic gene that poisons insect pests has been inserted – reflected “a cautious, precautionary, principle-based approach”.
Further independent safety tests will be conducted.
The moratorium comes despite the crop being approved by India’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, a panel of government-appointed scientists charged with determining the safety of GM cropsIt also follows a series of meetings called by Mr Ramesh to canvass public opinion, many of which were disrupted by GM opponents.
Pushpa Bhargava, a scientist who sat on the committee, told The Times that the safety data on Bt brinjal presented to the GEAC had been “unacceptable and incomplete” – partly because most of it was supplied by Mahyco, the company that developed the new vegetable.
He was outvoted when the committee, which included several scientists with ties to Mahyco, gave its approval in October.
Opponents had warned that not enough was known about the effects of the new variety on humans and the environment. Long-term toxicity and the risk of dangerous mutations had not been ruled out, they argued.
Leaders of farmers' unions had reacted angrily at the prospect of relying on overseas suppliers for expensive new seeds.
Source:The Times
Sri Lanka opposition leader held for 'plotting coup'
The former Sri Lankan army chief hailed last year as a national hero for defeating the Tamil Tigers was in jail last night facing possible execution.
General Sarath Fonseka, 58, was forcibly arrested on charges of plotting a coup against President Rajapaksa, whom he challenged in an election last month.
Military police dragged the retired general away after storming into his campaign office in the historic centre of Colombo as he met opposition leaders to discuss how to challenge the results of the January 26 election.
The fear now is that General Fonseka’s supporters in the army, who are still thought to be many, could rebel against the Government, undermining a fragile peace that took almost three decades to achieve. “He has been arrested with his personal assistant,” one of the general’s spokesmen, now in hiding, told The Times. “We are shocked, because we thought the dust was starting to settle.Rauff Hakeem, one of his allies in the opposition, said that General Fonseka and his secretary were dragged out by their hands and legs. “He was humiliated and disgraced in the way he was handled,” he said. “We were just flabbergasted.”
It was a savage irony for the man whom many of the island’s ethnic Tamil minority hold jointly responsible with Mr Rajapaksa for committing war crimes, including the shelling of civilians, in the last stages of the conflict.
Keheliya Rambukwella, a government minister and spokesman, confirmed that General Fonseka would be tried in a military court on charges of conspiring against the President and planning a coup. “He has been plotting against the President while in the military ... with the idea of overthrowing the Government,” he said.
General Fonseka’s arrest is the latest twist in an extraordinary political melodrama that has consolidated Mr Rajapaksa’s grip on power, but raised concerns about the state of South Asia’s oldest democracy.
Mr Rajapaksa and General Fonseka were both lauded for their roles in ending the 26-year civil war, but they fell out after Mr Rajapaksa switched the general to the ceremonial post of Chief of Defence Staff in July in an apparent attempt to curb the military’s almost unlimited powers.
The general, who also felt that he was not given due credit for the Tigers’ defeat, resigned from the army in November and declared his candidacy in the election a month later. Campaigning was brutal as the rivals appeared to have split the Sinhalese vote and both tried to reach out to the Tamils as potential kingmakers.
Mr Rajapaksa won easily, but the general refused to accept the results, accusing the Government of monopolising the state media and tampering with ballot counting. Since then the Government has cracked down on the media, closing two newspapers, arresting one editor and detaining dozens of journalists. It has also carried out a purge of the army.
The US voiced concern about the arrest. Philip Crowley, a State Department spokesman, said: “There is a tremendous need for the Government of Sri Lanka to work to overcome the fissures that exist within its society.”
Source:The times
General Sarath Fonseka, 58, was forcibly arrested on charges of plotting a coup against President Rajapaksa, whom he challenged in an election last month.
Military police dragged the retired general away after storming into his campaign office in the historic centre of Colombo as he met opposition leaders to discuss how to challenge the results of the January 26 election.
The fear now is that General Fonseka’s supporters in the army, who are still thought to be many, could rebel against the Government, undermining a fragile peace that took almost three decades to achieve. “He has been arrested with his personal assistant,” one of the general’s spokesmen, now in hiding, told The Times. “We are shocked, because we thought the dust was starting to settle.Rauff Hakeem, one of his allies in the opposition, said that General Fonseka and his secretary were dragged out by their hands and legs. “He was humiliated and disgraced in the way he was handled,” he said. “We were just flabbergasted.”
It was a savage irony for the man whom many of the island’s ethnic Tamil minority hold jointly responsible with Mr Rajapaksa for committing war crimes, including the shelling of civilians, in the last stages of the conflict.
Keheliya Rambukwella, a government minister and spokesman, confirmed that General Fonseka would be tried in a military court on charges of conspiring against the President and planning a coup. “He has been plotting against the President while in the military ... with the idea of overthrowing the Government,” he said.
General Fonseka’s arrest is the latest twist in an extraordinary political melodrama that has consolidated Mr Rajapaksa’s grip on power, but raised concerns about the state of South Asia’s oldest democracy.
Mr Rajapaksa and General Fonseka were both lauded for their roles in ending the 26-year civil war, but they fell out after Mr Rajapaksa switched the general to the ceremonial post of Chief of Defence Staff in July in an apparent attempt to curb the military’s almost unlimited powers.
The general, who also felt that he was not given due credit for the Tigers’ defeat, resigned from the army in November and declared his candidacy in the election a month later. Campaigning was brutal as the rivals appeared to have split the Sinhalese vote and both tried to reach out to the Tamils as potential kingmakers.
Mr Rajapaksa won easily, but the general refused to accept the results, accusing the Government of monopolising the state media and tampering with ballot counting. Since then the Government has cracked down on the media, closing two newspapers, arresting one editor and detaining dozens of journalists. It has also carried out a purge of the army.
The US voiced concern about the arrest. Philip Crowley, a State Department spokesman, said: “There is a tremendous need for the Government of Sri Lanka to work to overcome the fissures that exist within its society.”
Source:The times
Iran starts processing nuclear fuel towards weapons-grade strength
Iran began manufacturing a higher grade of enriched uranium today in defiance of the international community, raising fears that it was heading towards nuclear breakout.
The development, which comes less than 24 hours after Iran officially notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), caused international alarm and gave impetus to Western calls for new sanctions against Tehran despite continued opposition from China.
"Today we started to make 20 per cent enriched nuclear fuel... in the presence of IAEA inspectors at Natanz," an unnamed official told Iran's Arabic-language state television station, al Alam.
Ali Shirzadian, a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, confirmed that "preparatory work" had started at 9.30am (0600 GMT) and that production would formally get under way at about 1pm local timeIran claims the upgrade of its low-enriched uranium from 3.5 per cent to 20 per cent is to supply fuel for a medical research reactor. But Western governments fear Tehran is readying for the production of weapons-grade fuel, noting that it lacks the technology required for the declared medical purposes.
Russia, traditionally resistant to tough actions against Iran, voiced some of its strongest doubts to date about the nature of the nuclear programme.
“Iran claims it is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons,” Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s security council, was quoted as saying. “But actions such as starting to enrich low-enriched uranium up to 20 per cent raise doubts in other countries and these doubts are fairly well grounded.”
Today’s development appears to mark the end of the line for the United Nations-backed uranium swap deal by which the international community had hoped to stop Iran from acquiring the fissile material for a nuclear weapon.
Under the proposed deal Iran was required to ship out three quarters of its low-enriched uranium stocks in return for an equivalent amount of 20 per cent enriched uranium in the form of French-made fuel rods to be used in a research reactor to produce medical isotopes.
Iran in effect pronounced the deal dead today when it began the process of making the 20 per cent enriched uranium itself.
But because it lacks the technology to make the fuel rods, Iran cannot use the enriched material for medical purposes, raising suspicions that it is seeking to produce weapons-grade fuel.
Although weapons-grade uranium is 90 per cent enriched, the first stages of the process are the hardest and most time-consuming. The leap from 20 to 90 per cent is more rapidly bridged.
France and Argentina are the only countries capable of making the rods and Argentina has refused to help while France would do so only under the conditions of the UN-backed deal.
Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, denounced Iran’s warning as blackmail to force a deal on Tehran’s terms. In the UK, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office called the Iranian decision worrying.
The battle now moves to the UN Security Council, where Western powers hope to lure Russia and China on board for sanctions against the Iranian Central Bank and other financial institutions, as well as companies controlled by the elite Revolutionary Guard.
Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, “thinks this is a matter of weeks, not months", a Pentagon spokesman said“He thinks that we need it and that we can do it in that time,” Geoff Morrell told reporters in Paris, where Mr Gates was meeting with President Sarkozy to discuss a draft resolution on sanctions.
France holds the rotating chair of the Security Council until the end of February and hopes to be able to tabled a vote on sanctions before then.
“In all his meetings [Mr Gates] discussed this sense of urgency,” Mr Morrell added.
Later Mr Gates told Fox News that a new resolution would provide “a legal platform for the EU and individual countries to perhaps take even more far-reaching steps” against Iran.
Washington is sounding out allies to see which would be willing to join a coalition of states imposing even harsher sanctions.
China remains the biggest obstacle to Security Council sanctions and yesterday Mr Kouchner warned publicly that Beijing could vote down a resolution.
Today China renewed its calls for revived talks on the uranium deal, insisting it still offered a way out of the impasse.
“We hope the relevant parties will exchange views on the draft deal on the Tehran research reactor and reach common ground at an early date which will help solve the issue,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
“I hope relevant parties will step up efforts to push forward dialogue on this question."
Source:The times
The development, which comes less than 24 hours after Iran officially notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), caused international alarm and gave impetus to Western calls for new sanctions against Tehran despite continued opposition from China.
"Today we started to make 20 per cent enriched nuclear fuel... in the presence of IAEA inspectors at Natanz," an unnamed official told Iran's Arabic-language state television station, al Alam.
Ali Shirzadian, a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, confirmed that "preparatory work" had started at 9.30am (0600 GMT) and that production would formally get under way at about 1pm local timeIran claims the upgrade of its low-enriched uranium from 3.5 per cent to 20 per cent is to supply fuel for a medical research reactor. But Western governments fear Tehran is readying for the production of weapons-grade fuel, noting that it lacks the technology required for the declared medical purposes.
Russia, traditionally resistant to tough actions against Iran, voiced some of its strongest doubts to date about the nature of the nuclear programme.
“Iran claims it is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons,” Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s security council, was quoted as saying. “But actions such as starting to enrich low-enriched uranium up to 20 per cent raise doubts in other countries and these doubts are fairly well grounded.”
Today’s development appears to mark the end of the line for the United Nations-backed uranium swap deal by which the international community had hoped to stop Iran from acquiring the fissile material for a nuclear weapon.
Under the proposed deal Iran was required to ship out three quarters of its low-enriched uranium stocks in return for an equivalent amount of 20 per cent enriched uranium in the form of French-made fuel rods to be used in a research reactor to produce medical isotopes.
Iran in effect pronounced the deal dead today when it began the process of making the 20 per cent enriched uranium itself.
But because it lacks the technology to make the fuel rods, Iran cannot use the enriched material for medical purposes, raising suspicions that it is seeking to produce weapons-grade fuel.
Although weapons-grade uranium is 90 per cent enriched, the first stages of the process are the hardest and most time-consuming. The leap from 20 to 90 per cent is more rapidly bridged.
France and Argentina are the only countries capable of making the rods and Argentina has refused to help while France would do so only under the conditions of the UN-backed deal.
Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, denounced Iran’s warning as blackmail to force a deal on Tehran’s terms. In the UK, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office called the Iranian decision worrying.
The battle now moves to the UN Security Council, where Western powers hope to lure Russia and China on board for sanctions against the Iranian Central Bank and other financial institutions, as well as companies controlled by the elite Revolutionary Guard.
Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, “thinks this is a matter of weeks, not months", a Pentagon spokesman said“He thinks that we need it and that we can do it in that time,” Geoff Morrell told reporters in Paris, where Mr Gates was meeting with President Sarkozy to discuss a draft resolution on sanctions.
France holds the rotating chair of the Security Council until the end of February and hopes to be able to tabled a vote on sanctions before then.
“In all his meetings [Mr Gates] discussed this sense of urgency,” Mr Morrell added.
Later Mr Gates told Fox News that a new resolution would provide “a legal platform for the EU and individual countries to perhaps take even more far-reaching steps” against Iran.
Washington is sounding out allies to see which would be willing to join a coalition of states imposing even harsher sanctions.
China remains the biggest obstacle to Security Council sanctions and yesterday Mr Kouchner warned publicly that Beijing could vote down a resolution.
Today China renewed its calls for revived talks on the uranium deal, insisting it still offered a way out of the impasse.
“We hope the relevant parties will exchange views on the draft deal on the Tehran research reactor and reach common ground at an early date which will help solve the issue,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
“I hope relevant parties will step up efforts to push forward dialogue on this question."
Source:The times
Man 'buried under rubble for four weeks' found alive in Haiti
A man who has been pulled alive from the rubble of a marketplace in Port-au-Prince may have been trapped there since the devastating earthquake struck the Haitian capital 28 days ago.
The 28-year-old, identified as Evans Muncie, was found under the remains of the Croix Bossal market where he sold rice. He had not been seen since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake levelled the city on January 12, killing over 200,000 people.
Mr Muncie was discovered by people who had been digging at the marketplace. He was taken to an American field hospital in Port-au-Prince where he was treated for severe dehydration and malnutrition.
Doctors said Mr Muncie was very disorientated and at times thought he was still under the rubble while he was being treated at the tent hospitalIt could not be confirmed exactly how long Mr Muncie was trapped but his family said he had been missing since January 12.
His mother said: "I thought he was dead, but God kept him from dying."
Dr Mike Connelly told CNN, the American news network: "He was emaciated. He hadn't had anything in quite some time. He had open wounds that were festering on both of his feet."
According to CNN, Mr Muncie told doctors that somebody in a white coat had occasionally brought him water, however it is not known whether he had been hallucinating.
He also said he could hear bulldozers around him working to demolish damaged buildings while he lay underneath the rubble near by.
Dr Connelly said Mr Muncie must have had access to water to have survived the entire four weeks trapped under a building.
"Initially, I'm sure he had his senses with him, so maybe he was able to find some kind of resources," Dr Connelly told CNN.
The US network showed photographs of Mr Muncie being treated by doctors.
Despite the Haitian Government calling for an end to search and rescue operations on January 23, survivors continued to be pulled from the rubble in the following days.
On January 27, 16-year-old Daline Etienne was rescued from beneath the debris of her house, 15 days after the earthquake had forced the building to collapse on top of her.
The rescue of the teenager, who appeared in relatively good health, was deemed a miracle.
Source:The times
The 28-year-old, identified as Evans Muncie, was found under the remains of the Croix Bossal market where he sold rice. He had not been seen since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake levelled the city on January 12, killing over 200,000 people.
Mr Muncie was discovered by people who had been digging at the marketplace. He was taken to an American field hospital in Port-au-Prince where he was treated for severe dehydration and malnutrition.
Doctors said Mr Muncie was very disorientated and at times thought he was still under the rubble while he was being treated at the tent hospitalIt could not be confirmed exactly how long Mr Muncie was trapped but his family said he had been missing since January 12.
His mother said: "I thought he was dead, but God kept him from dying."
Dr Mike Connelly told CNN, the American news network: "He was emaciated. He hadn't had anything in quite some time. He had open wounds that were festering on both of his feet."
According to CNN, Mr Muncie told doctors that somebody in a white coat had occasionally brought him water, however it is not known whether he had been hallucinating.
He also said he could hear bulldozers around him working to demolish damaged buildings while he lay underneath the rubble near by.
Dr Connelly said Mr Muncie must have had access to water to have survived the entire four weeks trapped under a building.
"Initially, I'm sure he had his senses with him, so maybe he was able to find some kind of resources," Dr Connelly told CNN.
The US network showed photographs of Mr Muncie being treated by doctors.
Despite the Haitian Government calling for an end to search and rescue operations on January 23, survivors continued to be pulled from the rubble in the following days.
On January 27, 16-year-old Daline Etienne was rescued from beneath the debris of her house, 15 days after the earthquake had forced the building to collapse on top of her.
The rescue of the teenager, who appeared in relatively good health, was deemed a miracle.
Source:The times
Rowan Williams issues 'profound apology' to gay Christians
The Archbishop of Canterbury today issued a "profound apology" to the lesbian and gay Christian community.
In a powerful address to General Synod Dr Rowan Williams warned that any schism within the church would represent of a "betrayal" of God's mission.
But he made clear that he regretted recent rhetoric in which he has sought to mollify the fears of the traditionalist wing of the church.
The Archbishop is from the Church's liberal Catholic wing and a man who once espoused equal rights for gays within the Church. More recently he has adopted a conservative line for the sake of Church unityToday he said: "There are ways of speaking about the question that seem to ignore these human realities or to undervalue them.
"I have been criticised for doing just this and I am profoundly sorry for the carelessness that could give such an impression."
Addressing the even more contentious debate over gay ordinations - something which threatens to split the Church further with the expected consecration in May of lesbian Canon Mary Glasspool as a bishop in Los Angeles - Dr Williams said it had not been helped by those who ignored the fact that many regular worshippers are gay, as well as many "sacrificial and exemplary priests".
He made it clear there was blame on all sides of the argument that has brought the Church to the brink of splitting. He pleaded for Anglicans battling over gays and women bishops to cease fighting, admitting that he and other bishops might have to settle for a two-tier communion if it is to survive at all.
In his wide-ranging address at Church house Westminster, Dr Williams made clear that the ordination of women bishops should not go ahead at the expense of the Church's Anglican Catholic wing, which is currently assessing an offer from the Pope to move over to Rome into a new Anglican Ordinariate.
Dr Williams admitted: "Most hold that the ordination of women as bishops as good, something that will enhance our faithfulness to Christ and our integrity in mission."
But he said that this good was "jeopardised" by the potential loss of both traditionalists and some evangelicals who oppose women bishops.
Referring to proposals to give women bishops a lesser level of authority, he said the reform should not happen at all if it is done in such a way that "that will corrupt it or compromise it fatally".
And while the Anglican Covenant, a new unity document intended to find a way to keep the 38 provinces under one umbrella, has been attacked as being too punitive, Dr Williams said this was mistaken.
"There is no supreme court envisaged and the constitutional liberties of each province are explicitly safeguarded. But the difficult issue that we cannot simply ignore is this."
Referring to tomorrow's debate tabled by a lay member from the Chichester diocese calling for the Church of England to recognise the breakaway new traditionalist church in the US, he said: "Certain decisions made by some provinces impact so heavily on the conscience and mission of others that fellowship is strained or shattered and trust destroyed. The present effect of this is chaos - local schisms, outside interventions, all the unedifying stuff you will be hearing about, from both sides, in the debate on Lorna Ashworth's motion."
Outlining a possible way forward to a two-tier communion, he admitted: "It may be that the covenant creates a situation in which there are different levels of relationship between those claiming the name of Anglican. I don't at all want or relish this, but suspect that, without a major change of heart all round, it may be an unavoidable aspect of limiting the damage we are already doing to ourselves."
Source:The times
In a powerful address to General Synod Dr Rowan Williams warned that any schism within the church would represent of a "betrayal" of God's mission.
But he made clear that he regretted recent rhetoric in which he has sought to mollify the fears of the traditionalist wing of the church.
The Archbishop is from the Church's liberal Catholic wing and a man who once espoused equal rights for gays within the Church. More recently he has adopted a conservative line for the sake of Church unityToday he said: "There are ways of speaking about the question that seem to ignore these human realities or to undervalue them.
"I have been criticised for doing just this and I am profoundly sorry for the carelessness that could give such an impression."
Addressing the even more contentious debate over gay ordinations - something which threatens to split the Church further with the expected consecration in May of lesbian Canon Mary Glasspool as a bishop in Los Angeles - Dr Williams said it had not been helped by those who ignored the fact that many regular worshippers are gay, as well as many "sacrificial and exemplary priests".
He made it clear there was blame on all sides of the argument that has brought the Church to the brink of splitting. He pleaded for Anglicans battling over gays and women bishops to cease fighting, admitting that he and other bishops might have to settle for a two-tier communion if it is to survive at all.
In his wide-ranging address at Church house Westminster, Dr Williams made clear that the ordination of women bishops should not go ahead at the expense of the Church's Anglican Catholic wing, which is currently assessing an offer from the Pope to move over to Rome into a new Anglican Ordinariate.
Dr Williams admitted: "Most hold that the ordination of women as bishops as good, something that will enhance our faithfulness to Christ and our integrity in mission."
But he said that this good was "jeopardised" by the potential loss of both traditionalists and some evangelicals who oppose women bishops.
Referring to proposals to give women bishops a lesser level of authority, he said the reform should not happen at all if it is done in such a way that "that will corrupt it or compromise it fatally".
And while the Anglican Covenant, a new unity document intended to find a way to keep the 38 provinces under one umbrella, has been attacked as being too punitive, Dr Williams said this was mistaken.
"There is no supreme court envisaged and the constitutional liberties of each province are explicitly safeguarded. But the difficult issue that we cannot simply ignore is this."
Referring to tomorrow's debate tabled by a lay member from the Chichester diocese calling for the Church of England to recognise the breakaway new traditionalist church in the US, he said: "Certain decisions made by some provinces impact so heavily on the conscience and mission of others that fellowship is strained or shattered and trust destroyed. The present effect of this is chaos - local schisms, outside interventions, all the unedifying stuff you will be hearing about, from both sides, in the debate on Lorna Ashworth's motion."
Outlining a possible way forward to a two-tier communion, he admitted: "It may be that the covenant creates a situation in which there are different levels of relationship between those claiming the name of Anglican. I don't at all want or relish this, but suspect that, without a major change of heart all round, it may be an unavoidable aspect of limiting the damage we are already doing to ourselves."
Source:The times
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