Blast in home of Gaza militant leader kills one

GAZA (Reuters) - A Palestinian man who had been preparing an attack on Israeli targets was killed on Saturday in an explosion at the home of a militant leader in the Gaza Strip, his group said.

The explosion took place at the Rafah home of Zuhair Al-Qaissi, chief commander of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an armed Palestinian faction that often operates independently of Gaza's Hamas rulers.

The PRC confirmed the man killed was a member of the group and that he was preparing an attack on Israelis when the blast occurred. Al-Qaissi himself was not hurt in the explosion.

Al-Qaissi's predecessor, Kamal al-Nairab was killed in an Israeli air strike in August.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Maayan Lubell)

Read More

11:15 AM | 0 comments

UPDATE 3-hot air balloon crash kills 11 in New Zealand

* Balloon starts to fire crashes to the ground

* No survivors in the worst NZ aviation disaster in 33 years

* Investigation underway police notifier members (Dateline adds details and quotes, changes)

By Mark Coote

CARTERTON, New Zealand, Jan 7 (Reuters) - a balloon burst into flames and crashed in New Zealand on Saturday, killing all 11 passengers in the country of the worst air disaster in more than three decades.

Police said the balloon have cut off power lines appeared and caught fire before the crash in farmland near the town of Carterton, about 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Wellington on New Zealand's North Island.

"Unfortunately the pilot and 10 passengers on board not have survived," said Superintendent Mike Rusbatch Wellington District Commander.

The accident occurred just before 07: 30 (1830 GMT) in quiet, clear weather in a region known for hot-air balloon.

"I could not believe what I saw." There were flames licking at the side of the basket, right above the guy ropes, "said David McKinlay State television New Zealand."

When the flames reached the canopy, the balloon to the ground said McKinlay crashed.

"It was a great, long pencil-like flame perhaps 20 m (65 ft) long, towards the floor at a dreadful speed" he said.

Other witnesses reported, succeeding cries to hear and see, smoke and flame from the balloon before it hit the ground.

Rusbatch, said five couples out in the wider Wellington region, as well as the pilot on board were. Two victims had or fallen from the burning balloon, shortly before it crashed, said he jumped.

The names of the victims are police, who have sealed off from the crash site, not released until next of kin have been informed.

Local resident Sean Barnes said the pilot hopping, became known in the media as Lance.

"Everybody knew him, he brought a lot of people in the community to the top in the balloon the" Barnes of told of Reuters.

The accident was worst air disaster since an Antarctic New Zealand Erebus tourist flight crashed in Mt. in 1979, killing all 257 people on board.

"It's a very sad time for all the balloonist," said Martyn Stacey, President of the balloon Aviation Association of New Zealand.

"Total aviation-wise, ballooning is one of the safest forms of flying."

Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee, said that rules for commercial ballooning in New Zealand recently had examined.

"Experts find no lessons from the inquiries are improving safety for others in the future can help..." Brownlee said in a statement. (Writing by Lincoln firmly in Wellington;) Additional reporting by prophesy Kusjanto; (Editing from Andrew sky)

Read More

12:44 AM | 0 comments

Suicide bomber kills 7 outside Iraq Ministry

By Kareem Raheem


Baghdad (Reuters) - at least seven people were killed when a suicide bomber Iraqi Interior Ministry hit as a car Monday in the latest attack, crisis between the Shi Shi'ite-led Government and Sunni leaders broke out a week ago.

Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sought the arrest of the Sunni Vice President on Monday and the Parliament on fire called back his own Sunni deputies, triggering turbulence that threatened immediately retreated new religious conflicts after the last US troops.

The explosion occurred as the bomber his vehicle in a security cordon outside the Ministry in central Baghdad drove, detonating an explosion, the links of dead and wounded on the ground and set on fire near remote vehicles, police said.

A senior police source said authorities believed that insurgent charged the Ministry of the Interior due to the announcement of the arrest warrant for Sunni Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi, with running death squads were alignment.

Taped confessions from suspected that said Ministry Hashemi were the bodyguard were on Monday in the State Iraqiya television and other broadcast local media and Vice President in connection with murders and attacks on the Iraqi Government and security officials.

"This is a direct message to us, because we are arrested those, Tareq al-Hashemi network and we are the ones who should maintain security in the country", said Ali al-Quraishi, a Police Lieutenant, the checkpoints to Baghdad monitored.

The attack in the al-Sharji Street Bab followed a wave of explosions on Thursday, including a suicide car bomb and several bombs on the side of the road, first and foremost Shi Shi'ite areas in the capital, in the at least 72 people came.

Seven people, including five policemen were killed and 34 others, including seven police officers wounded in the attack on the Ministry of the Interior, police and hospital said.

"When I outside went I found colleagues, some of them were killed, others were on the ground, many cars were burned, the policeman on the Tower looked like he was killed when he was hit in the head" Zaid Raheem, police guard, said.

The Ministry said in a statement that a car suicide bombers attacked the entrance to the headquarters and 3 people killed and 33 wounded.

Hashemi left Baghdad for semi-autonomous region Kurdistan, where it is unlikely that Central immediately passed Government officials.

The turmoil threatens an uneasy power-sharing Government life, the Shi Shi'ite shares the contributions of National Alliance coalition, the mostly Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc and the Kurdish political movement.

KABINETTSSITZUNG

One expected of the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, as the crisis developed, and tensions could rise further, when Ministers from Iraqiya Government decide to boycott the meeting is a key test of.
Their involvement in the Parliament, Iraqiya legislators have already being set in recess, if a statement from the Party on Sunday, that it said ready to participate in talks to try to solve the crisis.

Maliki has warned Hashemi Iraqiya bloc, that they exclude the power suspended when they walk out on his governing coalition.

The Sunni minority felt the Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein have plunged excluded since the rise of the Shi Shi'ite after the US-led invasion in 2003, majority, and many Sunni Muslims feel that the political deal has pushed them aside.

Turbulence in the Iraq would have, however, more extensive follow in a region where a crisis in neighbouring Syria takes on a more sectarian sound and Shi Shi'ite Iran, Turkey, and Sunni Arab Gulf countries are jockeying for influence.

US officials, diplomats and Iraqi politicians were to stop, threatening to reduce Iraq in the kind of sectarian violence, which took a few years ago the OPEC member to the brink of civil war in the talks to the dispute.

Vice President Joe Biden spoke Sunday with Maliki and Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government President Masud Barzani of the spat, press to start dialogue with the heads of State and Government and condolences about violence in Baghdad.

Biden played a diplomatic role while the US military travel departure from the Iraq in the country and discuss signs of rising sectarian tension with Iraqi leaders.

US troops went completely out the Iraq after almost nine years on the 18.
(Additional reporting by Suadad al-Salhy and Ahmed Rasheed;) Writing by Serena Chaudhry. (Editing by Tim Pearce)

Read More

9:30 AM | 0 comments

Outcry after China road accident kills 18 children

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

BEIJING | Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:00am EST

BEIJING Nov 16 (Reuters) - Eighteen nursery school children were killed when a coal truck slammed into their "drastically" overcrowded school van in northwest China on Thursday, local media reported, prompting an outcry about the country's deadly roads.

The collision on a rural road in Zhengning County, Gansu province, also killed the driver of the van and a teacher onboard, the Xinhua news agency said.

Another 44 people were hurt -- 10 of them seriously -- in the accident, one of the worst on China's roads for some time.

An initial investigation showed the van was "drastically overloaded", carrying 64 people instead of the nine passengers permitted, said Chinese state radio news.

Pictures on Chinese news websites showed the crumpled wreckage of the yellow van that was struck by the much larger coal truck on the way to the nursery.

Investigators were examining the cause, said news reports which left unclear whether the truck or van driver might be to blame.

Officials hurried to the scene to offer support and promised a crackdown on road hazards. But a flood of messages on Chinese web sites echoed with outrage about lax safety enforcement.

"The nursery school can't shirk responsibility for such serious overcrowding," said one comment on Sina's "Weibo" microblogging site.

Another said: "Why don't we protect children in the same way we protect our leaders?"

Chinese authorities have tried to crack down on dangerous driving but breakneck economic growth, and rapid expansion in the number of roads and drivers, creates many menaces, especially on poorly policed rural roads.

In 2010, Chinese police officially recorded 219,521 traffic accidents that led to deaths or injuries, including 65,225 fatalities, a fall of 3.7 percent on the previous year.

In a study published by the World Health Organisation in 2010, however, experts found that such official data seriously undercounted the number of road deaths in China, which they estimated to be almost twice the number reported by police. (Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Paul Tait)

Read More

8:27 PM | 0 comments