0 The News Tribe

Japan heads to polls as change expected
Gunman used rifle to fire multiple shots at kids
Tensions as Egypt referendum drags on
TTP claims responsibility of Peshawar attack
Samjhauta Express case: Indian authorities arrest key suspect
India provide evidence, we‘ll arrest Hafiz Saeed: Rehman Malik
Four killed in suicide attack on Pakistan airport: officials
Several thousand Portuguese protest austerity cuts
Marseille squeeze past nine-man Toulouse
Four dead in attack on Pakistan airport: officials


Japan heads to polls as change expected

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 03:24 PM PST


Tokyo: Voters in Japan went to the polls on Sunday in an election likely to return long-ruling conservatives to power after three years in the wilderness.

Polling stations opened at 7:00 am (2200 GMT Saturday) across the nation in a lower house election, officials said, with major parties vying for premiership.

Broadcasters’ exit polls are expected to give a reasonable indication of the final outcome shortly after the ballot boxes are sealed at 8:00 pm.

The government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was predicted to get a drubbing from an electorate that observers said would be handing the reins reluctantly to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Hawkish one-time PM Shinzo Abe appeared set for a return to office, after a campaign in which he has sketched out a harder line on foreign policy, as tensions rise with China over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Abe, whose brief stint as premier in 2006-7 ended ignominiously, has pledged to right Japan’s listless economy, which has suffered years of deflation, made worse by a soaring currency that has squeezed exporters.

“With stronger monetary policies, fiscal policies and growth policies, we will end deflation, correct a high yen, and grow the economy,” Abe said in a Saturday stump speech.

He has also pledged to boost spending on infrastructure projects at a time when large parts of the tsunami-ravaged northeast have yet to see significant rebuilding following the March 2011 catastrophe.




Japan’s major political parties and their leaders
© AFP

The collapse of an ageing highway tunnel that claimed nine lives earlier this month lent credence to his calls, which have been criticised by opponents as a return to the LDP’s “construction state” of the last century.

Public unease about a deteriorating security environment — North Korea lobbed a rocket over Japan’s southern islands last week and China sent a plane into Japanese airspace — has bolstered Abe’s cause.

He has promised to boost defences and re-anchor a security alliance with the United States that is widely thought to have drifted under Noda’s Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

The DPJ disappointed electors who handed it a hefty majority in 2009 polls. Policy missteps, diplomatic gaffes and vicious factional infighting saw it burn through three premiers in as many years and squander its electoral hand.

A plodding and sometimes confused response to the disaster at Fukushima where nuclear reactors went into meltdown after the tsunami last year did it no favours either.

Opinion polls show that despite a strong anti-nuclear feeling in Japan, an array of smaller parties promising an atomic exit may struggle to get much traction.

But commentators say there is little enthusiasm for any party, and the LDP’s likely victory will come from their perceived status as the least-worst option.




Gunman used rifle to fire multiple shots at kids

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 03:16 PM PST


Connecticut: The US school gunman used an assault rifle to pump his mostly six- and seven-year old victims with multiple bullets, authorities said Saturday, as details of the horrific spree became clearer.

Previously it had been reported that Adam Lanza, 20, used two law enforcement style handguns to murder the 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

But, as detectives continued to go over the blood-soaked school in the quiet town, authorities for the first time revealed that the principal weapon was a Bushmaster .233 rifle, which is designed for shooting people in military assaults.

“All of the wounds I know of at this point were caused by the long weapon,” Connecticut’s chief medical examiner, H. Wayne Carver told a news conference, referring to the semi-automatic, military grade rifle.

He also said that the majority of victims were “first graders wearing cute kids’ stuff” and that all seven of the bodies he personally examined had been hit between three and 11 times.




A mother hugs her children in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 15, 2012
© AFP

Carver indicated that the rifle is a killing machine firing “bullets (that) are designed in such a fashion that the energy is deposited in the tissue, so the bullet stays in.”

Connecticut State Police, meanwhile, released the ages of the victims, who included 16 six-year-olds and four seven-year-olds.

Twelve of the 20 slain children were girls and eight were boys.

The six adults killed were all women, including the school principal and the school psychologist, who at 56 was the eldest victim.

The information went a long way to filling in gaps in the picture of what happened in the massacre early Friday, just after classes started, and reaffirmed how well prepared Lanza was.

The motives of the shooter were the biggest mystery. Carver said that on Sunday he would conduct a post-mortem on Lanza and on his mother, who was shot in her home apparently just before Lanza went to the school.




Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver talks to the media on December 15, 2012
© Getty Images/AFP

Connecticut State Police spokesman Lieutenant Paul Vance said detectives had begun to “peel back the onion.”

Asked whether any suicide note, emails or other clues to the killer’s mind had been found, he said the crime scene “did produce some very — very good evidence in our investigation.”

“Investigators will be able to use (this) in hopefully painting the complete picture as to how and more importantly why this occurred,” he told a news conference.

Vance said the crime scene investigation could go on for 24 to 48 hours.

Bodies were removed from the blood-soaked school overnight Saturday and relatives were privately given formal identification of the dead.

The small town was still struggling to come to grips with the sudden and overwhelming horror.




Police block a road near the house of Nancy Lanza, mother of Adam Lanza, on December 15, 2012
© AFP

Although he was remembered as a shy, awkward and nerdy boy, Lanza had not apparently given any warning sign that he was a mass murderer.

The weapons, news reports said, were registered in his mother’s name, but she was widely seen as an unremarkable and upstanding resident in the town.

It appeared that after gunning down his mother, Lanza, who was wearing black clothes, went to the school and concentrated his fire on just two rooms.

A new security system had recently been installed, but Vance said the shooter forced his way in to the school.

Police then entered from several points, breaking “many windows” as they frantically tried to get survivors out and to locate the gunman.

Mary Ann Jacob, who works in the school library, told reporters Saturday that she had sheltered 18 children during the mayhem.

“We were locked in our room,” she said. “It was hard to keep them quiet. We told them it was a joke. I think they didn’t really know what was going on.”

The tragedy drew messages of support from around the world.




A US flag flies at half-staff above the US Capitol on December 15, 2012
© AFP

At a vigil late Friday, a Roman Catholic priest read out of a message from Pope Benedict XVI, conveying “his heartfelt grief and the assurance of his closeness in prayer to the victims and their families.”

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II sent a message to US President Barack Obama in which she said she was “deeply shocked and saddened” and French President Francois Hollande expressed his condolences, saying the news “horrified me.”

Obama, wiping away tears and struggling to maintain his composure, said Friday he was aghast over the tragedy.

Of all US campus shootings, the toll was second only to the 32 murders in the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech university.

The latest number far exceeded the 15 killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which triggered a fierce but inconclusive debate about the United States’ relaxed gun control laws.

However, the White House on Friday scotched any suggestion that the politically explosive subject would be quickly reopened.




Tensions as Egypt referendum drags on

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 03:02 PM PST


Cairo: Tensions were rising late Saturday over a divisive new constitution being put to Egyptian voters in the first round of a referendum pushed through by President Mohamed Morsi despite weeks of opposition protests.

The opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, accused Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood of “vote rigging” but stopped short of calling a boycott.

Instead it appealed to Egypt’s 51 million voters to reject the referendum, in which voting was extended by four hours to 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) because of long lines late into the night.

The opposition’s allegation added to the highly charged atmosphere around the vote, which was preceded by three weeks of anti-Morsi protests and clashes in Cairo last week that killed eight people and injured hundreds.




Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi casts his vote in Cairo on December 15, 2012
© AFP

Late Saturday, riot police fired tear gas to disperse dozens of hardline Islamists who attacked the central Cairo headquarters of the opposition liberal Wafd Party with fireworks and stones, officers at the scene told AFP.

On the eve of the referendum, clashes between stone-throwing and sword wielding Islamists and opposition supporters erupted in the second-biggest city of Alexandria, injuring 23 people according to the official MENA news agency.

To ensure security, 120,000 troops were reinforcing 130,000 police.

Voting was being staggered, with half the country voting on Saturday and the other half a week later because many judges were not willing to oversee polling.

Official results will be announced after the second round, an official told AFP. But informal results from the first round were expected to trickle out hours after polls closed on Saturday and tallying began.

Morsi looked calm and confident as he cast his ballot at a polling station near the presidential palace in Cairo early Saturday, state television showed. He made no comment to the media.

The Muslim Brotherhood has thrown its formidable organisational machine behind a campaign in favour of the draft constitution.

The proposed charter “offers rights and stability,” said one Cairo voter backing it, Kassem Abdallah.

It will help “the country return to normal,” agreed another, Ibrahim Mahmoud, a teacher.

But many opposition voters were especially hostile toward the Brotherhood, which the Front believes wants to usher in strict sharia-style (Islamic) laws.

“I’m voting because I hate the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s very simple. They are liars,” said one voter, Abbas Abdelaziz, a 57-year-old accountant.




Egyptian men queue outside a polling station in Cairo on December 15, 2012
© AFP

Omar Abdel Kader, a 60-year-old teacher, said he was voting “no” because the text “does not represent all Egyptians”.

Sally Rafid, a 28-year-old Christian, said: “There are many things in the constitution people don’t agree on, and it’s not just the articles on religion. I’m voting against it.”

International watchdogs, the UN human rights chief, the United States and the European Union have expressed reservations about the draft because of loopholes that could be used to weaken human rights, including those of women, and the independence of the judiciary.

Analysts said it was likely — but not certain — the draft constitution would be adopted.

Whatever the outcome, “lasting damage to the civility of Egyptian politics will be the main outcome of the current path Morsi has set Egypt on,” one analyst, Issandr El Amrani, wrote for his think-tank, the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“If the ‘no’ vote wins, the Morsi presidency will have been fully discredited and the pressure for his resignation will only increase,” he said. “If ‘yes’ wins, the protest movement is unlikely to die down, (and) may radicalise.”




TTP claims responsibility of Peshawar attack

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 02:13 PM PST


Peshawar: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for attack on Peshawar airport on Saturday, Geo news reported.

TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told 'Geo News' anchor Saleem Safi by telephone from an undisclosed location that they sent 10 attackers to target air force base in the airport.

Earlier on Saturday eve at least five rockets were fired at the airport, two of which were landed in near residential area. After that chaos was widely spread in the area.

Airport security force and army soldiers shot down five attackers who were trying to enter in the airport with a van loaded with explosives right after first suicide blast with the boundary wall.

Security forces recovered 11 hand-grenades and several Kalashnikovs from terrorists.

At least five people died and dozens were injured during the attack. Dead bodies and injured were shifted to local hospital by rescue teams.

Later Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt telephoned Prime Minister (PM) Raja Pervez Ashraf and briefed him about the attack.

PM House spokesman said that PM was monitoring the situation and was in contact with high-level officials.




Samjhauta Express case: Indian authorities arrest key suspect

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 01:19 PM PST


Karachi: Indian authorities claimed on Saturday to arrest a key suspect of Samjhauta Express blast case from Madhya Pardesh, Indian media reported.

"According to authorities Rajesh Chaudhary was suspected to have planted bombs in a Pakistan-bound train. There was also head-money of Rs 500,000 on him," media added.

The incident was occurred in 2007 resulting nearly 70 dead and 100 injured and most of them were Pakistanis. At the time of attack the train was heading towards Lahore from New Delhi.

Pakistan has long been demanding India to arrest culprits behind the tragedy.




India provide evidence, we‘ll arrest Hafiz Saeed: Rehman Malik

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 12:40 PM PST


New Delhi: Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Saturday that if India provided solid evidence he would take action against Hafiz Saeed.

After meeting with Indian prime minister Man Mohan Singh, Malik was addressing an event. He said that if India provided him evidence about involvement of Hafiz in Mumbai-attacks today he would arrest him tomorrow.

Malik also said that India approved permission to Pakistan judicial commission to interrogate witnesses of the attack. The commission will soon reach India, Malik added.

Malik further said that we showed no negligence from our side in that case.

Some elements in both countries are propagating extremism on the name of religion to disturb peace process. We both must stop their way, said Malik.

"We discussed matters of mutual interest in the meeting including visa accord which will strengthen our relationship. Singh assured his visit to Pakistan in future," he said.

At the occasion Malik stressed to forget the past and move forward.




Four killed in suicide attack on Pakistan airport: officials

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 11:40 AM PST


Peshawar: A suicide car bomber and militants armed with rockets and explosives targeted an international airport in Pakistan late Saturday, killing four people, wounding dozens more and forcing the airport to close, officials said.

The unprecedented attack on the airport in the northwestern city of Peshawar, a commercial hub and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) base, sparked a prolonged volley of gunfire as army officials launched a search operation, witnesses said.

Pakistani television footage showed a vehicle with a smashed windscreen, another damaged car, bushes on fire and what appeared to be a large breach in a wall.

The PAF said that four terrorists have also been killed and one injured. “Four suicide jackets have been defused… Joint Operation consisting of all security agencies is in progress to clear the area,” it said in a written statement.

Peshawar is the main gateway to Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, where the Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked groups have strongholds.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Pakistani Taliban and other Islamist militia have claimed they were responsible for past attacks on military air bases and routinely carry out attacks in Peshawar.




Pakistani security personnel gather near the airport in Peshawar on December 15, 2012
© AFP

“Four attackers were involved. One of the attackers was wearing a suicide vest and was driving a car. He rammed his car in the outer wall of the airport (compound),” said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for the northwestern province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“Another attacker wearing a suicide vest blew himself up prematurely, killing three of them (the attackers),” he added.

“Rocket launchers were also fired. The attackers failed to reach the target. The dead bodies of the four terrorists are in police custody. Both Peshawar airport and the attached air base are safe,” he said.

Administrative official Javed Khan Marwat confirmed that rockets were used in the attack.

“Two of them landed inside the airport. A third hit the outer wall of the airport and a nearby vehicle, which killed two people inside the vehicle. Two others landed on a residential area, and dozens of people were wounded,” he said.

He told state television PTV that “three terrorists and one suicide bomber” were killed in the assault, without providing further details.

Farhad Khan, a spokesman for Khyber Teaching Hospital near the airport, said four people died and that 50 wounded people had been brought in after the attack.

Doctor Umar Ayub confirmed the death toll.




A Pakistani policeman speaks to an injured man at a hospital in Peshawar on December 15, 2012
© AFP

Pervez George, spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority, confirmed that the airport had been closed, but said there had been no damage to the airport building or terminals.

“All Pakistani airports at this time are on red alert,” he told Pakistani television.

“All flights to Peshawar have been diverted to Islamabad and (the eastern city of) Lahore,” he added.

Pakistani Islamist militants have carried out previous attacks on military air bases in the nuclear-armed country.

In August, 11 people were killed when heavily armed militants dressed in fatigues and wearing suicide vests stormed an air force base in the northwestern town of Kamra.

In May 2011, it took 17 hours to quell an attack on an air base in Karachi claimed by the Taliban, piling embarrassment on the armed forces just three weeks after US troops killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

Pakistan says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States and that its forces have for years been fighting homegrown militants in the northwest.




Several thousand Portuguese protest austerity cuts

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 11:28 AM PST


Lisbon: Several thousand people took to the streets of Lisbon on Saturday to protest austerity measures demanded by international lenders in the debt-ridden country.

The march, called by the main CGTP union, ended outside the presidential palace, where protesters called on conservative President Anibal Cavaco Silva not to approve next year’s budget.

Portugal, which obtained a 78-billion-euro ($102-billion) bailout from the European Union and IMF in May 2011, is applying radical measures to raise taxes, cut spending and reform its economy so as to revive confidence on financial markets and to fund itself normally on the sovereign debt market next year.

The centre-right coalition government has pledged to reduce the public deficit to 4.5 percent of GDP under the unprecedented austerity budget adopted in late November calling for steep tax hikes.

“We demand that the president listen to the people and refuse this budget,” said CGTP chief Armenio Carlos, carrying a large banner reading “This Budget Is Theft”.

Unemployment has soared to nearly 16 percent overall in recent months, and the rate is more than double, at 39 percent, among young people.




Marseille squeeze past nine-man Toulouse

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 11:19 AM PST


Paris: Andre-Pierre Gignac’s first goal since his return from injury guided Marseille to a 1-0 win over nine-man Toulouse, as Elie Baup’s side pulled level with Ligue 1 leaders Lyon on Saturday.

Gignac struck the game’s only goal on 68 minutes after the hosts had Cheikh M’Bengue and Franck Tabanou dismissed during the first half at Stade Municipal.

Victory for Marseille moved them onto 35 points, trailing Lyon only on goal difference, with the table-toppers in action against title-rivals Paris Saint-Germain in the French capital on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Toulouse were dealt a sixth defeat in eight as their poor run of form has seen them plummet to 12th in the standings.

M’Bengue received a harsh straight red card for a lunge on Morgan Amalfitano on 25 minutes, while Toulouse goalkeeper Ali Ahamada saved a first-half penalty from Andre Ayew after Tabanou had impeded Jordan Ayew.

The home side were then reduced to nine men as Tabanou was sent off for a rash challenge from behind on Andre Ayew on the stroke of half-time, as Ahamada produced a couple of excellent saves from Joey Barton and Lucas Mendes to keep it goalless at the interval.

Ahamada added second-half substitute Gignac to the list of players he had foiled after the striker’s shot took a deflection off Aymen Abdennour, but the former Toulouse man finally broke the deadlock on 68 minutes.

Gignac, who made a late cameo appearance in Wednesday’s 2-1 win at Bastia after two months out with a foot fracture, cut in from the left and sent a superb curling effort into the top corner that finally broke Ahamada’s impressive resistence.

Marseille keeper Steve Mandanda then made an acrobatic save to keep out Jonathan Zebina’s close-range header, as Ahamada kept the home side in the game by twice preventing Loic Remy from increasing the visitors’ lead.

Emmanuel Riviere was presented with a chance to salvage a point for Toulouse deep into stoppage-time, but Mandanda clawed away his near-post attempt to preserve Marseille’s slender advantage.




Four dead in attack on Pakistan airport: officials

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 11:14 AM PST


Peshawar: Militants fired rockets into the airport of Pakistan’s northwestern city Peshawar late on Saturday, killing four people, wounding dozens more and forcing the airport to close, officials said.

Volleys of gunfire erupted around the airport, attached to a Pakistan Air Force base, after the initial attack and the military sealed off the area to launch a search operation, witnesses and civilian officials said.

Pakistani television footage showed a vehicle with a smashed windscreen, another damaged car, bushes on fire and what appeared to be a large breach in a wall.

Peshawar is the main gateway to Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, where the Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked groups have strongholds.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Pakistani Taliban and other Islamist militia have claimed responsibility for past attacks on military air bases and routinely carry out attacks in Peshawar.

“Three rockets were fired. Two landed inside Peshawar airport and another hit a vehicle (outside),” Imran Shahid, a senior police official, told AFP.

It was not clear where in the airport the rockets landed and the extent of the damage.

Medical officials said four people were killed and more than 50 wounded.

Farhad Khan, a spokesman for Khyber Teaching Hospital near the airport, said four people died and that 50 wounded people had been brought in after the attack.

Doctor Umar Ayub confirmed the death toll.

Pervez George, spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority, confirmed that the airport had been closed and flights cancelled, but said there had been no damage to the airport building or terminals.

“If needed, we will divert incoming flights to Islamabad and (the eastern city of) Lahore,” he told AFP

“The airport is closed and the lights have been turned off,” he added.

Pakistani Islamist militants have carried out previous attacks on military air bases in the nuclear-armed country.

In August, 11 people were killed when heavily armed militants dressed in fatigues and wearing suicide vests stormed an air force base in the northwestern town of Kamra.

In May 2011, it took 17 hours to quell an attack on an air base in Karachi claimed by the Taliban, piling embarrassment on the armed forces just three weeks after US troops killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

Pakistan says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States and that its forces have for years been fighting homegrown militants in the northwest.