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Showing posts from November 20, 2011

Afghan Hindus, Sikhs Seek To Reclaim Their 'House Of Love'

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S hankar Lal, at age 63, wants to reclaim his native "House of Love" after living in exile in India for 20 years. The Hindu patriarch is from Prem Nagar, Hindi for House of Love, a once-prosperous Hindu village in southeastern Afghanistan that over the years has been absorbed by the neighboring city of Khost. For the past two weeks Lal and other leaders from Khost's once-vibrant Hindu and Sikh communities have been petitioning provincial authorities to force local strongmen from properties they vacated amid the civil war in the early 1990s. Support promised by local officials and tribal elders has Lal looking forward to a day when his grandchildren can return to Khost. "I want them to relive my childhood in our hometown," he says. From afar, Lal and others from the community have kept close watch on developments in their home country. "Whenever we heard some good news about Afghanistan, we would celebrate it like a festival," Lal says. "If we hea

Blast follows Kenyan air raid in Somalia

Two grenade attacks in the eastern Kenyan town of Garissa, close to the border to Somalia, have killed three people and injured 27, police said. One explosion on Thursday in the local Holiday Inn killed two people while another on a street killed a third, a local police officer who asked not to be named told AFP, adding that 12 of the injured were in a serious condition. "Two people died at the new Holiday Inn hotel known as Kwa Chege. Another died at a Ngamia road blast," the police officer said. "Twenty-seven people were injured in total, 12 of them seriously and 15 sustaining minor injuries." Asked what caused the blasts he said: "These were grenades", adding that most of the wounded suffered shrapnel injuries. Another police source said however that only two people were killed. Local resident Hussein Abdi, contacted by AFP news agency by telephone, described scenes of panic in the centre of the town where the blasts occurred, with people t

Nepal: Christians Attacked As Constitutional Deadline Nears

Written by:  Compass Direct News Two years after an explosion shook one of the biggest Catholic churches in Nepal and killed three people, the underground group that orchestrated the attack claimed responsibility for another bomb blast this week. A crude bomb went off Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 22) in front of a leading Christian charitable organization’s office in this capital city, sowing fresh fear and insecurity among Christians ahead of a critical constitutional deadline. On the same day in the northeastern district of Sindhupalchowk, local residents of the predominantly Buddhist village of Danchhe assaulted two brothers for leading worship services at their home, leaving one unconscious. Police said they were investigating the explosion in front of the office of the United Mission to Nepal (UMN). While the crude bomb claimed no casualties or damage to the UMN office, it shocked area Christians. The UMN, a Christian international non-governmental organization founded in 1954 b

Yemen opposition names candidate to government

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    Anti-government protesters shout slogans during a rally to demand the trial of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa Friday. Photograph by:  Khaled Abdullah, REUTERS SANAA — Yemen's opposition parties have nominated the head of their coalition to lead the first government after veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to quit in 90 days, a spokesman said Saturday. Mohammed Basindawa, a former member of Saleh's ruling party, was chosen late Friday to head a national unity government, Mohammed Qahtan, the spokesman of the opposition Common Forum told AFP. "His name will be presented today (Saturday) to Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi" who is now the executive president according to the Gulf-brokered deal signed Wednesday, he said. Saleh signed the exit agreement in Riyadh after months of dodging domestic and international pressure to step down after 33 years in office. According to the Gulf- and UN-sponsored

Disarmament process begun by Gorbachev yet to be completed

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Time for young people to 'take the relay from the previous generation and move forward' to eliminate nuclear weapons   Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev greets activist Craig Kielburger in Vancouver's Rogers Arena on We Day. Photograph by:  Ian Smith, PNG, Special To The Sun In one heavy nuclear missile there is the power of 'In one hundred Chernobyl nuclear explosions, and even more." That frightening piece of information was shared with us recently by Mikhail Gorbachev. He had just finished addressing 17,000 young people at Vancouver's We Day. It was a rare opportunity to speak with the former leader of the Soviet Union, who once commanded the world's largest nuclear arsenal. It's likely that few of the youth in the Rogers Arena that day knew who he was. Gorbachev is not so widely praised as other statesmen of his era, such as Nelson Mandela, yet his effect is as enduring as the end of apartheid. Gorbachev has had to

Alberta mother killed in apartment explosion

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Disabled woman’s death being treated as homicide   More Images »   RCMP investigate an explosion that killed a 23-year-old woman in a townhouse in Innisfail on Friday, November 25, 2011. Photograph by:  Christina Ryan, Calgary Herald INNISFAIL — The mysterious death of a 23-year-old mother in a wheelchair has residents of Innisfail baffled and police asking people to be aware of any unexplained packages sent to their homes. The woman’s death is being treated as a homicide by RCMP, who are investigating if a package sent to her fourplex apartment suddenly exploded. Police say at 9 a.m. Friday, she and her caregiver were in the 51st Avenue apartment and the blast was contained inside the unit. It killed the 23-year-old, who was not known to police. Police have not released the woman’s name, but friends identified her as Vicky Shachtay, the mother of a six-year-old daughter. She’s been in a wheelchair for a few years after a car crash. “She was alwa

Past grounds Kovai bomb blast convict at airport

CHENNAI: A former convict in the Coimbatore bomb blast case was arrested at the Chennai airport on Thursday, reportedly for not disclosing the details of his conviction in the passport application. Police said that immigration officials caught the man when they discovered that a Look Out Circular (LOC) was pending against him. Khalil Rahman (37), son of Abdul Hameed of Coimbatore, was caught during the immigration check just as he was about to board a flight to China early on Thursday, to place orders for mobile phones for his shop at Gandhipuram in Coimbatore. He was remanded to judicial custody later. Sources said that when the officials inquired further, they found that the man was convicted in the Coimbatore bomb blasts case and did not reveal his conviction details while applying for his passport after he was released from prison in 2006.“After he was convicted, imprisoned and released, the LOC should have been released, but it was kept pending. It was this that made the of

Multiple Baghdad blasts kill at least 13 people

(Reuters) - Three bombs exploded in a commercial Baghdad district and another blast hit the city's western outskirts on Saturday, killing at least 13 people, police and hospital sources said. The first blast hit Baghdad's central Bab al-Sharji district followed by two other explosions in a street nearby, in attacks highlighting the fact that violence is still troubling Iraq as the last U.S. troops prepare to withdraw at the end of the year. A police source said the explosions killed at least seven people and wounded 29 others. Two other security sources said the blasts killed eight and wounded at least 13. Earlier Saturday, six more people were killed and eight were wounded on the outskirts of Baghdad when a roadside bomb hit a truck carrying construction workers in Abu Ghraib to the west of the capital. Attacks in Iraq have dropped sharply since the peak of sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, but bombings, assaults and assassinations by Sunni Muslim insurgents and Shi

Srilanka does not need External guidance to achieve reconcilation

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34 As a sovereign nation with a rich culture and a proud heritage, Sri Lanka does not need external guidance to achieve reconciliation. This will be achieved through an organic, local effort consistent with our culture and our values, and not based on external ideal others try to impose on us, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said. It is not for outsiders to impose their values or their judgments on Sri Lanka. It is the same Sri Lankans who suffered from the ravages of LTTE terrorism for thirty years and who are now reaping the rewards of peace that will find solutions to our national issues-not outsiders, Secretary Rajapaksa said delivering the keynote address at the inaugural National Conference on Reconciliation at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies yesterday. "Sri Lanka today is a nation striving to achieve prosperity on the foundation of peace resulting from the defeat of terrorism. Reconciliation is an ess