Indonesia tsunami deaths top 400

At least 408 people have been confirmed dead after a tsunami triggered by a powerful earthquake hit Indonesia's western Mentawai Islands earlier this week, but officials say the death toll could be much higher.

Harmensyah, the head of the West Sumatra provincial disaster management centre, said on Friday that rescue teams "believe many, many of the bodies were swept to sea".

Bodies have also been found buried on beaches and even stuck in trees across the islands.

More than 400 people are believed to be still missing after three-metre high waves battered the small group of islands, about 280km to the northwest of Sumatra, on Monday.

"Of those missing people, we think two-thirds of them are probably dead, either swept out to sea or buried in the sand," Ade Edward, a local disaster management official, said on Thursday.

"When we flew over the area ... we saw many bodies. Heads and legs were sticking out of the sand, some of them were in the trees. If we add another 200 to the toll it would be at least 543 dead.

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Pakistan flood food running out, warns UN

Water-borne diseases are putting millions of children displaced by the floods at risk

The United Nations has warned its supply of emergency food aid for victims of Pakistan's summer floods will run out by the start of December.

UN humanitarian co-ordinator Martin Mogwanja said up to six million people relied on the aid every month.

With winter on the way, seven million people still do not have adequate shelter or quilts, blankets and warm clothing, he told the BBC.

The monsoon floods affected 20 million people and one fifth of the country.

At least 1,500 people died in the deluge.

Appealing for further donations from the international community, Mr Mogwanja said malnutrition was also increasing as food stocks dwindled.

And winter would bring fresh misery for the homeless, he said.

Those most in need of shelter are said to be........

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World's big enough for India and China, says Chinese PM

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (right) is expected to visit India in December

Chinese PM Wen Jiabao has told his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, that there is "enough space" in the world for both countries to develop.

His comments came during a meeting on the sidelines of a regional meeting in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. Mr Wen said he would visit India this year.

China is India's largest trading partner; two-way trade volumes surpassed $50bn (£31bn) in 2008.

The two nations fought a brief border war in 1962, but ties have improved.

Tensions remain, however, between the rising regional powers over their shared 3,500-km (2,170-mile) border, decades on from the conflict, which China won.

Another bone of contention is the presence in India of exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama.

Beijing and Delhi have had a "strategic and co-operative partnership" since 2005.

"There is enough space in the world for.......

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Southern groups accused of vandalism

vandalism

	Former parliamentarian M. K Sivagilingaum.

Travellers from the South are creating problems for residents in Jaffna said former parliamentarian M. K Sivagilingaum.

He said that the local government administration and the library staff are to meet on Friday to discuss a incident that took place last Saturday.

“A group of people from the South who were denied access to the library as a seminar of medical staff was in progress made their way after arguing with the library staff caused damaged to books and reading material” said Sivagilingam.

Army Spokesman Major General Ubaya madewala said he was not aware of such incident.

Sivagilingam said that groups from the South were......


Read more : http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2010/10/101028_jaffnavandal.shtml

Al Qaeda cell leader killed in Afghan north: NATO

(Reuters) - An al Qaeda cell leader who may have been training suicide bombers was among two insurgents killed in an air strike in northern Afghanistan at the weekend, NATO-led forces said on Monday.

While the Osama bin Laden-led movement is widely believed to be funding and training the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, the capture or killing of senior al Qaeda figures is relatively uncommon.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said a Abu Baqir, a Taliban sub-commander and al Qaeda group leader, was killed when an alliance aircraft fired on a truck in northern Kunduz province.

ISAF said the air strike was called in after insurgents attacked a police station in Aliabad district.

"The air weapons team tracked the insurgents from the police station and, when they determined no civilians were in the area, they engaged the truck," ISAF said in a statement.

"The air weapons team killed two insurgents including Baqir, who was reportedly housing four potential suicide bombers for upcoming attacks on the city of Kunduz," it said.

When contacted, ISAF in Kabul had no more details immediately available.

Once a relatively peaceful area, Kunduz has been slowly drawn into the insurgency in recent months as the Taliban spread out of their traditional strongholds in Kandahar and Helmand provinces in the south.

Last October, White House national security adviser James Jones estimated there were fewer than 100 al Qaeda militants operating in Afghanistan. He said the question of Afghanistan once again becoming a haven for al Qaeda was "a hypothetical."

Apart from training and funding the Taliban in Afghanistan, al Qaeda is also closely linked to the Haqqani network, operating mainly in the east of the country.

The Haqqani network has staged several high-profile attacks, including a failed assassination attempt against Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2008. It also has close links with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.

Source - Reuters

Bolivia 's answer to UN summit

Environmentalists, indigenous leaders and celebrities are gathering in Bolivia this week for a self-styled People's Climate Change Summit. It is being billed as an alternative to the United Nations meeting last December in Copenhagen. Evo Morales, Bolivia's president, says he wants to highlight issues largely ignored by delegates in Copenhagen. Al Jazeera's Craig Mauro reports on the expectations for the conference being held in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba.

Source: Al Jazeera

Australia races to stabilise ship

Officials say the Shen Neng 1 was going full speed in a restricted zone 'totally off limits' to shipping [EPA] Australian authorities are battling to stabilise a stranded Chinese coal carrier which is threatening to break up on the Great Barrier Reef and spill more oil into the pristine waters of the World Heritage site. The Shen Neng 1 ran aground on Saturday when it hit a shoal off the eastern state of Queensland at full speed, rupturing a fuel tank and causing a 3km-long slick. "One of the most worrying aspects is that the ship is still moving on the reef to the action of the seas, which is doing further damage," Patrick Quirk, the general manager of Marine Safety Queensland, said. Salvage experts boarded the Chinese-registered 230-metre bulk carrier, which is loaded with 65,000 tonnes of coal and about 975 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, on Monday. Quirk said the initial report was that the ship's main engine room had been breached, the major engine damaged and the rudder seriously impacted. One tug boat was already at the scene to stabilise the vessel and another was to arrive later on Monday, while aircraft are being used to monitor the spill in waters teeming with marine life. Delicate operation Anna Bligh, the premier of Queensland state, said salvage crews were assessing how they might refloat the carrier stranded some 70km east of the Great Keppel resort island, but warned that the operation could take weeks. The bulk carrier was loaded with 65,000 tonnes of coal and 975 tonnes of heavy fuel oil [EPA] "This is going to be a very specialist and delicate operation," she told Australia's Nine news network. Bligh had earlier said there was "a very real risk that the vessel may break apart" and the authorities fear an oil spill will damage the world's largest coral reef. "If this ship was to break further apart, if there was another very significant oil spill, then we would not only see tonnes of oil into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park but modelling shows it is likely to come up onto the beaches of Shoalwater Bay, which is a national park area," Bligh said. The vessel hit Douglas Shoal, in a protected part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, 15km outside the nearest shipping channel and where shipping is restricted by environmental law. Conservationists expressed outrage that bulk carriers can travel through the reef without a marine pilot with local expertise and Larissa Waters, a spokeswoman for the environmentally focused Queensland Greens political party, said the state government was "being blinded by royalties and their short-sightedness will go down in history as killing the reef". But Bligh said the ship was in a restricted zone that was "totally off limits" to shipping and the ship's Chinese owners could be fined up to A$1m ($920,000) and the captain handed a A$250,000 fine.

Source: Agencies