Filipinos living in coastal areas evacuate to higher grounds following a tsunami alert

The Philippines ordered a limited precautionary evacuation on Sunday (February 28) in coastal areas of 19 provinces along its eastern seaboard after raising the level of a tsunami alert issued following a massive earthquake in Chile .
    The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had earlier lifted its warning for most countries on the Pacific basin, leaving it in effect for just Russia and Japan, but Philippine authorities remained concerned about the risk of large waves generated by Saturday's magnitude 8.8 quake.In the northern Philippines town of Bicol, residents gathered in a tsunami evacuation area."This is a safe place for us. We've had a tsunami drill in the past and this is definitely the safest place for us," said vlllager Liezel Manapat.It was a similar picture in the southern city of Davao.
    Many coastal towns were being watched due to unusual strong waves.A local disaster official, Roderick Milana, said the alert level 2 would remain in force until mid-afternoon and had advised fishermen to avoid going to sea and tie their boats to safety.In 1960, Philippine volcanology officials said a 9.5 earthquake in Chile generated a tsunami that reached the Philippines within 24 hours, but did not cause damage or death.

Security is tight in Thailand after two hand grenades exploded outside branches of the country's biggest bank, causing light damage but no injuries. The blasts happened the day after the country's highest court seized assets held by ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra

Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Sunday (February 28) ordered security tightened in Bangkok after two hand grenades exploded outside branches of the country's biggest bank, causing light damage but no injuries. Four grenades were hurled at four branches of Bangkok Bank late on Saturday (February 27).
    Two exploded, damaging telephone booths and bank windows, and two were disposed of safely.The blasts came one day after the country's Supreme Court ruled ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra had enriched himself at the expense of the state during his five years in power, seizing 1.4 billion U.S. dollars (USD) of his family's 2.3 billion USD in frozen assets.
    A large security force - made up of police patrols and bomb units - was mobilised to secure important locations around the capital."Many places we have to pay attention to, especially the Bangkok Banks. We cannot allow the incident to happen again. If there is any incident, the head of police station will have to take responsibility. We cannot let the incident happen again and again. Police have to do their duty. If the incident happens again they will have to take responsibility," said police commander Lt.General Santhan Chayanon.
    Police said they suspected the attacks were politically motivated but added it was too premature to pinpoint blame on any group."We cannot say now that it directly links to it. Please allow me to arrest the suspect first, but we know which group did it," said Santhan.The bank has been targeted recently by anti-government protesters and supporters of the twice-elected Thaksin.

Portuguese rescue workers using bulldozers searched on Sunday for more bodies under debris after violent floods and mudslides killed at least 38 on the resort island of Madeira

Residents are cleaning up after floods and mudslides engulfed the Portuguese holiday island of Madeira.Dozens are dead and scores are injured after powerful rainstorms unleashed rivers of hillside mud, inundating several towns below.Ribeira Brava and the regional capital Funchal were among the worst hit areas.Television pictures showed roiling torrents of mud and boulders surging through the narrow streets of Funchal.The deluge felled trees, washed away bridges, and spat out crushed cars.
    People watched in stunned disbelief as their town was transformed before their eyes.The Portuguese Prime Minister rushed to Madeira to assess the damage and coordinate aid.Jose Socrates said he was profoundly shocked and saddened by the calamity.A Portuguese naval ship, equipped with medical supplies, is on its way to the island, which lies about 1000 km from the mainland.

Srinagar, the summer capital of India's northern state of Jammu and Kashmir witnesses a mass protest with people raising slogans against the arrest of two youths and seeking their release

Hundreds of locals in Srinagar, the summer capital of India's northern Jammu and Kashmir state took to streets on Sunday (February 21) to stage a mass protest. Raising anti-government slogans, the protestors demanded the release of two youths, believed to have been arrested by the police personnel.
"My son left the house early in the (Sunday) morning for shaving to Chattabal area and he suddenly called me and said that two police persons in civil dress had picked him and taken him to some unknown destination," said Khatija Begum, mother of an arrested youth.
    To counter the public wrath that resulted in pelting of stones, the police had to resort to firing of teargas and smoke shells as well as baton charge to disperse the agitators.More than 47,000 people have been killed since militancy broke out in the Muslim dominated region since 1989.
    India accuses Pakistan of arming and sending militants especially into Indian Kashmir. Pakistan denies that, saying it only gives political support to what it calls a freedom movement.India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since their Independence from Britain in 1947 and nearly went to war in 1999 over the divided Himalayan region they both claim in full but rule in part.

Thousands of opposition supporters in the Ivory Coast have again taken to the streets to protest the postponement of the country's presidential elections

Stone-strewed streets hint of the political tensions mounting in the Ivory Coast.Demonstrations have erupted almost daily across the west African country since President Laurent Gbagbo dissolved the government and the electoral commission a week ago.Here in the central city of Bouake people say they are tired of waiting for elections that are promised but are never held.
    Elections have been repeatedly postponed since 2005.They had been scheduled for the end
of this month or early next.But they've been postponed yet again after a row over voter registration.
The protests turned bloody on Friday after security forces opened fire on demonstrators in the south western town Gagnoa.Undeterred, opposition supporters were out again on Saturday.This was the scene shortly after police cleared the streets with tear gas.
    Once one of Africa's brightest economic stars, a brief civil war followed by years of political instability and stalemate have left the world's number two cocoa grower mired in poverty and despair.

Some of the biggest names in UK and American music re-record the R.E.M. classic "Everybody Hurts" to raise money for charities supporting the relief efforts in Haiti

With the help of some of the biggest names in the music industry, British music executive Simon Cowell is hoping to raise funds for Haitian relief charities with the re-make of the R.E.M. single, "Everybody Hurts." Featuring Mariah Carey, Jon Bon Jovi, Robbie Williams, Kylie, Rod Stewart, Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke, Miley Cyrus, Take That, Joe McElderry, Cheryl Cole, JLS, Mika, Michael Buble, James Blunt, James Morrison, Susan Boyle and Westlife, the single is anticipated to become UK's top selling single of the week. Available as a digital download on Sunday, February 7 and in UK stores on Monday, February 8, the proceeds of the single will be split equally between DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) and The Sun newspaper's "Helping Haiti" appeal.
The single follows the ongoing efforts by the U.S. government and global aid and charity groups who have been spearheading a huge international relief operation to help hundreds of thousands of injured and homeless survivors of the Haitian quake that struck on January 12.

Widespread flooding in Bolivia leaves over 100,000 residents displaced and others underwater for over a week

Four Bolivian provinces declared a state of emergency after 12 people were killed and more than 100,000 displaced by raging flood waters.
Here in the western province of Beni, 28,000 families have been affected by flooding from the Ibare River, an Amazon River tributary that broke its banks and swamped the area.
Maria Modesta Yarai lives In the rural village of Puerto Almacen (all-mah-SEHN) and she said the flood waters have consistently remained high.
"The water came in on January 31 when the river's banks broke so we have been flooded like this since then," said one victim, Maria Modesta Yarari.
The floods have caused major crop damage and residents in this agrarian community expressed health-related concerns not only about themselves, but also about their animals.
"The animals are suffering alongside their owners," Yarari continued. "A lot of people have tried to take their pigs to higher ground. You have to sacrifice. We are having problems with our feet, with fungal infections because we are in the water all the time."
Many residents have escaped to higher ground, like at this local school where they set-up makeshift tents to wait for the water to recede.

A Tymoshenko aide says she has inched ahead of her rival according to a count made by her officials at polling stations

A close ally of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said she and Yanukovich were even in Sunday's (February 7) presidential race, according to a count made by her officials in polling stations.
"We have already counted 85, 7 percent of protocols at polling stations' election commissions," Olexander Turchinov, head of Tymoshenko's election headquarters, said. "Forty-six percent Tymoshenko, 46 percent Yanukovich." he added.
Official results from the Central Election Commission put Yanukovich in the lead with 52,27 percent and Tymoshenko with 42.50 percent with just over 13 percent of the vote counted.
Meanwhile Yanukovich supporters remain outside the Central Election Commission building where they set up a tent camp after the first round presidential vote.They plan to hold a rally there on Monday (February 8) morning.

A South Korean delegation left for North Korea on Monday (February 1) to discuss the operations of a joint industrial park, just days after Pyongyang fired artillery near a disputed sea border between the rivals

The meeting between the two Koreas comes as a senior U.S. diplomat heads to the region for separate talks aimed at prodding the reclusive North back to international nuclear disarmament discussions and a rare visit by a senior U.N. envoy to Pyongyang next week.
Analysts say pressure is mounting on the destitute North to end its year-long boycott of the six-country, disarmament-for-aid talks. Pyongyang may try to better its bargaining position with military moves that underscore the threat it poses to the economically vibrant region.
North Korean artillery, which last week fired hundreds of rounds into its waters on its side of the sea border off the west coast, were silent over the weekend.
Envoys from the South crossed the heavily armed border on early Monday (February 1) as scheduled for talks over the Kaesong industrial park, the last joint project between the states where South Korean firms use cheap North Korean labour and land to make goods.
"Today's agendas are a matter of passage, communication, customs and accommodations for our workers because it is very important to have a fluent supply of workers. We will focus on discussing these since we were informed that the North has agreed that these are today's agendas," Kim Young-tak, chief of the South Korean delegation, told reporters before crossing the border.

Riot police detained dozens of anti-Kremlin protesters, including leading opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, in central Moscow on Sunday (January 31), defying a plea by rights group Amnesty International to let the rally go ahead

At least 100 people gathered at a protest against what they say is a long-running Kremlin campaign to dismantle the constitutional right to peaceful protest, one of the few avenues open to Russia's weak and fragmented opposition.
"The people must remember that in fact they will have to live either according to a jail law or according to constitution", Alexey Simonov, president of "Glasnost Protection Fund" said.
At a similar rally on December 31, 2009, police detained 82-year-old Soviet-era activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva, prompting a rebuke from the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. A senior officer followed Alexeyeva throughout Sunday's rally in an apparent effort to prevent his colleagues from detaining her. She screamed repeatedly when a line of policemen surged towards her, causing a crush
Moscow authorities told the organisers that another event, "Winter Fun", was taking place in the centre of Moscow.
Opposition groups say the authorities routinely organise alternative events as an excuse to deny them access to central squares.
Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, is leader of the opposition group Solidarity and one of the toughest critics of the Kremlin and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Up to 10,000 people rallied in the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad on Saturday (January 31) demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin over living costs and unemployment, a rare show of anger with the popular figure

The sanctioned rally was attended by Solidarity, the Communists and the Liberal Democrats and the protest march was organized by local Kaliningrad rights group Spravedlivost (Justice), which claims to be apolitical.
Boris Nemtsov, a leader of opposition movement Solidarity, told the people gathered at the rally that the new new taxes and measures introduced by the government lowered the standard of living and hightened unemployment in the enclave.
"You would never in your life imagine that maternity hospitals, other hospitals would be closed in the middle of Europe, you would never imagine that taxes would be increased during crisis, you would never imagine that money would be being pumped out of the region while the authorities are talking about the strengthening of the vertical of power. And now the main anti-crisis measure of Putin is to raise the import duty for cars being imported to Kaliningrad and other country regions. So tens of thousands of Kaliningrad residents have lost their jobs," nemtsov said.
A number of Kaliningrad protesters chanted anti-Putin slogans, but a resolution passed by a show of hands focused on economic issues, including pensions, the transport tax and the price of petrol, said march organiser Konstantin Doroshok.
"We will demand to pass the law allowing to suspend the parliament members who no more enjoy people's confidence, we will demand the resignation of the governor and the government of the Kaliningrad region," Doroshok said.

Haiti's government says it has identified two sites outside Port-au-Prince to house people who lost their homes in the devastating earthquake that struck the country two weeks ago

One of them, at Croix-des-Bouquets, in the north east of Haiti, is a site that was originally intended to house the poor.
It is financed by Brazil's government and built by a Haitian company.
"They started building here in December 2009. It is financed by Brasil and constructed by the Haitian company Secossa. The construction stopped because of the earthquake and now they will start again and give it to the homeless from the earthquake" said Thelusma Juneau, the contractor for the site.
Haiti's government said on Friday (Janaury 23) that the housing should be ready soon.
The second site is in the same area and was the ranch of former Hatian President Jean-Claude Duvalier, ousted in 1986.

Turkey was Sunday (January 24) preparing to host a meeting on the conflict in Afghanistan to seek a common approach that could centre on gathering international support for negotiating with the Taliban

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan arrived in Istanbul for the meeting that starts Monday (January 25) and will bring together intelligence and military officials from two countries that have a history of deep mistrust.
It helps pave the way for an international conference in London this week that may set a timetable for transferring some security responsibility to Afghan control.
A senior Pakistani official told Reuters intiatives were being taken to begin negotiations with some Taliban elements and this was likely to surface during the week's meetings in Istanbul and London.
Turkey, a Muslim state and NATO member, has a special relationship with both Afghanistan and Pakistan that can be traced back to the Ottoman Empire's ties to South and Central Asia, and was using its influence to bring an end to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh reiterated that the Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) would pursue their objective vis-à-vis the Copenhagen Accord

He said this while briefing the media persons after the meeting of the BASIC Environment Ministers at New Delhi on the on Sunday (January 24).
The ministers discussed the post-Copenhagen scenario on Climate Change.
"We support the Copenhagen Accord. All of us are unanimously are of the view that the value of the accord lies not as a stand alone document but as an input to the two track negotiating process under the UNFCCC, the two track negotiating process which will culminate in Mexico City in December of 2010," said Jairam Ramesh.
The BASIC countries, while endorsing the Copenhagen Accord, have opposed any single legally binding instrument that allows rich nations to dilute their climate commitments.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed gratitude to Chinese rescue team, who helped pull out remains of Haiti mission chief out of the rubble, while he toured the quake-torn capital city of Port-au-Prince on Sunday

The U.N. mission chief in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, was having a meeting with eight Chinese peacekeeping officers at the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters in Port-au-Prince when the devastating quake struck on Tuesday (January 12).
Eight Chinese officers were also killed.
Annabi, a Tunisian, believed to be 65 was dug out by the Chinese rescue unit on Saturday (January 16).
"On behalf of the United Nations and all international community, I'd like to thank you to Chinese search and rescue team who would have come here for the first time and also help to retrieve the remains of special representative Hedi Annabi and other people, including your own staff. It is a tremendous loss for the United Nations, for international community. Again thank you very much for your very noble and hard work. Thank you," Ban said when shaking hands with a Chinese rescue worker at the site of the collapsed U.N. building.
The Haitian authorities say the quake has killed as many as 200,000 people. If the casualty figures are accurate, it would be one of the ten deadliest earthquakes ever recorded.

Conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera won Chile's presidential election on Sunday (January 17), ending two decades of center-left rule in Latin America's most stable economy and the world's top copper producer

Pinera won with almost 52 percent of the vote and his leftist rival, former President Eduardo Frei, quickly conceded defeat.
After the results were announced, Pinera met with Frei, and gave his approval of what will be the opposition during his upcoming presidency.
"To have a good country, we need not only a good government, but we also need a good opposition, and I'm sure, because I know him and have known him for many years, we are going to have an opposition that is loyal, that is going to be constructive, that will be be rigorous when they need to be, but will have a constructive spirit. That's how we are going to build a country for everyone."
The victory by Pinera, a Harvard-educated airline magnate, marks a shift to the right in South America, a region dominated by leftist rulers from Venezuela to Argentina, although no major changes to economic policy are expected.

Yemen boosts security at oil and gas facilities to guard against militant attacks on vital installations days after it declared open war on al Qaeda. The oil minister says the government is serious about protecting companies

Yemen has boosted security at oil and gas facilities to guard against militant attacks on the vital installations days after the government declared open war on al Qaeda.
Yemen, a small oil producer with output of around 300,000 barrels per day, vowed on Thursday (January 14) to crack down on al Qaeda and a day later said six al Qaeda militants had been killed in an air strike in northern Yemen.
Security officials said new precautions at oil and gas facilities, implemented on Saturday (January 16), included sending extra security forces and police to guard them.
The security measures have been strengthened for some time but the government took additional measures around oil institutions and the gas project in Shabwa a government official told Reuters.
Yemen's Oil Minister Amir al-Aidarous said energy exports were progressing smoothly and that ports and a natural gas terminal were "well-protected".
"Today of course the government is working against al Qaeda and we are taking in consideration seriously to protect all the companies," al-Aidarous told Reuters, adding soldiers were securing the facilities of oil and gas industry.
Yemen has come under heightened pressure to act against al Qaeda since an attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound plane on Dec. 25 by a Nigerian student with ties to Yemen.
"Government takes it seriously," the oil minister said about possible al Qaeda threats. "Things are moving excellent and I hope many companies are satisfied with what we have done," he added.

Australia Bush fires

Cooler weather conditions on Monday provided some relief for firefighters battling around 80 blazes in the Australian state of New South Wales, local media reported.
Record high temperatures combined with strong winds kept a number of blazes burning late into Sunday night.
A fire in the state's central west near the town of Rylstone is still causing concern, with fire crews working through the night to contain it.
A holiday cottage was destroyed in the blaze, but there were no other reports of damage to property. Some residents voluntarily left.

Iran Exercise 2

Iranian armed forces on Monday continued the country's large-scale air defence war games aimed at protecting its nuclear facilities from attack, state TV reported.
The five-day drill, which began on Sunday, will cover an area a third of the size of Iran and spread across the central, western and southern parts of the country, according to Iranian state media.
General Ahmad Mighani, head of an air force unit in charge of responding to threats to Iran's air space, said on Saturday

Indonesia Ferry

Rescuers returned to choppy waters off Indonesia's Sumatra island on Monday to search for 21 passengers still missing after a ferry sank in a storm, a day earlier. Officials say 254 survivors were pulled from the sea and at least 29 other people drowned. On Sunday evening, the dead body of one of the owners of sunken Indonesian ferry The Dumai Express 10, was recovered. Ferry owner Boheng was on the ferry when it sank in stormy weather 90 minutes into an inter-island trip from Batam to Dumai in Riau, a province off Sumatra island in western Indonesia.The area is about 600 miles (900 kilometers) northwest of Jakarta.A second ferry ran aground nearby, but all its passengers were said to be safe. Fishing boats, police patrols and navy warships set out in driving rain at first light on Monday in search of 21 people reported missing, said a navy officer heading the mission.

Thousands of travellers stranded as train driver walks off job

Several thousand rail passengers were stranded in southern Thailand on Sunday when the train driver walked off the job halfway through the scheduled journey from Bangkok to Kantang.
According to Thai media, the travellers waited at the side of the tracks for six hours before authorities arranged alternative transport.
A total of seven trains were cancelled in an ongoing labour dispute over safety but the Bangkok-Kantang service was the only one which actually had begun its journey.
Earlier this month, a crash on the same line killed eight passengers and left 88 injured, prompting the current row between unions and management.  

Ahmadinejad urges Pakistan to act on group behind Guard attack

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged Pakistan's government to take serious action against the "main elements" of an attack near the Pakistani border which killed five senior commanders of the Revolutionary Guard and at least 37 others.
The attack in the Pishin district near the Pakistani border on Sunday was carried out by a suicide bomber and left dozens wounded.
"The elements that have gone to Pakistan and we are aware that unfortunately some Pakistani agents cooperate with them. They should hand these elements to us," Ahmadinejad said on Sunday during a cabinet meeting.

IDPs fleeing SWaziristan offensive register for aid

Hundreds of internally displaced people (IDPs) from Pakistan's South Waziristan region registered with authorities on Monday morning in the city of Dera Ismael Khan, after fleeing a major military offensive against entrenched Taliban militants in the region.
The Pakistani government has set up registration centres to cope with an expected influx of people fleeing fighting in the region, as the Pakistani army's offensive continued into its third day.
As many as 150-thousand civilians, possibly more, have left South Waziristan in recent months after the Pakistani army made clear it was planning an assault, but some 350-thousand people may be left in the region.

China Storm

Typhoon Parma made landfall in southern China on Monday morning, Chinese state television reported.
CCTV broadcast video of heavy rain and strong winds lashing Hainan Island, in southern China.
Meanwhile, in Guangdong province, fishing vessels remained in the harbour in preparation for the typhoon, CCTV said Large expanses of land are still under water,local officials said
The death toll from Parma in Philippines so far is 175 people, with more than 20 people still missing.

Australia Memorial

A crowd of about 300 people gathered at Sydney's Coogee beach on Monday to mark seven years since the deadly Bali bombings of 2002.
Eighty-eight Australians were among the 202 people killed in the attacks on the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar in the popular tourist area of Kuta.
The New South Wales government recently announced a permanent memorial wall with the names of all 44 of the state's victims will be constructed at Coogee beach as a permanent reminder of the tragedy.

Pakistan Japan

Japan's Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday at the Foreign Office in Islamabad.
According to Pakistan Foreign Office reports, Okada and Qureshi held talks on regional and international issues.Japan is one of Pakistan's major development partners, and is extending assistance for development projects in health, education and human resource development.
Japan is also one of Pakistan's major trade partners and have assisted Pakistan with one (b) billion US dollars at the Donor's Conference in Tokyo in April 2009.He is also scheduled to meet Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari before returning home later today.