| US congresswoman who was shot in the head in Arizona is breathing on her own but remains in critical condition. Last Modified: 16 Jan 2011 02:22 GMT | ||
The US congresswoman who was shot in the head has been removed from a ventilator and is breathing on her own through a tube inserted into her windpipe, the University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, has announced. Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived despite being shot through the head from point-blank range a week ago, remains in critical condition. "A surgical procedure (tracheotomy) was performed this morning on the congresswoman to replace the breathing tube that ran down her throat with a tracheotomy tube in her windpipe, protecting her airway and freeing her from the ventilator," the hospital said in a statement posted on its website on Saturday. "Her recovery continues as planned," it said. Surgeons also inserted a feeding tube. Giffords, 40, opened her eyes for the first time minutes after Barack Obama, the US president, visited her Wednesday. Six people died, including a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl, and 14 were wounded in the burst of violence a week ago outside a Tucson supermarket, where Giffords was holding a public event with her constituents. The alleged attacker, Jared Loughner, a 22-year-old local resident, is in custody. Christina Taylor Green, the youngest victim of the Tucson shootings, was laid to rest on Thursday, a day after Obama, hailed the 9-year-old as an inspiration to US politicians to heal their poisonous divisions. | ||
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| Source: Agencies |
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Giffords is taken off ventilator
South Sudan poll ends
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| Huge turnout in south Sudan referendum expected to back secession from the north of the country. Last Modified: 15 Jan 2011 17:12 GMT | ||
A handful of South Sudanese have voted on the final day of a week-long referendum on whether to split from the north of the country. "Preliminary results will be announced on January 31st. Those figures will then have to be verified in Khartoum. If there are no appeals, officials say a final result will be announced on February 6," Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, reporting, from Juba. "They have technically until the 9th of July, [which is] when the comprehensive peace agreement expires," reported Mutasa. In the few centres where he had seen counting under way, he said, the votes "were practically unanimous in favour of separation with only a few ballots to the contrary". The referendum marks the culmination of the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement, which ended a civil war in the country. A senior official of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP) said the north would accept the outcome of the vote even if it was for partition of Africa's largest nation. He said the UN was expecting between 500,000 and 600,000 people to arrive by August. "Obviously the emotions around the referendum have prompted many southerners to come home," he said, speaking at Juba's river port on the White Nile where many of the returnees arrive. "I feel sad," Mustafa Mohammed, a young tax officer, said. "I am not for secession." Rally in north Meanwhile, thousands of Sudanese demonstrated in the Nuba mountains in the north, demanding free and fair elections ahead of a planned move toward greater autonomy. Kauda, a remote mountain town, is a stronghold of the Sudan's People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the biggest political party in the south, but falls in the northern state of South Kordofan. Large crowds gathered in the town, chanting anti-government slogans and waving SPLM flags. The protesters claimed that the election process was not going as planned in their area. "The government wants to use the old list of voters. But the list does not include all the population here. Many people can't find their names on the list," Sadiq Said, one of the demonstrators, said. The election is part a "popular consultation" process that many in the area believe will help them achieve independence from the north.. | ||
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| Source: Al Jazeera and agencies |
S Africa groups seek Livni arrest
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| Pro-Palestinian groups seek arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, who heads Israel's Kadima party, for alleged war crimes. Last Modified: 16 Jan 2011 05:44 GMT | ||
Two South African groups have launched a move to get an arrest warrant issued against Tzipi Livni, the chairperson of Israel's Kadima party, during a visit to the country next week, Israeli media have said. Haaretz.com, quoting Channel 10, said the Media Review Network (MRN) and the Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA) allege Livni committed war crimes in her role in Israel's three-week war on Gaza in late 2008-2009. Livni was then foreign minister in the government of Ehud Olmert. Channel 10 was citing South African media on reporting the move. "We have now been informed that Livni has been invited to this country and have therefore instructed our legal team to take all necessary measures to secure an arrest warrant," Iqbal Jassat, the head of the MRN was quoted as saying. "Our decision is based on the fact that South Africa is a signatory to the Rome statutes which obligates all member states to honour their responsibility in the prosecution of war criminals." Livni was invited to South Africa by the local Jewish community to give a number of speeches and hold meetings in Cape Town and Johannesburg. 'Pure intimidation' Zev Krengel, the South African Jewish leader, said he was disappointed with the decision of the MRN and the PSA to pursue Livni. "First of all we are very sad that they would even want to do such a thing," Krengel was quoted as saying. "Tzipi Livni has been an enthusiastic supporter of the peace process." Krengel added that Livni's trip would go ahead as planned. "It is a pure intimidation tactic by people who are not interested in finding a solution to the situation in the Middle East," he was quoted as saying. In December 2009 a British court reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Livni on similar charges, but later withdrew it after discovering she was not in the country. Livni was initially scheduled to travel to London for an event organise by the Jewish National Fund, followed by meetings with British government officials. She cancelled the trip two weeks before the event, and Israeli media said she called off the visit for fear of being arrested. | ||
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| Source: Agencies |
Hezbollah leader to talk on crisis
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| Hassan Nasrallah is expected to speak for the first time since his party's ministers quit the Lebanese government. Last Modified: 16 Jan 2011 09:26 GMT | ||||
Hassan Nasrallah, leader Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, is expected to "make an appearance" later on Sunday, the first time since ministers from his party and its allies toppled the government of Saad al-Hariri, the prime minister. The Al-Manar television reported that Nasrallah will speak "on Sunday at 8:30 pm (1830 GMT) on Al-Manar television to comment on the latest developments". Hariri's government collapsed on Wednesday after Hezbollah and its allies resigned from the cabinet in a dispute over the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) probe into the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafiq al-Hariri. Prosecutors investigating the assassination of Hariri are expected to issue indictments in the case on Monday, and members of Hezbollah are expected to be named in the chargesheet. Daniel Bellemare, the prosecutor for STL, based in The Hague, is due to submit the chargesheet to a pre-trial judge on Monday. Boutros Harb, the acting labour minister, confirmed the report. "According to my information, the chargesheet will be submitted on Monday," he told the AFP news agency. Tribunal silent According to the tribunal's rules of procedure, Daniel Fransen, the pre-trial judge, will examine the findings before confirming the indictment. Arrest warrants or summonses would be issued later and the process could take six to 10 weeks.
The STL declined to comment on the report. The pending indictments have split Lebanon's unity government, pitting the powerful Shia party Hezbollah against a Western-backed camp led by Hariri. Hezbollah has said it would not accept the indictment of its members. In November, Nasrallah said that the group will "cut off the hand" of anyone who tries to arrest any of its members for the Hariri killing, raising fears of renewed violence in Lebanon. Meanwhile, rival factions began jockeying to form a new government. Michel Sleiman, the president who asked Hariri to stay on in a caretaker capacity, begins consultations with MPs on appointing a new premier on Monday. On Saturday, Mohammed Rashid Qabbani, Lebanon's leading Sunni religious leader, warned that the political stalemate could lead to "bloodshed and increase of pain and division". He said that stability was the need of the hour, and that the formation of a government by Hariri is "in the interest of Lebanon". Powerbroker Under complicated power-sharing arrangements in multi-confessional Lebanon, the prime minister is always a Sunni Muslim. On Saturday, Al-Akhbar, a newspaper close to Hezbollah, raised the name of Omar Karameh, who was prime minister at the time of Rafiq al-Hariri's assassination. For its part, the parliamentary majority headed by al-Hariri has ruled out any other candidate than him. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, seen as a possible dealmaker, was in neighbouring Syria, Lebanon's former powerbroker, for talks with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian prime minister. Jumblatt, whose parliamentary bloc will be the first to meet with Sleiman, controls 11 seats in parliament that could make or break the next government. The STL was created by a 2007 UN Security Council resolution to find and try the killers of al-Hariri, assassinated in a massive car bombing on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 other people. A trial could open "four to six months" after the charges are confirmed, tribunal registrar Herman von Hebel told journalists in The Hague in December. | ||||
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| Source: Agencies |
Tunisia gripped by uncertainty
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| Bands of looters go on the rampage while a fire in a prison apparently linked to the violence kills 42 inmates. Last Modified: 16 Jan 2011 09:01 GMT | ||||||
Armed militias have taken to the streets of Tunisia following the toppling of longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, sowing fear among the population as the country's new leadership attempts to bring order and form a coalition government. Looting and deadly prison riots have erupted throughout the country after mass protests forced Ben Ali, who had been in power since 1987, to flee to Saudi Arabia. "There is a real sense of fear right now on the streets," said Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri, reporting from Tunis, the capital. Many residents, running out of bread, milk and petrol, have decided to arm themselves and barricade their homes, Moshiri said. Some are forming local groups to defend their own neighbourhoods. Three different armed groups appear to be attempting to assert power, she said: Police, security forces from the interior ministry, and irregular militias allied with Ben Ali's former regime. Among Tunisia's population of roughly 10 million people, 250,000 are in the police force, she said. "People are telling us right now they trust the army far more than they do the police," Moshiri said. Adding to concerns, around 1,000 prisoners were reported to have escaped, possibly with the aid of the prison direction, during a major disturbance at a penitentiary. It was not the only incident at a prison following the country's historic upheaval; several prison breaks or raids by outside groups were reported to have resulted in casualties. At least 42 inmates died in a fire at the Fatouma Bourguiba prison in Montasir, a town around 160 km south of the capital. Opposition figure to return
As Tunisia attempts to reconstruct its government, the exiled head of one of its leading opposition parties has announced his intent to return to the country. Rashid al-Ghannouchi, the leader of the Islamist Nahdha (Renaissance) party, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that he and other leading figures would "return shortly" to Tunisia. The Renaissance party, formed in 1988, never gained legal status under Ben Ali because of a law prohibiting political parties based on religion. According to human rights groups, its members have long suffered persecution and torture. Ghannouchi said the party should be recognised and said that it is ready to take part in a coalition government. Ben Ali family member killed On Sunday, the AFP news agency reported that a member of the president's extended family had died of a knife wound two days earlier. Imed Trabelsi, a nephew of Ben Ali's wife, died in a military hospital in Tunis, a staff member told the AFP. He was the first person in the president's extended family reported to have died as a result of the uprising. Salim Shayboub, Ben Ali's son in law, also reportedly has been arrested. Trabelsi was an influential businessman and became more widely known after he was mentioned in a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks that said he was reported to have stolen a yacht belonging to the chairman of the powerful French financial firm Lazard. The new president Fouad Mebezaa, the speaker of parliament, was sworn in as the country's new president on Saturday and promised to create a unity government that could include the long-ignored opposition. It was the second change of power in the North African nation in less than 24 hours. After Ben Ali fled on Friday, prime minister Mohammed Ghannouchi went on state television to announce that he had taken power in accordance with the constitution. Amid the political instability, looters emptied shops and torched the main train station in Tunis. Soldiers traded fire with unidentified armed men in front of the interior ministry. "If the interim government doesn't quickly implement measures to reduce the level of unemployment and increase standards of living, we are going to see more of these protests," Ayesha Sabavala, deputy editor of the Economist Intelligence Unit, told Al Jazeera.
Troops were patrolling the capital on Saturday and a state of emergency was in force. The Reuters news agency reported that squads of men in civilian clothes were driving through Tunis at high speed, shooting randomly at buildings and people. Soldiers and plainclothes security personnel dragged dozens of suspected looters out of their cars at gunpoint and took them away in lorries, according to a report from the AFP news agency. "The army is all over the place in Tunis, they are trying to check cars and control people going by," Youssef Gaigi, a blogger and activist based in Tunisia, said. Black smoke billowed over a giant supermarket in Ariana, north of the capital, as it was torched and emptied. Soldiers fired warning shots in vain to try to stop the looters, and shops near the main bazaar were also attacked. Riots target Ben Ali family interests Some rioters appeared to be targeting businesses owned by members of Ben Ali's family. In Tunis, a branch of the Zeitouna bank founded by Ben Ali's son-in-law was torched, as were vehicles made by Kia, Fiat and Porsche - carmakers distributed in Tunisia by members of the ruling family. Public television station TV7 broadcast phone calls from residents on the capital's outskirts, describing attacks by knife-wielding assailants. Amid the turmoil, Tunisians have organised themselves to protect their neighbourhoods, Amine Ghali, a democracy advocate in Tunisia, told Al Jazeera. "There is a serious security issue, but people are getting organised. They are standing in front of their neighbourhoods, forming neighbourhood committees ... they are trying to be as calm as possible and trying to help the military," he said. Residents of some Tunis neighbourhoods set up barricades and organised overnight patrols to deter rioters. In El Menzah neighbourhood, dozens of men and boys armed with baseball bats and clubs were taking turns on patrol - just as a broadcast on Tunisian television had urged citizens to do. "This isn't good at all. I'm very afraid for the kids and myself," Lilia Ben Romdhan, a mother of three in outer Tunis," said. 'Militia' fears There are fears that some of the violence is being carried out by armed factions allied to Ben Ali, with Reuters quoting an unnamed military source as saying: "Ben Ali's security is behind what is happening." Gaigi, who had been part of the protests that brought down Ben Ali, indicated that the army's presence was required because the police force had broken down. "Several militias, which are actually doing some of the looting are part of the ministry of the interior, or police members, and they are co-ordinated by heads of police and intelligence in Tuisia," he said. "We heard the army have captured some of these people but there is still a lot of work to be done." Indeed, top Ben Ali adviser and the former head of the president's security General Ali Seryati was reported to have been captured by civilians. Deadly prison fire In a sign that Ben Ali's rule was over, workers were taking down a portrait of the former president outside the headquarters of his RCD party on Mohamed V Avenue in the centre of Tunis. Meanwhile, a fire on Saturday at a prison in the Mediterranean coastal resort of Monastir killed 42 people, coroner Tarek Mghirbi told The Associated Press news agency. Witnesses told Al Jazeera that other prisoners had escaped and reports said that some prisoners had been shot as they made their escape bid. In Mahdia, further down the coast, inmates set fire to their mattresses in protest. Soldiers opened fire, killing five inmates, a local official said. Breakouts were also reported at three other prisons and a report from The Associated Press news agency said that an official at one facility had let 1,000 inmates escape following protests at the prison. Thousands of tourists have been evacuated from the Mediterranean nation following the unrest. | ||||||
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| Source: Al Jazeera and agencies |
Australia flooding shifts south
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| Thousands of homes swamped by rising waters as flood crisis moves from northeast to south over the weekend. Last Modified: 16 Jan 2011 08:49 GMT | |||
Dozens of towns in Australia's Victoria state in the far south braced for unprecedented river levels days after the flooding crisis peaked in northeastern Queensland. About 14,000 homes in the second most populous state were hit by a record deluge on Sunday as the number of deaths rose to 17 in Queensland amid scenes of destruction. Homes were swamped to waist height as waters wreaked havoc on rural communities in Australia's southeast, levelling fences and trees and tearing up roads. Victoria suffered the worst wildfires in Australian history just two years ago in which 173 people died. Parts of the state were now facing a once-in-a-century flooding, with some towns having never experienced such inundation. Soldiers were helping people evacuate from their homes while desperate sandbagging was under way in a number of towns, where a season's worth of rain had fallen in just one or two days. "We are facing an unprecedented flood event on the Campaspe river," said Lachlan Quick, an emergency spokesman. "Water volumes of this size have never been seen down this river before." Four major rivers in Victoria were in full flood, with 43 towns, 3,500 people and 1,400 properties affected. No deaths have been reported so far in the state. Flooding also swept through the island state of Tasmania, washing away bridges and forcing hundreds of evacuations. The flooding in Victoria follows a six-week crisis in Queensland, where floodwaters swallowed an area the size of France and Germany combined, culminating in the swamping last week of Brisbane, Australia's third largest city, and utter devastation of towns to the west. Experts have linked Australia's downpours to an especially strong La Nina weather pattern bringing cooler water temperatures and exacerbating the traditional tropical cyclone season. Continuous flooding Five of Australia's seven states and territories have seen flooding since January 1. Al Jazeera's Andrew Thomas reporting from Brisbane said the cleanup operations were well under way in the second-largest city although the main focus is now on Victoria where the water has been rising quickly.
"Tens of thousands of volunteers were literally pouring into the affected suburbs [of Queensland] trying to clear out houses. "Earlier there were some reports about less affluent areas with high immigrant populations not getting the necessary attention but residents say it was because the floodwaters prevented volunteers from getting through." Our correspondent said there was a carnival-like atmosphere with children handing out biscuits, sausages and water to the "volunteer army" involved in the cleanup operation for days. Anna Bligh, the premier of Queensland state, said the death toll had risen to 17 since January 10, with the discovery of a woman's body in a house in the worst-hit Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane. As waters receded in Queensland, Bligh said the full scale of destruction was emerging, with the number of flooded homes and evacuations doubling in the past week and the number of properties affected by the waters trebling across an area with a population of 2.1 million. She warned people to stay out of floodwaters where possible, describing them as a "toxic" soup of rotting animal corpses and food, chemicals and debris. Wayne Swan, the treasurer for Queensland, toured the ravaged Brisbane suburb of Rocklea hit by the disaster as the federal and state governments pledged about $10m each to the relief fund, which has now raised more than $83m. "In terms of cost it's far too early to evaluate," Swan told AFP of the damage bill. "The priority is to provide immediate relief with emergency payments to the people affected. "There is certainly a huge impact in terms of tourism, in terms of the export of resources, especially coal, in terms of small businesses. But it's too early to say how much." | |||
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| Source: Al Jazeera and agencies |
Flood-hit Brazil faces more rain
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| Authorities struggle to cope with the aftermath of floods and landslides that have killed some 610 people. Last Modified: 16 Jan 2011 09:59 GMT | ||||||||||||||||
Further catastrophic landslides are feared in Brazil after forecasters warned of several more days of wet weather in an area where some 610 people were killed when muddy waters tore through their homes earlier in the week. As rescue teams and residents combed the wreckage of hillside communities near the city of Rio de Janiero, forecasters said that the rain in the mountainous Serrana region could continue until Wednesday. "We are predicting a light but steady rain, which is not good because it could lay the conditions for more landslides," Luiz Cavalcanti, the head of the national weather institute, said on Friday. He said such conditions were particularly dangerous because there is nowhere for it to flow away and "it accumulates until the earth gives way under its weight and swallows up the hillside".
The renewed rainfall threatened to further complicate efforts by rescue teams to reach survivors trapped in isolated areas. Groups of rescue workers made their way on foot as a difficult terrain and washed out roads prevented the use of vehicles. "The rain did not stop at dawn and is continuing in the morning, which is making the rescue efforts more difficult," Lieutenant Rubens Placido, a fireman in the hard-hit town of Nova Friburgo, said. "The number of deaths is going to rise quite a bit. There are still a lot of people buried." Sergio Cabral, the governor of Rio state, repeated his call for residents to abandon their homes in the disaster zones and move to safer ground. "The forecast of more rains is not reassuring," he said. "I'm going because there's no electricity anywhere, no water, no food... So I'm going to a relative's place," she said. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from Teresopolis, one of the worst affected towns, said there had been reports of looting on Friday.
"The security situation is deteriorating," he said. At least 223 people are believed to have died in Teresopolis, where hundreds more are feared buried under the rubble of their homes after the equivalent of a month's rain fell in less than 24 hours. An abandoned building was being used as a morgue to house the hundreds of bodies being brought there. | ||||||||||||||||
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| Source: Al Jazeera and agencies | ||||||||||||||||
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