Earthquakes Rock Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Four earthquakes struck the southeastern part of Guatemala in less than two hours Monday afternoon, causing at least one death as some walls collapsed, authorities said. At least three people were reported missing.
President Alvaro Colom urged calm after the temblors were felt across much of the Central American country, the largest a 5.8 magnitude. All were centered in an area about 30 miles (51 kilometers) southeast of the capital, Guatemala City, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
"There is no reason to think there will be anything bigger," Colom said at a news conference.
He said all rescue forces and government agencies had been activated to deal with the aftermath.
USGS geophysicist Rafael Abreu said all four quakes were connected to the same fault running through the area.
A 38-year-old woman, Floridalma Divas Escobar, died when a wall fell down in her house in Cuilapa, the epicenter and one of the areas most effected, said Mariano Laz, spokesman for the local Volunteer Fire Department.
Colom said there were at least three people missing and others injured, though he didn't say how many or in what locations.
Besides Cuilapa, the areas of Santa Maria Inhuatan and Oratorio were most affected, Guatemala's seismology institute said. Public buildings were evacuated and school classes canceled.
Many people camped out in tents Monday night because of damage to their homes or worries about further quakes.
The quakes also caused landslides along the main highway to El Salvador, and at least one car was buried, authorities said.
The largest quake hit about 12:34 local time, a half hour after a 4.8-magnitude temblor. Another 4.8-magnitude quake hit at about 1:20 p.m. A fourth of 4.5-magnitude was reported in an area south of the others at 2:30 p.m.
The depths of the quakes varied from 23 miles (37 kilometers) to 38 miles (61 kilometers).
 Residents look on inside their damaged house after an earthquake in Cuilapa, Guatemala.
 

Japan Defense Secrets Safe in Hacking

TOKYO (AP) - Cyber attacks on Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan's biggest defense contractor, do not appear to have compromised sensitive or classified information, Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa said on Tuesday.
Ichikawa did not say what information was at risk.
"I have heard about the cyber attacks on the company but I have not heard that important data leaked outside (the company)," he told reporters.
Mitsubishi Heavy, which has built the U.S.-designed F-15 fighter jet and missile systems including Patriot batteries under license, said on Monday that computer systems had been accessed in August and some network information, such as IP addresses, may have been leaked.
An investigation by a computer security company revealed connections were made to 14 overseas sites, including at least 20 servers in China, Hong Kong, the United States and India, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, citing unidentified sources.
A Mitsubishi Heavy spokesman declined to comment further on the first known cyber attack on Japan's defense industry, saying it aims to conclude an investigation by the end of September.
Japan's Jiji news agency quoted Mitsubishi Heavy President Hideaki Ohmiya as saying on Tuesday that he expected limited damage from the cyber attack.
But the Defence Ministry is concerned it was not told about the attacks.
"The Defence Ministry has received no reports (from Mitsubishi Heavy) on the issue, and that is highly regrettable," a ministry spokesman said.
The ministry has asked Mitsubishi Heavy to probe the matter and keep it informed, the spokesman said.
Shares of the machinery maker, which is also helping the United States to develop its ballistic missile shield, fell on Tuesday.
Mitsubishi Heavy shares were down 3.3 percent at 318 yen by early afternoon, compared with a 1.5 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei average.
"The company is still assessing the damage so the impact is still unknown at this point, but because defense is so important to the company's business this is bad news," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co.
Mitsubishi Heavy won 215 deals worth 260 billion yen ($3.4 billion) from Japan's Ministry of Defence in the year to last March, or nearly a quarter of the ministry's spending that year.
Besides surface-to-air Patriot missiles the weapons included and AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missiles.
A Japanese defense white paper released last month urged better protection against cyber attacks after a spate of high-profile online assaults this year that included Lockheed Martin and other U.S. defense contractors.
That call for vigilance came after the United States revealed in July that 24,000 files had been stolen by a foreign intelligence entity from a U.S. defense contractor in March.
 

Farmers Flee as World's Deadliest Volcano Rumbles

MOUNT TAMBORA (AFP) — Bold farmers in Indonesia routinely ignore orders to evacuate the slopes of live volcanoes, but those living on Tambora took no chances when history's deadliest mountain rumbled ominously this month.
Villagers like Hasanuddin Sanusi have heard since they were young how the mountain they call home once blew apart in the largest eruption ever recorded — an 1815 event widely forgotten outside their region — killing 90,000 people and blackening skies on the other side of the globe.
So, the 45-year-old farmer didn't wait to hear what experts had to say when Mount Tambora started being rocked by a steady stream of quakes. He grabbed his wife and four young children, packed his belongings and raced down its quivering slopes.
"It was like a horror story, growing up," said Hasanuddin, who joined hundreds of others in refusing to return to their mountainside villages for several days despite assurances they were safe.
"A dragon sleeping inside the crater, that's what we thought. If we made him angry — were disrespectful to nature, say — he'd wake up spitting flames, destroying all of mankind."
The April 1815 eruption of Tambora left a crater 7 miles (11 kilometers) wide and half a mile (1 kilometer) deep, spewing an estimated 400 million tons of sulfuric gases into the atmosphere and leading to "the year without summer" in the U.S. and Europe.
It was several times more powerful than Indonesia's much better-known Krakatoa blast of 1883 — history's second deadliest. But it doesn't share the same international renown, because the only way news spread across the oceans at the time was by slowboat, said Tambora researcher Indyo Pratomo.
In contrast, Krakatoa's eruption occurred just as the telegraph became popular, turning it into the first truly global news event.
The reluctance of Hasanuddin and others to return to villages less than 6 miles (10 kilometers) from Tambora's crater sounds like simple good sense. But it runs contrary to common practice in the sprawling nation of 240 million — home to more volcanoes than any other in the world.
Even as Merapi, Kelut and other famously active mountains shoot out towering pillars of hot ash, farmers cling to their fertile slopes, leaving only when soldiers load them into trucks at gunpoint. They return before it's safe to check on their livestock and crops.
Tambora is different.
People here are jittery because of the mountain's history — and they're not used to feeling the earth move so violently beneath their feet. Aside from a few minor bursts in steam in the 1960s, the mountain has been quiet for much of the last 200 years.
Gede Suantika of the government's Center for Volcanology said activity first picked up in April, with the volcanic quakes jumping from less than five a month to more than 200.
"It also started spewing ash and smoke into the air, sometimes as high as 1,400 meters (4,600 feet)," he said. "That's something I've never seen it do before."
Authorities raised the alert to the second-highest level two weeks ago, but said only villagers within 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the crater needed to evacuate.
That didn't stop hundreds of men, women and children living well outside the danger zone from packing their clothes, jewelry and important documents and heading to the homes of family and friends elsewhere on Sumbawa island.
Most people finally trickled back to their homes.
 

Hong Kong Police Make Record Cocaine Bust

HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong police said Sunday they have made the southern Chinese territory's largest ever cocaine bust, seizing more than half a tonne of the drug, worth around $77 million.
Authorities said drugs officers raided separate locations over the weekend, including a warehouse in the city's suburbs, finding a total of 567 kilograms (1,250 pounds) of cocaine.
Eight people were arrested, police said, ranging in age from 24 to 55.
Those arrested included an American man, a Colombian woman with Hong Kong residency and five Mexicans, a police spokeswoman said.
"The cocaine could have come into Hong Kong by land or sea, but we're still trying to find out which way it came in," a narcotics bureau officer told the South China Morning Post.
In March, a man was sentenced to 22 years in prison over the city's biggest ever cocaine bust at the time, in which drugs weighing 372 kilograms and worth about $43 million were found.
 Authorities said drugs officers raided separate locations over the weekend.
 

Strauss-Kahn Acknowledges Moral Failings

PARIS (AFP) — Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, acknowledged Sunday his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid was a "moral failing" on his part, but didn't involve violence, constraint or aggression.
In his first interview since his May 14 arrest over sexual assault accusations, Strauss-Kahn told France's TF1 television channel what happened between him and the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, "was not only an inappropriate relationship, but more than that, it was an error."
Strauss-Kahn, a Socialist politician who was widely considered a top contender in next year's presidential race until the case broke, said "it was a failing, a failing vis-a-vis my wife, my children and my friends but also a failing vis-a-vis the French people, who had vested their hopes for change in me.
"I think it was a moral failing and I am not proud of it. I regret it infinitely. I have regretted it everyday for the past four months and I think I'm not done regretting it," he said at the start of the 20-minute interview. Much of the exchange came off as staged, with Strauss-Kahn appearing calm and unruffled throughout and not surprised by the questions.
Strauss-Kahn's initial contrition was peppered with anger at his accuser, a Guinean immigrant who maintained he attacked her after she came into his room at New York's Sofitel hotel to clean.
He said the New York prosecutor concluded "Nafissatou Diallo lied about everything — not only about her past, that's of no importance, but also about what happened. The (prosecutor's) report says, it's written there, that 'she presented so many different versions of what happened that I can't believe a word.'"
Strauss-Kahn suggested that financial motives might have been behind Diallo's accusations.
He also dismissed as "imaginary" separate claims by a French writer that he tried to rape her during a 2003 interview, again insisting "no act of aggression, no violence" had taken place between the two.
The writer, Tristane Banon, has maintained she and Strauss-Kahn tussled on the floor during an interview in an empty apartment, with the politician trying to open her jeans and bra and putting his fingers in her mouth and underwear.
Because a police investigation into the claims is ongoing, Strauss-Kahn said he would not say anything more about the matter. If Paris prosecutors decide to pursue the case, Strauss-Kahn could face a possible trial.
New York prosecutors dropped all criminal charges against him in the Diallo case last month, though Strauss-Kahn is still facing a lawsuit brought by the maid.
Asked whether he had any intention of returning to politics, Strauss-Kahn said he would "take time to reflect" and rest first.
"But all my life was consecrated to being useful to the public good," he said, adding "we will see."
The AP does not name people who report being sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified or come forward publicly, as Diallo and Banon have done.
 Dominique Strauss-Kahn
 

Russian Tycoon Punches Fellow Billionaire on TV

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian tycoon has punched a fellow billionaire on a television panel show after a discussion on the financial crisis degenerated into petty name-calling.
Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB operative and owner of two major newspapers in Britain, wrote on his blog that property developer Sergei Polonsky had earned the clobbering by behaving abusively throughout the recording of the program.
In a preview clip posted on the NTV channel's website before the show airing Sunday evening, Polonsky is seen saying that he sometimes felt like "bashing (Lebedev) in the face," prompting the newspaper owner to jump to his feet.
After sitting back down, Lebedev then swiftly delivered a sucker punch, sending Polonsky tumbling to the ground.
The clip then shows Lebedev squaring up to a stunned Polonsky as the presenter puts himself between the two men.
Writing on his blog, Lebedev displayed no sign of contrition.
"Unfortunately, NTV viewers cannot see how Polonsky behaved during the one-and-a-half hour recording. Everybody could see that he was absolutely off his head," Lebedev wrote.
After the recording, Polonsky complained he had sustained a hand injury and that his jeans were ripped. That drew only mocking incredulity from Lebedev.
"Now, he's showing his ripped pants, and it is hard to say anything about that. He was hit in the face and he's showing off a hole in the backside of his trousers. Strange," Lebedev wrote.
Lebedev, who is estimated by Forbes magazine to have a net worth of $3.1 billion, made his money in the banking industry and owns a 30 percent stake in Russian airline Aeroflot. He also finances Novaya Gazeta, a Russian opposition newspaper, and two British newspapers — the Independent and the Evening Standard.
Scuffles and heated exchanges between guests are common on Russian political discussion shows.
Perhaps the most famous such incident took place in 1995, when nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky threw his drink, and then his glass, at his opponent during a television debate.
 

Bahraini Protesters to Return to Pearl Sq.

LONDON (IRNA) – The Bahrain Freedom Movement (BFM) is appealing to world leaders to prevent a bloodbath threatened by the country's regime when protesters attempt to return Pearl Roundabout this weekend.
September 23 and 24 were described as “the two days of reckoning” as the people of Bahrain seek to mourn those who were killed during pro-democracy demonstrations at the roundabout in mid March.
Preparations are being made to ensure a successful and peacef

Death Toll Hits 60 as Violence Rocks Yemen Capital

SANAA (Dispatches) – Gunfire and shelling rocked Sanaa for the third straight day on Tuesday as the toll from the worst outbreak of violence in Yemen's capital in months spiraled to 60 dead with hundreds wounded.
Fresh fighting between dissident military troops and those loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh broke out at dawn and raged into the morning, leaving another seven people dead and 16 wounded, medics and witnesses said.
"Four civilians and three soldiers from the First Armoured Brigade were killed," a medical official said, referring to dissident troops led by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar.
A brief lull that lasted only a few hours during the night was followed by fierce battles involving automatic gunfire and shelling, witnesses said.
Republican Guard troops, commanded by Saleh's son Ahmed, shelled posts held by Ahmar's troops around Change Square, epicenter of the anti-regime protests that have shaken Yemen for months, witnesses said.
They added that the shelling was coming from Hada district in Sanaa's south.
The protesters, camped at Sanaa's Change Square and nearby Al-Zubairi Road, spoke of fierce fighting between the rival military forces.
Change Square was targeted by mortar rounds and anti-aircraft fire, with one witness describing it as the "heaviest shelling" yet and saying it "lit the sky over the square."
Protest organizers told AFP the numbers of demonstrators camped in an area stretching about three kilometers (two miles) from Change Square to Al-Zubairi Road had swelled to nearly 150,000. Their figures could not immediately be verified.
A shell hit Al-Iman University near the square killing one and wounding three others, said university spokesman Ayed al-Zindani.
Mortar rounds also fell near the field hospital set up at Change Square in which six people were wounded, said activist Walid al-Amari.
Ahmar's troops and members of the protesters' security committee deployed heavily in the area surrounding the square and set up checkpoints at its entrances, witnesses said.
Private schools, banks and governments buildings surrounding the square and in nearby neighborhoods were shut, they added.

Snipers Kill Cameraman

Yemeni regime forces have shot and killed a cameraman that was filming anti-government protest rallies in the capital city of Sana'a.
The Arabia Agency's cameraman, Hassan Waddaf, was shot in the eye by snipers when he was filming the clashes between regime forces and protesters on Tuesday, AP reported.
The development comes after regime forces shelled an anti-government protesters' camp in Sana'a, killing 3 and injuring several others shortly after dawn.
Nearly 70 demonstrators, including a 10-month-old baby, have been killed and hundreds more injured in Sana'a and the southern city of Taizz during the fierce crackdown on protesters in the past three days.
Regime forces have also attacked a hospital near Change Square in Sana'a.
Anti-government protesters in are seen in Sana'a inn this file photo.


US Urges Turkey to Defuse Row With Zionists

NEW YORK (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Turkey to defuse tension and repair strategic ties with the Zionist regime as Washington values them both as allies, US officials said.
Washington has expressed mounting concern about the bitter row between Turkey and the occupying regime over a May 2010 Israeli commando raid on an aid flotilla heading to the Gaza Strip that left nine Turks dead.
In her meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in New York, Clinton "made clear that this is not a time when we need more tension, more volatility in the region," a senior US official said on condition of anonymity.
The chief US diplomat and Davutoglu met before US President Barack Obama holds talks Tuesday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as they gather for the UN General Assembly opening Wednesday.
The United States has offered to mediate an end to the Zionist-Turkish crisis -- which analysts said could also harm ties between NATO allies Washington and Ankara -- but Davutoglu has rejected the US offer.
Washington stressed that the countries are "two close friends and allies of the United States, and urged them to keep the door open," another US State Department official told reporters.
It asked Turkey to "avoid steps that would close that door, and on the contrary to actively seek ways that they can repair their important relationship with Israel," the official said.
"It's not really for us to structure the detailed path forward in the way Turkey and Israel are going to relate to each other," the official said.
"We want to be helpful if we can but ultimately they need to talk to each other," the official said, adding it is not for Washington "to write the plan."
The Zionist regime and Turkey have been locked in a bitter dispute since May 2010 when the regime’s naval commandos stormed a convoy of six ships trying to reach the Gaza Strip and break an Israeli naval blockade.
Earlier this month, Turkey expelled the Zionist regime’s ambassador and froze military ties and military trade deals. Ties strained even further when Erdogan threatened to send warships to escort any Turkish vessels trying to reach Hamas-ruled Gaza.
The United Nations criticized Israel for using "excessive" force in the 2010 raid, but upheld Israel's right to impose a naval blockade on Gaza. The occupying regime has refused Turkish demands for an apology.

Senators Urge Pro-Zionist Stance

US senators urged President Barack Obama to use his speech to the United Nations to restate strong US support for the Zionist regime amid tensions with Turkey and a Palestinian push for statehood.
"The world needs to hear unequivocally from you that Israel -- our friend, ally, and strategic partner -- is not alone in facing these threats," 14 lawmakers said in a letter released a Obama arrived in New York.
The senators accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of "anti-Israeli rhetoric," the attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo, and the Palestinians' push to raise their status at the world body.
"We believe it is imperative for you to speak strongly, forthrightly and publicly about US concerns over these developments," they wrote to the president, who was to address the UN General Assembly.
Zionist troops push back Palestinians at a demo calling for Palestinian statehood in the West Bank.


Washington Prods Moscow to Back UN 'Statement' on Syria

NEW YORK (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Russia to support a "strong statement" at the UN Security Council over Syria's crackdown on protests, senior US officials said.
In her talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Clinton expressed "our interest in seeing the Security Council go on record with a strong statement on Syria," a senior administration official said on condition of anonymity.
"The Russians as well are concerned about the situation in Syria, and the violence," the official told reporters after the two top diplomats held talks ahead of the UN General Assembly opening Wednesday in New York.
"The secretary urged Foreign Minister Lavrov to support a strong expression from the Security Council because she doesn't believe the United Nations Security Council should be silent in the face of such inexcusable violence," he said.
The official did not elaborate on what form the statement should take.
Russia last month proposed a UN Security Council resolution on Syria that would omit Western calls to sanction President Bashar al-Assad for his crackdown on opposition protests, diplomats said.
Another senior US administration official said that "the secretary made a strong case for why a Security Council action is necessary this time, given the actions that the Syrian government is taking against its own people.
"Foreign Minister Lavrov presented his perspective, which was that the best way forward is through dialogue between Assad and members of the opposition," the official said.
"The secretary encouraged him to think carefully about the role that the Security Council could play," he said.
"I cannot say that the foreign minister agreed to that, but the secretary's position was unequivocal. It was firm and it's a position that we'll continue to advocate to the Russians and others as we go forward," he said.
"And the Russians did agree during the meeting to continue having the conversation over how the Security Council could act on the situation in Syria going forward," the official said.


Egypt Bars Islamic Political Party

CAIRO (AP) – Egypt has barred formation of a new political party by an Islamic group that was once involved in a bloody insurgency.
Egypt's state news agency said the Political Parties' Affairs Committee rejected the request by al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya because its proposed party is based on “religious grounds in violation of the law.”
It was also rejected because it advocates a strict interpretation and implementation of Islamic law, known in Arabic as “hudoud,'' under which thieves can be punished by cutting off their hands and murderers can face beheading.
Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, once Egypt's largest militant group, waged an insurrection against the government in the 1990s, but have since renounced violence.
The group's mufti, or leader, Abdel-Akher Hamad, who spent years in exile in Germany, said his group calls for Sharia law just as the Egyptian constitution, which considers Sharia the main source of legislation.
“The decision is unjustified,'' he said. “We were shocked.''
After the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February, Egypt's ruling military council issued a decree easing conditions for forming new political parties.
The new order gives citizens the right to establish parties by notifying the newly established judicial committee. The party would be recognized 30 days later, if the committee does not object.
There are limitations. The council banned the formation of political parties on religious grounds and those discriminating against citizens based on their race or faith.
Egypt's largest and most influential Islamic group, the Muslim Brotherhood, announced formation of Freedom and Justice Party. The ultraconservative Salafists also formed its Light party. Both skirted the religious issues in their platforms.
Also, a former leader of Mubarak's National Democratic party has approval of the committee and formed a party named “Unity.” Hossam Badrawi, who was the NDP secretary general, is among the party's founders.
In April, an Egyptian court ordered the dissolving of the NDP.
Egyptians hold a demonstration at Liberation Square in Cairo.


Saudi Jails Holding 30,000 Political Prisoners

RIYADH (Press TV) – Activists in Saudi Arabia say there are more than 30,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscious, in jails across the Kingdom, Press TV has learned.
According to the activists, most of the detained political thinkers are being held by the government without trials or legitimate charges and that they were arrested for merely appearing suspicious.
Some of the detainees are reported to be held without trial for more than 16 years.
Attempting to incite the public against the monarchy and allegiance to foreign entities are usually the ready-made charges leveled against political dissidents.
Families of political prisoners have repeatedly pleaded with the ruling monarch to at least give their loved ones a fair trial. However, the king has for years ignored their calls.
Over the past months, Saudi activists in the Eastern Province have staged several anti-government protests, demanding reforms and immediate release of political prisoners.
Their campaign for human rights reform, freedom of expression and political reforms ended with an unexpected outcome: the anti-terror law, which gives the ministry of interior superior powers to detain suspects incommunicado for up to 120 days amendable to indefinite extension.
The law also defines terror crimes as any action endangering national unity, an ambiguous definition which can be extended to peaceful demonstrations.
Human Rights Watch says more than 160 dissidents have been arrested since February as part of the Saudi government's crackdown on anti-government protesters.
According to the Saudi-based Human Rights First Society (HRFS), the detainees were subject to torture both physically and mentally.


Police kill Kidnappers of Estonian Bikers in Lebanon

BEIRUT (DPA) – The Lebanese police said on Tuesday that they have killed two people who were involved in the kidnapping earlier this year of the seven Estonian bikers in eastern Lebanon.
"The police force ambushed at dawn in the eastern town of Beery two armed men who were involved in the kidnapping of the Estonian nationals in March 23," a statement by the Lebanese Internal Security force (ISF) said.
"The police force tried to block the road but the suspects' vehicle overran the roadblock which prompted the police to shoot and kill the two suspects," a statement by the ISF said.
It added one policeman was injured in the incident.
The seven Estonians were freed in Lebanon in July almost five months after being abducted by armed men as they entered the country on a bicycle tour from neighboring Syria.


UK Soldier Killed in S Afghanistan

KABUL (Press TV) – A British Marine has been killed in Afghanistan in the southern province of Helmand, British Ministry of Defense officials announced.
The soldier was on a foot patrol with the Afghan army in the Khorgajat area of the Nahr-e Saraj district, the Ministry of Defense said.
“The Royal Marine was part of a foot patrol in support of the Afghan National Army, when they came under small arms fire,” AFP quoted Task Force Helmand spokesman Major Rolf Kurth as saying.
The Ministry of Defense said he and fellow soldiers were patrolling with members of the Afghan National Army when the shooting happened.
The incident brings the death toll for British troops serving in Afghanistan to 382 since operations began in October 2001. Of these, 338 were killed in combat.
Britain has about 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, making it the second-largest contributor to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.