U.S. NATURAL CALAMITY: Hurricane Irene has now killed 40 people!!!

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NDTV / Associated Press, Updated: August 30, 2011 11:02 IST.

New York:  The full measure of Hurricane Irene's fury came into focus Monday as the death toll jumped to 40, New England towns battled epic floods and millions faced the dispiriting prospect of several days without electricity.

From North Carolina to Maine, communities cleaned up and took stock of the uneven and hard-to-predict costs of a storm that spared the nation's biggest city a nightmare scenario, only to deliver a historic wallop to towns well inland.

In New York City, where people had braced for a disaster-movie scene of water swirling around skyscrapers, the subways and buses were up and running again in time for the Monday morning commute. And to the surprise of many New Yorkers, things went pretty smoothly.

But in New England, landlocked Vermont contended with what its governor called the worst flooding in a century. Streams also raged out of control in upstate New York.

In many cases, the moment of maximum danger arrived well after the storm had passed, as rainwater made its way into rivers and streams and turned them into torrents. Irene dumped up to 11 inches of rain on Vermont and more than 13 in parts of New York.

"We were expecting heavy rains," said Bobbi-Jean Jeun of Clarksville, a hamlet near Albany, N.Y. "We were expecting flooding. We weren't expecting devastation. It looks like somebody set a bomb off."

Meanwhile, the 11-state death toll, which had stood at 21 as of Sunday night, rose sharply as bodies were pulled from floodwaters and people were electrocuted by downed power lines.

Rest at,

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/hurricane-irene-has-now-killed-40-people-130029

          

U.S. NATURAL CALAMITY: Hurricane Irene leads to 11 deaths!!

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hosted.ap.org / Aug 28, 9:59 AM EDT.

Hurricane Irene had led to the deaths of 11 people in five states as of Sunday morning:

CONNECTICUT:

- In Prospect, one person was killed in a fire that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said apparently was caused by wires knocked down by the storm.

FLORIDA:

- In Volusia County, 55-year-old Frederick Fernandez died Saturday off New Smyrna Beach after he was tossed off his board by massive waves caused by Irene. The Orlando Sentinel reports the high school teacher had a large cut on his head, apparently from hitting the sea floor. He was pronounced dead shortly after being pulled from the water.

- In Flagler County, 55-year-old tourist James Palmer of New Jersey died Saturday in rough surf. Family members say they lost sight of him after he waded into the surf in North Florida. He was pulled to shore and his wife attempted CPR, but he was pronounced dead at the hospital.

MARYLAND:

- In Queen Anne's County, a woman was killed when a tree fell on a house and caused the chimney to collapse. Another person in the house was not hurt

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Irene, a bit weaker, begins its destructive run!

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By MICHAEL BIESECKER and JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press / hosted.ap.org / Aug 27, 2:22 PM EDT.

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (AP) - Hurricane Irene opened its assault on the Eastern Seaboard on Saturday by lashing the North Carolina coast with wind as strong as 115 mph and pounding shoreline homes with waves. Farther north, authorities readied a massive shutdown of trains and airports, with 2 million people ordered out of the way.

The center of the storm, which was estimated to be some 500 miles wide, passed over North Carolina's Outer Banks for its official landfall just after 7:30 a.m. EDT. The hurricane's vast reach traced the East Coast from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to just below Cape Cod. Tropical storm conditions battered Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, with the worst to come.

On Saturday afternoon, forecasters said Irene's effects could be felt as far north as Canada even after it weakens. A tropical storm warning extended from the U.S. border to Nova Scotia's southern coast.

Irene weakened slightly, with sustained winds down to 85 mph from about 100 a day earlier, making it a Category 1, the least threatening on the scale. The National Hurricane Center reported gusts of 115 mph and storm-surge waves as high as 7 feet.

The first death from the storm was reported in Nash County, N.C., outside Raleigh, where emergency officials said a man was crushed by a large limb that blew off a tree.

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PAK CAULDRON: Bomb planted in tricycle kills 8 in Pakistan!

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Associated Press / ibnlive.in.com / Posted on Aug 25, 2011 at 11:02pm IST.

Peshawar: A bomb planted in a child's tricycle exploded outside a shop in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least eight people and damaging several stores and hotels, police said.

The attack occurred in the main bazaar in the town of Risalpur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Mohammad Hussain, police chief for surrounding Nowshera district. Shoppers were buying goods for an upcoming Muslim holiday when the bomb went off. At least nine people were wounded, Hussain said.

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http://ibnlive.in.com/news/bomb-planted-in-tricycle-kills-8-in-pakistan/178595-56.html

Five killed in Haryana cracker factory blast

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zeenews.india.com / Last Updated: Tuesday, August 23, 2011, 08:42.

Chandigarh: At least five people were killed and over a dozen injured in a blast in a cracker factory in Haryana's Karnal district late Monday, police said.

Located in village Goh Mughal Majra, the factory engulfed in fire following the blast that occurred at about 6.30 pm.

The injured were rushed to different hospitals in Karnal town, 130 km from Chandigarh, and were being treated, police officials said.

Karnal deputy commissioner Neelam Pradeep Kasni visited rushed to the trauma centre of the hospital and sent officers to the blast site.

Residents of the area told the police that the sound of the blast was heard even five km away.

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http://zeenews.india.com/news/haryana/five-killed-in-haryana-cracker-factory-blast_727721.html

PAK CAULDRON: Bomb attack kills 30 in Pakistan mosque: official!

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August 19, 2011 / AFP, Peshawar, Pakistan / DC.

A bomb exploded in a Pakistani mosque during the main Friday prayers, killing at least 30 people and wounding more than 70 others in the tribal district of Khyber, an official said.

It was the deadliest attack for two months in the nuclear-armed Muslim country awash with violence blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks where US special forces killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.

The bomb exploded as hundreds of people had packed into the mosque in the town of Jamrud, 25 kilometres (16 miles) from Peshawar, the main city in the northwest where most of the violence in Pakistan is concentrated.

"At least 24 people have been killed and more than 70 were injured. The bomb blast took place inside the mosque," Mutahar Zeb, the top administrative official of the semi-autonomous district, told AFP.

"There are body parts, there is mutilated flesh so we can't say whether it was a planted bomb or a suicide attack," he added.

Sayed Ahmed Jan, a senior administrative official, initially said seven people died, but with more than 50 people wounded he warned there were fears that the death toll could rise.

Like the rest of the Muslim world, Pakistan is observing the holy month of Ramadan in which faithful fast from dawn to dusk.

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http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/world/asia/bomb-attack-kills-30-pakistan-mosque-official-928

Pakistan's commercial capital on the boil!

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Anita Joshua, The Hindu / August 19, 2011.

A woman gestures toward a bullet-riddled wall after security forces took control of a troubled area of Karachi after several days of ethnic violence that killed at least 93 people in July 2011. Photo: AP.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says Karachi is in the grip of a multisided wave of insecurity driven political, ethnic and sectarian polarisation.

Even by Karachi's own standards, the recent spate of ethnopolitical violence has been brutal and prolonged. For well over a month now, Pakistan's largest city and commercial capital has been on the boil, with 318 people killed in July alone. And, according to a body count done by the Human Rights Commission of akistan (HRCP), 1,138 people were killed in the first six months of this year.

The HRCP's count, by its own admission, is usually conservative but with 1,456 people killed and still counting — nearly 40 people including a former member of the National Assembly have been killed since Wednesday evening — violence has become a constant in Karachi this year. To the extent that people, according to Karachi-based civil society activist Zeenia Shaukat, have learnt to adjust themselves to the threat levels. “When vehicles are set on fire in a certain area, people don't step out of their houses; when shops are forcibly shut, people wait for a while and try to find out if the grocery shops are serving back door. Also, if one reads on a TV ticker that there is tension in a certain part of the city, and if one is planning to go out, one will take another route.” When a city remains in the grip of violence for such long stretches and so frequently, staying indoors is a luxury few can afford.

Especially since the brunt of what is described as “organised warfare” has been felt most in the poorer quarters of the city. Some of the affected have openly said Israeli atrocities on Palestinians are not a patch on what Karachi'ites are going through in this seemingly never-ending turf war among the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Though there was a time when the MQM — representing the Urdu-speaking populace which had migrated to the city and Hyderabad following Partition — was identified with much of the violence, today nobody can quite say who the biggest villain of the piece is, as all are equally culpable.

What is worse is the extent of the ethnic rivalry. Increasingly, there are reports of one community barring people from the other from being treated in hospitals, burying their dead or sending their children to school in its areas. When violence peaks, such is the level of ethnic profiling that an innocent bystander's attire could get him into trouble, with the Urdu-speaker identified by his trousers and the Pashtun by his salwar kameez.

While all major political claimants to the city — which is said to account for 20 per cent of Pakistan's GDP — have their areas of influence, local media reports suggest that the perennial sense of insecurity is leading to ghettoisation which will only deepen the fault lines. Through it all, as per the HRCP's fact-finding mission, the law-enforcing agencies either looked the other way, abandoned their posts, delayed responding to distress calls or just joined hands with the criminals. In fact, there have been reports of the police suggesting violence to victims as a remedy for their misfortune.

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http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2370349.ece?homepage=true

IRAQ HEADACHE: 60 killed as wave of violence rolls across Iraq!

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By HAMID AHMED and SINAN SALAHEDDIN / Associated Press / Aug 15, 9:42 AM EDT.

KUT, Iraq (AP) -- Bomb blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities Monday, killing 60 security forces and civilians in the worst attack this year, one that highlighted al-Qaida's resolve and ability to wreak havoc.

The bloodbath comes less than two weeks after Iraqi officials said they would be open to a small number of U.S. forces staying in the country past a Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline.

The blasts were coordinated to go off Monday morning and included parked car bombs, roadside bombs, a suicide bomber driving a vehicle that rammed into a police station and even bombs attached to lightpoles.

The scope of the violence - seven explosions went off in different towns in Diyala province alone - emphasized that insurgents are still able to carry out attacks despite repeated crackdowns by Iraqi and U.S. forces.

Iraqis were furious at security officials and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"Where is the government with all these explosions across the country? Where is al-Maliki? Why doesn't he come to see?" said Ali Jumaa Ziad, a shopowner in Kut, where the worst of the violence occurred. Ziad was brushing pieces of human flesh from the floor and off equipment in his shop.

Al-Maliki's spokesman and the military spokesman did not answer telephone calls.

Twin explosions rocked the market in Kut, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, where Ziad works.

Police spokesman Lt. Col. Dhurgam Mohammed Hassan said the first bomb went off in a freezer used to keep drinks cold. As rescuers and onlookers gathered, a parked car bomb exploded; 35 people were killed and 64 injured.

Police sealed off the area where human flesh was scattered on the ground and bloodstained walls were punctured by shrapnel.

Earlier this month, Iraqi political leaders announced they would begin negotiations with the U.S. to determine whether to keep a small number of American forces in the country past Dec. 31.

All U.S. troops must leave by the end of this year, but both Iraqi and U.S. officials have expressed concern about the ability of Iraqi forces to protect the country.

Theodore Karasik, a Middle East security expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analyst, said al-Qaida in Iraq is trying to disrupt the internal Iraqi political process and send a message to the Americans.

"It seems that al-Qaida in Iraq is playing a propaganda game at the same time it's trying to show that it can still carry out deadly violence," Karasik said. "If the U.S. extends its military presence, al-Qaida in Iraq can use it as a tool by saying, `Look, the Americans have reversed their decision to leave and are staying on as occupiers.' They could use this as a justification for more attacks."

In Diyala province, seven bombs went off in the capital of Baquba and towns nearby, said Faris al-Azawi, the province's health spokesman. Five soldiers were killed in Baquba while five people were killed in other attacks around the province.

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LONDON RIOTS: 3 killed, 750 arrested!

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Altamash Hashmi, CNN-IBN / Updated Aug 10, 2011 at 09:09pm IST.

New Delhi: A massive police presence and hundreds of arrests have helped calm the situation in London where riots have raged for the past four days. However, other cities like Birmingham and Manchester are now seeing similar chaos, with mobs looting stores, burning property and attacking police stations.

Britain is going through its worst mob violence in decades and now people are coming out on the streets to protect their businesses, while demanding tougher response from law enforcement agencies.

A resident of Enfield Resident said, "They need to feel afraid of harming families. I've got a family. We do not want families and kids crying in their own houses feeling unsafe because the police are not containing and crushing this stupid uprising of a load of hoodies who are just bums."

"We are the Enfield anti-rioting squad. You want to riot our turf then let's have it mate. We are here to smash you up. You want to riot our place, we will riot you mate. This is our area not your area," said another resident.

The riots in London have stopped, after a tough crackdown of 750 arrests, 16000 policemen deployed, but they have spread to even more cities:

In Manchester where Mobs attacked shops.

In Birmingham, Three British Asians were killed while protecting their family.

Full Story at,

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/london-riots-3-killed-750-arrested/174672-2.html