Nearly four months after the chimney collapse which claimed 41 lives at the Vedanta Resources-controlled Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd’s upcoming power plant in Korba district of Chhattisgarh, police today arrested three Chinese officials in connection with the incident. Police said Shandong Electric Power Construction Corp (SEPCO) project in-charge Woo Chunan, engineers O Lou and Wan Qung were arrested and produced before Korba judicial magistrate Sarojnand Das who rejected their bail plea and sent them to judicial custody. After the September 23 incident, police had registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and common intention under Sections 304 and 34 of the IPC and other provisions dealing with voluntarily causing grievous hurt. Four Chinese officials were told to remain in the country while 70 others were allowed to return to China. Earlier, police had arrested Manoj Sharma, project manager of Gannon Dunkerley & Company Limited (GDCL) which was engaged in construction of two industrial chimneys for the BALCO power plant. BALCO vice-president and project manager Viral Mehta, assistant general manager (project) Deepak Narang and graduate trainee engineer Anoop Mahapatra were also arrested. BALCO had entrusted work of the power plant to SEPCO which had sub-contracted the chimney construction work to the GDCL. Sources said police action against the Chinese officials came after the investigating team received a detailed report from Raipur-based National Institute of Technology which studied the chimney collapse. A judicial commission, headed by district and sessions judge Sandeep Bakshi, is also probing the circumstances that led to the chimney crash.
Yemen's president vowed over the weekend to track down al-Qaeda militants who refuse to renounce terrorism, as President Obama affirmed in a magazine interview that he has no plans at the moment to send troops to Yemen in response to concerns that the terrorist network's presence has become more dangerous in that country. The comments by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a longtime ruler who has been accused of vacillating about his country's Islamic extremists, underscored a growing sense in Yemen that his government could be imperiled if stronger actions are not taken. But Saleh also told Abu Dhabi TV that "we are ready to talk with any person who gives up violence and terrorism," extending an olive branch to extremists in keeping with political resentment in the country over close ties to Washington. "Dialogue is the best way" even with al-Qaeda, Saleh said. But if al-Qaeda continues "sabotage and terrorist acts," he said, his government is "determined to stand up to the challenges." Saleh's willingness to enter discussions with al-Qaeda came a day after Yemen's most influential cleric, Sheik Abdul Majid al-Zindani, railed against what he branded as American pressure on Yemen to combat al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the affiliate that has claimed responsibility for the failed Christmas Day bomb plot on Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Zindani, whom the United States has characterized as a terrorist for his alleged ties to al-Qaeda, also charged that Washington and the United Nations wanted to "impose an international occupation of Yemen."
Saleh's comments made it clear that he would deal with al-Qaeda on his own terms, even as the Obama administration is boosting overall aid and doubling its counterterrorism funding for the country. The Yemeni government has been fragmented by insurgencies and is beset by popular frustration. But Yemeni officials in recent days have bluntly said they do not want American troops on their soil, fearing that such a deployment would only generate more support for al-Qaeda.
Obama's remarks on Friday to People magazine, released in part on Sunday in advance of publication next week, appeared designed in part to soothe those concerns. Obama said, "We've known throughout this year that al-Qaeda in Yemen has become a more serious problem." He said that "the same is true in Somalia, another country where there are large chunks that are not fully under government control and al-Qaeda is trying to take advantage of them."The president said that while he never ruled out any possibilities, he has "no intention of sending U.S. boots on the ground in those regions" while the local governments remain effective partners. Alluding to local resistance likely to meet any U.S. military presence, Obama said Washington must consider "how we project ourselves to the world, the message we send to Muslim communities . . . the overwhelming majority of which reject al-Qaeda but where a handful of individuals may be moved by a jihadist ideology." Obama said he favors a "larger process of winning over the hearts and minds of ordinary people and isolating these violent extremists." Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has the support of many powerful, well-armed tribes, especially in the southern and eastern parts of the country, which dislike any interference by the central government on their lands. There are vast stretches of ungoverned areas where the government has little or no authority whatsoever. "The problem the president faces is that his power is getting weaker," said Abdullah al-Faqih, a professor of political science at Sanaa University. "I do agree with him that U.S. involvement in terms of troops and air strikes is not going to help him. But at the same time, I don't see how he can get anything done without a partnership with the United States." Saleh has had a long history of striking deals with Islamic militants. He deployed them against the southern secessionists in a brief 1994 civil war, and many analysts say he is currently deploying them against Shiite rebels in the north. Despite U.S. complaints, the government has also freed key al-Qaeda figures after they promised not to engage in terrorism. They included Jamal al-Badawi, who helped orchestrate the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors. Yemen has refused to extradite him to the United States, citing Yemen's constitution, which prohibits its citizens' extradition.
Hundreds of suspected militants have been processed through a rehabilitation program, then released. The program is now widely seen in the West as a failure, but top Yemeni officials continue to call it a success. Among those set free was Fahd al-Quso, who was sentenced by Yemen to 10 years in prison for his role in the Cole bombing. Today, he is active again in al-Qaeda, say analysts and Yemeni officials.
Prosecutors have blamed the attempted Christmas Day bombing on a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who they say previously spent time with al-Qaeda operatives based in Yemen. Obama last week suspended the repatriation of any of the nearly 100 Yemeni prisoners remaining at the U.S. military's Guantanamo prison. Obama told People magazine that "I do think it's important to recognize that the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan remains the epicenter of al-Qaeda, their leadership, and their extremist allies."
'Not guilty' plea in bomb plot caseA Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a US-bound plane on Christmas Day has had a plea of not guilty entered for him during his first appearance in a US court. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab made his first court appearance on Friday in the city of Detroit, to hear six charges over the alleged failed attempt to set off a bomb stitched into his underwear on a Northwest Airlines transatlantic flight. The 23-year-old said little during his brief appearance in the Detroit court, in which Mark Randon, a US magistrate, entered the not guilty plea on his behalf. Tom Ackerman, Al Jazeera's correspondent, said that the not guilty plea could mean that the government will either have to present its case against Abdulmutallab or could negotiate with him to enter a different plea. "Supposedly there were many witnesses so the government does not have to rely on a confession from him. So it remains to be seen what shape any plea would take."
Protest outside court
Ackerman said Abdulmutallab was indicted for attempted murder of the 290 people on board the plane. "But this charge does not carry the longest sentence. Rather, the most serious of the six charges is trying to use a weapon of mass destruction", he said.Ackerman said that Abdulmutallab may also be detained indefinitely for illegal alien entry to the US. He added that about 100 residents of Detroit - which has one of the largest Arab communities outside the Middle East - demonstrated outside the court in solidarity with the US government and against al-Qaeda who they said were trying to smear all Muslims. Allegedly linked to al-Qaeda, Abdulmutallab's failed attack on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit has triggered worldwide security alarm. In particular, it has led the United States to adopt stringent new screening and security measures at airports. Dozens of names have also been added to no-fly lists. Barack Obama, the US president, on Thursday ordered a sweeping overhaul of flawed intelligence services but said "ultimately the buck stops with me". Obama said intelligence agencies had the necessary information to prevent the bomb attempt but failed to connect and understand the disparate pieces of data. The measures outlined at the White House included wider and quicker distribution of intelligence reports and stronger analysis of them, as well as tightened passenger screening and expanded watch lists. But he warned that "there is, of course, no foolproof solution".
'Systemic failure'
The White House also released a report on Thursday of how the alleged bomber in the December 25 failed attack managed to elude the authorities and board the Detroit-bound plane with explosives.The six-page summary of the report given to Obama stated that US intelligence officials had received unspecified "discreet pieces of intelligence" as early as October to identify Abdulmutallab as an al-Qaeda operative and keep him off the plane. But officials did not increase their focus on the threat and did not pull together fragments of data needed to foil the scheme, said the summary. Obama said the "incident was not the fault of a single individual or organisation, but rather a systemic failure across organisations and agencies". "I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer. For ultimately the buck stops with me," he added. "As president I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people, and when the system fails, it is my responsibility."
As the Obama administration confronts the latest terrorism threat in Yemen, its diplomatic and development efforts are being constrained by a shortage of resources, a lack of in-house expertise and a fraught history with a Yemeni leader deeply ambivalent about American help.Administration officials said they focused on Yemen as a hothouse for Islamic terrorism from the day President Obama took office. The United States has tripled its foreign assistance to the country from 2008 levels and plans to spend up to $63 million on Yemen this year. But by all accounts, that is a modest amount for a country that is suddenly a central threat on the foreign policy landscape; it is roughly the same amount the United States sends to Serbia. It illustrates how much the United States is stretched on the foreign policy front, and how hard it is to extend its resources beyond the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Beyond providing military and intelligence help — showcased in recent airstrikes on training sites for Al Qaeda — the administration has yet to develop a coherent plan for dealing with Yemen’s pervasive poverty and corruption, according to former diplomats and outside experts. Those ills, they say, are at the root of Yemen’s lure for terrorists.
“I don’t think we have a strategy for Yemen; I think we have some responses,” said Edmund J. Hull, the American ambassador there from 2001 to 2004. “It’s difficult to do because the problems in Yemen are so huge that you almost get stopped before you start.”
In an overburdened State Department, there are only a handful of Yemen experts, compared with 30 people from nine government agencies who are assigned just to the administration’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke. Washington’s limited insight into Yemen was on display Thursday, when the White House’s chief counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, expressed surprise that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was sophisticated enough to carry out a plot against an American jetliner. In fact, Mr. Brennan, a onetime C.I.A. station chief in neighboring Saudi Arabia, is widely regarded as one of the administration’s most knowledgeable officials about the country. “It’s not that Yemen is the most mysterious and unknowable country in the world,” said Micah Zenko, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “One needs to ask why more wasn’t done sooner.” The State Department said it had decided to step up its engagement with Yemen even before the botched Dec. 25 attack on the jetliner. In September, the United States signed an agreement with the Yemeni government for a three-year, $120 million “stabilization program,” devised to create jobs and improve health and other public services on an accelerated timetable. “We wanted to put together a package of quick-impact projects that would give people a sense that their lives are improving,” said Janet A. Sanderson, a deputy assistant secretary of state who oversees Yemen. After the Navy destroyer Cole was bombed in Yemen in 2000, the United States embarked on a similar effort. In addition to focusing on counterterrorism operations, the State Department helped finance projects like a health clinic on the rugged highway between the capital, Sana, and Marib, a town in a remote region where Qaeda forces are known to cluster. Improving health care is one way to make Yemenis less receptive to Al Qaeda and other extremists, Mr. Hull said. The United States had previously tended to focus its economic aid on politically influential places like Sana and Aden, the port city where the Cole was attacked. From 2002 to 2004, officials said, Qaeda elements in Yemen were on the defensive. But Washington’s relations with Yemen soured after several Qaeda suspects escaped from a prison in Sana in 2006. After the release of a high-profile Qaeda operative in 2007, the United States suspended aid that Yemen was supposed to get through the Millennium Challenge program. “You had this reversal and downward trend in relations,” Mr. Hull said. “Both we and they took our eyes off the ball.” By 2008, nonmilitary aid to Yemen had dwindled to less than $20 million. Afghanistan is expected to receive $2.7 billion a year in nonmilitary aid, Pakistan $1.5 billion and Iraq $500 million. The administration doubled Yemen’s economic aid last year, but as Barbara K. Bodine, another former ambassador, pointed out, the amount “works out to $1.60 per Yemeni.” “That won’t even buy you a cup of coffee in Yemen,” she added, “and they invented coffee.” Ms. Bodine, who was posted to Yemen at the time of the Cole bombing, said that even with the increased commitment, American aid was still overly skewed toward military support, much of it covert. Over time, she said, that could undermine Yemen’s struggling democracy. “If they see David Petraeus more than Kathleen Sebelius, then we have a problem,” Ms. Bodine said, referring to the military commander and the secretary of health and human services. State Department officials acknowledge that the United States has limited resources for Yemen, though given the intense scrutiny focused on the country, those numbers could rise. But they question whether more aid money would be used effectively, given the pervasive corruption there. As it is, the United States steers most of its dollars through outside organizations like CARE. Officials also say the United States has to be realistic about what can be done in Yemen, given a long list of problems, including a water shortage, dwindling oil reserves and secessionist movements in the south, a major insurgency in the north and a growing young population with no jobs. In a speech this week on development strategy, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton came close to labeling Yemen a lost cause. “In countries that are incubators of extremism, like Yemen,” she said, “the odds are long. But the cost of doing nothing is potentially far greater.” The biggest hurdle to aid may be Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. While American officials said he appeared determined to root out Qaeda elements, his resolve has wavered over time, depending on his calculation of whether radical Islamists are a threat or benefit to him. Mr. Saleh is also worried about being too closely identified with the United States. Saudi Arabia already pours an estimated $1 billion a year into Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates, Britain and Germany have longstanding ties. “He hasn’t always been eager for American support,” a senior administration official said of Mr. Saleh. “That’s all the more reason to wrap this in broader international support. That makes it easier politically for him.”
THE British woman arrested in Dubai after being raped has been advised to DROP her allegation, ADMIT she was drunk and MARRY her fiancé immediately - if she wants to go home.
The 23-year-old last night wept to friends: "It's a living nightmare - I can't believe this is happening to me." She was attacked by a waiter at a New Year's Eve party where the couple were celebrating their engagement.The Sun told yesterday how they went to Bur Dubai police station in the strict Islamic country the next day - but were arrested for drinking outside licensed premises and unmarried sex. The pretty Londoner - a Muslim with a Pakistani background - told pals she must stay in Dubai until her trial unless she agrees to the prosecutors' suggestions. She went on: "I always dreamed of a big family wedding in Britain, but now I just want to get married so I can get out of here. "I've done nothing wrong but I'm petrified of rotting in jail." The British Embassy will marry the couple in about a fortnight as an emergency measure in the hope lawyers will drop the charges. The woman told pals the waiter followed her into the female toilets at Dubai Marina's Address Hotel. She was found passed out on the floor. She woke the next morning in pain and realised the trousers she had been wearing for modesty under her dress were missing. She told pals: "I remember lying on the floor face up with this figure on top of me. I could not move. The next thing I remember is waking up in my room. "I have been treated like a criminal. I feel I am being harshly punished because officials see me as a Muslim woman who has offended their religion." The woman picked the waiter - believed to be Syrian - out of an ID parade. She was told CCTV showed him escorting her to the toilets and emerging eight minutes later. He is understood to have denied the attack. She and her fiancé, 44, were bailed but had their passports confiscated. They face up to six years in jail. Her family say her requests for a morning-after pill were refused as it is illegal. Her brother said: "They're putting pressure on her to drop the rape allegations and are more interested in her conduct as a woman than in the rapist."
U.S. President Barack Obama says the United States will take steps to ensure the intelligence and security failures that led to the Christmas Day attempted attack on a Detroit-bound airliner do not happen again. The president says ultimately, responsibility for the nation's security rests with him.
President Obama says no one person or agency is responsible for the lapses that cleared the way for the attempted attack. "I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting mistakes to make us safer…for ultimately, the buck stops with me. As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people. And when the system fails, it is my responsibility," he said. Mr. Obama spoke as the White House released an initial report on the failings in the system that allowed a Nigerian man to board the plane in Amsterdam and allegedly try to blow it up as it prepared to land in Detroit. The president says those failings are being addressed. "In the never ending race to protect our country, we have to stay one step ahead of a nimble adversary. That is what these steps are designed to do," he said. The intelligence community will adopt new procedures to make information sharing faster and more efficient. John Brennan, the president's counter-terrorism advisor, says in the case of the attempted airline attack, two sets of intelligence were not put together. "We saw the plot was developing but at the time we did not know in fact that they were talking about sending Mr. Abdulmutallab to the United States," he said. President Obama says there was enough intelligence in the system to potentially uncover the plot and disrupt the attack. "Rather than a failure to collect and share intelligence, this was a failure to connect and understand the intelligence that we already had," he said. There will be reforms in more than intelligence. Airport security will see further enhancements, and the computerized lists used to identify individuals who pose a risk will be revised. The president says the United States will strengthen its defenses, but will not succumb to a siege mentality. "Great and proud nations do not hunker down and hide behind walls of suspicion and mistrust. That is exactly what our adversaries want," he said. Mr. Obama says Americans will define the character of their country, not the terrorists.
The Israel Defense Forces launched a series of air strikes overnight Thursday against targets in the Gaza Strip, hours after a Qassam rocket fired from the Strip hit southern Israel. One Palestinian was killed, two were wounded and several others were feared trapped inside the ruins, medics said. Explosions rocked Gaza City, Khan Younis and Rafah, sending flames shooting into the air. The IDF Spokesman's Office said Israel Air Force aircraft bombed four Gaza targets: a tunnel linking the
Strip to Israel, a weaponry workshop in Gaza City and two smuggling tunnels linking the sout
hern Strip to Egypt. The Qassam launced at Israel Thursday exploded just south of Ashkelon, causing no casualties or damage. The rocket fire came at the heels of a barrage of mortar shells earlier in the day, with Gaza militants firing at least 10 shells into Israel, and an anti-tank missile being fired at Israel Defense Forces troops patrolling the border with Gaza. No one was hurt in any of the incidents. Earlier Thursday, the Israel Air Force dropped thousands of warning leaflets over Gaza, warning Gaza residents to stay away from the border with Israel and to avoid involvement in smuggling, Ma'an news agency reported. One of the leaflets featured a map, and warns Gazans that anyone within 300 meters of the security fence is endangering himself. Another leaflet urged Gazans not to sit idly by as smugglers put them and their communities in harm's way. It included a phone number and e-mail address for anyone willing to provide information about the smuggling tunnels. The warnings came after six mortar shells exploded in the northwestern Negev, three others struck near the Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza, while another exploded in the coastal strip. The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) claimed responsibility Thursday for the mortar fire.
The Defense Ministry on Thursday closed the Kerem Shalom crossing until further notice. Dozens of aid trucks that were prepared to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza were waiting at the crossing Thursday morning, Israel Radio reported. On Wednesday, GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant warned Negev residents that the quiet Israel has recently expereinced along the Gaza border may only be temporary, adding that the IDF was prepared to face tensions should they arise. Galant also urged civilians in the Negev to "prepare themselves for another round of fighting."
"It is important that we fully appreciate the value of this calm period for the residents of the area," he said. "The quietness allows the development of the regional infrastructure, agriculture and economical prosperity."
Hamas had said it was cracking down on militant groups firing at Israel from the Gaza Strip, but communities in the Negev have been hit with rockets numerous times in the year since the IDF embarked on Operation Cast Lead. Just last week, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for firing two Russian-made Grad missiles from Gaza at southern Israel. The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) also claimed responsibility for firing four mortar shells at Israeli army vehicles near the border the week before. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened following those strikes that Israel would respond to every single rocket by Gaza militants.
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