Month: March 2010

Washington, March 29: US President Barack Obama, who made a surprise visit to Kabul and met President Hamid Karzai, has vowed to deny al-Qaida safe haven and reverse Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan.

“We are going to disrupt and dismantle, defeat and destroy al-Qaida and its extremist allies. That is our mission. And to accomplish that goal, our objectives here in Afghanistan are also clear: We’re going to deny al-Qaida safe haven. We’re going to reverse the Taliban’s momentum,” Obama said in his address to US soldiers at the Bagram airfield.

Moscow, March 29: Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Moscow’s subway system as it was jam-packed with rush-hour passengers on Monday, killing at least 37 people and wounding 38, the city’s mayor and other officials said.

Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Svetlana Chumikova said 23 people were killed in an explosion shortly before 8 am at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow. The station is underneath the building that houses the main offices of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the KGB’s main successor agency.

Australia, March 28: Australia is even closer to processing asylum seekers on the mainland, the Federal Government has confirmed, tipping the surge in boat people to continue over the coming months.

There are also concerns of a potentially explosive security situation on Christmas Island concerning more than 100 male detainees who have already been told their claims for asylum have been rejected.

The developments come after a second mass transfer in a week of asylum seekers to the Australian mainland.

Beijing, March 28: At Least 123 workers are trapped in a flooded coal mine in northern China.

A total of 261 people were working in the Wangjialing mine in Shanxi province when underground water gushed in.

Only 138 managed to escape, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.

China’s coal mines are among the most dangerous in the world, with safety standards often ignored in the quest for profits and the drive to meet surging demand for coal – the source of about 70 per cent of China’s energy.

Thailand, March 28: Live televised talks between Thailand’s embattled Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and anti-government protesters have failed to end two weeks of street demonstrations.

The Prime Minister refused to bow to the red-shirted demonstrators’ demand to call snap elections, but both sides agreed to meet today at 6pm (2200 AEDT) to continue discussions.

Washington, March 28: Dov Charney, the fast-talking CEO of American Apparel, is scrambling to keep his beloved company out of bankruptcy.

Charney – whose libertine lifestyle and racy marketing campaigns kept the clothing chain controversial and in the minds of its young shoppers – had to give up a large equity stake in the operation to a private equity firm that rode to his rescue, the New York Post reported.

Washington, March 28: Barack Obama made a surprise trip to Afghanistan today to meet with country’s embattled President, Hamid Karzai.

Mr Obama arrived at Bagram Air Field in Parvan Province early this morning and was set to travel to the Presidential Palace in Kabul.

The US President was greeted upon landing by General Stanley McCrystal and the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry.

Mr Obama was joined on the trip by Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, National Security Adviser Jim Jones, press secretary Robert Gibbs and Senior White House adviser David Axelrod.

Somalia, March 28: Marines have disarmed 12 Somali pirates who mistakenly attacked a Butch warship thinking it was a merchant vessel.

The Dutch frigate Hr Ms Tromp, responding to a sighting from a German patrol plane, encountered the pirates’ “mother boat” and two smaller motorised attack boats off the Somali coast.

“When the Tromp came within eight nautical miles of the pirates, two attack boats stormed the Tromp on the assumption that the frigate was a merchant vessel,” said statement from the Dutch Government.

London, March 28: Child murderer Ian Brady claims it has cost UK taxpayers £3 million ($4.5 million) to keep him alive on his 10-year hunger strike.

Brady, known as the Moors murderer after killing five children with accomplice Myra Hindley in the early 1960s, says he is now a 71-year-old “skeleton,” 10 years after doctors initiated a program of feeding him through a nasal tube.

Brady is being held at Ashworth Hospital, a high security hospital at Maghull, Merseyside in northwest England. He is kept alive by a liquid nutrition mix fed into his stomach twice a day.