Month: March 2010

Jerusalem, March 25: President Barack Obama was seeking goodwill gestures from Israel to persuade Palestinians to return to peace talks even as new settlement expansion plans on disputed land in Jerusalem threatened further strains between Washington and its close ally.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was poised to end a troubled US visit with little sign he had settled a dispute with the White House over Jewish housing construction in East Jerusalem.

Paris, March 25: French police have released a hacker who gained access to US President Barack Obama’s account in one of his attacks on the wildly popular micro-blogging site Twitter, police said on Wednesday.

The unemployed 25-year-old, who lived with his parents and used the pseudonym “Hacker Croll”, was arrested on Tuesday after an operation conducted jointly with US agents from the FBI that lasted several months.

He was questioned in police custody in the central city of Clermont-Ferrand and has been ordered to appear in court in the same city on June 24.

Washington, March 25: Deeply disturbed by the recent incidents of intensified harassment of people who dare to give voice to the desires of their fellow Cubans, US President Barack Obama on Wednesday said that the Cuban authorities are responding to the aspirations of its people with a clenched fist.

“Recent events in Cuba, including the tragic death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the repression visited upon Las Damas de Blanco, and the intensified harassment of those who dare to give voice to the desires of their fellow Cubans, are deeply disturbing,” Obama said in a statement.

Oaxaca (Mexico), March 25: Nine people, including two soldiers, were killed in a shootout between security personnel and gunmen in Mexico’s Tuxtepec city, police said.

The incident occurred Tuesday near the border between Oaxaca and Veracruz states, where suspected rival groups shot at one another and then opened fire on arriving army troops, police said.

‘Several residents saw criminals running through the streets of the city’ before the shooting started, a police report said.

Kathmandu, March 25: The former king of Nepal has hinted he hopes the country’s centuries-old Hindu monarchy may one day be restored, nearly two years after he was dethroned.

Ex-king Gyanendra lost his royal title in 2008 after Nepal’s Maoists, who had fought a decade-long civil war with the state, won landmark polls and scrapped the world’s last Hindu monarchy.

“I don’t think the monarchy is over,” he said in a rare interview, broadcast late Wednesday by Nepal’s Avenues Television, a 24-hour news channel.

Washington, March 25: The United States and Israel are in overtime talks trying to win agreement on gestures Israel can take to restore confidence among Palestinians and the Obama administration.

US officials told a news agency that the closed-door talks are aimed at getting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks back on track and salvaging a diplomatic visit marred by the worst US-Israeli breach in years.

Berlin, March 25: New sexual abuse allegations surfaced on Wednesday against a priest in Pope Benedict XVI’s former diocese, while the German government established an expert panel in response to a spate of cases.

The Munich archdiocese said there are allegations dating back to 1998 against a priest who has a previous conviction and already has been suspended.

The case was passed on to prosecutors as the statute of limitations has not expired, it said. The Munich prosecutors’ office confirmed it is looking into the case but would say no more.

Ramadi, March 25: A teenage suicide bomber killed three people on Wednesday in an attack targeting a local anti-terror chief, police said, amid a spate of violence across Iraq that left 10 dead.

The bombing in the western town of Heet was the second targeting Lieutenant Colonel Walid Sulaiman al-Heeti’s house in less than three months and wounded two people, although Heeti himself was unharmed.

“Witnesses said that the attack was committed by a boy whose age did not exceed 14,” police Captain Walid al-Heeti said.

Nairobi, March 25: A Muslim cleric in Kenya says police are deporting three men from the United Arab Emirates and one from Oman because they suspect them of having links to terror groups, though the four say they are tourists.

The chairman of the Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims says police arrested the men on Tuesday in the coastal city of Mombasa after they got off a flight from Kenya’s capital.

Sheik Mordhar Khitamy says police told him they became suspicious after officers saw the four bribe immigration officials to enter Kenya on Tuesday.

Bogota, March 25: A car bomb exploded in the administrative centre of Colombia’s Pacific port of Buenaventura on Wednesday, killing six people and wounding more than 30, authorities said.

Buenaventura is a key cocaine trafficking centre that is rife with rival criminal bands from the right and left.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but armed forces chief General Freddy Padilla said he suspected Colombia’s main leftist rebel group.

Tripoli, March 25: Libya has released 214 Islamic militants, including senior members of a group accused of plotting to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, after they renounced violence.

The Libyan leader’s son Seif al-Islam Gaddafi said 34 members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, including its leader, were sent home on Tuesday after they affirmed they had broken ties with the organisation. The group is suspected of having links to al Qaeda.

“This is an important day for Libya because it is a day of forgiveness and honesty,” the younger Gaddafi said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Manili, March 25: A 6.1 magnitude earthquake centred off the Philippine west coast shook the capital Manila on Thursday afternoon.

The Philippine National Disaster Coordinating Council said it had no immediate information on damage or injuries after the quake, which struck at around 1:30 pm (0530 GMT).

There was also no immediate warning of a tsunami.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said there were actually two quakes just seconds apart, with the first at 6.0 magnitude and barely under the surface, while the second was 33 km (21 miles) deep.

Washington, March 25: US President Barack Obama is asking Congress for USD 2.8 billion in emergency funding for the reconstruction effort in Haiti following January’s devastating earthquake.

The president’s request comes one week before a UN donors’ conference on March 31 in New York. Haitian officials plan to ask for USD 11.5 billion in reconstruction assistance.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry says the Senate is close to introducing legislation to meet Obama’s request.

Sydney, March 25: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Thursday described as “pretty off” reports that tourism officials put a distressed kangaroo in a cage on a busy Los Angeles street to promote the country.

Tourism Australia was forced to defend its use of the kangaroo in a January “G’Day USA” marketing campaign in Beverly Hills after a video was posted on YouTube showing it swaying back and forth in apparent distress.

Rudd said he hadn’t seen the footage but expressed concern at what he had heard about the treatment of the animal, which is featured on Australia’s coat of arms.