INDONESIA BACKS TIMOR LESTE’S ASEAN BID JAKARTA: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono conveyed his government’s full support for Timor Leste’ s intention to join the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) next year, local media reported on Thursday.
XINHUA
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ANTIAGO: A jail fire killed at least 81 inmates in Santiago on Wednesday morning in what officials said
The Manila Times
world FRIDAY
was the worst disaster on record in Chile’s overcrowded and “inhumane” prison system.
21 more people were wounded, with 14 of them in serious con- dition, after the blaze erupted during a brawl and swept through the crowded prison, where 1,900 inmates were packed into a facility built for 900.
“This is such a huge and painful
tragedy,” Chilean President Sebas- tian Piñera said during a visit to the site. “We cannot continue to have an inhumane prison system . . . It has been a disgrace for decades.” He said that just six prison guards were posted in the ward where the fire broke out, with 26 guards in the entire prison. Piñera initially set the toll
a.m. [4:30 p.m. in Manila] on the fourth story of the penitentiary during a fight among inmates in a ward reserved for low-risk prisoners, most with only a single conviction, officials said. Prisoners lit their mattresses on
from the fire at 83 but autho- rities later revised it to 81. Three police officers and a prison guard were among the injured, officials said. Overcrowding has worsened since eight jails were destroyed in the powerful February 27 earth- quake, driving overcrowding up to 200 percent in some prisons. The damaged jails held some 1,700 inmates. “It’s an enormous tragedy— probably the worst in the history of our prison system,” said Health Minister Jaime Manalich, after firefighters extinguished the blaze. The fire started at about 5:30
fire, causing the blaze to sweep through the ward in “less than three minutes,” an inmate told Agence France-Presse on con- dition of anonymity after he was contacted by telephone. Most of those killed were
believed to have died from smoke inhalation, authorities said. Government prosecutor Alejan-
dro Pena later told reporters that after reviewing “all the security images, the internal communi- cation among prison guards, and talks to the firefighters,” investi- gators concluded that “the origin of the fire was intentional.” Wednesday was a holiday in
Chile, and family members had lined up outside the jail from early morning hoping to visit
D ecember 10, 2010
Chilean prison blaze kills 81 S
Hackers wage cyber attacks in support of WikiLeaks
ZURICH: Hackers on Wednesday attacked the websites of credit card giants Mastercard and Visa in revenge for their decisions to cut off funding to whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The group “Anonymous” claimed
credit for bringing down the websites of the two firms after they suspended payments to WikiLeaks, and for attacking the site of a Swiss bank that closed an account of site founder Julian Assange. “Hackers Take Down
Visa.com in the
Name of Wikileaks. Wow. This is getting crazy,” said a message from the group on microblogging site Twitter, as the attacks started to take on the appearance of a cyber war. The fallout from the US State
Department cables released by WikiLeaks, which said it had nothing to do with the hacking, meanwhile continued on Wednesday with news organizations in the United States and Europe releasing more revelations. Britain’s Guardian newspaper
published cables that showed a top Shell executive boasting that the oil giant had inserted staff into all levels of the Nigerian government and knew “everything that was being done in those ministries.” Cables posted by The New York Times, meanwhile, recounted how Washington pressured Germany to not issue arrest warrants against CIA officers involved in the 2003 kidnapping of a German citizen mistakenly thought to be involved with Islamic militants. As Assange spent his first full day in
a London prison after he was refused bail on Tuesday, it emerged that one of Britain’s highest-profile lawyers will fight moves to extradite him to Sweden to face rape accusations. WikiLeaks has enraged govern-
ments around the world by releasing a wave of US diplomatic cables, detailing everything from China’s view of North Korea to unflattering descriptions of world leaders. After WikiLeaks appealed for
donations to be able to continue its activities, Mastercard and Visa said that they were suspending payments to the site, sparking attacks on their websites. The Swiss Post Office banking
service, PostFinance, also became a target on Wednesday after revealing earlier in the week that it had closed an account set up by Assange, saying that he had given false information. Cyber attacks by “Anonymous” knocked
all three sites offline on Wednesday. Even US conservative icon Sarah
Palin was a target of the group following her call to pursue Assange “with the same urgency we pursue al- Qaeda and Taliban leaders.” Mastercard claimed that the attack
had limited effect on its services, saying in a statement to the BBC: “While we have seen limited interrup- tion in some web-based services, cardholders can continue to use their cards for secure transactions globally.” “Anonymous” launched its campaign over the weekend with an attack on
PayPal, which blocked financial transfers to WikiLeaks last week. It now claims to have recruited some 4,000 hackers to launch coordinated attacks aimed at overwhelming a site so it slows down or is knocked offline completely. “Anyone that has an anti-WikiLeaks agenda is within our scope of attack,” said the group in an online chat with Agence France-Presse. WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn
Hrafnsson told Agence France-Presse the hackers were “not associated” with his organization. “We are not associated with them and this is a decision that they are taking. It is part of a consumers’ response, I gather,” he said. Geoffrey Robertson, a barrister who has established a reputation for arguing for victims of human rights abuses, will defend Assange in his attempts to avoid extradition to Sweden where he faces allegations of rape and molestation.
China, North Korea stand united despite US anger
loved ones. The crowd erupted in anger at one point—spitting, hurling rocks and shaking the fence outside the jail— after police handed out lists of unharmed or wounded inmates that were mistaken for lists of the dead. Police later brought the situa- tion under control and began leading family members inside in small groups to identify their relatives among the dead. Thirty bodies had been identified by midday, officials said. Prison overcrowding is at crisis
levels across Latin America, both in relatively prosperous countries like Chile and poorer Central American states gripped by widespread gang violence and drug trafficking. Under most legal systems in the region, suspects are considered guilty until proven innocent and detained until they are tried. They can then wait for years before overloaded court systems decide their fate.
AFP
SEOUL: Communist allies North Korea and China proclaimed their unity on Thursday as the North’s leader Kim Jong-Il held his first meeting with a senior Chinese envoy since the region’s worst crisis in years erupted. China’s most senior foreign policymaker Dai Bingguo visited Pyongyang as pressure intensifies on Beijing to rein in its neighbor, after North Korea’s deadly shelling of a South Korean island inflamed tensions on the peninsula. The top US military officer,
Admiral Mike Mullen, accused China of aiding and abetting the hardline Kim regime’s “reckless behavior.” But the old wartime allies are firmly together, dispatches from their official media said.
“The two sides reached consensus on bilateral relations and the situation on the Korean peninsula after candid and in-depth talks,” said a brief report from China’s Xinhua news agency, datelined Pyongyang, after Kim and Dai met. North Korea’s official news agency said that the delegations discussed “issues of mutual concern” and efforts to improve friendly relations. It marked the first time that Kim has met a senior foreign official since the North’s shock artillery attack on the South Korean island, and since his regime startled the world by showing off a sophisticated new nuclear program.
China is the isolated North’s sole major ally and provides it with a crucial fuel and food lifeline. But Beijing has come under increa- sing pressure from the United States and US allies to rein in North Korea following the incident, which was the first shelling of civilian areas in South Korea since the 1950 to 1953 war. It has so far refused even to condemn the North for the November 23 artillery attack, which killed four people, including two civilians. In Tokyo on Thursday, Mullen lashed out at China as he touted a united defense front with South Korea and Japan against North Korea. “Northeast Asia is today more
volatile than it has been in much of the last 50 years,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs said.
“Much of that volatility is owed to the reckless behavior of the North Korean regime, enabled by their friends in China,” Mullen said. He also said that he felt a “real sense of urgency” about building up three-way defense ties with Seoul and Tokyo. US forces have separately held major military drills with the two allies since North Korea’s attack.
The admiral has proposed three-way drills and said in Tokyo that any threat is “much better addressed with all of us together, in terms of showing strength and getting to a point where we can deter North Korean behavior.”
AFP
Taiwan confirms mass- producing cruise missiles
TAIPEI: Taiwan has confirmed for the first time on Wednesday that it is mass-producing cruise missiles, despite fast warming ties with China. “Mass production of indigenous
weapons like the ones under the codenames of Chichun [Lance Hawk] and Chuifeng [Chasing Wind] is [going] very [smoothly],” Deputy Defense Minister Chao Shih-chang told parliament on Wednesday. “The problems with key parts and components that had previously stalled the manufacturing have been tackled,” he said in reply to queries raised by legislator Lin Yu-fang. The Chichun project refers to the Hsiungfeng 2E cruise missile, Taiwan’s answer to the US-made Tomahawk. Chuifeng, on the other hand, is projected to develop the island’s long-anticipated supersonic anti-ship missile.
AFP
Chao declined to specify the range of the missiles or the number
to be put into service.
The cruise missiles could be launched from land or sea, and would be capable of hitting airports and missile bases in southeast China, as well as cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong, local media said. Tensions across the Taiwan Strait
have eased since Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang came to power in 2008 on a platform of beefing up trade links and allowing in more Chinese tourists. However, China still refuses to renounce the possible use of force against the island in its long-stated goal of retaking Taiwan, which has ruled itself since the end of a civil war in 1949. The Pentagon said in an annual report to Congress earlier this year that China’s military build-up against Taiwan has “continued unabated” despite improving political relations.
AFP Franklin undergoes cancer surgery
LOS ANGELES: Soul legend Aretha Franklin has cancer and underwent surgery last week, media reported on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila), after she canceled engagements for the near future. Fox 2 News in Detroit cited a
relative as saying that the 68-year- old “Queen of Soul” is doing “OK,” but that the family is very con- cerned, and is asking for supporters to send their thoughts and prayers. Representatives for Franklin, who rose from singing gospel to top the charts in the 1960s and 1970s with hits like “Respect,” “Think” and “Chain of Fools,” did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation. Fox 2 News quoted Franklin herself as saying she had a “highly successful” surgery last week. “God is still in control. I had superb doctors and nurses who were blessed by all the prayers of the city and the country,” she said. The Detroit News, meanwhile, reported that the singer has pancreatic cancer, which
worldinbrief
LEAKED US CABLE SAYS CHINA HAS ‘NO MORALS’ IN AFRICA BEIJING: The United States thinks that China is a “pernicious economic competitor with no morals” whose booming investments in Africa are propping up unsavory regimes, according to a leaked diplomatic cable.
TOP PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS HEAD TO WASHINGTON RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian premier Salam Fayyad and chief negotiator Saeb Erakat were on Thursday flying to Washington to hold talks with top US officials over the crisis in peace talks.
EUROPE FREEZES AS FRESH SNOW CAUSES TRAVEL CHAOS PARIS: Heavy snow blanketed Paris on Wednesday forcing the closure of the Eiffel Tower and briefly shutting its main airport as sub-zero temperatures turned Scottish roads into deadly ice sheets and Spain and Portugal cleared up after flooding and tornado-like winds.
US HOUSE VOTES TO SCRAP GUANTANAMO CLOSURE WASHINGTON, D.C.: US lawmakers voted on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) to kill efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists in 2011 or try the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on US soil.
COLOMBIA MUDSLIDE DEATH TOLL RISES TO 46 MEDELLIN, Colombia: Rescuers have said they have recovered 46 bodies from a massive weekend mudslide in northwestern Colombia, which was under a local state of emergency to cope with the massive catastrophe.
has the highest mortality rate of all major cancers, killing at about 95 percent of patients within five years of diagnosis.
Franklin canceled a number of concerts in October citing “health reasons,” while in November doctors ordered her to cancel all engagements for the next six months, according to the Detroit News. Arguably the most influential female singer in the United States, Franklin’s powerful, bell-clear voice is unmistakable, from a whisper to full-gospel-choir force that stretched over four octaves.
■ Aretha Franklin
It has influenced the styles of two or more generations of female singers, from Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston—whose mother was a backup singer for Franklin—to Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige and Amy Winehouse.
Franklin has continued belting out her old hits into her 60s and issuing both old and new collections of recordings that still sold strongly 40 years after “Respect” earned her the Queen of Soul title in 1967.
AFP
AFP
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