Dozens die in Morocco minaret collapse | |
| Advertisement The aftermath of the collapse of the minaret in Meknes, Morocco BBC,, 00:22 GMT, Saturday, 20 February 2010 At least 36 people were killed in Morocco when a minaret collapsed at a mosque in the central town of Meknes, officials say. More than 60 people were injured in the accident at the Berdieyinne mosque in Meknes' old city during Friday prayers, according to Moroccan state television. The TV report said that the collapse came after heavy rains which lashed the region for several days. The minaret is said to have been four centuries old.
Many people are said to be buried under the rubble of the collapsed tower. A resident, Khaled Rahmouni, told Reuters news agency that about 300 worshippers had gathered inside the mosque for Friday afternoon prayers. "When the imam was about to start his sermon, the minaret fell down," he said. Moroccan television added that the interior and religious affairs ministers had visited the site to supervise rescue operations. The officials visited the injured, who had been taken to hospitals in Meknes and the nearby city of Fez. Observers say that while neglected buildings in the old quarters of Morocco's cities collapse fairly often, the fall of a minaret is rare. King Mohammed VI ordered the minaret to rebuilt. Meknes is on Unesco's world heritage list. | |
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Morocco. at least 36 people were killed .[ 661 ]
Friday, February 19, 2010
China - Dalai Lama-Obama ...[ 660 ]
China anger at Dalai Lama-Obama meeting | |||||
| Advertisement Dalai Lama talks about his meeting with President Obama BBC 06:48 GMT, Friday, 19 February 2010 A visit by the Dalai Lama to Washington has "seriously undermined" relations between the US and China, Beijing says. It released a strongly worded statement in response to US President Barack Obama's meeting with Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. China had earlier expressed "strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition" to the meeting with a man they see as a separatist. It said the US should "take effective steps to eradicate the malign effects". Washington had kept the Dalai Lama's meeting low-key to emphasis it was private rather than political. Hurt feelings Despite that, China's Vice-Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai summoned ambassador Jon Huntsman to lodge a "solemn representation".
"The behaviour of the US side seriously interferes in China's internal politics and seriously hurts the national feelings of the Chinese people," a ministry statement said. China never reacts well to these meetings, which have been taking place for nearly two decades, says the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing. But this time it has expressed its dissatisfaction in stronger terms than ever before. The meetings highlight Beijing's terrible human rights record, and remind the world that many Tibetans are deeply unhappy with China's heavy-handed rule in Tibet, our correspondent adds. The White House meeting was held amid recent tensions, mainly over a US arms sale to Taiwan and allegations of Chinese cyber-spying.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement that the meeting between President Obama and the exiled Tibetan leader "violated the US government's repeated acceptance that Tibet is a part of China and it does not support Tibetan independence". He added: "Use concrete actions to promote the healthy and stable development of Sino-US relations." During the low-key meeting, President Obama expressed his "strong support" for Tibetan rights, his spokesman said. The closed talks were held at the White House's Map Room instead of the more official Oval Office, in an attempt to signal to China that it was a private, not a political meeting. Mr Obama praised the Dalai Lama's commitment to non-violence and "his pursuit of dialogue with the Chinese government", the spokesman said. The Dalai Lama told reporters outside the White House that he expressed to the president his admiration for the US as a "champion of democracy, freedom, human values" and creativity. 'Deteriorating relations' The White House had defended the decision to receive the Dalai Lama, saying he was "an internationally respected religious leader". On the streets of Beijing, residents criticised the US to the BBC.
Zhong An Huan, a university lecturer, said China's attitude on the issue was "clear and resolute". "We have already warned [the US] and if they continue in this way, they will have to bear the consequences," he said. Jin Canrong, from the School of International Studies at Renmin University, said the political atmosphere would get worse. "For the short term, I think the political atmosphere will deteriorate to some extent and some kind of dialogue will be suspended and Chinese willingness to cooperate on international issues will be weakened," he said. China, which sent troops into Tibet in 1950 but has long claimed it as its own, considers the Dalai Lama a separatist. Beijing tries to isolate the spiritual leader by asking foreign leaders not to see him. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule and has since been living in India. The Dalai Lama has met every sitting US president since 1991, with each visit drawing Chinese ire. But George W Bush's meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2007 was the first time a sitting US president had appeared in public with the exiled Tibetan leader. | |||||
The real test of US-China relations will not be the Dalai Lama but what happens on sanctions against Iran 
Military coup in Niger [ 659 ]
Military coup ousts Niger president | ||
| Advertisement The 'patriotic' military announcement was made on TV BBC 23:34 GMT, Thursday, 18 February 2010 A coup has taken place in Niger and the president has been captured after a gun battle in the capital, Niamey. In a television announcement, a spokesman for the plotters said Niger's constitution had been suspended and all state institutions dissolved. The country was now being led by a group called the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD), the spokesman said. President Mamadou Tandja is believed to be in captivity at a military barracks. Reports say government ministers are also being held. Making the announcement on television, the spokesman for the coup leaders, wearing a military uniform, was surrounded by a large group of soldiers. He called on the people of Niger to "remain calm and stay united around the ideals postulated by the CSRD", to "make Niger an example of democracy and good governance". "We call on national and international opinions to support us in our patriotic action to save Niger and its population from poverty, deception and corruption," he added. A newsreader on Niger television said the country's borders had been closed and a curfew was now in force. Tensions have been growing since last year in the uranium-rich nation. Mr Tandja was widely criticised when he changed the constitution in August to allow him to stand for a third term. Long-term tensions A BBC correspondent said earlier that tanks were firing and witnesses reported seeing injured people being taken to hospital.
An unnamed French official told AFP that the president had been seized. "All I can say is that it would appear that Tandja is not in a good position," he told the news agency on condition of anonymity. Soldiers captured Mr Tandja while he was chairing his weekly cabinet meeting, a government source told the BBC. AFP later reported an official as saying Mr Tandja was possibly being held at a military barracks about 20km (13 miles) west of Niamey. A witness told the news agency that the bodies of three soldiers had been taken to a military mortuary. The situation in Niamey remains unclear - there has apparently been no large-scale deployment of military personnel. The government and opposition have been holding on-off talks since December - mediated by the regional body Ecowas - to try to resolve the country's political crisis. Constructive engagement Ecowas has told the BBC that it is closely following developments in Niger. The organisation's political director, Abdel-Fatau Musah, said that, if needed, Ecowas would be in the country as quickly as it could to ensure order was maintained and constitutional order restored as soon as possible. Mr Musah said that while Ecowas would never recognise a military takeover, it would maintain a constructive engagement with those in authority in Niger. Mr Tandja, a former army officer, was first voted into office in 1999 and was returned to power in an election in 2004. Niger has experienced long periods of military rule since independence from France in 1960. It is one of the world's poorest countries, but Mr Tandja's supporters argue that his decade in power has brought a measure of economic stability. Under his tenure, work has begun on the world's second-biggest uranium mine, and energy deals have been signed with Chinese firms | ||
Hero After Plane Crashes...[ 658 ]
Glass Worker Turns Hero After Plane Crashes Into Texas Building
Thursday, February 18, 2010 
By Diane Macedo
Binswanger Glass
A quick-thinking glass worker who happened to be driving by when a pilot with a grudge smashed his plane into a Texas building is being hailed as a hero after helping many people escape the inferno that followed the crash.
Robin Dehaven, a glazer at Binswanger Glass, was on his way to a job site when he saw the small plane approaching the seven-story building that houses the Internal Revenue Service offices in Austin.
"I first assumed it was a toy plane someone was messing around with, because it was flying really low and kind of going back and forth, turning left and right," Dehaven told Fox News.
He soon realized the "toy" was actually a small passenger plane; moments later, he saw black smoke billowing from the building.
"I immediately drove my truck over there, got the ladder off, went up to the side of the building and I saw people up on the second floor with their heads out the window for air because the room was filled with smoke," Dehaven said.
65 years after Atomic bombs,[ 657 ]
(Mainichi Japan) February 15, 2010
August 2010 will mark the 65th anniversary of the first and so far only two nuclear attacks in human history, on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this landmark year, the world will see a number of important moments related to nuclear arms.
In May, a meeting will be convened in New York to review the renewal of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and attention will be focused on the leadership of U.S. President Barack Obama and his goal of eliminating nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Hiroshima and Nagasaki continue their drive to bring Obama for a visit, and interest in a possible Hiroshima Olympic bid remains high.
And while all this furious activity continues apace in 2010, the Mainichi will draw a curtain back on the everyday lives of those who survived the bombings all those years ago.
In January, I visited the home of Kimie Kishi in Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture, who was born just after the atomic bomb was dropped -- exposed in her mother's womb to the effects of radiation. Upon entering her home, the first thing that catches the eye is a small slip of paper posted in her living room bearing a simple poetic verse: "For raising my leg/thanks and gratitude/make my heart clear." The words are written in black marker, and seem to jump with delight from the paper.
Kishi's joints have been in bad condition since she was a child -- a result of bombing-related microcephaly -- and she cannot count the number of times she has rubbed her left leg and sighed sadly. Before her 60th birthday, she had hip replacement surgery. Afterwards, however, she suffered from pain and could not raise or lower her leg. She could not go shopping without a wheelchair, and was scared to try walking around her own house without leaning on furniture.
"(I thought), since I had been bombed, there was nothing I could do to get better," she says. Rehabilitation seemed to produce no results, and she was consumed with envy when she saw people who had undergone the same procedure as her walking around, full of energy. And so it went until November last year, when during her weekly walking practice she could suddenly lift her leg, and without any pain. "It's so light! I raised it!" she exclaimed in a delighted voice, and went on to show everyone else in the room that she could finally walk.
Her first pain-free steps were not the only thing to bring hope and happiness back into Kishi's life, as she got back in touch with her estranged son and daughter. Her son visited her over New Year's along with his baby girl, who was born just last summer.
"I could finally say to my granddaughter, 'I'm your grandma!'" she says as she stares intently at a picture of the baby girl on her mobile phone. "She kept moving, so I couldn't get such a good picture."
Her daughter also visited, and they spent time shopping and tidying the family grave site.
Over 30 years ago, many around Kishi were opposed to her having children because she was a bomb survivor, saying, "Who knows what kind of child you'll give birth to?" Even so, she decided to have kids, and both her son and daughter grew up healthy. However, she worried so much about them that she nagged them constantly, and they alienated her when they reached their teens.
Left alone, she was confused and worried some of the time, but her children have now "returned" to her. She feels she began to believe that, "If I change the way I feel, the other person changes, too." However, though she has emotional peace now, she knows she will never be in perfect physical condition, and that it can get worse. Even so, I first met Kishi four and a half years ago, and I have never seen her look so bright and happy.
There are about 20 known cases of nuclear bombing-related microcephaly nationwide. Without a good estimate of their numbers and condition, government support for them has not been sufficient. Among the known cases, there are also those with mental disabilities, while those who care for them are getting older.
"When I think about what may happen to those people, I feel so anxious I cry," says Kishi.
It has been nearly 65 years since the bombs were dropped, and as society seems to be forgetting those who became A-bomb victims even before being born, the months and years continue to march by. (By Hiroko Tanaka, Osaka City News Department. This is the first part of a series on hibakusha)