Holdouts In Afghan Town...[ 666 ]

Marines Corner Taliban Holdouts In Afghan Town

Marines, Afghan Troops Converge On 'determined' Taliban Holdouts In Marjah

(AP) Feb. 21, 2010 MARJAH, Afghanistan  - Marines and Afghan units converged on a dangerous western quarter of the Taliban stronghold of Marjah on Sunday, with NATO forces facing "determined resistance" as their assault on the southern town entered its second week.


Fighter jets, drones and attack helicopters hovered overhead, as Marine and Afghan companies moved on a 2-square-mile (5.2-sq. kilometer) area of the town where more than 40 insurgents have apparently holed up.


"They are squeezed," said Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. "It looks like they want to stay and fight but they can always drop their weapons and slip away. That's the nature of this war."


Insurgents are putting up a "determined resistance" in various parts of Marjah, though the overall offensive is "on track," NATO said Sunday, eight days after thousands of Afghan and international forces launched their largest joint operation since the Taliban regime's ouster in 2001.


Late last week, Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, head of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, said he believed it would take at least 30 days to complete securing the Nad Ali district and Marjah in Helmand province, a hub for a lucrative opium trade that profits militants.


The Marjah operation is a major test of a new NATO strategy that stresses protecting civilians over routing insurgents as quickly as possible. It's also the first major ground operation since President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan to curb the rise of the Taliban.


Once the town is secure, NATO plans to rush in a civilian Afghan administration, restore public services and pour in aid to try to win the loyalty of the population and prevent the Taliban from returning.


Twelve NATO troops and one Afghan soldier have died so far in the offensive. Senior Marine officers say intelligence reports suggest more than 120 insurgents have died.


NATO reported two more service member deaths suffered on Saturday - one by rocket or mortar fire in eastern Afghanistan and another in a bombing in southern Afghanistan. Neither was related to the Marjah area fighting, NATO said Sunday without identifying the victims by nationality.


On Sunday, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said that they had been more prepared for large numbers of planted bombs than for the sniper shooting and sustained firefights that have characterized the last few days of the Marjah operation.


"We predicted it would take many days. But our prediction was that the insurgency would not resist that way. Maybe they would use more mines, or roadside bombs or these things," Azimi said.


Even so, he said the operation has always been planned to last a month and noted some aspects are ahead of schedule, including the deployment of Afghan police units to the town.


He said progress through the contested areas is intentionally slow so that troops can clear bombs and take the most care possible to prevent civilian casualties as they fight the insurgents.


On Saturday, President Hamid Karzai had urged NATO to do more to protect civilians during combat operations to secure Marjah.


NATO forces have repeatedly said they want to prevent civilian casualties but acknowledged that it is not always possible. On Saturday, the alliance said its troops killed another civilian in the Marjah area, bringing the civilian death toll from the operation to at least 16.


Though NATO had made progress in reducing civilian casualties - mainly by reducing airstrikes and restricting combat rules - more needed to be done, Karzai said.


"We need to reach the point where there are no civilian casualties," he said. "Our effort and our criticism will continue until we reach that goal."


Karzai had also reached out to Taliban fighters, urging them to renounce al-Qaida and join with the government.


But the process of reconciliation and reintegration is likely to prove difficult.


On Sunday, Mohammad Jan Rasool Yar, spokesman for Zabul province, said authorities arrested 14 police in the Shar-e Safa district on Saturday who had defected to the Taliban's side last week and were found on a bus heading to Pakistan.
Associated Press Writer Amir Shah and Tini Tran in Kabul contributed to this report.

Vladivostok: Fire in children's home [ 665 ]

100 people evacuated after fire in children's home in Russian Far East

 Fire fighting at Children's home in Vladivostok


VLADIVOSTOK, 06:46,,February 20 (RIA Novosti)

Some 96 children and seven adults were evacuated on Saturday from a children's home in the Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok after it caught fire, emergencies services reported.

No one was injured in the fire that was localized in 12 minutes.

An investigation is underway.

Belgian train crash..[ 664 ]

25 dead in Belgium train crash (AP) Brussels
Slobodan Lekic ,  The Associated Press ,  Brussels   |  Mon, 02/15/2010 6:02 PM  |  World

Head-on collision: An injured passenger on a stretcher is helped out of the wreckage by rescue workers in Buizingen, Belgium Monday. Two commuter trains collided head-on at rush hour in a Brussels suburb Monday, killing 20 people, Belgian officials said. (AP/Yves Logghe)
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Photo Gallery

February 15, 2010 (placed here 10:37, 21/2/2019)

Belgian train crash

An aerial view of the scene where two trains crashed head-on in Buizingen, a suburb of Halle, nine miles southwest of Brussels. The accident which occurred at an intersection between high-speed and domestic tracks overturned several carriages in snowy conditions at 8.30am local time

Yves Herman/Reuters

Japan,The film "Hori no Shima"..[ 663 ]

Film tells story of islanders' battle to preserve way of life

Film director Aya Hanabusa

Mainichi,20-2-10, Director Aya Hanabusa recently finished filming her first production "Hori no Shima" (Island of Shinto Priest) on a small island in the Seto Inland Sea. The documentary portrays the struggle of the islanders against the construction of a nuclear power plant nearby.

The documentary was filmed on Iwaishima Island off the coast of Kaminoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, where the plant is set to be built. An old legend tells that the island is named after hori -- a type of Shinto priest dedicated to praying for safe maritime voyages -- that once existed on the island (and can also be pronounced "iwai.")

"The sea is the lifeblood of the people here. The residents say they don't need a nuclear plant because they want to protect their way of life, rather than because they are against the use of nuclear power," said the 35-year-old director, who traveled back and forth between Tokyo and Iwaishima to record their campaign against the project.

The nuclear plant project first emerged 28 years ago, and most residents have since been campaigning against the proposed construction. Hanabusa visited the island for the first time in 2003, when a film company she was working for screened a documentary film on the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident for the Iwaishima residents. After the screening, one of the audience members said: "We are all the same. We are all humans," which Hanabusa says she could not forget, even after she left the production company in 2007.

Hanabusa changed jobs, but could not give up her hope of working on a movie again. It was just around that time that she happened to see a photograph collection of Iwaishima residents campaigning against the nuclear plant project. She returned to the island in the summer of 2008 and started recording people's lives, and recently finished filming.

"I love this island more than anywhere else. I would die if I was forced to leave my hometown," one resident said. Hanabusa hopes that her documentary will explain why.

Accepting the nuclear plant means compensation money for the local fishery industry. Fish catches and their prices have dropped in recent years. However, local people say: "We love the island and want to protect it just the way it is now. We cannot exchange the sea for money."

The film will be released in April in the Setouchi area and in June in other regions.

Madeira floods kill 32 [ 662 ]

Madeira floods and mudslides kill 32

Advertisement Devastation as flash floods hit the island of Madeira BBC 21:34 GMT, Saturday, 20 February 2010 At least 32 people have been killed in floods and mudslides after torrential rains hit the Portuguese island of Madeira, local authorities say. Sixty-eight others were reported to have been taken to hospital for treatment on the Atlantic island, which is popular with foreign tourists. It is not yet clear whether tourists are among the casualties. The local civil protection service was "overwhelmed" by calls for help, a duty officer told Reuters news agency. According to Portuguese media, the storms were the deadliest on Madeira since October 1993, when eight people died. 'Ghost town' The main city, Funchal, and other towns and villages on the south coast are thought to have been worst affected after strong winds and heavy rain early on Saturday caused flooding and landslides. Television pictures showed muddy torrents coursing down narrow channels and spilling over the sides, roads awash with water and streets littered with debris. In pictures: Flood aftermath The island's airport was closed and Funchal mayor Miguel Albuquerque advised people to stay at home. Trees have been brought down and rocks carried away by the floodwaters, blocking roads and hampering emergency services. Some bridges and roads have been washed away and cars were swept away. One woman was killed when the roof of her house caved in. Some residents had to be evacuated. Power and telephone services were disrupted in some places. British holidaymaker Cathy Sayers told the BBC Funchal was like a ghost town. She said the infrastructure had been "decimated" by the water. "The drains just cannot cope with the water that's coming down from the mountains - they are just overfilled with sludge." There had not really been any warning that it would be quite so bad, she said. "I think everyone is extremely shocked that this has happened at this time of year," she said. Local media say the authorities' main concern now is for residents of Nuns valley - an isolated mountainous region that rescue workers have been unable to reach. National response Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said he was "absolutely saddened and shocked with the images, with the consequences of this calamity", Reuters reported. MADEIRA FACTS Autonomous region of Portugal with population of around 250,000 Lies just over 480km (300 miles) from West African coast The European continent is more than 900km away He is expected to go to Madeira shortly to inspect the worst-affected areas and co-ordinate aid. "The problem requires a response on the national level," Interior Minister Rui Pereira was quoted as saying. He said Lisbon was considering declaring a state of emergency in the region. Regional government leader Alberto Joao Jardim said the authorities were making temporary shelters available for hundreds of people left homeless. The BBC Weather Centre says the severe weather was due a low pressure system, and that while Madeira can expect further rain with heavy downpours on Sunday, there is no danger of a repeat of the flash floods.