Colombia's leader to take office..[ 1582 ]

Colombia's leader to take office amid tensions with Venezuela

Juan Manuel Santos takes office Saturday.

By the CNN Wire Staff

August 7, 2010 -- Updated 1044 GMT (1844 HKT)

(CNN)Colombia's new president may have a chance to test his diplomatic skills as soon as he takes office Saturday. Venezuela's foreign minister could be attending his inauguration.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told state television Friday that his country's foreign minister would attend the inauguration of Juan Manuel Santos in Bogota, Colombia.

The announcement comes amid high tension between the neighboring countries, who are at odds over accusations that leftist rebels have found refuge in Venezuela.

Venezuela broke off diplomatic ties with Colombia last month after Colombian officials said they had photographic evidence of guerrilla camps in Venezuela.

But on Friday, Chavez said he hoped to offer more details about relations with Colombia in the coming days, according to state media.

"We are very optimistic. We must move forward," he said, according to the state-run Agencia Venezolana de Noticias.

Colombia made its case against Venezuela before the Organization of American States last month and asked for international observers to be allowed into Venezuela to verify the presence of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla group.

Chavez has denied the allegations and accused Colombian officials and right-wing paramilitary units of plotting his assassination, while the Colombian government has accused Chavez of supporting the rebels.

But Chavez recently expressed hope of restoring relations after Colombian President Alvaro Uribe leaves office.

Last week, he told state-run VTV that he hoped to meet with Santos as soon as possible.

Santos was elected president of Colombia in June with the highest vote total in his country's history: 9,300,000 -- roughly 70 percent of the vote. He ran as a conservative promising to improve Colombia's security.

Some of the strongest strikes against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, came under his leadership as minister of defense, including the high-profile hostage rescue of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt in 2008.

"We have been tough on terrorism and we will be even tougher now," Santos said at a victory celebration after winning the presidential election in June.

CNN's Rafael Romo contributed to this report.

Ahmadinejad doubts Sept 11 attack toll..[ 1581 ]

Iran's Ahmadinejad doubts Sept 11 attack toll

EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to film or take pictures in Tehran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures while speaking at a ceremony to mark the National Journalist Day at the Iran's state television's conference centre in Tehran August 7, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/ISNA/Mehdi Ghasemi

By Robin Pomeroy and Ramin Mostafavi

TEHRAN | Sat Aug 7, 2010 9:49am EDT

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday the September 11, 2001 attacks were exaggerated in a fresh broadside at the United States just days after President Barack Obama voiced willingness to talk to Iran.

Well-known for his anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric, the hardline populist Ahmadinejad also repeated his denial of the Holocaust, on which the consensus of historians is that six million Jews were exterminated by Nazi Germany.

Ahmadinejad said the September 11 attacks with hijacked airliners on New York and Washington D.C. had been trumped up as an excuse for the United States to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.

Speaking at a Tehran conference, Ahmadinejad said there was no evidence that the death toll at New York's World Trade Center, destroyed in the attacks, was as high as reported and said "Zionists" had been tipped off in advance.

"What was the story of September 11? During five to six days, and with the aid of the media, they created and prepared public opinion so that everyone considered an attack on Afghanistan and Iraq as (their) right," he said in a televised speech.

No "Zionists" were killed in the World Trade Center, according to Ahmadinejad, because "one day earlier they were told not go to their workplace."

"They announced that 3,000 people were killed in this incident, but there were no reports that reveal their names. Maybe you saw that, but I did not," he told a gathering of the Iranian news media.

There is a published list of September 11 dead from more than 90 countries available online.

A total of 2,995 people were killed in the attacks, including 19 hijackers and all passengers and crew aboard four commandeered airliners, according to official U.S. figures. The United States blamed the assaults on al Qaeda, led by Saudi-born Sunni Muslim fundamentalist Osama Bin Laden.

Ahmadinejad accused the U.S. government of exercising more media censorship than anywhere in the world.

He had previously said the "9-11" attacks were a "big fabrication" and has rejected the historical record of the Holocaust. On Saturday, Ahmadinejad repeated his belief that the Holocaust had been invented to justify the creation of Israel.

"They made up an event, the so-called Holocaust which was later laid as the basis for the innocence of a group," he said.

Ahmadinejad last week challenged Obama to a televised debate on global issues during his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.

Two years ago he asked to visit the site of the World Trade Center "to pay his respects" but New York police refused.

Washington succeeded in June in getting a fourth round of U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on Iran to pressure it to suspend its disputed nuclear program.

Tougher U.S. and European measures have further tightened restrictions on doing business with the major OPEC country.

Obama signaled on Thursday he was open to talks with the Islamic Republic and was seeking "a clear set of steps that we would consider sufficient to show that they are not pursuing nuclear weapons." [nN05148192]

Ahmadinejad has said he is prepared to return to international talks, which were last held in October, but insists that Iran has the sovereign right to enrich uranium.

Western powers fear the Islamic Republic aims to stockpile the material for possible use, when more highly enriched, in nuclear weapons, and U.N. nuclear inspectors cite indications that Iran is researching how to build a nuclear-tipped missile.

Tehran says it is refining uranium only for electricity and medical treatments.

Israel considers the combination of Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial and his pursuit of nuclear technology a potential threat to its existence and has said it does not rule out military action to prevent Iran developing atomic bombs.

A Washington-based think-tank with access to intelligence said on Friday Iran had begun using recently installed equipment to enrich uranium more efficiently, a step it said could be justified nominally on civilian grounds but in fact made more sense in the context of learning how to make bomb-grade uranium.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Okinawa., Emotional U.S. serviceman..[ 1580 ]

Okinawa-raised, retired U.S. serviceman keeps island in heart as base issues linger

Thomas Shimabukuro's mouth tenses as he stands outside the U.S. military's Camp Zukeran in Okinawa. (Mainichi)

(Mainichi Japan) August 7, 2010

Inside the spacious compound of Camp Zukeran, a U.S. base in southern Okinawa surrounded by wire netting and barbed wire, the Stars and Stripes and a Japanese flag flap in the wind. Beyond the fence lies a residential area.

"I used to work there," says 76-year-old Thomas Shimabukuro, a resident of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, pointing to a Marine Corps command center building. Shimabukuro, a retired U.S. military serviceman, has seen Okinawa from inside and outside the wire fence.

He was born in Los Angeles, but his parents, born in Okinawa, decided to return to their homeland when relations between Japan and the United States started deteriorating. Shimabukuro was just 1 year old at the time.

In April 1945, during World War II, U.S. battleships that had taken the East China Sea unleashed booming cannon fire on Okinawa. Shimabukuro, who was 11 at the time, fled from the attacks with his mother and hid in the mountains. They survived there, eating wild plants and potatoes, but Shimabukuro's father, who was drafted into Okinawa's defense force, would not come home.

Several years after Japan's defeat in the war, Shimabukuro received an unexpected notice from the United States that forced him to make a decision: undergo a conscription exam in the United States or lose his U.S. citizenship. Even after graduating from high school, finding a job was not easy. Wanting to ease the burden on his mother, who was raising eight children single-handedly, Shimabukuro decided to cross the ocean to the United States and enlist in the army.

Shimabukuro became a part of the military force that likely killed his father. When he was sent to fight in the Vietnam War, he couldn't bring himself to tell his mother.

At the time, Shimabukuro's fellow soldiers threw candy to the children living in the war zone. Listening to the children say, "Give me chocolate" brought him back to his days as a child 20 years before. He recalled himself in Okinawa, where he had lost everything, collecting lilies and using them to bargain for candy from soldiers. Shimabukuro himself made bags of candy and handed them to the children. At the time, he encountered one elderly Vietnamese woman who, puzzled, asked him, "Are you an American?"

"I'm from Okinawa," he replied. As soon as he did, the woman started crying. Both he and that woman had experienced life in a fierce battle zone; they shared that in common.

In 1970, Shimabukuro was sent to Okinawa before its reversion to Japan. At one point he was in charge of handling a traffic accident caused by a U.S. serviceman. Shimabukuro told the victim in the accident that he would handle the case properly, but the day after, the U.S. serviceman fled back to his country.

"Liar." Shimabukuro was stung by the word, hurled at him by the victim.

"I was always fighting with myself, worried that I wasn't being of use to the people of Okinawa," he says. In 1976, still unable to shake himself free of such concerns, he retired from military service.

A change for Shimabukuro came in 2000. The Bankoku Shinryokan convention center near his family home in Nago was one of the venues for the Kyushu-Okinawa G8 summit, and one of his former classmates wrote to Shimabukuro, who was living in Seattle at the time, asking him to come and help out by teaching residents English and assisting in international exchange. He agreed, and it became the happiest time of his life.

"I felt like I was able to repay my debt to Okinawa," he says.

In 2001, Shimabukuro returned to his family home to care for his mother. Looking around the area as a resident, he felt the U.S. military bases were too many.

Now, in 2010, it is possible that U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma will be moved to the nearby coastal Henoko region.

"Do they really need something that big?" Shimabukuro asks himself. At the same time he feels that there is nothing to do but to accept the Japan-U.S. agreement. When he thinks about Nago, a town tired from being tossed to and fro by politicians, his heart grows troubled.

Shimabukuro hold both U.S. and Japanese nationality, but he considers himself to be an Okinawan. After a life of adversity, Okinawa is like a haven to him. But to Shimabukuro, the sea of his hometown seems more turbulent than ever. 

(This is part three of a series on U.S.-Okinawa history.)

Click here for the original Japanese story

Japan tanker in a terror attack..[ 1579 ]

Japan tanker was damaged in a terror attack, UAE says

 

The M Star was carrying two million barrels of crude oil to Japan

BBC., 6 August 2010 Last updated at 11:35 GMT 

A Japanese tanker damaged last week in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman was the target of a terrorist attack, the United Arab Emirates state-run news agency has said.

It said remains of home-made explosives had been found on the hull of the M Star, which was damaged last week while travelling from Qatar to Japan.

Two days ago, an al-Qaeda-linked group said it was responsible.

Officials previously said the ship may have been involved in a collision.

The crew of the ship reported an explosion shortly after midnight on Wednesday last week. One person was injured.

Analysis 

Frank Gardner BBC security correspondent

---

This was an amateur operation using crude homemade explosives which did comparatively little damage and caused no fatalities.
It is in marked contrast to the well-planned al-Qaeda attack on the USS Cole in Aden in 2000 which blasted a hole in the warship and killed 17 US sailors, and a further al-Qaeda attack on the tanker Limburg off Yemen in 2002.
A group calling itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades has issued an online statement claiming responsibility, but experts say this is a name of convenience rather than an actual organisation.
Their stated aim is the release of an ageing Egyptian cleric from a US jail for his part in the 1993 World Trade Center attack - not a cause that has widespread resonance these days.
Still, for a ship to be struck in the narrow waterway between Oman and Iran, through which 40% of the world's crude oil is exported, is a worrying development for merchant shipping. Security in the Gulf is likely to be reviewed as a result.

The BBC's security correspondent Nick Childs says the news is likely to raise concerns about security for shipping in the strait, a vital strategic waterway for oil supplies from the Gulf.
Minor damage "An examination carried out by specialised teams had confirmed that the tanker had been the subject of a terrorist attack," the news agency said, quoting an unidentified coastguard source.
"UAE explosives experts who collected and examined samples found a dent on the starboard side above the water line and remains of home-made explosives on the hull," it said.
"Probably the tanker had encountered a terrorist attack from a boat loaded with explosives," the source was quoted as saying.
The ship's owner, Mitsui OSK, said it could not confirm the reports. Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said the government was aware of the report but was yet to confirm its details, the Agence France Presse news agency said.
Previous theories about the cause ranged from a large wave to a US nuclear submarine. Part of the mystery surrounding the incident was the relatively minor damage to the tanker, which did not seem to conform to any particular explanation.

A statement signed by a "battalion" of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which is linked to al-Qaeda, said one of its suicide bombers was responsible for the blast.

The claim, posted on a website used by Islamist militants, could not be independently verified, and the group has made false claims in the past.

The French-operated tanker Limburg was badly damaged off Yemen in an attack in 2002, as was the US Navy warship Cole in an incident in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000, in which 17 US sailors were killed.

The worst floods in Pakistan's history ..[ 1578 ]

Pakistan floods 'hit 14m people'

BBC Aug 6, 2010

BBC's Adam Mynott: 'It's a catastrophe... and that's no overstatement'

The worst floods in Pakistan's history have hit at least 14 million people, officials say.

Twelve million are affected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces, while a further two million are affected in Sindh.
In Indian-administered Kashmir, at least 113 people died in mudslides.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that a charity connected to a group with alleged al-Qaeda links has been providing flood relief.
Flooding has submerged whole villages in the past week, killing at least 1,600 people, according to the UN. And the worst floods to hit the region in 80 years could get worse, as it is only midway through monsoon season.

According to the federal flood commission, 1.4m acres (557,000 hectares) of crop land has been flooded across the country and more than 10,000 cows have perished.
A UN official, Manuel Bessler, told the BBC that with crops swept away by floodwaters, some Pakistanis could be forced to rely on food aid to get through the winter.
He said the immediate priorities for survivors were clean drinking water and medical assistance.
Anger is growing at the absence of President Asif Ali Zardari, who left the country to visit Britain for talks with Prime Minister David Cameron.

With flood victims bitterly accusing the authorities of failing to come to their aid, the disaster has piled yet more pressure on an administration struggling to contain Taliban violence and an economic crisis.
'Flood peaks'
Gen Nadeem Ahmed, of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said 12 million people had been affected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces, where 650,000 houses were destroyed.

 

Pakistan's meteorological department has predicted further downpours

The cost of rebuilding roads there was put at some 5bn Pakistani rupees ($59m, £38m), while the bill for fixing damage to power infrastructure and dams would come to another 2.5bn rupees.
"In my opinion, when assessments are complete, this will be the biggest disaster in the history of Pakistan," the general said in Islamabad.
Along a 1,200km (750-mile) stretch of the River Indus in Sindh province, the government has evacuated one million people and is evacuating another half a million, provincial minister for irrigation Jam Saifullah Dharejo told the BBC.
About half a million people from the area left their homes earlier to stay with family and friends.
"The flood is at its peak right now, and we expect the waters following to start to recede once these torrents have passed," the minister said.
Pakistan's meteorological department has predicted further downpours for the country, especially in flood-affected areas.
In Kashmir's Ladakh region, mudslides swept through the town of Leh early on Friday, killing at least 113 people and injuring 400, local official T Angchok told the BBC.
The two main roads into the town were closed as was the airport, and medicines, blankets and tents were in short supply.
Controversial charity In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a charity with links to a group blamed for the Mumbai attacks has been providing flood relief, one of its leaders told the BBC.


Zardari responds to criticism over his UK visit during the floods

Falah-e-Insaniat has close links to Jamat ud Dawa, an organisation linked in turn to Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was banned by Pakistan after the 2008 attacks on the Indian city.
The head of Falah-e-Insaniat in Risalpur, Adil Mir, said his volunteers had helped thousands of people.
Jamat ud Dawa came to prominence through its relief work during the 2005 earthquake in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
The BBC's Adam Mynott says the concern is that while the Pakistan government is being widely condemned for failing flood victims, Falah-e-Insaniat has responded quickly and is recruiting supporters right across the country.

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