New clashes in eastern Saudi kill one

RIYADH: Saudi police exchanged fire with “masked gunmen” at a protest in the Shiite-populated east, killing one of them, state reported early Saturday, in the second fatal clashes in the oil-rich region in 24 hours.

“Security forces following an unauthorised gathering in the (Shiite) town of Al-Awamiya in Qatif district came under fire from masked gunmen,” the official SPA news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.

Police “responded, sparking an exchange of fire that resulted in the wounding of one of them, who died later.”

An activist told AFP that Said was “shot dead by security forces as they dispersed a protest against the killing of another man” on Thursday.

“Eight armoured vehicles belonging to Saudi security forces intervened to disperse the protest,” the activist said.

Munir al-Medani, also 21, died of his wounds on Thursday after being shot by security forces in the Al-Shwaika neighbourhood of Qatif during a Shiite demonstration for reform in the ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom, activists said.

Saudi authorities said that Medani too died in an exchange of fire between security forces and “masked men.”

Demonstrators also took to the streets of another Qatif town — Al-Rabieya — on Friday to protest against Medani’s death, activists said.

“Hundreds of demonstrators waved pictures of those killed and detained as they condemned the shooting (by Saudi security forces) on peaceful protests,” one activist told AFP.

Activists and witnesses said that Medani’s death came when security forces opened fire on a Shiite procession marking the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed — a celebration forbidden in Saudi Arabia — which turned into a demonstration for reform and the release of Shiite detainees.

Said’s death raises to seven the number of protesters killed since demonstrations erupted in the Eastern Province last March.

Prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Hasan al-Saffar criticised the use of force against protesters saying: “This will not solve the problem but will only further complicate it,” in a speech published on a Shiite websites.

“Blood in Muslim states has become cheap and human rights are violated as blood runs in several countries. Prisons are filled with detainees and torture is still practised against prisoners in most Islamic states,” Saffar said.

The region has been rocked by a series of uprisings that unseated autocracts in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya in 2011.

Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh is due to quit on February 21 under a transfer of power deal while pressure is mounting on the Syrian regime to end its deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protest.

The immediate trigger for the protest movement among Saudi Shiites was a Saudi-led military intervention in neighbouring Bahrain to help its Sunni rulers crush Shiite-led pro-democracy demonstrations last March.

Activists say that Saudi authorities have arrested nearly 500 people since the protests started. Many have been released but dozens remain in custody, among them human rights activist Fadel al-Munasif and writer Nazir al-Majid.

In January, Saudi authorities published a list of 23 men wanted on suspicion of involvement in the disturbances.

Later the same month, the interior ministry announced that security forces had arrested nine people suspected of involvement in the wounding of three policemen in the Eastern Province.

Most of Saudi Arabia’s estimated two million Shiites live in the province, where the vast majority of the OPEC kingpin’s huge oil reserves lie. They complain of marginalisation in the Sunni-dominated kingdom. AGENCIES

Irene begins destructive run, kills 8 in NC

At least Eight people, including an 11-year-old boy and a 55-year-old surfer, have died in storm-related incidents since Hurricane Irene slammed into the US east coast, officials said.

The child died Saturday when a tree fell on an apartment complex in Virginia, while the surfer died Friday when he took to his board in treacherously high surf off the Florida coast, emergency officials told AFP.

Hurricane Irene opened its assault on the Eastern Seaboard on Saturday by lashing the North Carolina coast with wind as strong as 115 mph and pounding shoreline homes with waves. Farther north, authorities readied a massive shutdown of trains and airports, with 2 million people ordered out of the way.

The center of the storm, which was estimated to be some 500 miles wide, passed over North Carolina s Outer Banks for its official landfall just after 7:30 a.m. EDT. The hurricane s vast reach traced the East Coast from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to just below Cape Cod. Tropical storm conditions battered Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, with the worst to come.

On Saturday afternoon, forecasters said Irene s effects could be felt as far north as Canada even after it weakens. A tropical storm warning extended from the U.S. border to Nova Scotia s southern coast.

Irene weakened slightly, with sustained winds down to 85 mph from about 100 a day earlier, making it a Category 1, the least threatening on the scale. The National Hurricane Center reported gusts of 115 mph and waves as high as 7 feet.

At least three deaths were directly caused by the storm. In Nash County, N.C., emergency officials said a man was crushed by a large limb that blew off a tree. In Newport News, Va., a city spokeswoman said an 11-year-old boy was killed when Irene s winds sent a tree crashing through his apartment building. Winds had been gusting well above 60 mph in the area. Also in Virginia, someone was killed when a tree fell onto a car.

Hurricane-force winds arrived near Jacksonville, N.C., at first light, and wind-whipped rain lashed the resort town of Nags Head. Tall waves covered the beach, and the surf pushed as high as the backs of some of the houses and hotels fronting the strand.

“There s nothing you can do now but wait. You can hear the wind and it s scary,” said Leon Reasor, who rode out the storm in the Outer Banks town of Buxton. “Things are banging against the house. I hope it doesn t get worse, but I know it will. I just hate hurricanes.”

Saudi Arabia withdraws ambassador from Syria

Saudi Arabia s King Abdullah demanded an end to the bloodshed in Syria on Monday and said he was withdrawing his country s ambassador from Damascus.

“What is happening in Syria is not acceptable for Saudi Arabia,” he said in a written statement read out on Al Arabiya satellite television.

“The Syrian authority is capable of implementing comprehensive reforms and fast. Syria s future lies between two choices not three, either it chooses wisdom on its own or it will be pulled down into the depths of turmoil and loss,” he said.

Syrian tanks on Sunday stormed the eastern city of of Deir al-Zor for second day, defying a UN appeal. Tanks pounded Syria s tribal heartland for second day in escalating campaign to crush demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad.

Hurricane feared near Karachi

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) says that the low air pressure is forming a tropical cyclone in the eastern Arabian Sea.

According to the PMD, the temperatures would rise in Sindh and Punjab following a change in wind pattern due to the low air pressure in eastern Arabian Sea. A rain spell is also expected in coastal areas of Balochistan and Sindh.

The PMD says that the weather conditions are indicating a hurricane and its tropical cyclone warning centre is observing the sea pattern.

Libyan rebels suffer losses in Misrata

MISRATA: Libyan rebels said at least eight of their fighters were killed repelling a government attack on Misrata on Saturday, but were buoyed by a series of NATO air strikes on government positions.

The last rebel bastion in western Libya, Gaddafi’s forces appear bent on seizing Misrata and crucially its port, which some analysts say the veteran leader needs to control if he is to survive a prolonged conflict.

For a second straight day, government forces pounded the eastern side of Misrata with heavy artillery, a rebel who identified himself as Mustafa Abdulrahman told Reuters, with the fighting centred on the Nakl al-Theqeel road to the port.

Rebels in Libya’s third city had been angered in past days by what they considered a reluctance by NATO to attack Muammar Gaddafi’s troops, who have laid siege to Misrata for more than six weeks.

“I have to say that the NATO forces have changed since yesterday, we are sensing a positive change. They have bombed at least four sites held by Gaddafi’s forces in Misrata,” Abdulrahman told Reuters by telephone.

NATO air strikes on Gaddafi’s armour seemed to have intensified in the last 24 hours, he added, with coalition missiles targeting at least four sites on Saturday.

Coalition aircraft also attacked a target in the southern outskirts of the city, a Libyan official said. “This smoke is from a NATO air strike which hit today,” the official said, pointing to a plume of black smoke.

As darkness fell over deserted streets of Misrata’s southern outskirts, a Reuters correspondent reported hearing the boom of artillery and saw smoke swirling above the city from several different locations.

In one Gaddafi-controlled neighbourhood, pick-up trucks packed with militia fighters sped towards the city, passing government checkpoints manned by militia fighters and reinforced by anti-aircraft guns.

Journalists had been promised a trip to central Misrata to show how the city was firmly under the government’s control but the bus was diverted to another location on Misrata’s southern fringe.

There, many buildings including a mosque and a hospital were pockmarked with bullet holes. Some had clearly been hit by artillery shells.

After weeks of encirclement, shelling and sniper fire, resident in Misrata say essential food stuffs are running low, the supply of water and electricity is sporadic and hospitals overflowing.

A Red Cross-chartered vessel carrying enough medical supplies to treat 300 patients with weapons injuries docked in Misrata earlier on Saturday, helping the agency to extend its activities to western Libya, it said.

However, reinforcements are also reaching Gaddafi’s forces.

“The Gaddafi forces received supplies last night and reinforcements on the eastern side of the city. It seems they want to enter the port,” Abdulrahman said.

It is difficult to verify the reports independently because journalists have not been allowed to report freely from Misrata, which lies about 200 km (125 miles) east of Tripoli. Gaddafi says he is fighting armed gangs with ties to al Qaeda. AGENCIES

Saudi Arabia Bans Protest, Oman Replaces 3 High-Level Ministers

Saudi Arabia Protest: Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry said that demonstrations would not be tolerated following a protest by about 100 members of the Shiite minority in the eastern region of the kingdom. The Impossible Game new levels is a super-addictive and very, very hard platform game, synced to an awesome soundtrack, the Saudi Interior Ministry said in statement on Saturday.

The kingdom has banned all demonstrations because they contradicted Islamic laws and society s values. The ministry said that some people had tried to go around the law to “achieve illegitimate aims,” and it warned that security forces were authorized to act against violators.

The ban follows a series of protests by Saudi Shias in the kingdom’s east in the past weeks mainly to demand the release of prisoners they say are long held without trial. The demonstration came after Friday prayers in the town of al-Hufouf when the Shiites demanded the release of detainees, including a Shiite cleric who was arrested last week for calling for a constitutional monarchy.

Saudi Shias say they complain they struggle to get senior government jobs and other benefits like other citizens. Sultan Qaboos bin Said ordered the second top-level shake-up in a week Saturday in the tightly controlled Arabian peninsula nation.

Indian Lt Gen PK Rath Punished

Breaking News NEW DELHI: Lieutenant General P.K. Rath, who was found guilty in the Sukhna land scam by an Army Court in New Delhi, was on Saturday handed down a sentence including a two-year seniority loss and forfeiture of 15 years of service for pension purposes.

Lieutenant General Rath was found guilty on three counts — firstly for providing a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the construction of the building next to the Army headquarters in Sukna, secondly for signing a Memorandum of Understand (MoU) with the private builder and thirdly for not informing the Eastern Command headquarters while the process was being carried on by him.

“To take rank and precedence as if appointment as substantiating the Lieutenant General bore dated May 24, 2010, forfeiture of 15 years service for pensionary benefits and severely reprimand,” General Court Martial (GCM) Presiding Officer Lieutenant General I.J. Singh said in his verdict.

This verdict will now have to be confirmed by the Army Chief and the Defence Ministry.

The land scam came into the open in mid-2008 and the names of Lieutenant General Rath and Lieutenant General Avadhesh Prakash figured among the senior army officers who influenced the decision to issue the NOC to a Siliguri-based private builder to construct an educational institution on a 70-acre land adjacent to the Sukna military station in Darjeeling.

The private builder had floated a trust – Agarwal Geetanjali Education Trust – to set up an affiliate school of the prestigious Mayo College in the area.

5 terrorists involved in Rescue 15, ISI office attacks arrested

Lahore police have claimed to have arrested 5 terrorists linked with suicide blasts at the buildings of Rescue 15 and ISI. CCPO said that India and Afghanistan were involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan.

They have confessed to attack the offices in the eastern city of Lahore with guns, grenades and a car bomb in which 19 people were killed, CCPO told. Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shabir Ahmed, Umar Hayat, Hafiz Mehmood and Abid Ikram are the arrested terrorists. Heavy arms and four suicide jackets have been recovered from their possession.

‘One million’ on anti-AIDS drugs in South Africa

DRIEFONTEIN: A million people are now receiving anti-AIDS drugs in South Africa, a country with the world’s heaviest HIV infections, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Wednesday.

“More than 200 000 new patients have been initiated on ARV’s since April this year, bringing a total number to one million,” Motlanthe told a public gathering to mark World AIDS Day in the eastern province of Mpumalanga.

Motlanthe said more public health institutions were now providing treatment, with more nurses trained to administer ARV (anti-retroviral) drugs.

“It is important to emphasize that even as we continue to make headway with our treatment programme, prevention remains the mainstay of our response to the dual epidemic of HIV and TB,” he said.

South Africa has 5.6 million people who are HIV-positive out of a 50-million population, according to UN

Bicycle bomb kills 3, wounds 25 in east Afghanistan

JALALABAD: A bomb placed on a bicycle killed three people and wounded at least 25 others in the eastern Afghan province of Laghman on Saturday, Provincial Governor Mortaza Adayat Qalandarzai said.

A second bomb detonated shortly after the first blast wounded another three people, Qalandarzai added. AGENCIES

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