Turkish police detain 10 al Qaeda suspects: report

ISTANBUL: Turkish police have detained 10 suspected al Qaeda militants who they believe were planning an attack ahead of New Year, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.

The agency said the suspects, eight of whom were detained in anti-terror raids in the northwestern city of Bursa on Wednesday, were expected to be brought before a court on Friday.

A further two people were detained in Istanbul and taken to Bursa, the agency said. Bursa police said in a statement that eight suspects linked to a terror group had been detained.

Turkish police often arrest suspected Islamist militants and describe them as having links to al Qaeda, though details seldom emerge. Around 120 al Qaeda suspects were rounded up last January in raids mostly carried out in the southeast.

In October, police held five male students suspected of providing support to al Qaeda

Junta silent as Myanmar awaits Suu Kyi release

YANGON: Detained Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was due to be freed from house arrest on Saturday, but there was still no sign Myanmar’s army rulers were ready to release her.

The charismatic leader of the Southeast Asian country’s fight against military dictatorship remained in her crumbling lakeside home, despite rumours paramount leader Senior General Than Shwe had approved an order to free his arch enemy from seven years of house arrest.

A crowd of about 300 people, among them many journalists, waited anxiously near her house, chatting in small groups or drinking in tea shops. Some wore T-shirts with the message: “We stand with Aung San Suu Kyi”. Suu Kyi received no visitors.

A government source told Reuters she would likely be released in the evening, but in one of the world’s most secretive countries, the comment could not be officially

ASEAN leaders gather as turbulence buffets region

HANOI: Southeast Asian leaders meet Thursday with their region assailed by currency tensions, territorial disputes and pressure to act on troublesome neighbour Myanmar’s looming elections.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi also takes place against a backdrop of increasingly assertive behaviour by China which has put the region on edge.

The gathering of the 10-member ASEAN bloc shifts gear Saturday when it widens into the 16-nation East Asia Summit, also taking in Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

Talks mooted between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Japanese counterpart Naoto Kan are in doubt after the two nations became embroiled in their worst diplomatic row in years, centred on a disputed East China Sea island chain.

A meeting scheduled for Friday between the economic

Iran arrests members of Jundollah group: report

TEHRAN: Iran has arrested three members of an al-Qaeda-backed militant group who it says had played “a major role” in a deadly mosque explosion in the southeast of the country, the official IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

More than 20 people, including members of the elite Revolutionary Guards, were killed and 100 others were wounded in two suicide attacks at Zahedan’s Grand mosque in July.

“These three terrorists had illegally entered a neighbouring country before they carried out this blind act and had received the necessary training for their anti-security activities there,” IRNA quoted a senior local official as saying.

The unnamed official said the three who were members of the group Jundollah, or God’s soldiers, had played “a major role” in the Zahedan mosque bombing, according to IRNA.

In May 2009, a bombing in a crowded mosque in Zahedan

Cyclone hits Myanmar, weakens as it moves northeast

YANGON: A cyclone that hit the west coast of Myanmar was moving northeast through the country but was expected to weaken on Saturday, a meteorological official said, adding there was no news yet of casualties or damage.

State television said on Friday that Cyclone Giri had struck the coast near the town of Kyaukphyu, with winds reaching 160 km per hour (100 miles per hour ), and could trigger a tidal surge of up to 12 feet (3.7 metres) in some towns on the Bay of Bengal coast.

Telephone contact with the area was interrupted when the cyclone hit and had not been re-established early on Saturday.

An official at the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology in the capital, Naypyitaw, described Giri on Saturday as an inland storm, but had no details on the impact on coastal areas.

Coastal and delta regions in the Southeast Asian country are often hit by

Quakes kill three in Indonesia

MANOKWARI: Three people were killed and hundreds of homes damaged Wednesday when a series of strong earthquakes hit eastern Indonesia, triggering a tsunami warning and widespread panic.

Two victims were crushed when their homes collapsed on Yapen island, close to the epicenter of the most powerful 7.1-magnitude quake off the northern coast of Papua province, police said.

The quake struck off the southeast coast of Yapen at 12:16 pm (0316 GMT), officials said. It was the second of a series of strong quakes felt across a vast but sparsely populated area including Biak island. Another person was killed when a 5.3-magnitude quake rattled West Sulawesi province, the local news agency reported.

allergy symptoms

TAMPA, FL — The 2010 Florida allergy season is turning out to be one of the worst in years. Experts believe that this year is especially bad in the Southeast, owing to an uncharacteristically cold winter.

Oak trees are often the culprit in Florida. The trees produce 3,000 to 6,000 pollen particles per cubic meter; it only takes 10 particles to trigger an allergic reaction.

Tips to treat allergy symptoms

1. Make sure to check your local weather forecast. Go to sites such as pollen.com to see how bad it will be in your area on a given day.

2. Try to plan any outdoor activities around days when pollen counts are low, and try to avoid going out on days when it is extremely high.

3. Make sure to change your A/C filter regularly. Pollen can accumulate quickly on these filters and it is important to keep the air in your home clean.

4. Bathe and brush your pets regularly. Pets will retain pollen particles in their fur and can track it around your home.

5. Over the counter saline solutions can help you rinse out your sinuses. Antihistamines are also available. Make sure to talk to your pharmacist.

6. If all else fails, see your family practitioner or an allergy specialist. You could need medication or more involved treatments such as allergy shots.

source http://www.abcactionnews.com

800 evacuated due to flood risk near Iceland volcano

REYKJAVIK: Eight hundred people were evacuated in Iceland Thursday because of a flood from a glacier that melted after the country”s second volcano eruption in less than a month, police said.

Iceland”s Department of Civil Protection said the immediate area around the eruption in the southeast of the country was at risk of flash floods.

The volcano sent up the huge cloud of ash that has brought air chaos to much of northern Europe.

Police spokesman Vithir Reynisson said 800 people had been moved, many for a second time in less than 24 hours. Hundreds had to flee the floods after the eruption started on Wednesday.

The civil protection department said there was an “imminent and immediate danger of flash floods. Reports confirm a large body of water emerging from under” the glacier.

“The water is expected to breach the flood barriers,” the department added.

“We think that houses and roads and bridges are in danger of destruction,” police spokesman Reynisson added.

asean

Unrest in Thailand and controversy over Burma’s elections are likely to overshadow a summit of 10 Southeast Asian leaders who had intended to focus on economic matters.

The summit was set to open in Hanoi on Thursday, one day after Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in the face of escalating anti-government protests. At the last minute, he canceled his participation in the 16th annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Motorcyclists ride past the My Dinh National Convention Center, the main venue for 16th summit of the Southeast Asian Nations in Hanoi. (Photo: Getty Images)

“The situation in Bangkok is worrying, and it’s a somber backdrop to our discussions,” Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo said. “I really hope that the situation there will not lead to violence.”

Leaders from the 10 Asean nations were expected to focus on economic integration and climate change.

Some members are likely to press privately for a statement urging Burma’s military junta to modify new laws governing the elections, which the largest opposition group plans to boycott.

Burma’s junta plans to call elections sometime this year, but under the election laws, detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is forbidden from participating.

Last week, members of her party, the National League for Democracy, announced they would not participate in the polls, the first in 20 years.

“It’s disappointing that, because of the way the election laws have been crafted, it’s not possible for the NLD to participate in the elections,” Yeo said, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the meeting Thursday morning.

However, he said, it was unlikely that the group would strongly criticize Burmese junta.

“We are not in a position to punish Myanmar [Burma],” Yeo said. “If China and India remain engaged with Myanmar, then we have to.”

Asean has a tradition of noninterference in its members’ political affairs, so a strong public rebuke is unlikely. Political consensus is also difficult to reach among the 10 nations, which include a military junta, communist states and democracies.

The leaders also plan to issue a statement about climate change, but the focus is likely to be on economics, said Carl Thayer, a Vietnam specialist at the Australian National Defence Force Academy.

Asean hopes to advance its goals of forming a European-style economic community by 2015 and promoting development across the region.

At the last Asean summit, held in Thailand, the group agreed on ways to deal with the global economic crisis. With the regional outlook beginning to improve, they may decide to remove steps taken previously to stimulate the regional economy.

Last year’s summit was disrupted by political protesters known as the “Red Shirts,” who demanded the resignation of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Some visiting leaders had to be airlifted out by helicopter.

That same anti-government protest movement launched a new wave of rallies in the Thai capital in recent weeks. On Wednesday, some Thai officials were evacuated by helicopter after the protesters briefly forced their way into Parliament.

ASEAN signs agreement to help resolve conflicts

HANOI: Southeast Asian ministers on Thursday fleshed out their vision of a rules-based regional community by signing a protocol to help member nations resolve conflicts.

Foreign ministers from the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) states signed the agreement on dispute settlement mechanisms, ahead of a leaders” summit.

Focused on economic issues for most of its existence, ASEAN in 2008 adopted a charter committing it to tighter links. The group aims to form by 2015 a community of 600 million people with economic, political and social ties.

While the charter sets out the basic principles of ASEAN, Thursday”s protocol and other documents are needed to more clearly define how the vast community will function as a legal entity.

The protocol said ASEAN leaders want to transform the bloc into “a rules-based organisation with practical, efficient and credible mechanisms in place to resolve disputes in an effective and timely manner.”

It added that efficient dispute settlement mechanisms would help the bloc prevent “festering conflicts and confrontation” among member states.

The protocol applies to disputes related to ASEAN”s charter or other ASEAN documents.

It provides for a variety of means to settle disagreements, including consultation between parties, mediation, and arbitration. Unresolved disputes can be referred to the ASEAN summit.

Scarred by wars in the 1960s and 1970s, Southeast Asian nations have largely lived peacefully together for at least two decades, but smaller-scale conflicts persist.

Cambodia and Thailand have been locked in nationalist tensions and a troop standoff over a disputed temple on their border since July 2008. Soldiers have died on both sides.

There are also conflicting maritime sovereignty claims in the region, and other bilateral disagreements.

Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo told reporters that the protocol “commits us politically to having a dispute settlement mechanism which will give our agreements concrete reality.”

ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan said he hoped the “rather comprehensive” document would enhance stability and security in the region.

But it will be up to the parties themselves whether to bring an issue for resolution, said Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

“When all is said and done, the most important thing is the political will to use or not to use such a mechanism,” he said.

Natalegawa said the protocol could not be used to deal with Myanmar, which has long been the bloc”s most troublesome issue, because such mechanisms normally apply only between states.

“It won”t apply to internal situations,” he said.

ASEAN members are divided on how to deal with Myanmar, and its failure to heed calls to embrace democracy.

The military state is accused of widespread rights abuses and is subject to European Union and United States sanctions, but has always escaped formal censure from ASEAN, which adheres to a principle of non-interference in members” internal affairs.

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