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JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice concluded a Middle East trip on Monday after strongly
condemning Jewish settlement growth in the occupied Palestinian
territories. On her latest visit to the region aimed at spurring
US-backed peace talks, Rice stepped up pressure on Israel, faulting
it for not doing enough to halt settlement growth and improve living
conditions in the West Bank. “We have not made the progress that
we would like to in terms of movement and access, removal of
barriers,” Rice said.
--AFP
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan stoked
tensions with Afghanistan on Monday, summoning the Afghan envoy and
vowing to defend its sovereignty after President Hamid Karzai
threatened cross-border attacks on militants. Karzai said on Sunday
that Afghanistan would be justified to attack Taliban insurgents on
the soil of his supposed ally in the US-led “war on terror,”
saying his war-torn country had a right to do so in self-defense.
His comments came days after Pakistan alleged that US-led coalition
forces based in Afghanistan had killed 11 Pakistani troops.
--AFP
COLOMBO: At least 12 police
personnel were killed and over 20 people injured in a suicide bomb
attack launched by Tamil Tiger rebels in the northern Sri Lankan
town of Vavuniya Monday morning, defense officials said. Officials
from the Ministry of Defense said a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
suicide bomber riding a motorcycle blew himself in front of the
police office complex in Vavuniya around 7:10 a.m. The personnel
were leaving the office of the senior superintendent of police for
their duties when the explosion occurred.
--Xinhua
KURIHARA, Japan: Rescue workers
hampered by giant mounds of mud pulled a man’s body out of a
devastated hot-spring resort on Monday, bringing the death toll from
Japan’s earthquake to 10. Ground water is still seeping in this
mountainous area of northern Japan, causing sludge to cover areas
where rescue teams were searching. Twelve people remain unaccounted
for from Saturday’s earthquake, which registered 7.2 on the
Richter scale, making it the strongest to strike inland in the
tremor-prone nation in eight years.
--AFP
IOWA CITY, Iowa: Residents of the
flood-ravaged US midwestern state of Iowa were to start cleaning up
Monday, but officials warned it could be two weeks before river
levels returned to normal. “While this is a trying time for our
state, every Iowan should know this: together, we will rebuild,”
Governor Chet Culver said. “The waters will recede. Our citizens
will rebuild and return to their homes. And Iowans will meet this
challenge with optimism and resilience.”
--AFP
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