World’s oldest man, British WWI veteran dies aged 113

AFP, London

Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man and oldest World War I veteran, died Saturday at the age of 113, the nursing home in Britain where he spent his last years said.
"Everybody at St Dunstan's is saddened by Henry's loss and our sympathy goes out to his family," said Robert Leader, chief executive of St Dunstan's care home in Ovingdean, near Brighton on the south England coast.
He had become the world's oldest man last month, Guinness World Records confirmed, after the previous holder, Tomoji Tanabe of Japan, died aged 113.Allingham had marked his 113th birthday on June 6. Leader said Allingham was "very active right up to his final days." "As well as possessing a great spirit of fun, he represented the last of a generation who gave a very great deal for us," he said. "Henry made many friends among the residents and staff at St Dunstan's. He was a great character and will be missed." A funeral will take place later this month in Brighton. "I am greatly saddened to hear of the death of Henry Allingham," said Britain's Veterans Minister Kevan Jones.
"For one of his age, his vigour for life was extraordinary.
"I was humbled to meet somebody who had led such an amazing life and we owe such a huge debt of gratitude to him and his generation. My thoughts are with his family."n
Allingham had five grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, 14 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild.
Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, described Allingham as "one of our nation's historic treasures" in the foreword to the veteran's 2008 autobiography, "Kitchener's Last Volunteer".
"He does not want modern society to forget what his generation gave for our futures but, equally, the message of peace and reconciliation is one that he desires to convey above all else," Charles wrote.
"We should all be humbled by this quiet, genial man and his desire to extol peace and friendship to the world, despite all the horrors he witnessed at such a young and impressionable age."

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Astronauts prepare for first space walk of mission

AFP, Washington

Astronauts from the US space shuttle Endeavour prepared for their first spacewalk of the mission Saturday aimed at completing a Japanese space laboratory at the International Space Station.
During their first full day in space, the Endeavour crew inspected the spacesuits that they will use during the five spacewalks planned during the mission.
The seven-person crew, including six Americans and one Canadian also tested rendezvous equipment, installed a camera for the orbiter docking system and extended the docking ring that sits on top the system.
The Endeavour mission aims to help fulfill "Japan's hope for an out-of-this-world space laboratory," as the shuttle delivers state-of-the-art equipment to conduct experiments in the vacuum of space, according to NASA.
Earlier Friday the shuttle successfully docked at the space station amid questions about the integrity of the shuttle's heat shield.
During the delicate docking maneuver the two space vehicles approached each other at 28,000 kilometers (17,398 miles) per hour, giving Commander Mark Polansky a margin of error of 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) to complete the procedure, NASA said.
The entry of Endeavour's crew aboard the ISS brought the number of astronauts inside the orbiting space station to a record 13.
As the shuttle approached the ISS, Polansky photographed the underside of the Endeavour to discover whether Wednesday's takeoff caused any damage to the shuttle's heat shield.
During the launch, which came after five failed take off attempts since June 13, debris could be seen peeling away from the shuttle external rocket booster and then striking the spacecraft.

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Iraq attacks kill five, including anti-Qaeda leader’s son

AFP, Fallujah, Iraq

Five people were killed, including the son of a senior Sunni Arab militiaman, in two attacks on Saturday in a town outside Fallujah, west of Baghdad, a police officer said. A roadside bomb in Al-Karma, 15 kilometres (10 miles) east of Fallujah, killed three people and wounded six, police Colonel Hafiz Muklif said.
Those killed were the son of Naeem Saleh al-Halbusi, the deputy chief of a Sunni militia opposed to Al-Qaeda, and two bodyguards, Muklif said. Halbusi was injured in the attack.
Sunni militias, made up of local tribes and former insurgents and known as the Sahwa or Awakening, have by siding with the American military since 2006 played a crucial role in ousting the Islamists of Al-Qaeda from their former strongholds.
A second roadside bomb in the town killed two people and wounded two, the police officer said.
The security situation in Fallujah-once a major bastion of the Sunni insurgency-has improved dramatically since the launch of the Sahwa movement.
But Saturday's attacks follow a bombing a day earlier at the Fallujah home of a police lieutenant colonel and ex-Sahwa leader in which his two sons were killed and six people wounded.
The attacks come less than three weeks after US troops withdrew from urban centres in line with a security pact between Baghdad and Washington that calls for American forces to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.
Violence had dropped markedly throughout the country in recent months but attacks increased in the run-up to the US military pullback, with 437 Iraqis killed in June-the highest death toll in 11 months.

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West must close Iran nuclear file: New atomic chief

AFP, Tehran

Iran's new atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said on Saturday that the West should close the Islamic republic's nuclear file and cease its hostility towards Tehran.
"Legal and technical discussions about Iran's nuclear case have finished ... and there is no room left to keep this case open," Salehi said in his first remarks since being appointed Friday to head Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation.
At the heart of Iran's nuclear controversy lies its defiant insistence on continuing to enrich uranium. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make atomic weapons while low enriched uranium is used in nuclear power plants. The West fears that Iran has a covert plan to use the technology to make nuclear weapons but Tehran insists the technology will be used only for peaceful purposes.
"We hope that more efforts be made (by the West) in order to obtain mutual confidence instead of the past six year's hostile era and this case... will be closed as soon as possible," Salehi said.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Friday announced the appointment of Salehi, Iran's former envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, replacing the former chief of 12 years, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh.
Salehi is known as an open minded administrator and he was the one who signed the protocol with the IAEA in December 2003 which gave the UN agency a freer hand in inspecting Iran's nuclear sites.
Ahmadinejad's present government stopped applying that protocol, linked to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, in February 2006 shortly after Iran's nuclear programme was referred to the UN Security Council.
Aghazadeh has given no reason for his resignation but he has long been a friend of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main opposition leader who is bitterly disputing Ahmadinejad's re-election and has demanded a re-run of the presidential vote.

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4 foreigners among 9 dead in Indonesia blasts

AFP, Jakarta

Indonesia said Saturday at least four foreigners were among nine people killed in blasts at two luxury hotels in Jakarta, and that another 55 were injured.
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda put the total toll at eight, including the suicide bombers who detonated the devices, downgrading it from the nine, which had been announced earlier by the health ministry.
"The latest figures we have of the victims is eight dead, and of those dead four are foreign nationals, one Indonesian national, and three others (who) have not been identified," Wirayuda told a press conference.
Wirayuda did not say how many suicide bombers there were but police have said there were two.
The health ministry's crisis centre said in an SMS alert that it had identified victims including Timothy David McKay from New Zealand, and Australians Nathan Verity and Garth McEvoy.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith confirmed that Verity and a third Australian, diplomat Craig Senger, had also died in the attack. However, he said he could not confirm McEvoy's death.
The health ministry said a Singaporean man was also killed but did not give a complete name and the Singapore embassy in Jakarta told AFP it had not verified the death.
An Indonesian man identified by the single name Darmanto was also among those killed, the ministry said.
Police have said that at least 18 foreigners were among those injured, including citizens of Australia, South Korea, the Netherlands and Japan.

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Pakistani warplanes kill six Taliban militants

AFP, Peshawar, Pakistan

Pakistani warplanes Saturday pounded two Taliban training centres, killing six men under the command of an important local militant in a lawless tribal area, officials said.
The airstrike took place in Orakzai tribal agency, a stronghold of Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud's deputy Hakim Ullah.
"The airstrike destroyed two training centres for militants in Orakzai," a paramilitary spokesman told AFP.
Two security officials said that at least six militants had died. "Six militants of Hakim Ullah group have been killed in the airstrike," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to journalists.
Taliban militants had claimed the shooting down of a military helicopter in Orakzai on July 3, which killed 26 security personnel.
Pakistan has also carried out air strikes against Mehsud's hideouts in South Waziristan, with commanders vowing to hunt down the warlord's militant network in the remote northwest region known as a base for Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels.
Washington alleges Islamist fighters hide out in the mountains near the Afghan border, plotting attacks on Western targets and crossing the porous frontier to attack foreign troops based in Afghanistan.
Mehsud has a five million dollar reward on his head offered by the United States, and a bounty of 615,000 dollars in Pakistan for allegedly masterminding multiple deadly bombings in the last two years.
About 2,000 people have died in Islamist bombings across the country since July 2007, when government forces besieged a radical mosque in Islamabad.

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Bombs kill 12 including British soldier in Afghanistan

AP/UNB, Kabul

Bombs killed a dozen people in southern Afghanistan, including a British soldier and five children, authorities said, as U.S. and British officials consider sending more troops to combat the growing Taliban insurgency.
The five children were among 11 people who died Friday when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in the Spin Boldak district of southern Kandahar province near the border with Pakistan, according to police Gen. Saifullah Hakim.
The victims, all members of an extended family, were traveling to a local Muslim religious shrine for Friday prayer services, Hakim said.
Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban, and Hakim blamed the blast on the Islamic militants who plant bombs along roads in the area to target Afghan and foreign troops.
"Innocent civilians are dying as a result," he said.
In London, the British Ministry of Defense announced that a British soldier was killed Thursday when a bomb exploded near a foot patrol in Gereshk, an industrial city of Helmand province where fighting has been raging this month.
The soldier's death brings to 48 the number of NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan in July - the deadliest month for the international force since the war began in 2001.
The U.S. command, meanwhile, reported that Afghan and U.S. soldiers killed 10 insurgents Friday in Kunar province of eastern Afghanistan.
U.S. commanders had been expecting bigger losses since President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan this year to curb a resurgent Taliban, which was ousted from power in the U.S.-led invasion of 2001.
About 59,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, and the number is expected to rise to at least 68,000 by the end of 2009.
The total international force numbers about 91,000 troops from 42 nations. But the rising casualty tolls have prompted U.S. and British officials to consider whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to bolster security, especially around the Aug. 20 presidential election. Britain has about 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, including 700 sent this year to augment security for the election.

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Japan, US discuss nuclear deterrence

AFP, Tokyo

Japan and the United States on Saturday agreed to continue talks on ways to boost the nuclear deterrence Washington provides to Tokyo as tensions continue with North Korea, officials said.
The US delegation-led by Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Wallace Gregson, assistant secretary of defence-discussed with their Japanese counterparts the situation in North Korea and the Japan-US security alliance, they said in statements.
"We agreed to consult closely on the Japan-US security alliance including the nuclear deterrence under the '2 plus 2' framework," the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement, referring to the bilateral talks comprising both countries' foreign and defence ministries.
"We are in a period right now of intense consultation among the allies" over the North Korean nuclear programme, Campbell told reporters after the meeting.
The issue of a so-called "nuclear umbrella"-when a nuclear power pledges to defend an ally that is not armed with atomic weapons-is sensitive in Japan, the only country to have suffered an atomic attack.

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US jet crashes in Afghanistan

AFP, Kabul

A US fighter jet crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, the coalition force said. The fate of the aircraft's two crew members was unknown, the US military said in a statement, adding enemy fire was not involved in the crash of the F-15E in the early hours of Saturday in mountainous eastern Afghanistan.
Mohammad Qasim, acting district chief of Nawur district in southeastern Ghazni province, said the aircraft came down early Saturday and flames were seen rising from its wreckage. "The plane crashed in Nawur district at around 2:00 am (2130 GMT Friday) this morning. The area has been sealed off by US forces. Helicopters have arrived on the spot. We could see flames coming out of the wreckage," Qasim told AFP.
The Taliban has shot down several military helicopters since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 but the Islamic militants are known to lack weapons to hit fighter jets, which fly at a much higher altitude.
There are about 90,000 international troops in Afghanistan to fight a growing Taliban-led insurgency against the western-backed government in Kabul. The US military, which makes up the bulk of the international military coalition here, operates the largest air force in Afghanistan.

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Trial of Mumbai attackers in Pakistan adjourned

AFP, Islamabad

The trial in Pakistan of the five accused of involvement in last year's terror attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai has been adjourned until next week, the defence lawyer said Saturday.
A total of 166 people died and more than 300 were injured in the November 26-29 attacks, which saw 10 heavily-armed gunmen target luxury hotels, the city's main railway station, a popular restaurant and Jewish centre. "The hearing has been adjourned till July 25 and I was given access to the accused persons," defence lawyer Shahbaz Rajput told AFP.
"Judge Baqar Ali Rana allowed me to meet the accused persons and I have filed documents to defend them," he said.
"We have requested the court that we should be provided details of evidence against us so that we can prepare the defence."
Rajput said the hearing was adjourned after the state made a request for in-camera proceedings. Relations between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan worsened dramatically after the carnage in India's financial capital that New Delhi blamed on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik said last week the trial against the five accused, including the alleged mastermind Zakiduddin Lakhvi, would be "transparent".
Journalists are not allowed to witness the proceedings at a special court room set up in the high security Adiala prison in Rawalpindi, a garrison city adjoining capital Islamabad. Prosecution officials were not immediately available for comment. The Pakistan and Indian premiers met in Egypt on Thursday and vowed to cooperate in the fight against terror.

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Hillary Clinton urged to push for Kashmir resolution

AFP, Srinagar, India

Indian Kashmir's top separatist leader urged visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday to push nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan to resolve their dispute over Kashmir.
"Kashmir is not a religious issue, it is not an issue of terrorism or extremism, it is a political dispute and the United States has a role to push both India and Pakistan to settle this political dispute," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said in a statement.
Mirwaiz is chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, the volatile region's main separatist alliance.
His comments came as Clinton kicked off her Indian visit in Mumbai, scene of the attacks last year by militant gunmen that killed 166 people.
India has accused Pakistan of harbouring extremists who allegedly trained, equipped and financed the militants.
After the attacks, India suspended a peace dialogue with Pakistan that, among other issues, sought a resolution of the Kashmir conflict that has dominated bilateral relations since the division of the sub-continent in 1947.
Both countries claim the entire region of Kashmir which is currently divided between them by a Line of Control. A 20-year Muslim insurgency has claimed 47,000 lives in the Indian-administered section.
Peace in South Asia cannot be achieved "without a resolution of core issue of Kashmir," Mirwaiz said.
Clinton denied Saturday that President Barack Obama's administration is pressuring India into seeking peace with Pakistan so the latter could focus entirely on beating an Islamist insurgency on its border with Afghanistan, a US priority.
"The US... is very supportive of steps that the governments take but we are not in any way involved in or promoting any particular position," she told reporters.
After talks Thursday in Egypt with his Pakistani counterpart Yousef Raza Gilani, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said negotiations with Pakistan would remain on hold until Islamabad takes action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.

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Indian PM under pressure after Pakistan meeting

AFP, New Delhi

A rare meeting between the Indian and Pakistani premiers this week ended with a pledge to cooperate on terrorism that has triggered anger and consternation back in New Delhi.
Sections of the Indian media, opposition parties and numerous analysts joined ranks to slam what they saw as major concessions made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt.
The focus of attention was a joint statement from the two leaders stipulating that action on terrorism "should not be linked" to peace talks between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.
Critics interpreted this as a U-turn from India's previous insistence that peace talks could only resume after Islamabad brought to justice those responsible for last year's Mumbai attacks that claimed 166 lives.
"Advantage Pakistan" was the headline verdict of the Times of India, while the tabloid Mail Today thundered "PM sells out to Pak". India has blamed the assault on India's financial capital on Pakistan-based militants and suggested they were aided by official Pakistani agencies.
On his return from the NAM summit, Singh was given a torrid time in parliament on Friday, with opposition leader L.K. Advani insisting the prime minister had "capitulated".Singh argued that the joint statement contained no dilution of India's position and promised there would be no resumption of any "meaningful dialogue" until Pakistan fulfilled a commitment to bring the Mumbai attackers to justice and to crack down on militant training camps.
Advani responded by leading a walkout of opposition MPs. Most observers were equally unimpressed.
India's former envoy to Pakistan, G. Parthsarthy, said Singh had "wrapped himself up in a contradiction" by appearing to de-link the peace talks from terrorism and then backing off.
"We made a diplomatic faux pas and we should admit that," Parthsarthy said.
Former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh was also critical of the "apparent contradictions" between the joint statement and Singh's subsequent remarks.
"Both the prime ministers (Singh and Gilani) have differing interpretations, which is embarrassing" he said.
Kanwal Sibal, another former foreign secretary, was even more scathing, insisting that the "ill-conceived and badly drafted" joint statement had compromised India's position and made "unnecessary and damaging concessions" to Pakistan. India and Pakistan launched a peace process in 2004 to resolve all outstanding issues of conflict, including a territorial dispute over the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir. India suspended the dialogue after the Mumbai terror strikes which saw Singh's government come under intense domestic pressure to take retaliatory action.
Uday Bhaskar, a New Delhi-based strategic analyst, suggested the furious reaction to the joint statement had been ill-founded and that it actually strengthened India's hand.
"I think we can say from the statement that Pakistan will go ahead with the investigations into the Mumbai attacks and not hold that against the demand that India and Pakistan first solve the Kashmir dispute," he said.
Pakistan has said that it will put the five accused of involvement in the Mumbai siege on trial soon, including the alleged mastermind Zakiduddin Lakhvi.

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DCC poll unlikely before January next

BSS, Dhaka

Although the five-year tenure of the mayor and councillors of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) expired in June 2007 the DCC polls are unlikely this year due to legal tangle.
The elections of the local government bodies including the city corporations should be held every five years as per rules. But the existing rules do not say anything about how to hand over the charges after expiry of the tenure.
The present mayor of the DCC, Sadeq Hossain Khoka, and its councillors has to continue in their positions until the next election. Taking this opportunity, they have already spent additional two years in office.
Meanwhile, though the Election Commission (EC) has taken the preparation for the election, it still appears uncertain due to intricacy of law and incomplete voter list.
An EC source told BSS that announcing the election schedule of the DCC poll is not possible without amending the relevant law and updating the voter list of Dhaka city.
These two things cannot be done before the month of November, the EC source said.
LGRD ministry sources said the Local Government (City Corporation) (Amendment) Bill 2009 has been sent back to the House after scrutiny by the parliamentary standing committee on the LGRD and cooperatives ministry, but that was yet to be passed.
Besides, the finalisation of rules under the Local Government (City Corporation) has to follow a long procedure before getting approved by the cabinet, they said.
Election Commissioners Muhammad Sohul Hossain and Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain recently told journalists that the DCC election would have to be held after the passage of the Local Government (City Corporation) (Amendment) Bill.

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PM briefs President on NAM Summit

bdnews24.com, Dhaka

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina called on president Zillur Rahman at Bangabhaban on Saturday to brief him on the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt.
"This will be a courtesy meeting on the prime minster's return from the two-day summit in Sharm el Sheikh," the prime minister's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told bdnews24.com earlier.
The president's press secretary Abdul Awal Howlader also told bdnews24.com that the president would receive the prime minister.
"There is no extra schedule," he said.
Television channels had earlier speculated that new cabinet ministers and state ministers were set to take oath at around 5:30 pm at Bangabhaban.
But neither Azad nor Howlader confirmed the news.
Hasina returned home Friday night after attending the Egypt summit, where she was elected vice chair of NAM's Asia Zone.
The global economic recession, climate change, the Middle East and food security dominated the two-day summit, which was attended by heads of state and governments from over 100 NAM nations.

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Khaleda makes clarion call to Manmohan to stop Tipai Dam

UNB, Dhaka

Chairperson of the main opposition BNP Khaleda Zia on Saturday made a clarion call for Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to immediately make a formal announcement canceling the Tipaimukh-dam project, as the mega-scheme on a common river generated fear of ecological adversities in Bangladesh.
The incumbent Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and former Prime Minister made the call while delivering her introductory speech at a function on presentation of 'Information and Data on Possible Impact on the Ecology and Public Life of Bangladesh' in the event of construction of the proposed Tipaimukh Dam by India on the common river Borak.
Under the initiative of Khaleda Zia, her party organized the function at Hotel Sheraton at 4 pm to make public the information available from different sources, pending a parliamentary team's spot visit that remained uncertain for a cacophony between the ruling and opposition sides.
Begum Zia herself invited distinguished citizens of the country, leaders of ruling and opposition political parties and people of different professions to attend the function and share with them the concerns stemming from the dam, planned by India as a hydroelectric scheme.
In her speech of introduction, Khaleda welcomed the recent statement of the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, as he assured that they wouldn't do anything that harms Bangladesh.
"I am making a clarion call for an immediate formally announcement on cancellation of the Tipaimukh-dam project to put into action this statement of his (Dr Manmohan)," she told the function.
Khaleda also mentioned her letter given to the Indian premier earlier this past June describing adverse impacts on Bangladesh if the dam is built.
The ex-PM urged the present government to play a bold role in protecting national interests. "There is no need to bow down," she said.
"Don't be afraid. You (present government) are not alone. We will remain with you if you uphold the national interest. The countrymen will also remain with you," the opposition leader said of the ruling Awami League.
Not only on the issue of Tipaimukh Dam, they also want to cooperate with the government in many other sectors in greater national interest as she said they have been saying this repeatedly. "I hope the government will come forward to take the cooperation."
Referring to her initiative to organize today's function and having invited all concerned, she said there is a necessity of national consensus on important national issues. It would be tough to face the problem of Tipaimukh dam without national consensus, she observed.
Former Secretary of Power Division ANH Akhter Hossain presented the keynote on power-point presentation at the function, conducted by BNP joint secretary-general Nazrul Islam Khan.
Apart from the keynote speaker, BNP standing-committee member Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossian, vice-chairman and former Water Resources Minister Maj (Retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed, former VC of Dhaka University Prof Moniruzzaman Mia, economist Prof Mahbubullah and ex-DG of Water Development Board Rafiqul Islam were present on the dais as panel members and gave replies to various questions from the audience in the question session after the presentation of the keynote paper.
BNP secretary-general Khandoker Delwar Hossain gave vote of thanks at the function.
Other top BNP leaders and activists, Dhaka city Mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka, leaders of various political parties, environmentalists, water experts, educationists and representatives of different professions were among others present at the meet, which continued for over two hours from 4:05 pm.

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