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[OMEN]

Floods that ravaged a broad swathe of the US Midwest from Missouri eastward to the Ohio Valley have contributed to deaths of more than a dozen people.
President George W Bush declared 70 Missouri counties as disaster areas, and the National Guard was deployed in hard-hit areas of the state after deadly storms that dumped up to a foot (0.3 metres) of rain sent rivers out of their banks.

Media and official reports across the US Midwest region said more than a dozen people had died, some swept away by flood waters, others in traffic accidents blamed on the storms and high waters.

"The worst of the rain is over with," said Rob Miller, a meteorologist with AccuWeather. But he said flood waters will not peak in some areas until Saturday.

The Missouri Emergency Management Agency reported dozens of homes destroyed or damaged across the state, and widespread evacuations. It listed five flood-related deaths in the state and said state roads were closed by high water at more than 200 points.

Forecasters meanwhile greeted the first day of spring with winter weather warnings, with a new storm expected to dump up to 6 inches (15 cm) of snow from southeastern North Dakota through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, eastward to the mountains of southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia on Friday and Saturday.

Reuters

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[OMEN]

Chinese police opened fire and wounded four protesters earlier this week in unrest in a Tibetan town, its first admission that lethal weapons were used by its security forces to crack down on anti-government demonstrations.
Citing police sources, the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Thursday that police acted in self-defence when they fired on protesters on Sunday in Aba county, an ethnic Tibetan part of the western province of Sichuan.

Tibet authorities also said they had arrested dozens of people involved in the wave of protests that have swept the mountain region and prompted Beijing to pour in troops to crush further unrest.

China's response to last week's violence – which it says was orchestrated by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader – has sparked international criticism and has clouded preparations for the Beijing Olympics.

Earlier on Thursday, in a phone call with her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for China to show restraint toward protesters and resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

China says 13 "innocent civilians" were killed in riots last week in Tibet's capital Lhasa that capped several days of peaceful protests. Exiled Tibetan groups say as many as 100 Tibetans have died.

Mindful of the legacy of its military crackdown on pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989, China says its security forces in Lhasa exercised "maximum restraint" and did not use lethal weapons.

But the Xinhua report makes clear the same did not apply in other parts of western China, where it has been sealing Tibetan areas from foreigners and tightening security.

State television on Thursday broadcast pictures of protests in Sichuan as well as Gansu province, both home to Tibetan communities, which showed men on horseback crying out Tibet independence slogans, burning cars and raising the Tibetan flag.

The report said the situation was now calm and showed pictures of barricades and police in riot gear. In Gansu's Gannan region, eight police and three government officials were injured in the unrest, it said.

In Kangding, a Tibetan town in Sichuan, roads were crowded with troops who blocked most travel. Notices on walls warned locals not to protest and to stay away from the "Dalai clique".

ARRESTS

In Lhasa, the prosecutor's office said 24 people faced charges of "endangering national security as well as beating, smashing, looting, arson and other grave crimes" in last Friday's riots, the Tibet Daily reported.

They were the first arrests since rioting erupted across the remote region. Some outside groups say hundreds of Tibetans may have already been detained, and the China News Service reported Lhasa has broadcast wanted pictures of more suspects.

"The facts of the crimes are clear and the evidence is solid, and they should be severely punished," a Lhasa deputy chief prosecutor, Xie Yanjun, said.

Xinhua reported that so far more than 170 people involved in the riots have given themselves up.

"Most of the people who surrendered themselves were ordinary members of the public who did not understand the true situation," it said.

China's unyielding response to the unrest has brought demands for a boycott of the opening ceremony for the August 8-24 Games from pro-Tibetan independence groups and some politicians.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said there was no change in U.S. President George W. Bush's plans to attend the ceremony, and said the spotlight on Beijing could be a good thing.

"... That way the Chinese can hear how people feel and then maybe have an opportunity to either explain their position or maybe even change the things that they are doing," Perino said.

The Olympic torch relay across 19 countries that starts next week, and which will also pass through Tibet, is also likely to be dogged by protests.

"READY FOR TALKS"

The Chinese government has resisted international calls for dialogue over the unrest and expressed serious concern that Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to meet the Dalai Lama during a visit to Britain in May.

"If those acts can be tolerated, is there any law in the world? Is there any justice in the world?" Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference when asked to respond to a call for dialogue from Pope Benedict.

The Dalai Lama, speaking in his exile home in the Indian town of Dharamsala, said he was ready to travel to Beijing to meet Chinese leaders, calling on Tibetans to end the violence.

Beijing has long said it would meet him only if he forsakes claims to Tibet's independence. The 72-year-old monk says he just wants greater autonomy for his homeland.

China has struggled to convince the international community that the Nobel Peace Prize winner orchestrated the violence and that its own policies are free from blame.

On Thursday, six fellow Nobel laureates sent an open letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao, urging restraint in Tibet.

"We call on you to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the men and women of Tibet to address their legitimate concerns and genuine grievances," the letter said.

Reuters

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[OMEN]

Osama bin Laden has urged Palestinians to use "iron and fire" to end an Israeli blockade of Gaza, in a recording after the Vatican rejected accusations by the al Qaeda chief of a "new crusade".
In an audiotape broadcast by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite channel on Thursday, bin Laden urged Muslims to keep up the struggle against US forces in Iraq as a path to "liberating Palestine". The tape was released around the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.

"My speech is about the Gaza siege and the way to retrieve it and the rest of Palestine from the hands of the Zionist enemy," the Saudi-born militant said.

"Our enemies did not take it by negotiations and dialogue but with fire and iron. And this is the way to get it back."

On Wednesday, an Islamist website had issued another bin Laden recording which threatened the European Union with grave punishment for the publication of cartoons mocking Islam's Prophet Mohammad.

In that recording, which coincided with the birthday of Islam's founder, bin Laden said the drawings were part of a "crusade" against Muslims in which Pope Benedict was involved.

The Vatican has rejected those accusations.

"These accusations are totally unfounded," chief Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi said.

Italian security officials said they were examining the new bin Laden message and its impact on the Pope, who is preparing for busy Easter weekend celebrations.

"Obviously we can't ignore it but at this moment that doesn't mean the threat is being taken seriously," said an Italian security source.

Bin Laden's message showed he regards Europe as fertile soil for al Qaeda, especially at a time of tension between free speech and Muslim values, but is unlikely to signal an imminent attack, security analysts and officials said.

There is no evidence bin Laden's statements contain coded instructions to al Qaeda operatives and he has no track record of delivering warnings immediately before an attack, they said.

Bin Laden said Europe would be punished for the cartoons, which were first published by a Danish paper in September 2005. The images ignited bloody unrest among Muslims when other newspapers around the world reprinted them the following year.

Last month, some Danish papers republished one of the cartoons in solidarity with the cartoonist after three men were arrested on suspicion of plans to kill him, sparking more anger.

"Your publications of these drawings -- part of a new crusade in which the Pope of the Vatican has a significant role -- is a confirmation from you that the war continues," said bin Laden, addressing "those who are wise at the European Union".

US officials said the CIA was confident the voice was that of the fugitive leader of al Qaeda, blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Last month, the Vatican's top official for relations with Islam, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, condemned the cartoons. Lombardi pointed out Pope Benedict recently launched a permanent official dialogue with Muslim leaders.

Al Qaeda has criticised the Pope before. Many Muslims were offended by a 2006 speech he made which they perceived as depicting Islam as a violent faith.

The group's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said in December Benedict had "insulted Islam and Muslims".

Responding to the bin Laden statement, a spokeswoman for the EU presidency said: "The European Union and its member states apply the principle of freedom of expression and freedom of religion, these are parts of our values and traditions.

"The EU and its member states respect Islam."

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said there was currently "a heightened threat from militant extremists abroad against Denmark and Danes and Danish interests abroad", and that the bin Laden comments did not change that assessment.

The Netherlands has said it fears a Muslim backlash when a right-wing lawmaker releases a film critical of the Koran.

Reuters

Will somebody please just put a bullet in Bin Ladens head and make him shut the hell up.....

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Fourteen medical workers in Kyrgyzstan have been charged with malpractice and negligence after 42 children were infected with HIV.

The health workers, from the southern Osh region, are accused of negligence while administering injections and blood transfusions.

A spate of infections of HIV, the virus that causes Aids, has shocked the central Asian republic.

Kyrgyzstan has about 1,500 people with HIV out of a population of 5 million.

Those accused include doctors, nurses and a chief administrator. If convicted they face prison terms of between five and 10 years.

The BBC's Natalia Antelava in Almaty, in neighbouring Kazakhstan, points out that this is not the first such case in central Asia, and says the outbreak shows a dangerous trend of hospitals becoming the cause, rather than the cure, of infectious diseases across the region.

Concern over conditions

Last year, 21 medical workers were sentenced to prison terms for infecting 150 children with HIV in Kazakhstan.

The Kyrgyz case has deepened public concern over conditions in hospitals and the quality of health workers.

At least 30 other children tested positive for HIV since the investigation into the outbreak first began last summer, and new cases continue to emerge all the time.

The outbreak is surrounded by secrecy and confusion.

Our correspondent reports that in this predominantly Muslim and deeply traditional region, HIV care is an enormous stigma, and families are extremely protective of the identity of their children.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one international aid worker in Kyrgyzstan said that this stigma and the atmosphere of secrecy meant that outbreaks of hospital-acquired infections were extremely common, but most of them simply did not get reported.

BBC News

[OMEN]

Tibetans in China's tense southwestern province of Sichuan believe several people were killed in anti-Chinese riots there this week, disputing official claims that none died.

China's official Xinhua news agency reported overnight that police shot and wounded four protesters this week in a heavily ethnic Tibetan part of the province, where protests broke out after anti-Chinese riots in neighbouring Tibet a week ago.

The unrest has alarmed China, keen to look its best in the run-up to the August 8-24 Olympic Games in Beijing when it hopes to show the world that it has arrived as a world power.

Tensions remain high in Tibet, Sichuan and other neighbouring areas where the government has poured in troops.

Kangding, a heavily Tibetan town in Sichuan and a gateway to the restive region, was crowded with troops, some on patrol, some loudly practising martial arts moves in the town square.

Students at the local Tibetan-language school were locked in unless they had special permission to leave. Drivers said they were unwilling to travel into tense mountain towns.

"I'm in this to make money, but no matter how much you pay me I won't go that way," one Kangding driver said.

Two residents of Aba prefecture, where rioting began on Sunday, told Reuters they believed several died when police fired on protesters attacking officials and state buildings.

"Everyone here believes that our people died, maybe 10 or more," said one ethnic Tibetan resident.

"I'm not a supporter of violence and I oppose attacking people just because they're Han," he said, referring to the country's majority Han Chinese population.

Another Tibetan man said he hid in his home during the riot.

"I'm sure people died. We all know," he said in a brief telephone conversation. "We don't dare go out. They are arresting many people after what happened."

Both men asked not to be named, fearing punishment for talking to reporters. Other residents refused to say anything.

Troops and anti-riot police have set up roadblocks and are keeping out foreigners.

"With all the troops that have gone up there, it's under control now. They have tried for all those years to gain independence and failed. So it won't happen. Not now – it's impossible," said Ran Hongkui, a Chinese shopkeeper on the road between Kangding and Chengdu where convoy after convoy of armed police has passed.

Radio Free Asia, a US-funded broadcaster, said on Thursday up to 2,000 Buddhist monks and laypeople continued to protest in Huangnan Prefecture, Sichuan. The report could not be verified.

Authorities said they had arrested dozens of people involved in the Tibet protests.

More than 170 rioters have handed themselves in, the report said, offering a phone number for locals to inform on suspected protesters in return for secrecy and rewards.

State-run Tibet television continued to show footage of last week's riots, including scenes of maroon-robed monks hurling rocks at police, protesters kicking in shop fronts and plumes of black smoke from burned-out cars in the local capital Lhasa.

Its newsreaders echoed the central government insistence that the violence was orchestrated by exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, and his "Dalai clique" to agitate for independence and embarrass Beijing ahead of the Olympic Games.

The 72-year-old monk, who fled Tibet in 1959, says he is against the violence, only wants greater autonomy for his homeland and is willing to travel to Beijing for talks.

The Chinese press never gives the Dalai Lama sympathetic treatment, but has recently intensified its vilification of the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The Tibet Daily called him "a faithful tool of Western anti-China forces, the general source of social chaos in Tibet".

And in a commentary the previous day, it wrote: "Since defecting abroad, the Dalai clique and its hangers-on have... never given up on hoping to restore their corrupt, dissolute theocracy and their privileges as feudal rulers and serf masters."

China's response to the rioting has triggered international criticism and some calls to boycott the Games opening ceremony.

In a phone call with Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged China to show restraint towards protesters. Yang told her the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, was to blame for the riots.

"They attempted to exert pressure on the Chinese government, disturb the 2008 Beijing Olympics and sabotage China's social stability and harmony," Xinhua quoted him as saying.

China says 13 "innocent civilians" died in anti-Chinese riots last week in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, after police broke up earlier peaceful protests led by monks. Exiled Tibetans say as many as 100 Tibetans have died.

Reuters

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[OMEN]

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has dismissed suggestions he might take on the job of mediating in the Darfur crisis in Sudan.

A Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), on Sunday demanded direct peace talks with the Sudanese government and said Annan should mediate.

Annan, who recently brokered an end to a crisis in Kenya, told reporters in New York part of the reason for his success there was having a single mediator speaking with one voice for the international community.

Asked whether he might get involved in Sudan, Annan said: "I think we have some very able people dealing with that and we should leave it with them."

UN envoy Jan Eliasson and African Union envoy Salim Ahmed Salim are leading efforts to mediate between various rebel groups and the Khartoum government to end a war that began in 2003 when non-Arab rebels took up arms.

Annan said he had talked with Salim and Eliasson about the rebel group's call for him to get involved, and advised the two mediators to carry on doing their jobs.

Salim and Eliasson had hoped to end the conflict with negotiations that started in the Libyan city of Sirte in October. But JEM and other prominent rebel bodies boycotted the talks and they fizzled out.

Eliasson and Salim have been trying to persuade rebel groups to arrange fresh negotiations ever since, but only a handful of factions have agreed.

International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes in the five years of revolt in Darfur.

Washington calls the violence genocide, a term European governments are reluctant to use and Khartoum rejects.

Annan said the crisis raised doubts about whether the international community, through the United Nations, was living up to its "responsibility to protect" – a principle adopted by UN member states officially in 2005.

In a speech at a dinner later where he was accepting the MacArthur Award for International Justice from the MacArthur Foundation, which promotes human rights and justice, Annan said the world should have learned from the genocide in Rwanda and its failure to stop war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

He said the responsibility to protect placed a heavy burden on the Security Council and its members.

"It is fair to question whether all of them have yet fully lived up to that responsibility, notably in Darfur," he said, according to a text of the speech issued in advance.

A joint UN-African Union mission took over peacekeeping duties on December 31, but with only 9000 of the required 26,000 troops and police on the ground it has not been able to do its job properly.

Western powers have tried to raise pressure on Sudan through the UN Security Council but China, which holds a veto, has blocked sanctions against its close ally, Khartoum

Reuters