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We are not going to deal with terrorists who are determined to carry weapons, to terrorise people, to kill civilians, to attack public places or private enterprise and to destroy the country. We fight terrorism.–Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad
news
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Monday, 4 March, 2013
six people die as blizzards hit northern Japan TOKYO: At least six people died in a spate of snowrelated incidents as blizzards swept across the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido over the weekend, police and news reports said Sunday. A 40-year-old woman and her three teenaged children were found dead late Saturday in a car buried under snow in the town of Nakashibetsu, eastern Hokkaido, a local police spokesman said. They are believed to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning as the car’s exhaust pipe and was blocked by snow and the windows were up, Kyodo News said, adding that snowfalls of more than two metres (6.6 feet) were recorded in the area. aPP
mexico’s ruling party opens door to tax, energy changes MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party paved the way on Saturday for possible tax hikes and an overhaul of state oil giant Pemex as it seeks to spur growth in Latin America’s second-biggest economy. PRI delegates at a congress in Mexico City voted to change the party’s position on refusing to consider the imposition of a value-added tax on food and medicine, and giving the party scope to open up Pemex to more private capital. President Enrique Pena Nieto wanted the changes, which run contrary to many old tenets of the PRI, so he would have more room to maneuver in boosting Mexico’s low tax take and revamping its flagging oil industry. aPP
second leak at north sea oil platform forces evacuation
MAnSuRA: Egyptians carry the body of a person killed in overnight clashes between police and protesters. Mansura is the latest province to launch a campaign of civil disobedience. ageNcIes
200 syrian troops, rebels die in police academy battle BEIRUT
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LMOST 200 troops and rebels were killed in an eight-day battle for a police academy in the north Syrian province of Aleppo, as insurgents seized control of most of the complex, a watchdog said on Sunday. “Rebels have seized most of a police acad-
emy in Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province... after eight days of fighting that left 200 troops and rebels dead,” said the Syrian Observatory for human Rights. The Britain-based watchdog added that at least 120 of those killed in the battle for one of the regime’s last remaining bastions in the west of Aleppo province were army troops. On Sunday alone, rebels killed more than 34 government troops in the facility.
After rebels battled troops for control of the sprawling eight-hectare complex, located some 11 kilometres (eight miles) west of Aleppo city, they combed the academy buildings on Sunday, said the Observatory. Amateur video shot by Islamist rebels and distributed by the anti-regime Aleppo Media Centre showed a black flag flying over one of the academy buildings, while a large poster showing President Bashar al-Assad had been torn.
LOnDOn: An oil leak at a North Sea platform caused it to be partially evacuated on Saturday, its Middle East operator said, the second such incident at the installation in less than two months. The Alpha Cormorant platform and the pipeline system it services were shut down as a precaution, operator Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) said in a statement. The company said it had evacuated 71 of its 145 nonessential staff from the platform, situated 160 kilometres (100 miles) northeast of Lerwick on the Shetland Islands north of Britain, and that everyone was safe and well. “TAQA Bratani can confirm that a hydrocarbon release detected in one of the Cormorant Alpha platform legs has now been contained, with no further hydrocarbon release,” the company said. aPP
Japan, eu to launch free trade talks ToKYo aPP
hundreds of thousands march against austerity in Portugal LISBOn: Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Lisbon and other Portuguese cities Saturday to protest against the government’s austerity measures aimed at rescuing the debt-hit eurozone nation. The rallies were organised by a non-political movement which claimed 500,000 marched in the country’s capital and another 400,000 in the main northern city of Porto. There have been no official estimates of the crowds. But the mood of the crowd was clearly political, calling for new elections with banners declaring “Portugal to the polls!” and “If you fall asleep in a democracy, you wake up in a dictatorship”. aPP
BOgRA: Bangladeshi Islamist activists watch as materiel burns in a street during clashes with police, some 120kms north of Dhaka on Sunday. Bangladesh deployed troops in the north on Sunday after 16 more people were killed in a fresh wave of violence over the conviction of Islamist leaders for war crimes in the Muslim-majority nation. ageNcIes
Bomb kills three Posco protesters in India: police BHUBAnESHWAR aPP
A crude bomb exploded in a village in eastern India, killing three people involved in protests against a $12 billion steel plant project by South Korean giant Posco, police said Sunday. Police claimed the dead victims were suspected of making bombs themselves when one of them exploded Saturday in Patana village in Orissa state, but a protest group spokesman said they were attacked
by supporters of the project. “Three people died and one was crucially injured when the crude bomb went off. We suspect that the protesters were making bombs and one might have accidentally exploded,” district superintendent Satyabrata Bhoi told AFP. The village has been the epicentre of protests since Posco — the world’s fourth-biggest steelmaker by output — signed a pact with the state government in 2005 for the plant on 1,600 hectares (4,000 acres) of land.
Japan and the European Union are to hold a summit this month to formally launch negotiations on a huge free trade deal, a report said Sunday. EU President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso will visit Tokyo in the last week of March to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Nikkei business daily said. The report said the two sides would reach a final accord to launch long-awaited negotiations aiming to liberalise trade and remove barriers on services and investment.
five malaysian police killed in Borneo clash LAHAD DATU aPP Five Malaysian policemen died in a fresh clash with gunmen as violence linked to a deadly stand-off with Filipino intruders spread to another area of Borneo island, police said Sunday. The shootout late on Saturday in the town of Semporna followed a firefight the previous day between Filipino followers of a self-proclaimed sultan and Malaysian security forces that left 12 intruders dead along with two police officers.