Malaysian police Release Children in kindergarten

Police in Malaysia has freed over 30 children kindergarten children who were held hostage by a man in southern state Johor. The man who was holding the children and four of their children hostage was shot by police after an operation that lasted for about six hours. At the end of the operation the police was able to release all the children and their teachers unharmed.

The man was rushed to a nearby hospital in the city after sustaining injury on his head following police shooting. This was revealed to the press by Rahman Jalaluddin Abdul. He is a senior police officer in Southern Johor state. According to this police officer all the 30 children were in the age range of 3 to 5 years.

However the officer could not disclosed the identity of the man who committed the offence saying that he did not have the permission to speak to the press on the matter. He disclosed however that the man entered the school compound with a machete and hammer on both hands. The children and their teachers had to take refugee in two storey building.

All attempts for the man to release the children without any incident proved abortive according to the police because the man has insisted that the police had to issue him gun before he departs all he will have to kill all the children.

 

Obama Appoints Expert as Fossil Energy Head

President Barack Obama of United States of America has made some changes in the energy department with the appointment of chief operating officer to act as the assistant secretary. This was announced by White House last Friday.

The nominee Charles McConnell has being with the energy department for about one year after being in charge of carbon management for about 2 years. Before he will assume office he will need to be confirmed by the senate.

The nominee has experiences in fossil energy having spent 31 years at Praxair Inc one of the biggest gas company in North America. He has also served in different capacities in the past as regards to energy.

The nomination is seen as one of the bold steps by the administration to tackle the issue of green energy which the Obama administration is strongly committed to. The role of the nominee will be among other things to source alternative reserves for oil. The office will help the country have access to clean energy that will be cheap. This will be better than the traditional gases and fuels. It will also closely monitor the performances of the federal emergency oil stockpiles and transform the coal energy to make it cleaner and refined.

Libya rebels move to Tripoli at two fronts

The rebels in Libya that is opposed to the government of Col Moamar Gadhafi have gained control of village within a prominent mountain in the country therefore extending their grip of the western part of the country.

The battle for the control of the village raged for several hours before the government soldiers gave up. The captured village is strategic to its push to the capital Tripoli. At the end of the battle the rebels arrested some soldiers loyal to Gadhafi and captured some equipment and ammunition abandoned by the soldiers when they freeing from the rebels.

The rebels were also reported to have made significant progress in the eastern part of the country where they are reported to be advancing to Tripoli through Zlitan. This development is a morale booster to the rebels who had fighting to find its feet in the battle. It is expected that with the breakthrough the rebels have now gotten a lead to the capital Tripoli.

The capture of Qawalish does not in any way suggest that the rebels are getting nearer to the capital Tripoli. It is only a significant movement from western part of the country. There are other strategic towns which the rebels must counter for them to enter to the capital through the western axis.

Chinese Government against US Meeting Dalai Lama

Chinese ministry of foreign affairs has warned US officials from visiting the exiled leader Dalai Lama advising that the US should approach the issues related to Tibet appropriately. Chinese government is opposed to the Dalai Lama on the account that he was using force to create the state of Tibet.

The Nobel Prize Award winning religious leader had denied the accusation from Chinese government maintaining that he was only interested in securing autonomy for the remote region.

The religious leader is visiting the United States of America and he is billed to address the public on Saturday on US. Already the government of the United States of America has said that the religious leader has met with US Undersecretary of State in charge of Democracy and Global Affairs Mario Otero. However the statement did not indicate whether the visiting religious leader will meet other higher officers of the administration.

The visiting religious leader has met with some key congressional leaders including House Speaker John Boehner as well as the former speaker and Democratic leader in the House Nancy Pelosi. Chinese Foreign Ministry has warned that the position of the Chinese government on the issue was clear. Chinese position was made known by the foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei.

Greek legislatures allow austerity plan

The Greek parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of austerity measures. This paves the way for the international lenders to starve off default. At the end of the voting this was called by the socialist prime minister of Greece George Papandreou, the proponents of the austerity won by a simple majority vote of 155 to 138 votes. The issue of austerity measure was a contentious issue in the country.

Stock market had started reacting positively to the development. Earlier in the day stock markets have started rallying in anticipation that the Greek parliament will approve the austerity plan. After the approval has been made the stock markets started to rally higher both in Europe and Asia. This development was a big relief to the international community because if the measure had failed it would have caused negative ripple effects to the international financial system.

Before the voting started there was a sharp disagreement between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition party Mr. Samaras; the opposition leader accusing the prime minister of letting the country down. The prime minister had blamed the opposition political party for the problem of the economy saying the problem started when the opposition party was in government. He also blamed the European Union for the problem of the country for their inability to call the previous government in the country to order when they were presenting inaccurate data.

Libyan rebels rejoice over Gadhafi’s arrest warrant

Benghazi the second largest city in Libya was full of celebrations as the rebels fired on the air to express their joy over the indictment and warrant of arrest issued on embattled Libyan leader Col Moamar Gadhafi by the International Criminal Court.

ICC in The Hague had issued warrant of arrest on Col Moamar Gadhafi, his son as well as the leader of intelligent groups in Libya for the crimes against humanity that was reveled against them during the early days of the struggle to remove Gadhafi from power.

 

As the rebels are celebrating over the development, the government of Libya under Gadhafi reacted angrily to the warrant that was issued. The people opposed to Gadhafi took to the street to celebrate the development. The Libyan government dismissed the warrant saying the court that is based in The Hague has no power to arrest Gadhafi maintaining that the court has no legal status in Libya.

 

Those who are opposed to Gadhafi have welcomed the development saying that this will make many of the people who are still supporting him to abandon him. The International Criminal court sitting in Hague had on Monday indicted Col Moamar Gadhafi and his son Seif al- Islam as well as Abdullah al-Sanoussi the chief intelligent officer in Libya. The court ruled that the three should stand trial for crimes against humanity. The crimes listed for the three include killing and persecution of civilians. The Libyan government described the court as a tool of the west.

 

Minot residents riding out flood’s hardships

Flooding waters have continued to ravage the US city of Minot. The airman who was on guard in the city was dumb as he has no explanation and no answers for the surging waters which has completely consumed the city of Dakota.

The airman Theron Griffin was on guard for about 14 hours at Minot. As a sentinel he watched the swelling waters consume everything it comes across. The city has about 12,000 residents who were earlier evacuated from the city. The officials are finding it difficult to curtail the flood which has already created record as the worst ever to be witnessed in the city. Already it is reported that thousands of homes are already submerged and many more are likely to go.

The airman was on hand to tell the story to journalists and authorities. He said that the flood is just intensifying. He said that officials from the local and federal authorities are working hard to remove the dirts and other things that would cause obstruction along the bank of the river.

He said that no less than 3000 homes have gone as result of the flooding. One of the victims was Cassandra Martin who moved to the area few months back. They were forced to leave their homes and like thousands of others are sheltered at Red Cross compound. Because of the intensity of the flood more people are expected to be evacuated away from the neighboring communities.

Libya flays NATO, asks to stop military attack

It is now 100 days since NATO started its military bombardment of Tripoli and Col Moamar Gadhafi is still in power. if not for NATO the second largest city in the country Benghazi was almost annihilated by the ruthless Gadhafi.

However the United Nations Security Council has learnt a lesson from what happened in Kosovo and was not prepared to give the Col chance to deal with the citizens of the country the way he has wanted. The UN quickly passed resolution 1973 which among other things paved the way for the creation of no flying zone inside the country. It authorized the use of all necessary measures to protect the lives of the civilians from the hand of the Gadhafi army.

The UN was passionately moved by the ugly image that was then coming out of Benghazi. If not for the quick intervention the world would have been hearing another story in Benghazi where the blood sucking leader who has been in power for than forty years was not ready to listen to the voice of change.

Encouraging by the bloody mercenaries he had recruited he posted an image that seem to be larger than life. The NATO came to the rescue of the Libyan people with air assault. This was about three months ago. NATO has continued its operation in the country for 100 days, Col Moamar Gadhafi is still in power, not only that the rebels who are supposed to be boosted by NATO operation is finding it difficult to sustain itself in Misrata.

Sirens Blare as Flooding Hits North Dakota

Over flooding of Souris River has caused some damages in Minot, ND. The surging river flooded the local levees which were prepared to wage it. Sirens have continued to blare throughout the city as residents were evacuated out of the area. It is expected that about 11,000 residents in the area will make it out of the city before the deadline for the evacuations.

The situation farther south is precarious as the flooding Missouri River is endangering the nuclear power plant that is located in that part of the country. The situation has caused emergency workers to evacuate the residents of the area out of the affected area. The situation in south is worrisome as some of the highways in the area are shut down.

The flooding of the river in Minot has affected lots of houses. It is estimated that about 500 soldiers who belonged to the National Guard are helping in the evacuation exercise. The soldiers are helped by the busy sirens which send the message to the residents that they are no longer safe staying in the homes.

The mayor of the city of Minot Zimbleman had earlier prepared the minds of the city dwellers of the possible flooding of the levees said that the city has been expecting this and warned the residents to leave the areas that are currently affected including the areas that could be affected in the future.

 

UN says 80 percent refugees from developing nations

The United Nation High Commission for Refugees UNHCR has confirmed that the majority of the refugees are located in the developing countries. The report made available on Monday indicated that more than eighty percent of the world refugees are in the developing countries of the world. The report was released at the time when the sentiments in the developed nations of the world were against the rise in refugee problems.

According to the UNHCR report Pakistan is the country in the world with the worst record of refugeeā€™s problem. The country is reported to have more than 1.9 million people who are refugees in the country. It is followed by Iran which has a refugee population of 1.1 million people and Syria which has refugee population put at the figure of 1 million people. Also Pakistan is having the worst economic impact of the refugee problem because it is affecting the GDP of the country. The other country which refugee problem is impacting negatively to the economy is DR Congo and Kenya.

When it comes to the developed world, Germany has the greatest number of refugees. The country has about 594,000 people who are refugees but the impact of the number to the GDP of the country is not as in the developing countries.