The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Death toll from tornadoes climbs in U.S. Midwest
- General Dempsey may become top US military officer
- Civil war looms as big blasts rock Yemeni capital
| Death toll from tornadoes climbs in U.S. Midwest Posted: 25 May 2011 08:26 PM PDT JOPLIN, Mo (Reuters) - The death toll from a monster tornado that savaged Joplin, Missouri, rose to 125 on Wednesday and tornadoes overnight in nearby states caused at least 15 more deaths, authorities said.
Three days after the deadliest single tornado in the United States in 64 years, rescue teams with dogs sifted through rubble in Joplin without finding anyone alive on Wednesday. Authorities said the operation was still a search and rescue, but hope of finding more survivors was fading. The number of people injured by the massive tornado was revised up to more than 900, according to local authorities, from 823 earlier in the day. Some families continued a desperate search for missing loved ones amid the ruins of homes and businesses. For example, 15-month-old Skyular Logsdon, whose blue teddy bear, red T-shirt and pants were found wrapped around a telephone pole after the storm, remains missing, his great grandmother told Reuters on Wednesday. His injured parents were found and taken to a hospital after the tornado. But the little boy has vanished. "We're still hopeful," said Deb Cummins, great grandmother of the missing boy. She said they have checked every possible hospital. Another wave of tornadoes roared across the Midwest on Tuesday night, leaving nine dead in Oklahoma, four fatalities in Arkansas and two in Kansas, officials said. In Oklahoma alone, seven tornadoes tore across the state overnight, according to the National Weather Service. The deadliest of those, which killed seven people, left a 75-mile (120 km) path of destruction and lasted two hours. Oklahoma authorities said a 22-year-old man died in a hospital of injuries from the storm, bringing the death toll in the state to nine. Severe weather was continuing on Wednesday evening further east in Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and north into Illinois and Indiana, according to meteorologists. One funnel cloud struck Sedalia, Missouri, a town of 20,000 residents, on Wednesday afternoon, damaging homes and businesses, overturning vehicles, downing power lines and rupturing gas lines, emergency officials said. The Joplin tornado on Sunday was rated an EF-5, the highest possible on the Enhanced Fujita scale of tornado power and intensity, with winds of at least 200 miles per hour (320 kph). EF-5 tornadoes are rare in the United States but already this year there have been at least four. Authorities in Joplin struggled to cope with the massive destruction. A system of permits to allow residents back to their damaged homes and prevent looting was abandoned on Wednesday as long lines formed. Officials decided instead to keep a strong police and National Guard presence while allowing people free access to the miles of damaged neighbourhoods. This year has seen an unusually high number of tornadoes, with 1,168 as of May 22, compared to an average of about 671 by this time, according to Joshua Wurman, president of the Center for Severe Weather Research in Boulder, Colorado. The United States is on pace to break its record for deaths from tornadoes this season, the National Weather Service has said. (Writing by Carey Gillam and Greg McCune; Additional reporting by Suzi Parker, Steve Olafson, and Kevin Murphy; Editing by Peter Bohan) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| General Dempsey may become top US military officer Posted: 25 May 2011 07:55 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama may pick Army Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey as the U.S. military's top officer, filling a crucial post that in recent years has served as the main point of contact with Pakistan's military, sources said on Wednesday. Dempsey is a leading candidate for the high-profile job of chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Dempsey, who commanded troops during the Iraq war and has broad support in Congress, would replace Admiral Mike Mullen in the post. Mullen is a holdover from the Bush administration who has been in the role of top U.S. military officer since 2007 and is due to step down on Oct. 1. As Army chief of staff, Dempsey is the top officer in the largest branch of the U.S. military. He has served in the post only since last month. The nomination of Dempsey would be the last major change expected in Obama's national security team following the president's April announcement of new picks to lead the Defense Department and the CIA. If confirmed, Dempsey would work with Leon Panetta, now the head of the CIA and Obama's choice to replace the departing Robert Gates as defense secretary. Obama picked Army General David Petraeus, commander of the Afghanistan war effort, to replace Panetta at the spy agency. Dempsey's selection would alter the chemistry of a team that will help set strategy in Afghanistan, the Middle East and for looming defense budget battles in Washington. He also would be involved in plans to withdraw U.S. forces entirely from Iraq by the end of this year. Mullen has worked to improve ties with Pakistan and served as the main interlocutor with Pakistan's powerful army chief General Ashfaq Kayani. Critics of U.S. strategy toward Pakistan say that despite Mullen's efforts and some $3 billion in U.S. aid to the country this year, Islamabad is a half-hearted ally at best in the fight against militants. The May 2 U.S. raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden has heightened tensions between Washington and Islamabad. Dempsey and Kayani studied together in the 1980s at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and met last month when the U.S. general was in Pakistan, an aide said. General James Cartwright, the current vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had been considered the favorite to replace Mullen but Obama informed him on Saturday he was not chosen for the job, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official said one concern was that neither Mullen nor Gates had endorsed Cartwright for the job, the official said. Some top brass have complained in the past about Cartwright's leadership style. Earlier this year, he was cleared of wrongdoing by a Pentagon investigation into accusations of having an improper relationship with a subordinate. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Will Dunham and Bill Trott) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Civil war looms as big blasts rock Yemeni capital Posted: 25 May 2011 07:55 PM PDT SANAA (Reuters) - Heavy explosions rocked the Yemeni capital Sanaa in the early hours of Thursday as fighting to topple the veteran president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, threatened to descend into civil war.
More than 40 people have been killed since Monday in a part of northern Sanaa where fighters loyal to powerful tribal leader Sadiq al-Ahmar have been attacking and trying to take over government buildings including the Interior Ministry. A Reuters correspondent was woken after midnight by the latest blasts. "The explosions can be heard across town in the south of Sanaa. This seems to be heavier weapons than the machineguns and the mortars of the past few days," one resident said. Each side blamed the other for the violence, which the opposition said could start a civil war. The United States and Saudi Arabia, both targets of foiled attacks by a wing of al Qaeda based in Yemen, have tried to defuse the crisis and avert any spread of anarchy that could give the global militant network more room to operate. Washington ordered all non-essential diplomats and embassy family members to leave the country. "The security threat level in Yemen is extremely high due to terrorist activities and civil unrest. There is ongoing civil unrest throughout the country and large-scale protests in major cities," the State Department said. Citizens were fleeing the capital to escape the fighting in the Hasaba area of Sanaa, which erupted a day after Saleh pulled out for the third time from a Gulf Arab-brokered deal for him to step down and make way for a national unity government. Pressure has been mounting since February, when protesters inspired by revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt began camping in squares and marching in their hundreds of thousands to call for Saleh to go. Saleh's attempts to stop the protests by force have resulted in hundreds of deaths. CITY AT WAR Saleh, a wily political survivor, said on Wednesday he would make no more concessions to those seeking his departure. But the capital of the country of 23 million has begun to feel like a city at war. Fighters in civilian clothes roamed some districts on Wednesday and machinegun fire rang out sporadically. Electricity was intermittent and Sanaa's airport was closed. Many city-centre streets were deserted in the afternoon, but for government checkpoints. Long lines of cars snaked out of the city, bags piled high on their roofs, even as gunmen blocked entrances to prevent tribesmen from bringing in reinforcements, witnesses said. "It's no longer possible to stay in Sanaa. The confrontations will reach all parts of the city," said Murad Abdullah as he left by car. "I am afraid for my life. I will go to my village in Ibb. The situation there is safe." Witnesses and officials said supporters of Ahmar, head of the Hashed tribal federation to which Saleh's Sanhan tribe also belongs, controlled several ministry buildings near Ahmar's compound including the trade and tourism ministries, as well as the offices of the state news agency Saba. Ahmar's fighters also attacked the main building of the Interior Ministry, whose courtyard came under fire from rocket-propelled grenades, witnesses said. Televised images of Ahmar's own compound showed tribesmen rushing through opulent but dusty halls, their floors spattered with blood, as they helped colleagues wounded in the fighting. Saleh told a group of invited reporters including a Reuters correspondent on Wednesday that his government was "steadfast". "We are bearing the shocks of what happened from the sons of al-Ahmar: the chaos and the attacks on state institutions, the press and the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Interior. This is a provocative act to drag us into a civil war ... "We are contacting some people to talk to them and persuade them to stop trying to storm the Interior Ministry and opening fire at the ministry in order to avoid widening the conflict." Saba said four civilians had been killed and 11 injured in Wednesday's fighting. "THIRSTY FOR BLOODSHED" General Ali al-Mohsen, a regional army commander who has sided with protesters, called on the armed forces to defy the president. "Beware of following this madman who is thirsty for more bloodshed," he said. Shadi Hamid, analyst at the Brookings Doha Centre, said: "I think there's a real risk that violence can escalate, and we see a move towards low-intensity civil war. "There's a real loss of faith in the political process after Saleh refused to sign a deal several times. That really cast doubt on whether Saleh has any real commitment to letting go of power voluntarily." Saleh said the deal remained on the table, despite his repeated failure to sign: "I am ready to sign within a national dialogue and a clear mechanism. If the mechanism is sound, we will sign the transition of power deal and we will give up power ... "No more concessions after today," he said. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky said Ban was deeply troubled by the clashes in Sanaa and called for further peace efforts and an immediate end to the fighting, while Britain reiterated calls on Saleh to sign the exit deal. (Additional reporting by Mohamed Sudam and Khaled al-Mahdi in Sanaa and Nour Merza in Dubai; writing by Cynthia Johnston, Firouz Sedarat and Kevin Liffey; editing by Mark Trevelyan and Sanjeev Miglani) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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