Padang—Quake-hit Indonesia appealed for foreign
aid on Friday as the stench of decomposing
bodies hung over wrecked buildings where
over-whelmed rescuers were scrabbling for
survivors. In the city of Padang, which was
devastated by Wednesday’s 7.6-magnitude
earth-quake, emergency teams faced a third night
of work to pull bodies from ruins that have
claimed the lives of at least 1,100 people. “Our
main problem is that there are a lot of victims
still trapped in the rub-ble. We are struggling
to pull them out,” Indonesian Health Minister
Siti Fadi-lah Supari told reporters. “We need
help from foreign countries for evacuation
efforts. We need them to provide skilled
rescuers with equipment,” she said, also
appealing for medics to treat badly injured
victims, many with broken bones. Related
article: Aid ef-forts
THE UN put off action on a report criticising
Israel’s actions during the war in Gaza after
Palestinian leaders suddenly dropped their
support for a resolution, apparently under heavy
US pressure. The decision marked a surprising
reversal in the Palestinian position which, un-til
now, had backed the findings of the report by
the South African judge Rich-ard Goldstone.
Goldstone accused both Israel and the
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas of war crimes
during the three-week conflict. He was
particularly critical of Israel, both for its
conduct of the war and its continued occupation
of Palestinian territory. The UN human rights
council in Geneva had been due to vote today on
whether to pass the Goldstone report to the UN
security council for further action.
Srinagar—In occupied Kashmir, senior Kashmiri
Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani has welcomed
the decision of China for issuing stamped visas
to Kashmiris on a separate sheet of paper
stappled with their passports According to
Kashmir Media Service, Syed Ali Gilani in a
media interview said that the Chinese decision
was in the interest of the people of Kashmir as
by doing so China was recognising Kashmir as a
disputed territory and it was a big success of
Kashmiris’ struggle. He said that the embassies
of other countries in New Delhi should also
follow the decision of China so that the
liberation struggle of Kashmiri people could
bring positive results.
Bangalore—Flash floods and heavy rains sweeping
southern India have killed at least 76 people
over the past 72 hours, officials said on
Friday. Sixty died in Karnataka state and 16
were killed in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh,
officials said. There has been “incessant
rainfall”, R.P. Jagdish, a senior Karnataka
government aide, told AFP by telephone.
IN debating the future of Afghanistan, Americans
often overlook one crucial fact: It’s not about
us. A prompt exit from the country - and
attainment of many of America’s more ambi-tious
strategic goals there - ultimately depends on
the viability of Afghan se-curity forces, not on
the US military’s tactics or force levels.
Unfortunately, building Afghan forces is likely
to be much more difficult than often recog-nized.
To be sure, US choices during the next year will
be critical. But US strategy is fundamentally
predicated on the notion that the Afghan army
and police will soon be able to secure their
population and defend national borders. If they
can’t, then no matter what the United States
does over the next 12 to 24 months - the window
during which various metrics must show results -
any gains will likely fall by the wayside once
US forces inevitably draw down.
