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Sunday, 10 April 2011

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WORLD AT A GLANCE

Deadly clashes in Syria

Syria became the latest country to face the wave of pro-democracy demonstrations. This is evidence that the wave of unrest which unseated Hosni Mubarak in Egypt has not subsided.

By Friday night, it was reported that at least 19 protesters have been killed during anti-government rallies in the southern Syrian city of Deraa. Residents near the Al Omari mosque said they had seen at least 13 bodies in that area and more are reportedly wounded.

The BBC reported: "Officials said only a member of the security forces and an ambulance worker had been killed. Deraa has been a focus of unrest since anti-government protests erupted across Syria in mid-March. The protests have posed an unprecedented challenge to President Bashar al-Assad's 11-year rule."Thousands are reported to have staged rallies following Friday prayers in Deraa. Eyewitnesses said security forces had opened fire on crowds chanting pro-democracy slogans," the BBC's Lina Sinjab reported.

Another activist in Deraa told AFP by telephone that demonstrators leaving three mosques had marched to the city's main court, but were confronted by "security forces dressed in civilian clothing" who fired tear gas to disperse them.A resident quoted by Reuters reported seeing "pools of blood and three bodies" in the Mahatta area of Deraa.Also in Deraa, protesters smashed a stone statue of Basil al-Assad - President Assad's late brother - Reuters reported, citing a witness.Last month, protesters in Deraa tore down a statue of President Assad's father - former President Hafez al-Assad.


NATO warplanes hit rebel convoy

According to a report which appeared last Saturday in The New York Times, NATO acknowledged on Friday that its warplanes had hit a rebel convoy the day before, killing at least four people, and after some confusion eventually expressed regret over the accident.

At a news conference in Naples, where NATO has its operational headquarters, Rear Adm. Russell Harding, the British deputy commander of the air campaign, said the alliance had not been forewarned - as the rebels' commander, Gen. Abdul Fattah Younes, contended on Thursday - that the rebels were using tanks at the time the attack took place.

The military movements in the area where the attack took place were also "very fluid" at the time, he said, according to news reports, with vehicles going backward and forward.

"I am not apologizing," he said of the incident, the second case of friendly-fire deaths in a week. "The situation on the ground was extremely fluid and remains extremely fluid, and until yesterday we did not have information" that the rebels planned to deploy tanks.

But later, Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, expressed his remorse over the mix-up. "This is a very unfortunate incident," he said at NATO headquarters in Brussels. "And I strongly regret the loss of life." Admiral Harding said that, in the past 48 hours, NATO warplanes had flown 318 sorties and struck 23 targets in several parts of Libya. That brought the total, since the alliance assumed overall command of the operation from the United States last week, to more than 1,500 sorties, striking anti-aircraft missile defences, tanks, munition dumps and loyalist forces seeking to advance into Misurata, he said.

Rebels in the hotly contested area between Brega and Ajdabiya in eastern Libya said they would paint the tops of their vehicles pink to help avoid future friendly-fire accidents.


Aftershocks hit Japan

A strong earthquake shook northern Japan on Thursday evening, triggering tsunami alerts and renewed fears for the safety of the already damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Thursday's aftershock knocked out external power at three more nuclear facilities. About 3.6 million households are still without power since the March 11 earthquake and the tsunami which caused 12,596 confirmed deaths, while a further 14,747 people are listed as missing and presumed dead.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK issued warnings of a tsunami of up to three feet along more than 300 miles of coastline north of Tokyo. Workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant were evacuated by the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., which said there were no reports of injuries among the emergency crews at the plant after the earthquake.

 

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