Convulsions of violence in Iraq leave more than 20 dead, dozens wounded

A spate of shootings and explosions in Iraq left more than 20 people dead and dozens wounded Wednesday, police officials in Baghdad and Ramadi told.

In addition, bodies of 13 unidentified people -- each shot in the head -- were discovered in separate neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Iraqi security forces found eight of the bodies in the Arab Jabour district, a Sunni enclave in southern Baghdad. Five other bodies turned up in al-Shulaa, a Shiite area in the northwestern part of the capital.

Separately, police officials said, convulsions of violence rocked other parts of country:

A hidden bomb exploded inside a funeral tent filled with mourners paying their respects to a family in the western outskirts of Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 20 others.

In al-Hurriya, a Shiite neighborhood, gunmen stormed a house and shot and killed three men and two women.

At an outdoor vegetable market in al-Dora al-Mahdiya in southern Baghdad, a roadside bomb blast killed two people and wounded three others.

At a police station in al-Samoud, east of Ramadi -- about 60 miles west of the Iraqi capital -- a car bomb exploded, killing two people and wounding four others.

And a police station at Joyba, in eastern Ramadi, also was rocked by a car bomb blast that killed two people and wounded four.

Mexico: 54 bodies found in mass graves

Police digging up mass graves in western Mexico have now found human remains from at least 54 victims there.

The grim figure released by Mexico's Attorney General's Office Tuesday was the latest since authorities made the startling find this month of dozens of hidden graves during an investigation into the disappearance of two federal agents.

So far, authorities haven't said whether the missing agents' bodies have turned up in the hidden graves found in La Barca, a town near the border of Mexico's Jalisco and Michoacan states.

Prosecutors say they haven't identified the bodies they've found. Some of the victims showed signs of being bound, gagged and tortured, investigators said this week.

Hidden grave may hold clues to missing Mexican youths

Authorities believe municipal police officers were tied to the federal agents' disappearances, Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said.

"We detained them, and from that investigation, we found a place where the federal agents might have been buried," he said.

For years, authorities have described police corruption in Mexico as one of their top concerns as they combat drug cartels.

Federal officials have said the lower salaries of local police officers make them more susceptible to corruption.

Last month 13 police officers in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco were arrested and accused of running a kidnapping gang.

The discovery of the hidden graves comes amid high tensions in the region, where cartels are battling for turf and government forces are cracking down on emerging citizen self-defense groups.

Hundreds of bodies found in Bosnia mass grave

Tampa Bay Sinkhole swallows houses

Large sinkhole near Tampa Bay, Florida has swallowed two homes, a boat and a backyard pool Thursday morning.

The sinkhole in Dunedin, Florida has grown to a size of about 70 feet wide by 53 feet deep by noon, NBC news reported.

Seven houses in Dunedin have been evacuated.

No injuries have been reported from this Tampa Bay sinkhole.

Below is a you tube video of the Ariel view of sinkhole in Dunedin, Florida.

Typhoon Haiyan: More cadaver bags sent to Philippines as toll climbs to 3,633 dead

Tacloban, Philippines -- More than a week after Typhoon Haiyan laid waste to much of the central Philippines, the toll is overwhelming: entire communities flattened, thousands dead and nearly 2 million people displaced.

The arrival in recent days of hundreds of aid workers and military troops has seen a flood gate of humanitarian aid -- food, water and medical supplies -- open, albeit sporadically, in the hard hit provinces.

Crews continued Saturday to collect bodies from streets, with the death toll raised to 3,633, according to the national disaster agency's official death count.

The number of injured stood at 12,487, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported. At least 1,179 were missing.

For some who survived the monster storm, the aid came too late.

Richard Pulga, 27, died Friday, seven days after surviving the massive storm surge and fierce winds that flattened large portions of Tacloban City, a city of more than 200,000 people.

Pulga initially suffered an "open fracture of his shin bones," according to doctors working at a damaged clinic. He then contracted a "terrible infection" that left him in need of a blood transfusion.

But with the clinic out of blood and antibiotics, he eventually died, the doctors said.

The death toll could still climb higher, with an additional 1,000 cadaver bags sent to provinces, the disaster council announced as search-and-rescue operations continued in Tacloban City.

The national disaster council's executive director, Eduardo Del Rosario, said the bags would be placed on stand-by, given that most of the bodies had already been buried in mass graves or claimed by relatives.

Used cadaver bags are cleaned before being reused, he said.

The nation's disaster agency said more than 9 million people were affected in 44 provinces, 536 municipalities and 55 cities. Nearly 2 million were displaced, with about 400,000 of them finding shelter inside evacuation centers.

Somalia cyclone kills at least 115 people; homes, livestock swept into the ocean

Somalia appealed for international help after a cyclone hit the northern region this week, killing at least 115 people, and sweeping livestock and homes into the ocean.

"The number of people killed will go up," said Ahmed Adan, a spokesman for the Somali prime minister.

"Most of the area is devastated. Whole villages were swept away. Some of the parts we can't even reach, a lot of people are missing."

The cyclone made landfall Sunday in the semi-autonomous Puntland region.

It triggered days of heavy rains and flash floods that swept homes, boats, cows, goats and other farm animals into the Indian Ocean. The region heavily depends on agriculture as a source of income.

In a news statement, the African Union Mission in Somalia said up to 300 people are feared dead and hundreds unaccounted for.

Clean water, blankets, nonperishable foods, medicine and helicopters to reach the affected areas are among the most crucial needs, Adan said.

"There is a particularly urgent need for temporary shelter to protect the many displaced and vulnerable people from the elements," Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said in a statement. "I appeal to international aid agencies to provide any assistance they can to the thousands of people affected by this devastating cyclone."

Areas affected include Dangaroyo and Eyl, the latter a hub where pirates launch attacks on vessels traveling in the shipping lanes of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.

The self-governing Puntland region has long maintained that it cut ties with the Somali government over power squabbles. Somalia pledged $1 million to help those affected by the cyclone.

Cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes are regional names for severe storms.

What's referred to as a typhoon in the northwest Pacific Ocean is considered a cyclone in the Indian Ocean and a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean.

'Worse than hell' in typhoon-ravaged Philippines

Tacloban, Philippines -- As the Philippines faced a long, grim path to recovery in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, the storm plowed into northeastern Vietnam early Monday, packing powerful winds and forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate.

Philippine authorities warned that the typhoon may have killed thousands there, leaving behind a trail of devastation on a scale they'd never seen before.

No electricity. No food. No water. Houses and buildings leveled. Bodies scattered on the streets. Hospitals overrun with patients. Medical supplies running out.

And a death toll that could soar.

The Philippine Red Cross estimates that at least 1,200 people were killed by the storm, but that number could grow as officials make their way to remote areas made nearly inaccessible by Haiyan.

Others put the toll much higher: The International Committee of the Red Cross said it's realistic to estimate that 10,000 people may have died nationally.

The grim task of counting the bodies was just beginning Monday as authorities sifted through the rubble of what was left behind in hard-hit cities like Tacloban on the island of Leyte. The official toll stood at 255 Monday, according to the country's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

"I have not spoken to anyone who has not lost someone, a relative close to them. We are looking for as many as we can," Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez told.

5 killed in bombing outside Mogadishu hotel, Somali official says

Mogadishu, Somalia -- An attack Friday night on a hotel in Somalia's capital left five people dead and at least 15 wounded, a government spokesman said.

The bloodshed came after a car bomb went off outside Hotel Makkah Al-Mukarama in central Mogadishu, Abdikarim Hussein Guled, the African country's interior and national security minister, told local media.

Those killed included Abdulkadir Ali, the Somalian government's former acting envoy to Britain better known as "Dhub," said Abdirahman Omar Osman, spokesperson for the country's president.

Somalian Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon put out a statement condemning what he described as a "terrorist attack" and offering "his condolences to the civilian casualties."

"We -- the Somali people and the Somali government -- will stand shoulder-to-shoulder to defeat these killers," Shirdon said. "These terrorists will not defeat us but (will) make us stronger."

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.

But Somalia has seen such violence before. Some of it has been traced to Al Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked organization that the U.S. government calls a terrorist group and was behind the deadly siege earlier this fall of a Nairobi, Kenya, shopping mall.

A U.S. military drone strike late last month in southern Somalia killed two suspected Al Shabaab members, U.S. officials said. And a recent joint raid by Kenyan and Somali forces killed at least 30 people believed to be part of that group.

Heavy snowfall in Humla, Nepal

Heavy snowfall has obstructed election campaign in Humla district of Nepal.

The temperature has dipped to zero degree Celsius forcing people to limit themselves within their homes. Snow as high as one foot has accumulated in Humla.

Nepal Army´s helicopter has been used to carry the election officers and security officials to the polling stations, My Republica has reported quoting the Chief District Officer Shankar Hari Acharya.

Nepalese Constituent Assembly election is planned to be held on 19 November 2013.

Inside Syrian town living under al Qaeda reign of fear

Gaziantep, Turkey  -- Raqqa was, a matter of months ago, one of Syria's most liberal cities. Now locals call it Tora Bora. They say it's as if the Taliban of Afghanistan have taken over.

After months of bombardment by the regime and a chaotic lack of control by weak and divided moderate rebels, al Qaeda have found a broken society, made it their home, and imposed on it hardline Islamist law.

Each morning, activists told us, they seem to awake to a more conservative city. The "Bayanaat" or rulings sometimes appear on town walls. Many limit women's rights -- to walk alone, to style or show their hair. Other edicts come by word of mouth -- no smoking, no cameras. Behind them are often foreign jihadists from the al Qaeda linked militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

The fear that now grips the city can be felt in the shocking bruises on Adnan's body. Adnan, whose name has been changed out of fears for his safety, was behind some graffiti in Raqqa that told ISIS to get out. They caught him filming too, and dragged him into the burned-out ruins of a church they had torched and labeled as a new ISIS base.

Adnan was then taken to a nearby basement where the torture started. "Every 15 minutes, someone poured water on me, electrocuted me, kicked me, then walked out," he said. But his own pain, he said, he could handle, as his body eventually went numb. It was hearing the pain and the screams of other prisoners he knew that was the hardest. "When a person is tortured in front of you, you feel responsible. That's the hardest. One guy still inside used to call me Dad as I taught him about democracy," he said.

One ISIS video -- part of a high-definition, heavily produced social media channel that displays their ideals and exploits -- shows their militants driving through Raqqa at night. They pass a poster, put up by ISIS, encouraging women to wear the Islamic hijab or partial veil, to "cover their beauty".

The militants' goal, though, is reaching a cafe where they tell patrons smoking will be banned. Another video shows them burning not only marijuana, but also large numbers of cigarette cartons. Another shows an ISIS teacher -- his face blurred -- with a group of schoolchildren, all wearing ISIS's distinctive black headbands.

1 killed, 8 wounded by blasts near Communist Party offices in China

A series of explosions in front of Communist Party offices in a northern Chinese province killed one person and wounded eight others Wednesday morning, authorities said.

The blasts occurred around 7:40 a.m. (6:40 p.m. ET Tuesday) in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, police said in a post on Weibo, a Twitter-like microblog platform.

State broadcaster CCTV reported on its Weibo account that several devices exploded in flower bushes in front of the gate of the Shanxi Provincial Communist Party offices. The Communist Party has ruled China for more than 60 years.

The blasts shattered the windows of passing vehicles and shredded some of their tires, CCTV reported. Police have blocked off roads near the scene of the explosions, it said.

At least one of the wounded people is severely hurt, CCTV said, adding that the exact number of casualties remained unclear.

State-run news agency Xinhua reported that steel beads were scattered at the scene.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the blasts.



 

PNG landslide kills 9

Massive landslide in Eastern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea has claimed lives of at least nine people Saturday night.

Massive slip of earth, trees and debris crashed down a mountain side in Kenagi village, Capital FM has written quoting the Post Courier newspaper.

Landslide also buried nine houses. Others three people, seriously injured are having treatment in the hospital.

The landslide covered about 30 metres of the road and about two metres high. The Highlands Highway has also been blocked by the landslide.

Heavy rainfall caused landslide disaster in Kenagi village of PNG.

Papua New Guinea is prone to landslides mainly caused by deforestation in major forests.

Plane crashes in Bolivia, killing 8

A plane carrying 18 people crashed Sunday, killing eight, while landing in Bolivia, according to state news agency ABI.

Ten other people were injured in the crash at the Riberalta airport, 1,000 kilometers (about 620 miles) from La Paz, the capital, said Jose Luis Pereira, the hospital director in Riberalta, the news agency added.

The plane, which belongs to local airline Aerocon, departed from Trinidad, and according to some witnesses, went off the runway and caught fire after hitting some brush, the news agency said. The bodies of seven people have not been identified so far because they were charred after the impact, ABI said.

Some witnesses said that it was pouring rain at the time of the crash and that because of a lack of equipment, it was hard to rescue the victims.

President Evo Morales sent his condolences to the families of the victims and is asking for an investigation into what happened and possible drastic sanctions, the news agency said.
According to the government, this is the fourth accident for Aerocon since 2012.

Mount Sinabung volcanic eruption in Indonesia displaces 1,300

Indonesia's Mount Sinabung volcano eruption has prompted evacuation of about 1,300 villagers.

According to the National Disaster Management Agency, four villages situated within three kilometres of the volcano have been evacuated.

No damage or injuries have been reported.

 Last month, Mount Sinabung volcano eruption forced evacuation of more than 3,300 people.

Mount Sinabung is among more than 120 active volcanoes located in North Sumatra province of Indonesia. Mount Sinabung volcano eruption in 2010 had claimed life of one person.

Spurt of attacks in Iraq; 8 dead

Eight people were killed on Thursday in shootings and bombings across Iraq, police in Tikrit said.

Two car bombs exploded in Tuz Khurmatu, an ethnically tense city in the northern province of Salaheddin, and killed three people. The bombs, which exploded in a Turkmen residential area, also wounded 27 people. The city also has significant Kurdish and Arab populations.

Gunmen in Baghdad shot dead three people, Baghdad police said. Two men were shot and killed in the northern city of Mosul, police there said.

Suicide bombings claim more lives in Iraq

Violence has been on the upswing in Iraq since spring as tensions have grown, particularly between the country's Shiite majority and its Sunni minority. More than 6,000 people have been killed this year, including more than 350 this month.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is Shiite, touched on the violence in a New York Times op-ed column this week.

"Imagine how Americans would react if you had a terrorist organization operating on your own soil that killed dozens and maimed hundreds every week. For Iraqis, that isn't a hypothetical question; Al Qaeda in Iraq and its affiliates are conducting a terrorist campaign against our people," he wrote.

Al-Maliki is in the United States for a meeting with President Barack Obama to plan "a deeper security relationship" with Washington to fight terrorism and deal with regional security issues.

Car bombs rattle Baghdad, Mosul; 44 dead