Bangkok under state of emergency.TV channels blocked. Red defied emergency demand TV reopen.

The red shirts have pledged to continue their protests with the aim of toppling the government 


Hundreds of red-shirted protesters stormed the parliament on Wednesday

Anti-government protesters in Thailand have said they will defy the state of emergency declared by the government of Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai prime minister.

The so-called red shirts, who are calling on Abhisit to dissolve the government and call elections, on Thursday vowed to hold further mass rallies to step up pressure on the prime minister.

Abhisit said in a nationally televised address on Wednesday that the state of emergency would help authorities arrest leaders of the anti-government movement, which has been staging protests in the capital for more than three weeks.

Putin Marks Soviet Massacre of Polish Officers

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, center, took part in a wreath-laying ceremony in the Katyn forest on Wednesday. 

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin on Wednesday became the first Russian or Soviet leader to join Polish officials in commemorating the anniversary of the murder of thousands of Polish officers by the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II.

Mr. Putin cast the executions as one tragedy out of many wrought by what he called the Soviet Union’s “totalitarian regime.”

Bush official raps Obama on Sudan

Former U.S. State Department official Jendayi Frazer said the Obama administration is divided on Sudan policy.

Amid new questions about the credibility of next week's elections in Sudan, a former U.S. State Department official accused the Obama administration of wasting time on a new policy on the bitterly divided nation.

"They spent almost a year developing this notion of a 'new policy' toward Sudan," Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs under President George W. Bush, said Wednesday in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

"And they came up with this notion of 'carrots and stick' which every administration has. So they wasted almost a whole year on a policy review, and yet they are still talking with many different voices."

At least 113 people die in storm in southeastern Brazil-New mudslide hits slum as Rio toll rises to 147

In this photo released by Rio de Janeiro state's press office, homes affected by rains and landslides are seen in the Morro de Borel neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, April 7, 2010. The heaviest rains in Rio de Janeiro's history triggered landslides Tuesday that killed at least 95 people as rising water turned roads into rivers and paralyzed Brazil's second-largest city.


Firefighters stand around the body of a person who was killed in a landslide in the Morro dos Prazeres area of the Santa Teresa neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, April 7, 2010. The heaviest rains in Rio de Janeiro's history triggered landslides Tuesday that killed at least 95 people as rising water turned roads into rivers and paralyzed Brazil's second-largest city.


In this photo released by Rio de Janeiro state's press office, homes are seen in a neighborhood affected by the rain and landslides in Niteroi, Brazil, Wednesday, April 7, 2010. The heaviest rains in Rio de Janeiro's history triggered landslides Tuesday that killed at least 95 people as rising water turned roads into rivers and paralyzed Brazil's second-largest city.

Beleaguered rescue workers struggled early Thursday to find survivors after another mudslide surged into a rain-sodden hillside shantytown, engulfing at least 40 homes in a huge cascade of mud.

The state Civil Defense department said the latest slide unleashed by heavy rains hit in Rio's neighboring city of Niteroi. There was no word on how many were missing, but it was feared dozens were buried under the debris.

Merciless: Woman shopkeeper beaten to the floor by masked robbers wielding telescopic batons

Miss Kemp was left sobbing in the aisle after she was hit on the head with a telescopic baton during a robbery


Deb Kemp's hand is visible as she is attacked with a telescopic baton

She had dared to stand up to the thugs who raided her shop. They returned to take a violent revenge.

Shocking CCTV images of the robbery capture one of the masked gang beating 43-year-old Deb Kemp with a metal baton after shoving her behind the counter.

Qatari diplomat causes bomb scare on U.S. flight after 'trying to sneak a cigarette in the bathroom'

Touchdown: The jet lands in Denver last night after a mid-air security scare

A Qatari diplomat trying to sneak a cigarette in an airplane bathroom prompted a bomb scare on a U.S. flight last night.

Fighter jets were scrambled as air marshals on the plane arrested the man.

Kyrgyzstan opposition forms interim government

Blooded Kyrgyz police officers huddle together for protection, as they are attacked by protestors in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Wednesday, April 7, 2010, following clashes with police. Police in Kyrgyzstan opened fire on thousands of angry protesters who tried to seize the main government building amid rioting in the capital as protests spread across the Central Asian nation.


Kyrgyz protesters waving the national flag, ride on a truck in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Wednesday, April 7, 2010. Police in Kyrgyzstan opened fire on thousands of angry protesters who tried to seize the main government building amid rioting in the capital as protests spread across the Central Asian nation.


An opposition coalition in Kyrgyzstan proclaimed an interim government Thursday in the wake of clashes that left dozens dead nationwide, and said it would rule for six months before calling new elections.

Opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva said she would head the interim government, and that the parliament was dissolved. She said the new government controlled four of Kyrgyzstan's seven provinces in the Central Asian nation, which is home to a key U.S. military base that the opposition has said it wants to close.

Tensions rise in SAfrican white supremacist case-Terreblanche, 69, was bludgeoned to death Saturday in his bed.Killed for refuse to paid back wages from Dec

People sing and dance outside the court in Ventersdorp, South Africa, Tuesday, April 6, 2010. Whites and blacks faced off angrily in song Tuesday in front of a heavily guarded South African courthouse before the first hearing for a teenager and another farm worker who have reportedly confessed to killing a white supremacist leader in a wage dispute.


Black rsidents look at followers of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) slain leader Eugene Terreblanche who gathered outside the courthouse in Ventersdrop, 140 km West of Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday April 6, 2010.Whites and blacks faced off angrily in song Tuesday in front of a heavily guarded South African courthouse before the first hearing for a teenager and another farm worker who have reportedly confessed to killing a white supremacist leader in a wage dispute.


Followers of slain Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terreblanche scuffle with police outside the courthouse in Ventersdrop, 140 km West of Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday April 6, 2010, where the two alleged killers are being brought to court. Whites and blacks faced off angrily in song Tuesday in front of a heavily guarded courthouse before the first hearing of a teenager and another farm worker who have allegedly confessed to killing a white supremacist leader in a wage dispute.

VENTERSDORP, South Africa — A racially charged standoff outside a courthouse where a teenager and another black farm worker were charged with killing a leading white supremacist ended peacefully Tuesday — a victory for democracy in South Africa.

The older suspect was walked out of the courthouse hours later to a rapturous welcome from blacks outside who screamed, ululated and whistled their support.

"Hero! Hero! Hero!" they chanted.

"We are celebrating the death of the man who has abused us so much," one woman in the crowd shouted.

The brutal bludgeoning of Eugene Terreblanche, once convicted of beating a black farm worker so badly the man was left brain damaged, has focused attention on simmering racial tensions less than 10 weeks before South Africa hosts the World Cup.

Israeli FM warns Palestinians not to declare state

In this March 21, 2010 file photo, Palestinians carry the bodies of Sayid Qadous and his brother Mohammed Qadous, not seen, during their funeral in the West Bank village of Iraq Burin, near Nablus. Two Israeli military investigations are criticizing troops over the killing of four Palestinians, including Sayid and Mohammed Qadous, in the West Bank last month, Israeli army said late Monday, April, 5, 2010.


In this Jan. 16, 2008 file photo, Avigdor Lieberman, then Israel's Minister for Strategic Affairs, talks during a news conference at the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem. Israel's hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned in an interview Tuesday, April 6, 2010, that Israel could annex parts of the West Bank and abandon its commitments from past peace agreements if the Palestinians go through with plans to unilaterally declare independence next year.

Israel's hard-line foreign minister warned Palestinians against plans to unilaterally declare independence next year, saying in an interview Tuesday that such a move could prompt Israel to annex parts of the West Bank and annul past peace agreements.

US suggests Karzai meeting with Obama in jeopardy-Public support for Taliban in Kandahar hit 'all time high' last spring: poll-Ex UN envoy Kanzai may have drug problem.

Kanzai ired US allied with comments with local leaders in Afganisthan.


Kanzai told tribal elders on Sunday that government officials should not let "foreigners" interfere in their work.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center, surrounded by his body guards walks through Kandahar city, south of Kabul,


The United States suggested on Tuesday it might cancel a meeting between President Barack Obama and President Hamid Karzai in the White House next month if the Afghan leader persisted with anti-Western comments.

Intensifying tensions between the two nations, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that a series of critical comments by Karzai was "troubling" and "confusing".

Pressed to say whether the May 12 meeting might be called off, Gibbs told reporters: "We certainly would evaluate whatever continued or further remarks President Karzai makes, as to whether that's constructive to have such a meeting."

Among comments that have angered his backers, Karzai accused embassies of perpetrating election fraud in Afghanistan last year and of seeking to weaken him. He told tribal elders on Sunday that government officials should not let "foreigners" interfere in their work.

Asked whether Karzai was still viewed as an ally of the United States after those comments, Gibbs replied: "Karzai is the democratically elected leader of Afghanistan."

Initially the Obama administration sought to play down Karzai's comments saying they were aimed at placating his domestic audience. But in recent days, Gibbs and others have taken a tougher line.

"We will not hesitate to ensure that the remarkable investment that our men and women are making is met with the type of governance that has to be in place in order to secure parts of a dangerous country," said Gibbs.

The White House earlier said it was frustrated on behalf of the American public, and invoked the sacrifice made by families who send their loved ones off to fight in the Afghanistan war.

There are more than 120,000 Western troops in Afghanistan, including more than 80,000 Americans, set to rise to 100,000 Americans this year.

Maoist rebels kill 76 soldiers in eastern India

Maoist insurgents claiming to fight for India's rural poor killed at least 76 soldiers Tuesday in a series of carefully planned ambushes in the forests of eastern India, underscoring the rebels' strength despite a government offensive.

The attack by hundreds of Maoists in a rebel stronghold in Chhattisgarh state was the deadliest by the militants against government forces in their 43-year insurgency.

Multiple explosions rock Baghdad -At least 7 blasts rip through Baghdad, killing 50

An Iraqi woman react at the scene of a blast in central Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, April 6, 2010. Massive explosions hit apartment buildings across Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and wounding scores more in the latest sign that Iraq's fragile security could dissolve in the chaos of the country's unresolved election.


Rescuers search for survivors at the scene of a bomb attack in central Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, April 6, 2010. Massive explosions hit apartment buildings across Baghdad killing at least 34 and wounding more than 100 in the latest sign that Iraq's fragile security could dissolve in the chaos of the country's unresolved electio


At least seven bombs ripped through apartment buildings across Baghdad Tuesday and another struck a market, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 180, authorities said.

The explosions were the latest in a five-day spree of attacks in and around the capital that have killed at least 119 people. Several bombs were planted inside empty apartments, the government said.

Foreign Office 'concerned' as Israeli warplanes take retribution on Gaza with up to 13 air strikes

Fears of another Gaza war were growing last night after Israeli warplanes carried out air strikes in retaliation for renewed Hamas rocket attacks.

Israeli aircraft launched 13 air strikes inside the Gaza Strip early yesterday, destroying what its army claimed were weapons factories.

More than 40 rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel since the start of the year, killing one man.
Ismail Haniya, Hamas's prime minister, called on the international community to intervene to avoid a possible escalation in the region. He said three Palestinian children were hurt by flying glass during the air strikes.

'We are contacting the other Palestinian factions in order to reach an internal consensus as to the measures we may take in order to protect our people and strengthen our unity,' he said.

The violence is the most serious since the end of Israel's assault on Gaza in January last year.
Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 died in the conflict, while Israel puts the figure at 1,166. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were killed.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office urged an end to the violence. 'We are concerned by today's strikes and the escalation of violence in Gaza and southern Israel over the past week,' he said. 'We call on all parties to show restraint.'

However, Silvan Shalom, Israel's deputy prime minister, said its army was prepared for a major assault if Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza did not stop.

Another rocket fired at midday yesterday landed in an open area near the Israeli port city of Ashkelon. No one was hurt in the attack.

Last week, two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian gunmen were killed in a firefight as the gunmen attempted to plant explosives near the Gaza border - the most serious incident since last year's war.
Israeli leaders said their patience was wearing thin over the rocket attacks, insisting that incidents have doubled since the same period last year.

Mr Shalom also warned that, if the rockets continued, another military offensive was imminent.

'If this rocket fire against Israel does not stop, it seems we will have to raise the level of our activity and step up our actions against Hamas,' he said.

'We won't allow frightened children to again be raised in bomb shelters and so, in the end, it will force us to launch another military operation.

'I hope we can avoid it, but it is one of the options we have, and if we don't have a choice, we will use it in the near future.'

Israel said that it held Hamas responsible for all fire coming from the besieged enclave, while Hamas insisted it was trying to calm the situation.

Khaled Mashaal, the group's politburo chief, said Hamas wanted to 'continue with the calm, and is uninterested in an escalation of violence'.

He added that it would take 'the proper steps to prevent rocket attacks'.



Air strikes: A Palestinian woman walks among the ruins of an air strike on Gaza City yesterday

Conflict: More of the destruction at what Hamas claims is a cheese factory after the Israeli strike

Restraint: The Foreign Office has expressed its 'concern' after strikes caused damage in the Gaza Strip yesterday, above

Retribution: Two of the three children wounded by flying glass in the Israeli air strike are rushed to hospital

Militants to 'moderators': Who are Hamas?

The news that Hamas is coming under increased pressure from more extreme Islamic groups is worrying.

In Arabic, 'hamas' means 'zeal'. The group has three factions - social, political and military. It is the social arm that has inspired such support for the Palestinian movement in the Gaza Strip - but it is the military arm that has incited the hatred of Israel and condemnation of the group as 'terrorists'.

Hamas grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, gaining a foothold in Gaza and the West Bank with social and charitable work in the 1960s.

It became a formal organisation in 1987 after the first Palestinian intifada. Its first suicide bombing was launched in 1993.

In 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian Authority's general legislative elections, democratically defeating Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas. Since then it has failed to unite around a cohesive programme, largely due to tensions between leaders.

The group's charter calls for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

In 2009 its overall leader Khaled Meshaal, in exile in Syria, said Hamas was willing to cooperate with the U.S. on an Arab-Israeli solution - including a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.

But the proposal fell apart as Hamas continued to refuse to recognise Israel, a necessary step for it to be included in the peace talks.

Nevertheless, Hamas has pulled back on its militancy, ending rocket attacks in the wake of Operation Cast Lead last year. So the news that other, even more extreme groups are putting pressure on it to fight again is not reassuring.

Attack derails goods train in Russian Caucasus-Dagestan railway blast linked to Moscow metro attacks: official

 
 The television frame taken on April 4, 2010 shows the spot of incident near the Inchkhe station in Dagestan's Karabudakhkentsky district, Russia, April 4, 2010. An explosion derailed eight cars of a cargo train in Russia's North Caucasian republic of Dagestan early Sunday, the Itar-Tass news agency reported



Militants have stepped up attacks in recent months throughout Russia's Caucasus region

An explosive device placed on a railway line derailed a goods train early Sunday in the troubled North Caucasus region of Dagestan, Russian news agencies reported.

At 3:50 am (2350 GMT Saturday), an explosive device blew up on Makhachkala rail line, a spokesman for the FSB secret services in Dagestan told the Interfax news agency.

"As a result eight carriages and an engine derailed. There were no dead or injured," the FSB spokesman said.

Investigators have opened a criminal probe into terrorism, arms trafficking and illegal production of weapons and explosives, Interfax reported, citing Makhachkala's interior ministry's transport police.

A senior special forces official in the North Caucasus told the RIA Novosti news agency that the attack appeared to be linked to the March 29 double suicide bombings in the Moscow metro that killed 40 people.

"The first results of an investigation started early Sunday suggest that this explosion is a continuation of a terrorist attack by North Caucasus rebels that began March 29," the unnamed official told RIA Novosti.

The Moscow attacks were followed by two suicide bombings on Wednesday in the town of Kizlyar in Dagestan that killed 12 people including nine police.

The latest explosion was caused by a device equivalent to five kilograms (11 pounds) of TNT, while a "booby trap" device placed a few metres away contained the equivalent of one kilogram of TNT, the FSB spokesman told Interfax.

A passenger train from the Siberian city of Tyumen to Baku was due to pass along the track two hours after the attack. It has been halted while the tracks are repaired, Interfax reported.

Militants have stepped up attacks in recent months throughout Russia's Caucasus region, where Islamist fighters have been battling pro-Kremlin local authorities and Russian security forces in a sporadic insurgency.

The "Caucasus Emirate" Islamist group, led by Doku Umarov, has claimed responsibility for the Moscow metro bombings and also for the bombing of the Nevsky Express high-speed train in November, which left 28 people dead.

The railway blast that derailed a cargo train in Dagestan was linked to the recent terrorist attacks that rocked Moscow downtown metro and the North Caucasian republic of Dagestan last week, a source with Russian security department disclosed Sunday.

Preliminary investigation suggested the railway explosion was a continuation of terrorist attacks by North Caucasus rebels that began on March 29, the unnamed official told the RIA Novosti news agency.

Investigation showed there were two explosions along the railway, according to the Federal Security Service (FSB).

The first explosion was caused by a device equivalent to five kg of TNT, creating a 110 by 25 centimeter crater. Another device, placed a few meters away and containing the equivalent of one kg of TNT, was intended to target the investigators, an FSB spokesperson said.

An explosion derailed eight cars of a cargo train in Russia's North Caucasian republic of Dagestan early Sunday. No casualties were reported.

The latest explosion followed the Moscow metro terrorist attack that killed 40 people and twin blasts in the Dagestani town of Kizlyar, which killed 12 people including nine police officers.

A Chechen rebel group, led by Doku Umarov, has claimed responsibility for the Moscow metro bombings. Russian security authorities believed the recent bombings were all plotted by the same group.

33 wounded in bomb, gunfire attacks in Iraq-Iraqi village killers 'posed as US soldiers'

--------------




Iraqi officials have blamed Al-Qaeda for the killings


Thirty-three people were wounded in separate bomb and gunfire attacks in Iraq's volatile province of Diyala and Baghdad, the police said on Sunday.

In Diyala, 13 people were wounded, three of them in critical condition, when a motorcycle packed with explosives detonated in the morning near a crowded marketplace in the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The blast destroyed several shops and many stalls, along with damaging four civilian cars, the source said.

Also in the province, a police force mistakenly traded fire with members of government-backed Awakening Council group at a village near the town of Maqdadiyah, some 40 km northeast of Baquba, wounding four local members and three policemen, the source added.

The gunfire erupted when the police force stormed the village which was guarded by the local group members who fired back thinking the attackers were only a death squad, he said.

The local group members apparently were haunted by the massacre that took place the day before in the village of Sufiya in south of Baghdad when gunmen wearing military uniform and vehicles stormed three houses in the village and killed 25 people, including five women.

Some of the 25 victims were members of local Awakening Council group which fought the al-Qaida militant groups in the Sunni areas.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off in the morning near a police patrol in the Utaifiyah neighborhood in central Baghdad, wounding five policemen and four civilians, along with damaging a police vehicle, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua without giving his name.

In separate incident, a bomb attached to the car of a policeman detonated in the morning in Baghdad southern district of Doura, wounding the policeman in the car, the source said.

Later, in the same district, another bomb attached to a KIA minibus exploded and wounded the driver, the source added.

Meanwhile, two people were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a secondary school in the al-Qahira neighborhood in northern Baghdad, he said.

In addition, the Iraqi capital was also the scene of mortar attacks when two mortar rounds landed on the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses government ministries and foreign embassies in central Baghdad, the source said without giving details about casualties, but he said that plumes of smoke could be seen rising above the vast area on the west side of the Tigris River.

Sporadic attacks continue in Iraq about a month after the country held its landmark parliamentary elections which is widely expected to shape the future of the war-torn country.

The gunmen who massacred 25 people from Iraqi families linked to an anti-Qaeda militia posed as American soldiers in a bid to reassure villagers before shooting them, a security spokesman said Sunday.

Twenty-five men have been arrested in connection with the rampage in the village of Sufia on the southern outskirts of Baghdad that began just before midnight Friday and continued for at least two hours.

Iraqi officials have blamed Al-Qaeda for the killings.

"They wore American military uniforms, two or three of them spoke English, to give the impression that they were American forces," said Major General Qassim Atta, the spokesman for the Iraqi security forces' Baghdad operations.

Atta added that they carried weapons bearing laser pointers, a familiar sight among US troops in Iraq.

A medical official at Al-Yarmuk hospital in west Baghdad who had seen police reports of the violence confirmed that some of the killers wore clothing similar to US military uniforms.

Five women were among the 25 killed, all linked to the Sahwa (Awakening) movement, known as the "Sons of Iraq" by the US army, which joined American and Iraqi forces in 2006 and 2007 to fight against Al-Qaeda and its supporters, leading to a dramatic fall in violence across the country.

The victims were all tied up and shot either in the head or in the chest. Seven other civilians discovered handcuffed in the village were freed.

Atta said that 25 people have been arrested in connection with the attacks, the worst against anti-Qaeda fighters since at least November 16 when 13 members of a tribe opposed to the jihadists were murdered west of Baghdad.

"Several of them confessed, and we are sure they are Al-Qaeda terrorists," Atta said.

The brutal killings come as Iraq's political parties negotiate to form a government, nearly a month after a general election.

Security officials have warned that a protracted period of coalition building could give insurgents an opportunity to further destabilise Iraq.