Italy asks who to blame for deadly train inferno

(VIAREGGIO, ITALIAN, EXPLOSION, TRAIN, WHILE, CORRIERE)

By Antonella Cinelli
VIAREGGIO, Italy (Reuters) - Pressure was building on Italian authorities Wednesday to determine who was to blame for an explosion of a passing freight train that set fire to nearby homes and burned families alive while they slept.
The death toll from Monday night`s explosion in the seaside town of Viareggio rose to 16 after a girl aged three and a boy of two died from their burns at hospitals in Rome and Florence. Twenty seven people were injured, many of them seriously.
Italian newspapers demanded to know who was to blame, with La Repubblica asking "Who`s Guilty?" and Corriere della Sera warning "No Alibis." Some papers dedicated the first dozen pages or more to the disaster, one of Italy`s worst in living memory.
"The Inferno of the Innocent," was the headline of the Rome daily Il Messaggero.
"All of us were afraid. We just didn`t understand what was happening, we thought it was a terrorist attack," said Mirko Angelini, a resident of Viareggio, north of Rome.
Infrastructure Minister Altero Matteoli told parliament "checks are underway" into reports the axle on a rail car carrying liquefied petroleum gas appeared to have buckled, causing the derailment and subsequent explosion.
La Repubblica warned in an editorial there were "no small fry" among those possibly responsible.
The train was driven by an employee of Italian state railways, which says it is the country`s largest company, while the railcar whose axle may have given way was owned by a subsidiary of U.S.-based GATX Corp.
The conductor of the train, Roberto Fochesato, told Corriere della Sera "we didn`t make any mistakes. We found ourselves in an inferno, but it wasn`t my fault."
The GATX unit said the railcars were new and issued a statement saying "so far we do not see any connection between the cause of the accident and our wagons."
Rescuers Wednesday suspended the search for missing victims in the rubble of collapsed homes. One person was still unaccounted for but was presumed to be among the unidentified dead, a rescuer said.
Heart-wrenching stories about the victims dominated the airwaves and newsprint. Corriere told of a mother who rushed out of her home with her five-year-old son Luca, putting him in her car for safety while she ran back inside for her other two children.
The car caught fire while she was gone, and Luca died.
Cable news stations read aloud stories of families killed or in intensive care for severe burns at local hospitals.
"Ilaria and Michela, sisters and friends. The fireball burned them together," was a headline in La Repubblica.  Continued...
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Human Rights Watch accuses Israel over Gaza drones

(MISSILE, DRONES, HUMAN, RIGHTS, WATCH, WHICH)

By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Missile-firing Israeli drones unlawfully killed at least 29 Palestinian civilians during the Gaza Strip war, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
Despite having advanced surveillance equipment, drone operators failed to exercise proper caution "as required by the laws of war" in verifying their targets were combatants, the New York-based monitoring group said, issuing a 39-page report that described six alleged strikes by remote-controlled aircraft.
Israel has a fleet of spy drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), but refuses to confirm or deny widespread beliefs that some of the aircraft also carry weapons.
The military cast doubt on Human Rights Watch`s research methods -- a criticism echoed by some independent experts -- and, in a statement, asserted that all Israeli actions "conform to international law, as do the weapons and munitions used."
Israel launched its December-January offensive to counter rocket fire from Hamas-ruled Gaza, and has since weathered foreign censure over the killing of some 1,400 Palestinians, many of them civilians, during the fighting.
Human Rights Watch based its findings primarily on debris from Israeli-made Spike missiles, which it said are fired from drones. The report also called on Israel to publish drone surveillance footage, to show how targets were identified.
Spike`s state-owned manufacturer, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., says the missile, which has been sold widely abroad, can be fired by helicopters, infantry and naval craft.
Asked how it was possible to know that the Spikes in question had been fired by drones rather than these other means, Marc Garlasco, Human Rights Watch`s senior military analyst, cited the corroboration of Palestinians who said they had seen or heard the pilotless planes.
DISPUTED FORSENSICS
The value of such forensics was disputed by Robert Hewson, editor of Jane`s Air-Launched Weapons.
He said that while low-flying drones are often visible, the aircraft can reach operational heights of 12,000 feet, at which sightings would be much harder. The launch of a missile at that altitude would likely elude the naked eye.
Garlasco said he did not know at what height the drones described in the Human Rights Watch report were flying. He also said that two of the incidents cited in the report took place in the evening or night -- a further obstacle to witness sightings.
"Human Rights Watch makes a lot of claims and assumptions about weapons and drones, all of which is still fairly speculative, because we have so little evidence," Hewson said.
According to Garlasco, locals heard the buzz of drone propellers during the alleged air strikes rather than rotors that might have suggested the missiles were helicopter-fired.
Retired British army colonel Richard Kemp, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, questioned whether such distinctions could be made, not least as the Spike`s range is 8 km (5 miles) -- enough to put helicopters or naval boats out of earshot.  Continued...
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Blast in Baghdad marketplace kills 72, injures over 100

(EXPLOSION, BAGHDAD, WEDNESDAY, LOCAL, CITIES, NUMBER)

Powerful explosion kills more than 70 in Baghdad
MOSCOW, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - Police have confirmed at least 72 people have died and more than 100 injured in a blast in a Baghdad marketplace, al Jazeera reported on Thursday.
The bomb was hidden in a motorcycle rickshaw loaded with fruit and vegetables which detonated on Wednesday evening at the Mraidi outdoor market in north Baghdad`s Sadr City. The bomber abandoned his vehicle and ran off prior to the detonation.
Many women and children are among the victims.
"I heard a boom and saw a ball of fire," Najim Ali, a 30-year-old local, who was shopping in the market, told al Jazeera. "I saw cars flying in the air because of the force of the explosion."
This latest attack comes as U.S. troops prepare to hand over control of several Iraqi cities to local authorities by June 30.
The number of explosions has dropped in recent months in Iraq with May having one of the lowest casualty figures since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of the country. However recent violence, including a blast in Kirkuk on Saturday which killed 73, has pushed the death toll this month to over 150.
Earlier on Wednesday, a U.S. military spokesman said only a small number of U.S. troops would remain in Iraqi cities after the June 30 deadline, but that the exact number was still being worked on.
Some U.S. soldiers will stay behind in urban centers at so-called Joint Security Stations to train and advise local security forces.
 
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Israel intercepts Gaza aid boat: activists

(ISRAELI, ACTIVISTS, CYPRUS, WOULD, WHICH, GROUP)

NICOSIA (Reuters) - The Israeli navy intercepted activists sailing to Gaza with aid on Tuesday, surrounding their boat and telling them to turn back, activists said.
The vessel with 21 people on board was in international waters when it was told to turn back, members of the U.S.-based Free Gaza Movement on the boat and in Cyprus told Reuters.
The Israeli military declined to comment.
"There is a patrol boat around us and we were told that if we did not turn back they would open fire," said Derek Graham, an Irish activist.
"We are continuing our course to Gaza," he said.
He was speaking via satellite telephone from a small ferry boat which had departed from Cyprus on Monday. Among the activists were an Irish Nobel peace laureate and a former U.S. Congresswoman.
In Cyprus, the group also said it had communication from the boat that unless it turned back it would be fired upon.
Israel tightened a blockade on Gaza in 2007 after the Islamist group Hamas took control of the enclave, a tiny sliver of territory which is home to some 1.5 million people.
The Israeli navy patrols Gaza coastal waters. It had intercepted activists of the same group sailing into Gaza on two previous occasions.
(Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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Bangladesh textile workers go on rampage

(TEXTILE, WORKERS, BANGLADESH, EXPORT, EXPORTERS, GARMENT, POLICE)

By Ruma Paul
DHAKA (Reuters) - Textile workers set fire to a factory in Bangladesh on Monday in a third day of demonstrations for payment of wages, witnesses said, as the global economic crisis hits the South Asian country`s main export industry.
The workers were also protesting two colleagues` deaths blamed on police firing over the weekend at a similar demonstration on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka.
"The situation is now under control," a police official said after police fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse the workers. At least 30 people were injured in the clashes.
Abdus Salam Murshedy, the President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said the global economic slowdown had hurt textile exporters and some of them could be facing financial difficulties.
A government survey released on Sunday reported 122 out of 825 factories had not paid workers on time between January and May.
Bangladesh earned $11 billion from textile exports last year, more than 75 percent of the impoverished country`s total export income and equivalent to 17 percent of the country`s GDP of around $65 billion.
Labor unrest in the textile industry has grown in recent years over unpaid wages and overtime. The minimum monthly wage of a textile worker is less than $25.
Exporters have ruled out any wage rise because of declining overseas sales.
The government would take strong action to prevent unrest in the garment sector, Labor Minister Mosharraf Hossain said.
"We will probe the incidents and punish those involved in the riots so that such incidents do not happen again," he said.
More than 100 people including several policemen have been injured since the protests began on Saturday.
Bangladesh has some 4,500 garment factories, employing more than 2.5 million workers.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Anis Ahmed and Jerry Norton)
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Nigerian militants say attack Shell despite amnesty

(DELTA, NIGER, MEND, SHELL, AMNESTY, MILITANT, ATTACKS)

By Nick Tattersall
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria`s main militant group said its fighters had attacked an oil facility belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta on Monday, in the face of an amnesty offer from President Umaru Yar`Adua.
Shell said it had shut in some production as a precautionary measure while it investigated reports of attacks on two well clusters in its Estuary Field in the western Niger Delta, which feeds into its Forcados oil export terminal.
"Hurricane Piper Alpha has struck at the Shell Forcados platform in Delta state today ... at about 0330 hours," the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in a statement emailed to media.
It said parts of the facility were on fire.
Forcados is one of Nigeria`s benchmark crude oil grades but production has been interrupted by militant attacks.
On June 17 Shell extended a force majeure on its Forcados oil shipments for the rest of June and all of July. The measure, which frees it from contractual obligations, was first imposed in March after an attack on its trans-Escravos pipeline.
Yar`Adua on Thursday offered a 60-day amnesty to gunmen in the Niger Delta who have been responsible for pipeline bombings, attacks on oil and gas installations and the kidnapping of industry workers over the past three years.
The unrest has prevented the world`s eighth biggest oil exporter from pumping much above two thirds of its installed capacity of 3 million barrels per day, costing it billions of dollars in lost revenue and pushing global energy prices higher.
MEND questioned the sincerity of the government and dismissed the amnesty offer as a program directed at "repentant criminals" rather than genuine "freedom fighters."
MILITANTS DIVIDED
Some militant leaders have said they want talks with Yar`Adua to work out the details of a deal, but MEND has publicly dismissed the amnesty offer, seeing it instead as an opportunity to distinguish itself from criminals.
"It will separate the wheat from the chaff and allow the government to focus on the root issues instead of tying militancy with criminality as an excuse for not addressing the grievances of the Niger Delta people," it said.
"MEND will negotiate as a group when the right time comes ... Only those who are willing to sell their birthright for a bowl of porridge will accept while the rest of us will continue the struggle until justice is achieved."
Representatives of Ateke Tom, Farah Dagogo, Soboma George and Boyloaf -- key leaders of armed gangs behind some of the most spectacular attacks -- issued a statement on Friday saying they wanted to meet with Yar`Adua.
MEND -- a loose coalition of various armed gangs in the delta -- denied Dagogo and Boyloaf would take part.  Continued...
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Protests erupt, gunshots heard after Honduras coup

By Mica Rosenberg
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The Honduran army ousted and exiled leftist President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday in Central America`s first military coup since the Cold War. Angry Zelaya supporters took to the streets and set up barricades.
The dawn coup was strongly condemned by Zelaya`s regional ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez -- who has long championed the left in Latin America. Chavez put his military on alert in case Honduran troops moved against his embassy or envoy there.
U.S. President Barack Obama`s administration, the European Union and a string of other foreign governments also voiced backing for Zelaya, who was snatched by troops from his residence and whisked away by plane to Costa Rica.
Zelaya, in office since 2006, had upset the judiciary, Congress and the army by seeking constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term.
Pro-Zelaya protesters, some of them masked and wielding sticks, set up barricades in the center of the capital, Tegucigalpa, and sealed off road access to the presidential palace.
Congress named an interim president, Roberto Micheletti, who announced a curfew for Sunday and Monday nights.
Honduras, an impoverished coffee, textile and banana exporter with a population of 7 million, had been politically stable since the end of military rule in the early 1980s.
But Zelaya has moved the country further left since taking power and struck up a close alliance with Chavez, upsetting the army and the traditionally conservative rich elite.
Zelaya tried to fire the armed forces chief, Gen. Romeo Vasquez, last week in a dispute over the president`s attempt to hold an unofficial referendum on Sunday about changing the constitution to allow presidential terms beyond a single, four-year term. Under the constitution as it stands, Zelaya would have been due to leave office in early 2010.
The country`s top court said on Sunday it had asked the army to remove Zelaya.
A former businessman who sports a cowboy hat and thick mustache, Zelaya, 56, told Venezuela-based Telesur television station that he was "kidnapped" by soldiers and barely given time to change out of his pajamas. He was later bundled onto a military plane to Costa Rica.
Zelaya was to fly on Sunday evening to the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, to meet Chavez and other regional leftist leaders.
The global economic crisis has curbed growth in Honduras, which is heavily dependent on remittances from Honduran workers abroad. Recent opinion polls indicate public support for Zelaya has fallen as low as 30 percent.
The army stood guard outside as Honduran deputies unanimously elected Congress head Micheletti, a member of Zelaya`s own Liberal Party, as interim president until after the elections in November.
Micheletti defied world pressure to reverse the coup, saying: "I don`t think anyone here, not Barack Obama and much less Hugo Chavez, has the right to come and threaten (Honduras)."  Continued...
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South Korea getting U.S. missiles to boost defences: report

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea is acquiring 40 U.S.-made missiles for an Aegis destroyer this month to boost its defenses amid reports North Korea may soon test-fire missiles, Yonhap news agency on Sunday quoted a military source as saying.
North Korea, which rattled regional security with a May 25 nuclear test, is preparing to test a long-range missile that could hit U.S. territory and mid-range missiles that could hit all of South Korea, a South Korean presidential Blue House official said last week.
The surface-to-air missiles for the Aegis destroyer, designed to track and shoot down objects including missiles, can hit targets up to 160 km (100 miles) away, Yonhap quoted the source as saying.
North Korea has also warned ships to stay away from waters off its east coast city of Wonsan, Japan`s Coast Guard said last week, in a possible indication of a missile test.
North Korea launched in April a rocket it said was carrying a satellite. The move was widely seen as a disguised test of its long-range Taepodong-2 missile and a violation of U.N. resolutions barring the reclusive state from ballistic missile testing.
The U.N. Security Council punished it for the missile launch by tightening existing sanctions and imposing new ones after the nuclear test to halt its arms trading, one of the few items the cash-short state with a broken down economy can export.
The U.S. Navy has said it is monitoring a North Korean ship under the new U.N. security resolutions imposed after the nuclear test. A South Korean intelligence source said the ship is likely carrying missiles and parts, and it could be heading to Myanmar, broadcaster YTN said.
At the weekend, the prickly North warned in an official media report it would shoot down any Japanese military plane that breached North Korean air space.
South Korean officials have said the North`s recent saber rattling may be a way for leader Kim Jong-il to build internal support as he prepares for succession in Asia`s only communist dynasty.
(Reporting by Cheon Jong-woo; Editing by Jon Herskovitz)
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