PAKISTAN: At least 80 dead in an attack to avenge the death of bin Laden

AFP - Two suicide bombers killed Friday at least 80 people by detonating bombs in the middle of police cadets who went on leave in the north-west Pakistan, the Taliban is claiming a "first attack" in revenge for Osama bin Laden.

These insurgents, who have pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and making an extremely deadly bombing campaign in Pakistan, had promised reprisals against Islamabad and its security forces, whom they accuse of complicity in the deadly U.S. raid Ben Laden 11 days ago in the north.

At dawn, Shabqadar, a village northwest, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his bomb when the cadets, who were dressed in their civilian clothes, were preparing to board the minibus to take them home for 10 days of leave, told AFP Nisar Khan Marwat, the police chief of District Charsadda.

The blast targeted a training center of the Frontier Constabulary, a paramilitary police unit responsible for monitoring the borders.

Then, just as police and rescue workers had gathered to help the wounded, another suicide bomber on a motorcycle led a second massacre.

"At least 80 people died, 69 members of the Frontier Constabulary, and 11 civilians," said Bashir Ahmed Bilour, minister without portfolio in the province of Pakhtunkhwa-Khyber, where the tragedy occurred. Over 140 others were injured, one quarantine between life and death, according to medical sources.

"I was sitting in a minibus and waited for my colleagues," he told AFP Ahmad Ali, a cadet injured contacted by telephone to the hospital."I heard someone shout 'Allah Akbar!" (God is greatest!) Before a loud explosion, "he recalls.

"Then I heard a second, so I jumped from the van, I was bleeding," recalls Ahmad Ali yet.

This is the deadliest attack this year in Pakistan.

"This is a first action to avenge the martyrdom of Osama, it was conducted by two of our fighters," said the telephone to AFP Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the Movement of Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

"Expect more massive attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan," he threatened.

TTP, which has pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda in 2007, is primarily responsible for the wave of more than 450 attacks, mostly suicide, who made more than 4.300 deaths across the country in nearly four years. In summer 2007, right after bin Laden himself, TTP had declared jihad on Islamabad for supporting Washington in its "war against terrorism."

Shabqadar is located near the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, Pakistani Taliban stronghold and the main sanctuary in the world of Al Qaeda.These areas are also the basis behind the Afghan Taliban, Haqqani Network in particular, bete noire of American soldiers who make up two thirds of international forces in Afghanistan.

Training camps of the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal areas are also used by Al Qaeda, who are then trained its suicide bombers who perpetrated the attacks or attempted to commit the United States or Europe, those of September 11, 2001 to those in London in 2005, to Madrid in 2004, and Times Square in New York in 2010.

It is in these mountainous border regions Experts believed ten years to find Bin Laden and not in the tidy town of Abbottabad garrison, two hours drive north of Islamabad.

That's when a lightning raid of 79 elite U.S. soldiers had dug in and killed the night of 1 to May 2

This unilateral operation performed under the auspices of the CIA who said he had not wanted to warn Islamabad for fear of leaks, has sparked a new skirmish between Washington and its allies.

The most senior U.S. officials asked Pakistan to investigate how could bin Laden into hiding for several years without complicity at the highest level in a garrison town populated by about 10,000 soldiers.Charges that Islamabad has described as "absurd", claiming that Pakistan is the country that pays the heaviest price for the "war against terrorism", with the bombing campaign of al-Qaeda loyalists.

Public opinion is overwhelmingly anti-American, whereas the U.S. has "imported" their war against Al Qaeda in Pakistan after an abortive campaign in Afghanistan.

Additional signs of defiance, Islamabad, Washington has threatened Thursday to reconsider its cooperation in fighting terrorism, and number 2 of the Pakistani Army, General Khalid Shameem Wynne, overturned Friday a planned visit to the United States "because of the climate prevail ".

THAILAND - Cambodia: Bangkok and Phnom Penh compete again at their shared border

AFP - New fighting with heavy weapons erupted Friday Thai and Cambodian soldiers, killing six of them and ending two months of relative calm between the two countries competing for a border area.

As in previous violent clashes on February 4 to 7, both parties have mutually rejected responsibility for the incidents that erupted at dawn near the temples of Ta and Ta Krabei Muean Tom and lasted several hours.

"The Cambodian soldiers opened fire with assault rifles on Thailand's first and now they started to bombard us with artillery and we took appropriate measures of retaliation," he told AFP the Thai minister Defense Prawit Wongsuwon.

"I think Cambodia is to take control of temples at the border," he added.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit has ordered an inquiry after three soldiers from his country were killed and ten others wounded in the fighting that has forced the evacuation of thousands of villagers on the Thai side.

Three soldiers were also killed and several wounded on the Cambodian side, as the spokesman of the Cambodian Ministry of Defence Chhum Socheat.

Phnom Penh has accused neighboring troops have penetrated 400 meters inside its territory.

Thai soldiers "launched an unprovoked attack," said government spokesman Phay Siphan.

"This is a new invasion of Cambodia by Thailand.We can not accept that. "

The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, in particular because of the presence of many mines left behind by decades of civil war in Cambodia.

In February, the fighting had mostly taken place a hundred miles to the east near the Khmer temple of Preah Vihear.

These ruins of the eleventh century, whose classification by UNESCO in 2008 had rekindled tensions within the sovereignty of Cambodia by a ruling of the International Court of Justice in 1962.

But the Thais its main access control, and both countries claim an area of ​​4.6 km2 below the building.

Analysts said the border dispute both sides are used to glorify the nationalist sentiments of the population.

Following the fighting in February, which had at least ten deaths, seven Cambodian side, the Security Council of the United Nations had called for a cease-fire permanent, but rejected the request from Phnom Penh to send peacekeepers on the border.

Both then neighbors had given their agreement to send observers to the border, after mediation organized by the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN).

But since the Thai military said that these observers were not welcome and they were never deployed.

Indonesia, which holds the rotating presidency of ASEAN, on Friday urged the two neighbors to "an immediate cessation of hostilities" and to "resolve their disputes by peaceful means."

Phnom Penh calls since February mediation to resolve these disputes, but Bangkok urges bilateral talks only.

Thailand secondly recently acknowledged using during the fighting in February controversial weapons, the "improved conventional munitions double effect" (DPICM), while insisting that they were not munition munition.

Coalition against weapons munitions (CMC) acted his part that it was indeed weapons munitions, denouncing their use.

AFGHANISTAN: A suicide attack against a military base kills nine soldiers

Nine soldiers, four and five Afghan Force NATO in Afghanistan (ISAF) were killed Saturday in a suicide attack claimed by Taliban insurgents in the headquarters of the Afghan army to the east the country.

"Five ISAF soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan," said the NATO force said in a statement without specifying their nationality.

A spokesman for ISAF, Major Tim James, confirmed to AFP that the attack in question was the suicide bombing in the morning in the headquarters of the Afghan army to the east located in the area Gambires near Jalalabad, the largest city in eastern Afghanistan.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense confirmed that "four Afghan soldiers were killed and eight people injured, four translators" during the attack.

The ministry said the attack was perpetrated by a suicide bomber who donned a military uniform.

One hundred soldiers of the ISAF, primarily responsible for advising the Afghan army, stationed at this base in the province of Laghman, according to Commander James ISAF.

One of the worst attacks against NATO since 2001

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, contacted by AFP, claimed the attack, among the deadliest for the NATO forces since their arrival in the country in late 2001.

Six NATO soldiers were killed Dec. 12 in southern Afghanistan during an attack.

The attack against the Afghan base is the tenth suicide attack in Afghanistan since early April.It is also the fifth in three days targeting Afghan security forces and international across the country.

On Friday, a suicide bomber managed to penetrate the headquarters, in principle secure, the police in Kandahar, the southern Afghan city, killing the police chief of the province of the same name and two of his bodyguards.

More than 130 000 soldiers present

NATO must send Afghan forces gradually, starting in July and by late 2014, the responsibility for security throughout the territory.

Some 132,000 soldiers from the NATO support the Kabul government against the insurgency since late 2001 by the Taliban, ousted by an international coalition.

Suicide bombings and small mines placed along the road are the favorite weapons the insurgents have focused primarily on the police and Afghan army and foreign troops, but are also numerous civilian casualties.

On 14 March, at least 36 people were killed and forty wounded in a Taliban suicide attack against a military recruiting center in Kunduz, one of the major cities of northern Afghanistan.

The city of Jalalabad was the scene, February 19, one of the most deadly attacks perpetrated in the country in recent years, when many Taliban suicide bombers stormed a bank where police came to collect their wages.Thirty-eight people were killed and 70 injured.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned against a precipitous withdrawal of NATO forces and warned that spring 2011 would probably be "violent" because of Taliban efforts to resume their offensive.

SYRIA: Impatiens, the Syrian youth trying to break the silence

The wall of silence is cracking. "Deraa is Syria," "We sacrifice ourselves for Deraa," "God, Syria, and freedom is everything" ... The slogans continue to resonate in Dera in the region Harouan (South) where the dispute appears to show no signs of weakness despite the violent repression of the Syrian authorities that killed more than 100 deaths in one week.

Believing themselves immune from any challenge, the regime in Damascus is seen now faced with the uprising of youth galvanized by the revolutionary wave that swept the Arab world. March 18, protesters defied the military and much feared secret services (the "Mukhabarat") by setting fire to public buildings Deraa, city yet acquired the ruling Baath Party.Since then the movement has spread to Hama, Damascus, Latakia, Banias or Hassakeh. A month ago, yet the head of state Bashar al-Assad assured in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that his country is guarded against any form of rebellion. "We're out of it, certified it by speaking of the revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt. The Syrians do not rebel. It's a matter of ideology." A sealed system to challenge ideology Actually, people had resigned to decades of silence imposed an iron hand by the Baath party in power since 1963 which has made Syria one of States most of the locked region."The Syrian system does not accept the challenge, said Thursday on France Info radio waves Gilles Kepel, head of the chair Middle East-Mediterranean Institute of Political Studies (IEP) in Paris. It has to one side a president who is young, friendly, loves to talk with intellectuals and academics, and, on the other, the resilience of a system of power inherited from the father [Hafez al-Assad] is absolutely ruthless. " The last Syrian rebellion began in 1982 in Hama, the fourth largest city. The then president, Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, had ordered the army to crush the uprising, killing between 10,000 and 25,000 dead.During the 1980s, nearly 70,000 people were missing. Since the establishment of a state of emergency in 1963, protests are banned, intellectuals and political opponents routinely jailed. Nearly 4,500 political prisoners are currently in Syrian jails, according to the Foundation for Defense of Human Rights in Syria. "Young people are expecting a 180 degree turn" Faced with pressure from the street, President Al-Assad, who has not yet announced publicly, was shown on Thursday, more inclined to make concessions.Through the voice of his advisor Boussaïna Shaaban, the strong man of Damascus announced consider canceling the state of emergency and set up mechanisms "effective" to fight against corruption. Inadequate gestures of openness, according Ajlani Mohammed, director of the Center for Strategic Studies in Paris and an expert on Syria. "Youth has waited too long, says he told FRANCE 24. She wanted the president to go further, faster in the reforms, he dismisses all the caciques who enriched themselves at the time of his father. It has been ten years since the public expects.Young people were expecting a 180 degree turn. "Arrived at the head of the country to the death of his father in 2000, Bashar al-Assad succeeded in imposing on the nomenklatura political-military importance of economic reforms, opening up Syria the market economy. But this rapid liberalization has mainly had the effect of widening social inequalities and enhancing the close of the al-Assad. Syria has "not yet slipped into the red zone," said Mohammed Ajlani, but time is short. "If al-Assad is taking bold economic and social decisions, a way out of crisis then offer himself to him who will go through compromise and negotiation.If the power of new represses any movement in the blood, it will not work much longer. "

JAPAN: The toll of the earthquake and tsunami stands at more than 6,000 dead

AFP - Japan has resumed operations on Friday to try to cool the reactors at the Fukushima plant, where the situation seemed to have stabilized a week after the earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 6,400 confirmed dead.

The balance of the worst earthquake ever recorded in the islands will continue to worsen as more than 10,000 people were officially unaccounted for, police said.

Despite an unprecedented mobilization of 80,000 soldiers and rescue workers, the hopes of finding survivors have almost vanished, especially since a cold snap affecting the devastated area.

For the first time since the crisis began, experts have noted an encouraging development in the central Fukushima, four of six reactors were seriously damaged by explosions and fires.

"The situation remains very serious in the plant. But there was no significant worsening since yesterday," said Andrew Graham, Special Advisor to Director General International Atomic Energy Agency (AIAE).

The situation "has not deteriorated, which is positive.But it is still possible they are getting worse, "he said.

At midday, several tanker trucks equipped with water cannon have started to pour tens of tons of water on the reactor 3 in order to prevent the fuel rods to melt and thus prevent a major nuclear accident.

These operations started Thursday have been "a positive," said a spokesman for operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO).

"Our priority remains the reactor 3," confirmed the government's spokesman Yukio Edano.

In this reactor whose outer structure was destroyed by an explosion of hydrogen, the storage pool of spent fuel, located outside the containment building was damaged.

The bars must be stored constantly submerged under penalty of heat and cause radioactive releases.

Operations are also designed to cool the reactors 1, 2 and 4 and the storage pool of the latter.

Tepco parallel attempts to restore, with temporary power lines, the electricity supply to the plant "to restart the reactor coolant pumps and fill swimming pools."

These systems broke down when the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the protection of the marine plant built in the 1970s.

If Japan asks, 450 military U.S. nuclear experts stand ready to intervene, said the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, who said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the developments.

France and Russia have also offered their assistance.

Meanwhile, many cities continued to organize the departure of their nationals present in the area at risk and in the huge megalopolis of Tokyo, located within 250 km of Fukushima.

Those who do not leave Japan find refuge in the south of the archipelago, especially in Osaka, the second city in the country where, for example, Germany has installed a temporary embassy.

The activity has significantly reduced since the beginning of the week in the capital, where many firms operate in slow motion and even the auctions were suspended tuna at Tsukiji, the largest fish market in the world. But no panic has seized the people of Tokyo, who have stored food in case they should be confined to their homes.

The streets of the capital are usually illuminated at night in some areas plunged into darkness due to power limitations."The thriving metropolis radiating and became a city of darkness, scarcity and apprehension," lamented the daily Japan Times.

The government has assured that the operations of aid to some 440,000 victims would be improved to respond to complaints about shortages of drinking water and food.

The cold and snow fell in recent days on the north-east complicate the task of the 80,000 soldiers, police and rescue workers mobilized on the ground.

In the city of Katahama, refugees trying to withstand temperatures fell to 0 degrees in a social center where there is no electricity, no gas, no water."We have flashlights for the night and we we wind up in blankets," he testified Kikuo Nomura, 70.

These extreme conditions also undermine the health of people evacuated the most vulnerable like the elderly and children, of whom 100,000 are homeless, according to the organization Save The Children.

The G7 finance ministers have expressed their solidarity with Japan deciding to take action "concerted" on the foreign exchange market to contain soaring yen.The announcement had an immediate effect: the dollar has fallen over 80 yen in Tokyo Friday, the day after a record at 76.36 yen.

In a speech on the situation in Japan, the president Barack Obama gave the order to conduct a "comprehensive review" of nuclear safety in the United States.

BAHRAIN: The army fired on demonstrators in Manama

The Bahraini army fired on Friday a thousand people who wanted to take a sit-in in Manama, leaving many wounded, while the crown prince promised a dialogue with opponents, once peace is restored in this tiny Gulf kingdom .

Dozens of people were injured when soldiers opened fire on demonstrators, according to an AFP photographer on the spot.

The protesters were trying to get to the Place de la Perle, where security forces forcibly dispersed at dawn Thursday a sit-in against the plan, sources said.

"Twenty-six wounded, some severely affected were admitted to hospital Salmaniya," he told AFP an elected official of the opposition Shiite, Ali al-Assouad, adding that the injured was "in a state of clinical death. "

"The army fired live ammunition against more than a thousand people who wanted to visit the Place de la Perle" he said.

The AFP photographer who visited the hospital, saw dozens of wounded, victims of this first event since the dispersion of the sit-in Thursday that killed four, according to the opposition and families victims.

The shooting occurred while the Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, speaking on state television to promise a dialogue with the opposition once calm was restored.

"I make no distinction between a Bahraini and another and what is happening now is unacceptable," said Prince Salman.

"Bahrain has never been a police state," he said, stressing: "I'm not lying.All these people are my countrymen and the phase we are going through is difficult and requires us to be all responsible, "he said.

"It is important that our dialogue is going on in a quiet overall," he said, assuring that "no subject can not be excluded from this dialogue."

"Bahrain is currently experiencing a state of division and that is unacceptable," he hammered the prince, noting that "many countries have experienced such a state but that their elders have come to talk of everything in a calm."

King Hamad Ben Issa Al-Khalifa, then decided to instruct the Crown Prince's "dialogue with all parties without exception," including the opposition, giving him why "the powers necessary", according to state television State.

Through cooperation "sincere", "Bahrain will come out stronger," he said.

Bahrain, a small kingdom populated predominantly Shia is ruled since the 18th century by a Sunni dynasty.

While the Shiites buried Friday killed four of their suppression of a sit-in demanding democratic reforms, suppressed by force Thursday before dawn, thousands of Sunnis marched in Manama to express their support to King Hamad bin Salman Al-Khalifa.

The opposition claimed the government's resignation after the dispersion by the force of a peaceful rally, said Thursday at the AFP chief of Shiite Al-Wefaq, Sheikh Ali Salman.

The Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the king's uncle, is in the position since Bahrain's independence in 1971.

Because of continuing tensions, the opposition groups have decided to postpone until Tuesday a march originally scheduled Saturday. At the initiative of seven opposition groups, the march was to converge on the Place de la Perle.

Bahrain is of strategic importance for Washington, which has set up the headquarters of its Fifth Fleet, to monitor the maritime routes used by tankers to support operations in Afghanistan and to counter a potential Iranian threat.

EGYPT: Police conduct a discreet return to the streets of Cairo

Two days after leaving the army the task of maintaining order in the streets of Cairo, police made his comeback this Monday in the Egyptian capital. It was a test day to the regime of Hosni Mubarak and the demonstrators, who were violently opposed to the service of order on Friday. Started in the morning, this return took place in complete secrecy. These are the first traffic officers who have appeared in the center of the city, followed in the day by uniformed police.

The news has not pleased some of the protesters actually making a difference between the police and the army."The soldiers sympathized with us, nothing to do with police brutality, which are themselves corrupt and sadistic with the people," says Hany, a young protester posted near Tahrir Square in the heart of the capital. Other Cairenes as Imad prefer to laugh. "I admit that I have not really missed and I would have preferred that they remain stashed or on vacation," he said.

Absent subscribers

Deployed sparingly, often very close to the protective shadow of army tanks, police intervene in civil case by case basis. They refrain from provoking the people. Some of them are content to call to order bystanders taking pictures with their phones.In their sights, too, Western journalists, some of which have been confiscated equipment and cameras. Experienced a mishap the previous day by a team of France 2, on the initiative of the intelligence service of the army.

In the districts held by the Muslim Brotherhood, very active in the streets since the start of the protest on January 25, the police remained conspicuously absent. In El-Manial on the island of Rhoda, it is the district vigilance committees that manage the traffic. Sometimes armed with sticks and knives, young people will monitor suspicious movements. Day and night.