Newsflash


250 Iraqis to fly home

Published Date: August 12, 2008

CAIRO: Iraqi refugees have gathered at Cairo's airport to catch the first government-funded flight from Egypt back home to Baghdad. Saad Ridha, the Iraqi charge d'affairs in Cairo, says the group will fly free of charge to Baghdad later yesterday afternoon on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's plane. Many of those returning fled Iraq's violence after the 2003 US-led invasion. Ridha says the flight is evidence that security has improved in Iraq. Ridha says another plane will take off tomorrow from Cai
ro to Baghdad carrying more Iraqis who want to return home "willingly and voluntarily." Since 2003, about 2 million Iraqis migrated to neighboring countries, mainly Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt.

Iran builds offices on disputed island

TEHRAN: Iranian state TV says the country has set up offices on a Persian Gulf island also claimed by the United Arab Emirates. Yesterday's report quotes an Iranian marine official, Ali Taheri Motlaq, as saying Iran has set up two offices on Abu Musa island. He says one is a marine rescue center and the other is a registration office for ships and sailors. It's the first time in more than a decade that Iran has reported development on the island, which has been controlled by Tehran since Britain gave it u
p in 1971. That's the same year Britain gave up land that is now the United Arab Emirates, which also claims Abu Musa island. The tiny island is on strategic land, at the entrace to the Strait of Hormuz. Up to 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes through the area.

West Bank radio goes off the air

JERUSALEM: A West Bank radio station that sought to bring Israelis and Palestinians together to the tune of middle-of-the-road pop music has gone off the air because of a lack of funding. RAM-FM had been broadcasting English-language talk shows and artists like Michael Bolton and Air Supply from a studio in the town of Ramallah since last year. An official from the station confirmed yesterday it shut down last week. In a statement, the station said it was unable "to generate sufficient advertising revenue
s to sustain its ongoing operation." Owned by South African Jewish businessman Issy Kirsh, RAM-FM was modeled after a South African station that provided a venue for reconciliation after apartheid. It attracted fans in both Israel and the Palestinian territories.

'Money as a weapon'

WASHINGTON: A US Army program in which soldiers pay cash to Iraqis to help with expenses, large and small, has spent $2.8 billion in five years, The Washington Post reported yesterday. The Post reviewed records of the Commander's Emergency Response Program, which was intended for short-term humanitarian relief and reconstruction. The field manual laying out the guidelines for the program is called "Money as a Weapon System," pointing up the effectiveness of cold hard cash in winning over the hearts and min
ds of Iraqi civilians. The largest sum of CERP money, $596.8 million, was spent on water and sanitation projects, the Post reported.


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Home arrow Blog arrow Authorities: One of California wildfires 'human caused'
Authorities: One of California wildfires 'human caused' PDF Print E-mail
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Sunday, 16 November 2008

The remains of a home sit not far from where authorities say the Santa Barbara, California, fire started. 

Investigators have eliminated "all accidental causes" of the fire that has destroyed 210 homes and injured two in Santa Barbara County since Thursday, and arson is suspected, spokesman Doug Lannon said.

"We need the public's help in identifying any activity in or around the afternoon of November 13," Lannon said.

The fire has burned 1,940 acres, including a monastery and several mansions in the Montecito community, where celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, have homes. It was 75 percent contained Sunday, Lannon said.

Authorities believe the fire started in the Tea Garden Estate, a privately owned multi-acre property, about one mile north of Santa Barbara's exclusive Westmont College. On Friday, arson investigators cordoned off the estate after several eyewitnesses told authorities they believed the fire originated in that area, according to Lannon.

The other major fires burning Sunday were in the northern Los Angeles area and in Orange County, east of Los Angeles. The three blazes have scorched 20,000 acres and have forced more than 10,000 people to flee their homes, authorities said.

Authorities on Sunday were searching through the wreckage of nearly 500 mobile homes destroyed Saturday in the northern Los Angeles area blaze, known as the Sayre Fire.

As of early Sunday afternoon, a third of the mobile homes had been searched, and "no human remains have been found," according to Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Michael Moore.

Police had not received any reports of missing persons from the park. Moore said 134 residents had been accounted for, and that the others should check in with city authorities.

Los Angeles County Coroner Ed Winter said authorities believe "most of the people from this mobile home park were evacuated," and that the search was precautionary.

The Sayre Fire erupted late Friday in the steep terrain of the Angeles National Forest on the outskirts of the Sylmar neighborhood, about 20 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

The Sayre Fire has burned about 9,500 acres in the San Fernando Valley and was about 30 percent contained, California fire officials said Sunday.

Nine other homes and 10 businesses had been destroyed in Los Angeles by Saturday evening, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.

Firefighters were struggling to contain the third blaze, in Orange County, said Lynette Round, a spokeswoman for Orange County Fire Authority. iReport.com: 'Insurmountable' wall of flames looms

Firefighters were hoping that strong winds in southern California would die down Sunday, helping them to quell the blazes.

"If the winds die down it will give the firefighters an upper hand on fighting this," Round told CNN on Sunday morning. "It is a wind-driven fire and with those gusty winds up to 25 miles an hour, it's giving the firefighters a really difficult time. It's hopscotched throughout the county."

Round said 168 homes were destroyed or damaged in the Orange County area. The so-called Triangle Freeway Complex Fire had also damaged a building at a high school, Round said.

That blaze, which has burnt 10,475 acres, is not contained at all, and is spreading throughout Orange County, posing threats to Yorba Linda, Corona, Brea, Chino Hills and Anaheim Hills neighborhoods, according to California fire officials. Video Watch residents as fire approaches their homes »

Winds -- which have joined with low humidity and unseasonably high temperatures to help strengthen the fires -- were gusting up to 80 mph Saturday. The high temperature in Los Angeles reached 92 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared states of emergency for the affected counties after the fire damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes and closed major freeways.

The move frees up any state resources needed for fire-fighting, and makes the counties eligible for federal assistance grants.

In Los Angeles, Villaraigosa declared a city emergency early Saturday morning and called for the public's cooperation in conserving energy as potential blackouts loomed. iReport.com: Share wildfire photos, video

Augustine Reyes and his family left their home in Sylmar about 2 a.m. Saturday when they could no longer stand the oppressive heat and smoke encroaching from the hills behind their home.

When Reyes returned to survey the scene Saturday afternoon, all that remained were heaps of charred rubble.

Reyes dabbed his eyes with a bandana as he worried over how to describe the loss to his 7-year-old son.

"He's autistic and doesn't do well with change, so this is going to be very hard to explain to him," Reyes said

By Saturday afternoon, people were taking refuge in evacuation shelters set up in three high schools in the area, officials said.

Horses and other large animals were taken to a makeshift shelter in Hansen Dam Park. A mobile kennel was set up at Sylmar High School, and small pets can be taken to the Mission animal shelter.

As for the Santa Barbara County fire, Lannon urged anyone who may have spotted suspicious vehicles or people in the area of the Tea Garden Estate in Montecito to call fire investigators at 951-969-2537, 951-314-0420 or 661-330-0129.



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Last Updated ( Monday, 17 November 2008 )
 
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