Five RI women die in crash
Five RI women die in crash
MALAYSIA: Five Indonesian workers were killed in southern Malaysia after a bus was hit by a container that apparently separated from a speeding truck, police said on Saturday.
The truck driver was negotiating a sharp bend when the container separated from the vehicle and then slammed into the bus, which was transporting workers to a nearby factory in Johor state early Saturday, a police spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press.
Four of the Indonesian workers died on the spot while the fifth succumbed to head injuries at a government hospital a few hours later, the spokesman said. All the victims were women, aged between 21 and 27 years.
-- AP
;REUTERS; ANPAi..u.. High-Iraq-Britain-Blair Blair was warned of Iraq chaos: Paper JP/2/HIGH
Blair was warned of Iraq chaos: Paper
BRITAIN: Britain's foreign secretary and senior officials warned Prime Minister Tony Blair a year before invading Iraq that chaos could follow the toppling of Saddam Hussein, a newspaper said on Saturday.
The Daily Telegraph said that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sent a letter marked "secret and personal" to Blair in March 2002 warning that no one had prepared for what might happen afterwards.
"There seems to be a larger hole in this (post-war planning) than anything," the Telegraph quoted Straw as saying.
"No one has satisfactorily answered how there can be any certainty that the replacement regime will be any better."
The Foreign Office declined to comment directly on the report but said in a statement that Iraq was moving toward a democratic future for the first time. -- Reuters
;REUTERS; ANPAO..u.. High-N.Ireland-peace-talks N. Ireland peace talks end JP/2/HIGH
N. Ireland peace talks end
BRITAIN: Talks aimed at sealing a lasting peace settlement for Northern Ireland ended without a comprehensive deal on Saturday despite significant progress on disarming the IRA, Britain and Ireland said.
After three days of talks, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern said they had not reached a deal to restore home rule in Belfast.
But the two leaders indicated they believed they had secured agreement in principle from the IRA on fully disarming.
"We believe we can resolve the issues to do with ending paramilitary activity and putting weapons beyond use," Blair told a news conference as talks broke up at Leeds Castle.
-- Reuters ;AP; ANPAi..r.. High-Russia-Car Bomb Russian police stop TNT-laden car JP/2/HIGH
Russian police stop TNT-laden car
RUSSIA: Russian security officials said police stopped a man driving a car wired with land mines and explosives in downtown Moscow early Saturday. The man subsequently suffered a fatal heart attack.
A duty officer at the Federal Security Service said the man was stopped by Moscow police around 1 a.m. Police questioned him and found two land mines in the car, along with 200 grams of TNT under the driver's seat. The mines were connected with wires and had an antenna attached to them.
The man, who appeared to be intoxicated, told police he had been paid US$1,000 to park two cars with explosives in them along a Moscow street frequently used by top government officials, said the duty officer, who refused to give his name.
-- AP
;AP; ANPA ..r.. High-Japan-Volcano Japanese volcano calms down JP/2/JAPAN
Japanese volcano calms down
JAPAN: One of Japan's most active volcanoes appears to be quieter after nearly a week of eruptions, the Meteorological Agency said on Saturday.
Mount Asama, about 150 kilometers west of Tokyo, has been rumbling for five straight days and continues to blow gray smoke and volcanic ash some 1,200 meters into the air, the agency said.
But its eruptions and tremors have become less frequent, with only about 23 small eruptions and nearly 140 tremors recorded by gauges on the mountain Saturday afternoon, the agency said.
Until now, the volcanic eruptions had been nearly continuous and the tremors, too small for people to feel, had been as frequent as 1,000 a day.
-- AP