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Kenya police ordered to 'shoot to kill' to stem clashes

AFP, Nairobi

Kenyan police have been ordered to shoot to kill looters, arsonists, people carrying weapons or blocking roads, a commander said Wednesday, in a bid to stem violence sparked by disputed elections.

The order, made for the second time since President Mwai Kibaki's widely-contested reelection last month, followed the formal launch of crisis talks between Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who claims he was robbed of the presidency.

It also came amid increasing international condemnation of the spiral of violence in which almost 1,000 people have died and more than a quarter million have been displaced.

"There are four categories of people who will face tough police action: Those looting property, burning houses, carrying offensive weapons, barricading roads," the police commander told AFP, a day after military helicopters fired above ethnic fighting in the lakeside town of Naivasha, the latest flashpoint.

"We have orders to shoot to kill these categories of people if they are caught in the act," he added.

The last time police issued 'shoot-to-kill' orders was early January when gangs were attacking police in a first wave of post-election violence.

Crisis talks led by Kofi Annan began Tuesday as police reported 22 new deaths in brutal ethnic clashes and a police crackdown, particularly in opposition strongholds in western Kenya and the capital's slums.

Violence peaked yet again after the slaying of an opposition lawmaker in Nairobi Tuesday.

"Police will henceforth be very forceful on groups of persons carrying out activities that threaten the lives and property of others," police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told AFP Wednesday.

The military has so far played a backseat role in response to the violence, clearing barricades on the main road linking the capital to western Kenya and assisting in enforcing a curfew in the western town of Nakuru.

Soldiers armed with assault rifles and whips patrolled the tense streets of Naivasha Wednesday, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Nairobi, where three died the previous day.

No clashes were reported, but several stalls were burned down in the town centre and the army said it had arrested a suspected arsonist.

Some 8,000 displaced people remained in a police compound where they have been sheltering since violence erupted there several days ago, transforming a tourist town famed for its wildlife.

Blast kills 3 militants in Pakistan

AP, Miran Shah

Three suspected militants allegedly planning suicide attacks died Wednesday when a bomb detonated early, police said, in the latest violence near the Afghan border where 12 people were killed in a missile attack a day earlier.

On Tuesday, more than 500 students chanting "Death to America" protested Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led fight against terrorism, as the government said that security forces would show "no leniency" in the conflict with Islamic militants.

The three men were killed in a home on the outskirts of Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province, police officer Farid Shah said. "Initial evidence suggests that they were suicide attackers," Shah said. "They were preparing for an attack but the explosion occurred."

Millions suffer thru’ power, water cuts in China snow

Reuters, Beijing

Millions of Chinese shivered through power cuts and water shortages on Wednesday and millions more were stranded by snow that has blanketed parts of central and southern China, raising concerns about their safety.

China dispatched the army Wednesday to help millions of people stranded by snowstorms that have caused transport gridlock, crippled power supplies and hindered relief efforts, state media reported.

At least 460,000 troops from the People's Liberation Army and paramilitary forces fanned out across parts of China where dozens of people have died amid the worst storms in 50 years.

"The People's Liberation Army has ordered its troops to go all out to help those battling the heavy snow in the southern part of the country," the China Daily said.

"The troops were ordered to give whatever assistance local governments required."

The health ministry also deployed about 14,000 medical personnel to treat the sick and injured in hard-hit areas, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

China is intensifying its efforts to deal with the punishing weather, which has caused chaos on the roads and rails just as millions of people swamp the country's transport system for the annual Lunar New Year travel exodus.

Xinhua said China was waging "all-out war" against the disaster as weather forecasters predicted still more blizzards and icy conditions into next week.

Japan boosts missile defences in Tokyo

AFP, Tokyo

Japan on Wednesday deployed its third ballistic missile defence system in the Tokyo area as the pacifist nation beefs up its military capability in the face of North Korea and China.

Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) surface-to-air interceptors were installed at a Japanese air force base in Yokosuka, also home to a major US naval base, a defence ministry spokesman said.

"The system was deployed today," he said, without disclosing details.

The ministry set up two other Patriot systems last year around Tokyo. It plans another by the end of March to complete a four-part missile defence system protecting Tokyo, he said.

The ministry plans to deploy the US-developed PAC-3s at a total of 11 bases in eastern and western Japan by March 2011.

Japan and the United States started working on a more advanced missile shield after North Korea fired a missile over Japan's main island in 1998.

Ruins of 7,000-year-old city found in Egypt oasis

AFP, Cairo

A team of US archaeologists has discovered the ruins of a city dating back to the period of the first farmers 7,000 years ago in Egypt's Fayyum oasis, the supreme council of antiquities said on Tuesday.

"An electromagnetic survey revealed the existence in the Karanis region of a network of walls and roads similar to those constructed during the Greco-Roman period," the council's chief Zahi Hawwas said.

The remnants of the city are "still buried beneath the sand and the details of this discovery will be revealed in due course," Hawwas said.

"The artefacts consist of the remains of walls and houses in terracotta or dressed limestone as well as a large quantity of pottery and the foundations of ovens and grain stores," he added.

Suu Kyi meets party members, junta officer

AFP, Yangon

Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday met with top members of her party as well as with a government liaison officer, an official told AFP.

The talks lasted about 90 minutes and took place at a military facility near her lakeside home in Yangon, where she has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, the official said.

The Nobel peace prize winner was taken to and from her home in an official convoy, witnesses said.

During the talks, she was allowed to speak with members of the Central Executive Committee of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and with the liaison officer, Labour Minister Aung Kyi, the official said.

Aung San Suu Kyi was last allowed to meet with her party's leadership on November 9, when she spoke with four top party members for about one hour at the same military compound.

Strong East Timor quake triggers tsunami warning

Reuters, Jakarta

The Indonesian meteorology agency issued a tsunami warning on Wednesday after a quake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale struck offshore East Timor, but there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake at 6.2 magnitude and at a depth of 10 km (6 miles). The epicenter of the quake was 299 km northeast of East Timor's capital city, Dili, but the quake was hardly felt there, residents said. "I didn't feel anything," said Reuters photographer Lirio da Fonseca, a Dili resident. Fauzi, the head of the earthquake centre at the Indonesian meteorology office, said his office last year gave East Timor equipment to receive quake alerts. "I hope they are using it so they can receive the tsunami alert," he told Reuters.