The New Nation - Internet Edition

54 Myanmar migrants die of suffocation in seafood container in Thailand

AP, Bangkok

Fifty-four migrant workers from Myanmar suffocated in the back of an unventilated truck Thursday, while the rest of the passengers being smuggled to Thailand pounded on the container and screamed in vain for the driver's help.

More than 100 migrants, mostly women, were about two hours into their trip to the resort island of Phuket late Wednesday when they started collapsing, police and survivors said. At that point, in Ranong province near Myanmar, their ruckus caused the driver to stop. When he unlocked the container and discovered the dead workers, survivors said he ran off.

Forty-seven of the occupants survived, but 21 were hospitalized. The rest were held for questioning, Police Col. Kraithong Chanthongbai said.

Local television footage showed police lifting bodies out of the truck and images of the container empty except for a few pieces of clothing. The dead workers - many wearing little more than T-shirts, shorts and flip-flops - were seen laid out on the floor of a local charity.

"I thought everyone was going to die," said Saw Win, a 30-year-old survivor, told The Associated Press from police custody. "I thought I was going to die. If the truck had driven for 30 minutes more, I would have died for sure."

Win said that about 30 minutes into the trip workers pounded on the container, screamed for air and called the driver, who briefly turned on the air conditioning.

The air conditioning later went off, and they called the driver again 30 minutes later but his phone was off. They continued pounding and yelling until he stopped the truck about an hour later, unlocked the container and ran off when he saw the state of the victims, Win said.

"When police got to the scene, they found that 54 of the workers were already dead in the packed container truck," Kraithong said.

Of the dead, 37 were women and 17 were men. Kraithong said 101 people were packed into the 7 feet by 20 feet container.

Police did not immediately know what jobs they were heading for, but illegal migrants from Thailand's impoverished neighbor generally come to the country to work in the fishing and construction industries or as maids.

Survivors told police that they each paid $314 to be smuggled into Thailand.

Police were searching for the truck's driver, who they accused of failing to provide enough air conditioning in the back of the truck, and members of the smuggling gang they believed arranged the trip.

US soldier among 19 killed in Iraq unrest

AP, Baghdad

At least 19 people including a US doldier were killed in separate incidents in Iraq.s

The U.S. military says an American soldier has been killed by a roadside bomb in central Baghdad.

An improvised explosive device struck the soldier's vehicle during operations on Wednesday, the military said.

Thursday's announcement raises to 18 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since Sunday.

Separate missile attacks by U.S. helicopters on Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood left five people dead injured four injured, Iraqi police said Thursday.

The U.S. military said four gunmen were killed late Wednesday by Hellfire missiles targeting a group of men who firing at troops putting up concrete barriers around a checkpoint.

However, police who declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said two of those killed in the attack were brothers aged seven and nine.

In a separate incident, police said a man was killed and four injured when missiles hit a building in Sadr City on Thursday morning.

Sadr City is a principal stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Government troops supported by the U.S. military have been fighting to gain control of the district of 2.5 million people for the past 10 days.

AFP report aqdds: Fierce clashes and mortar attacks in Baghdad's Shiite bastion of Sadr City killed 13 people on Wednesday as Iraq marked the fifth anniversary of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi officials said three mortar rounds slammed into Sadr City, the east Baghdad stronghold of anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, killing at least seven people and wounding 24.

One of the three rounds struck the rooftop of a house where a family was having breakfast, killing an adult and two children.

Suicide blast in Afghanistan kills eight

AFP, Kandahar

A suicide car bomber targeting an international military convoy in Afghanistan Thursday killed eight civilians and injured two dozen people, including three foreign troops, officials said.

Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack in the southern city and former rebel stronghold of Kandahar, on the road to the city's airport which is home to thousands of Western soldiers. "Eight people have been killed and 24 others including two policemen were injured. It was a suicide bombing," provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqeb told AFP at the site of the blast.

He said the explosion occurred as a foreign convoy passed through the area.

A spokesman with NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said three foreign soldiers were injured in the blast but declined to give their nationalities. The separate US-led coalition said it was gathering reports, but a spokesman said "we don't deny" the wounded are coalition forces. A Canadian military spokesman rejected an interior ministry report that they were from Canada.

Democrats fear next president faces Iraq 'quagmire’

AFP, Washington

Anti-war Democrats accused the White House of plotting to saddle the next president with a "quagmire" in Iraq, as General David Petraeus, the head of the US-led forces in the country, faced a second day of scrutiny in Congress.

On the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, Petraeus and US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker on Wednesday spoke to two committees in the House of Representatives. They faced a similar grilling in the Senate on Tuesday.

President George W. Bush's spokeswoman meanwhile left little doubt that he would back the general's call for freezing US troop withdrawals for at least 45 days after July in a national speech on Iraq policy Thursday.

Bush is also set to announce a return to shorter 12-month tours for US army troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, ending 15-month tours that have strained the force, a US defense official said speaking on condition of anonymity.

The White House said he will give a speech on Iraq and US troop levels at 11:30 am (1530 GMT). Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid did not wait for Bush to speak, demanding changes to a war plan that looks set in stone for the rest of this presidency.

US used September 11 as 'pretext' for invasions: Ahmadinejad

AFP, Tehran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States on Tuesday of using the September 11, 2001 attacks as a "pretext" to launch invasions and cast doubt on the accepted version of the terror strikes. "On the pretext of this incident a major military operation was launched and oppressed Afghanistan was attacked. Tens of thousands of people have been killed until now," he said in a speech broadcast on state television. "Poor Iraq was attacked. According to official figurest one million people have been killed," he said in the speech marking Iran's day of nuclear technology. He appeared to cast doubt on the official version of the attacks, saying the names of those killed had never been published and questioning how the planes had hit the towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. "An event was created in the name of the attack against the twin towers. We were all sad. It was said that 3,000 people were killed," Ahmadinejad said.

Musharraf urges lawyers against anarchy

Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday called on lawyers opposing his rule to stop spreading anarchy as tensions flared in the country just days after a new government made up of his opponents took office.

Violence broke out in parts of the country's commercial capital, Karachi, on Wednesday after anti-Musharraf lawyers clashed with his supporters in a court. Five people were killed in shooting in the city while six charred bodies of lawyers, two of them women, were recovered from a building housing lawyers' chambers after it was set ablaze. Violence in Karachi, which has a long history of political and sectarian unrest, is the first since the new coalition led by Pakistan People's Party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was sworn in. "I appeal to the lawyers not to spread anarchy. Law and order should be maintained," Musharraf told reporters before departing for a five-day visit to China. Musharraf has become growingly isolated since his allies suffered crushing defeat in February 18 elections.

SKorea swings right as conservatives sweep polls

AFP, Seoul

South Korea's new president, who promises a softer approach to big business and a tougher line on North Korea, secured key support Thursday after his conservative party won a majority in parliament. Final official results showed Lee Myung-Bak's Grand National Party (GNP) won 153 of the 299 parliamentary seats in Wednesday's general election. Two smaller rightwing groups together took 32. The liberal United Democratic Party (UDP), previously the largest group in parliament, took just 81 in a stunning setback. The GNP hailed its victory as a mandate for a decisive shift toward the right, which began with Lee's crushing presidential election victory over his liberal challenger last December. Campaigning on an "Economy, First!" platform, Lee has touted wholesale deregulation, tax cuts and privatisation to revitalise Asia's fourth-largest economy after a decade of relatively modest growth under liberal presidents.

Myanmar warns embassies against aiding Suu Kyi's party

AFP, Yangon

Myanmar's military government Thursday warned foreign embassies not to support Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party as the nation gears up for a constitutional referendum next month. The warning carried in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper came the morning after the regime announced that the referendum would be held on May 10. Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party is urging voters to reject the constitution, which they say will not bring democracy to the country, which has been ruled by the military since 1962. "Certain foreign powers, with the intention of interfering in the internal affairs of Myanmar, are now t aiding and abetting some local political parties to destabilize the country," the paper said. "Some diplomats of certain foreign embassies in Yangon regularly visit NLD ( headquarters), hold talks and give directives to harm the interests of the nation and the people," the paper said.

Dalai Lama supports Olympics, says violence outdated

Reuters, Narita

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, said on Thursday that China's use of violence was an outdated way to suppress unrest in Tibet but expressed support for Beijing's hosting of the Olympics. "(For) the Chinese government, now time has come to accept reality and try to find (a) solution according to reality," he told a news conference near Tokyo en route to the United States. "Whenever some crisis happens, just using violent suppression is actually (an) outdated method." China blames the Dalai Lama and his associates for orchestrating monk-led protests in Tibet last month that later turned violent as part of a campaign for independence. The Dalai Lama denies involvement. He threw his support behind the Beijing Olympic Games despite the unrest in Tibet and pressure mounting on Western leaders to boycott the opening ceremony. The sDalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, spoke to reporters during a brief stopover in Japan on his way to the United States for a two-week visit he said was not political.