The New Nation - Internet Edition

World leaders condemn Mumbai attacks

Reuters, Mumbai

World leaders condemned overnight attacks by gunmen in India's commercial hub Mumbai in which at least 101 people were killed and 287 wounded.

"President Bush offers his condolences to the Indian people and the families of the innocent civilians killed and injured in the attacks in Mumbai," the White House said in a statement

"President-elect Obama strongly condemns today's terrorist attacks in Mumbai," said a statement by Brooke Anderson, Obama's spokeswoman on national security.

"These coordinated attacks on innocent civilians demonstrate the grave and urgent threat of terrorism."

"The United States must continue to strengthen our partnerships with India and nations around the world to root out and destroy terrorist networks." "We stand with the people of India."

"This kind of terrorism is unforgivable, extremely despicable and vicious. I feel strong resentment and deeply condemn it. Japan is with the Indian people who are fighting against terrorism and we will cooperate with the Indian government."

"Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani while strongly condemning the incidents of violence in Mumbai has expressed deep sorrow over the loss of precious lives," the Pakistani government said in a statement.

"These outrageous attacks in Mumbai will be met with a vigorous response. I have sent a message to Prime Minister Singh that the UK stands solidly with his government as they respond, and to offer all necessary help. Urgent action is underway to offer every possible protection to British citizens in the region," Brown said in a statement by his office. "Whichever group has perpetrated this attack, they are cowards, absolute cowards, and murderers," Rudd said.

"This cowardly attack on India's stability, peace and democracy reminds us all that international terrorism is far from defeated, and that we must all maintain our vigilance.

"We stand ready to assist India in any way it needs right now."

"We are concerned about the loss of life and consider that acts of terrorism of this type are harmful to the whole international order and are a challenge to humanity," Medvedev said through a translator during a visit to Venezuela.

"Today's attacks in Mumbai which have claimed many innocent victims remind us, yet again, of the threat we face from violent extremists. I condemn these attacks unreservedly. Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those killed and injured. The UK and India will continue their joint efforts to counter the actions of terrorists," said a statement released on the Foreign Office website.

"This is a cowardly act, it's indiscriminate, it's a terrorist act, it's insulting democracy, and it takes as victims and casualties innocent people," Crean told reporters.

Bangkok cut off from world as second airport seized

AFP, Bangkok

Thai anti-government protesters shut down Bangkok's second airport on Thursday, further crippling the kingdom as tourists scrambled to leave and fears grew the crisis was deepening.

Supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) have blockaded the old Don Mueang airport in an attempt to prevent ministers from flying to Chiang Mai in the north to meet Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.

But cabinet members slipped out of the city in small aircraft to attend the emergency meeting to discuss how to deal with a six-month campaign to topple the administration which has paralysed the functions of government.

News of the minsters' meeting comes as an aircraft taking Thai ministers to the northern city of Chiang Mai for an urgent cabinet summit was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok after developing a technical problem, the air force said.

Somchai on Wednesday refused to heed pressure from powerful army chief General Anupong Paojinda to dissolve parliament and call elections, saying: "my government will preserve democracy."

Anupong also ordered protesters to leave Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport , which they besieged late Tuesday forcing the airport to suspend flights and leaving 3,000 tourists temporarily trapped inside.

In open defiance of his calls, protesters instead blockaded Don Mueang, which serves a handful of domestic routes.

The PAD launched their campaign to topple the democratically-elected government six months ago, accusing it of being a puppet of ousted and exiled premier Thaksin Shinawatra-Somchai's brother-in-law.

The group has the backing of elements in the palace, military and Bangkok's old elite that want to purge society of the influence of Thaksin, who is adored by the rural poor but remains in exile to avoid a jail term for corruption.

As both sides refuse to back down, concerns deepened for the kingdom's economy, vital tourism industry and diplomatic ties.

"Several countries are seriously concerned with the incidents happening in our country now-there is no rule of law," foreign minister Sompong Amornviwat told AFP by telephone from Germany.

Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, meanwhile, questioned whether Thailand was still a suitable place to hold the regional ASEAN summit in December.

The PAD has vowed to stay at three protest sites-Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang and Somchai's Government House offices in central Bangkok which they seized in August-until the premier quits.

"Please be reassured that we will claim victory today (Thursday) as long as we maintain our rallies and are able to completely shut down Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports," PAD leader Chamlong Srimuang said.

4 killed in blast near US Embassy in Kabul

AP, Kabul

A suicide car bomber targeting an American convoy exploded about 200 yards (meters) outside the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least four Afghan bystanders as people entered the compound for a Thanksgiving Day race.

Four Afghans at least 18 more people were wounded in the 8:30 a.m. attack, said Abdullah Fahim, a health ministry spokesman.

Police officer Abdul Manan said the explosion was set off by a suicide bomber in a Toyota Corolla.

No U.S. Embassy personnel were killed or injured in the blast, an Embassy statement said.

The blast happened on the last day of a visit by a United Nation's Security Council delegation. The U.N. had warned its staff in Afghanistan of possible terrorist attacks coinciding with the visit.

The U.S. Embassy was hosting a Thanksgiving Day fun run beginning at 9 a.m., so Americans and other Westerners were entering the embassy compound when the bomb went off, sending some participants sprinting for the embassy gates.

"I was about 30 or 40 yards inside the gate. There was a large explosion. I felt the shock wave, though it wasn't all that strong," said Danny Cutherell, a 26-year-old aid worker from Virginia. "We were about 200 yards from the blast when it went off, but we were behind the embassy wall and that protected us."

2 US servicemen killed in Iraq

AP, Baghdad

Two American servicemen were killed Tuesday when a gunman in an Iraqi army uniform opened fire while they were distributing humanitarian aid in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

It was the third such shooting in the Mosul area in less than a year purportedly involving Iraqi soldiers, raising concerns about infiltration of the Iraqi security forces in one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq.

The shooting, southwest of Mosul near the Syrian border, came on the eve of a parliament vote on a pact that would allow American troops to remain in Iraq three more years. Iraq's government says its police and army are not ready to maintain security on their own.

The attack killed a Marine and an Army soldier on a transition team working with the Iraqis, a military statement said. Two Marines and three Iraqi civilians also were wounded, it said.

"The attack appears to have been unprovoked," Col. Bill Buckner, a U.S. military spokesman, was quoted as saying.

Cholera epidemic overshadows Zimbabwe talks

AFP, Harare

Zimbabwe's opposition leader called for a new mediator Wednesday after saying fresh power-sharing talks had made no progress, warning a humanitarian crisis posed an unprecedented threat to the country. Morgan Tsvangirai said relations with former South African leader Thabo Mbeki, the region's long-time mediator, had irretrievably broken down due to his bias towards veteran Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe's government meanwhile insisted that it had a mass outbreak of cholera under control, a claim refuted by South Africa which said a humanitarian crisis was now plaguing its northern neighbour. "The humanitarian crisis that is now engulfing all Zimbabweans represents the greatest threat ever to face our country," Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said in a statement.

"While millions face starvation in the coming months, the death toll from cholera is now sitting at over 50 people per day and will increase dramatically now that the rainy season has begun in earnest," he said.

The United Nations has warned that Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak could snowball across southern Africa, with nearly 9,000 cases and 366 deaths reported so far.

The epidemic hit as Zimbabwe's chronic food shortages are worsening, with nearly half the population expected to need food aid in January.

The former union leader accused Mugabe of trying to cover up the problem, and said Mbeki was siding with the ruling ZANU-PF party in the unity talks, which resumed Tuesday in South Africa.

Tsvangirai said he had written to South African President Kgalema Motlanthe "detailing the irretrievable state of our relationship with Mr Mbeki and asking that he recuse himself."

Brain scans show root of memory glitch with aging

AP, New York

Brain scans of older people in a noisy lab machine give biological backing to the idea that distraction hampers memory with aging, researchers reported Wednesday.

The finding bolsters a theory about one reason why memory weakens with age: older people have more trouble remembering some things because they're more easily distracted when they try to learn them.

The memory exercise reported in the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience dealt with recognizing faces, but the findings apply to the more general task of trying to remember something a person sees or hears, said lead author Dale Stevens.

Stevens, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, did the work while at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, which is affiliated with the University of Toronto.

Older people who have to learn something should do all they can to focus on that task and eliminate potential distractions, he advised.

The study compared 10 healthy people in their 60s and 70s to a dozen younger volunteers, ages 22 to 36. Their brains were scanned while they looked at photographs of people they did not know. As each photograph was displayed for one second, the volunteers were asked if they'd seen it before in the study.

In all they saw 180 different faces, of which 120 showed up a second time. The older participants failed to recognize a face they'd already seen 43 percent of the time, compared to 26 percent for the younger volunteers.

Researchers went back to see what was going on in the brains of the volunteers when they first saw a face that they later failed to recognize. Why didn't those faces get planted in memory?

In both groups, a brain area called the hippocampus, which is involved in memory, was less active when a face failed to stick in the memory than when it did. That was no surprise. More interestingly, the older group also showed heightened activity in certain other brain areas while the younger volunteers did not.

Those areas included the auditory cortex, which plays a role in analyzing sound, and several areas involved in directing attention, Stevens said.

So what was going on? The brain-scanning machine was noisy, with lots of knocking, buzzing and banging like a jackhammer, Stevens said. Even with the earplugs the volunteers wore, "it's a little distracting," he said.