Iraq today suffered one of its worst days of violence this year as insurgents struck government buildings in Baghdad, killing at least 112 people and injuring up to 197.The explosions happened within minutes of each other, with police saying there could have been as many as four or five. Insurgents, who included suicide bombers, detonated powerful explosives near the labour ministry building, a court complex near the Iraqi-protected Green Zone and the new site of the finance ministry after its previous building was destroyed in attacks in August.An interior ministry official said at least 99 people were killed and 192 injured in those three assaults.
Iraq today suffered one of its worst days of violence this year as insurgents struck government buildings in Baghdad, killing at least 112 people and injuring up to 197.
The explosions happened within minutes of each other, with police saying there could have been as many as four or five. Insurgents, who included suicide bombers, detonated powerful explosives near the labour ministry building, a court complex near the Iraqi-protected Green Zone and the new site of the finance ministry after its previous building was destroyed in attacks in August.
An interior ministry official said at least 99 people were killed and 192 injured in those three assaults.
Lawyers acting for a prisoner on death row in Ohio were scrambling to delay his scheduled execution tomorrow morning using a new method of lethal injection that is widely used to put down pets. The procedure has never been tried out on humans and is tantamount, critics say, to human experimentation.Barring last-minute appeals and stays of execution, Kenneth Biros, 51, will be put to death using a massive overdose of an anaesthetic. It would be the first time that a single-drug lethal injection had been administered, in contrast to the triple-drug cocktail that has become the norm in the 37 American states that have death row prisoners.
Lawyers acting for a prisoner on death row in Ohio were scrambling to delay his scheduled execution tomorrow morning using a new method of lethal injection that is widely used to put down pets. The procedure has never been tried out on humans and is tantamount, critics say, to human experimentation.
Barring last-minute appeals and stays of execution, Kenneth Biros, 51, will be put to death using a massive overdose of an anaesthetic. It would be the first time that a single-drug lethal injection had been administered, in contrast to the triple-drug cocktail that has become the norm in the 37 American states that have death row prisoners.
COLUMBUS: Condemned killer Kenneth Biros could become the first person in America put to death with a single dose of an intravenous anesthetic instead of the usual -- and faster-acting -- three-drug process if his execution proceeds Tuesday. The execution could propel other states to eventually consider the switch, which proponents say ends arguments over unnecessary suffering during injection. California and Tennessee previously considered, then rejected the one-drug approach. Though the untested method has never been used on an inmate in the United States, one difference is clear: Biros will likely die more slowly than inmates put to death with the three-drug method, which includes a drug that stops the heart.
The execution could propel other states to eventually consider the switch, which proponents say ends arguments over unnecessary suffering during injection. California and Tennessee previously considered, then rejected the one-drug approach.
Though the untested method has never been used on an inmate in the United States, one difference is clear: Biros will likely die more slowly than inmates put to death with the three-drug method, which includes a drug that stops the heart.
Kenneth Biros #249 514 Race: W County: Trumbull Executed by the State of Ohio December 8, 2009
Race: W County: Trumbull Executed by the State of Ohio December 8, 2009
A stampede at a school in central China last night killed eight pupils and injured 26 others, state media reported today.Seven boys and a girl, aged between 11 and 14, died in the crush as hundreds of students finished their evening homework class and rushed through a stairwell only 4ft wide, local media reported.Eight more children are still in hospital following the incident, which took place at the private Yucai middle school in Xiangxiang city, Hunan province, at about 9.30pm last night.The state news agency Xinhua reported that one pupil had tripped, bringing down others. But other Chinese media quoted injured students as saying that boys at the school had caused the deaths by blocking the ground floor exit. Students upstairs did not realise and continued to push their way downstairs.
A stampede at a school in central China last night killed eight pupils and injured 26 others, state media reported today.
Seven boys and a girl, aged between 11 and 14, died in the crush as hundreds of students finished their evening homework class and rushed through a stairwell only 4ft wide, local media reported.
Eight more children are still in hospital following the incident, which took place at the private Yucai middle school in Xiangxiang city, Hunan province, at about 9.30pm last night.
The state news agency Xinhua reported that one pupil had tripped, bringing down others. But other Chinese media quoted injured students as saying that boys at the school had caused the deaths by blocking the ground floor exit. Students upstairs did not realise and continued to push their way downstairs.
The soldier who became the 100th UK fatality in Afghanistan this year has been named by the Ministry of Defence.L/Cpl Adam Drane, 23, from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, of 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment was shot in Helmand province on Monday.
The soldier who became the 100th UK fatality in Afghanistan this year has been named by the Ministry of Defence.
L/Cpl Adam Drane, 23, from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, of 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment was shot in Helmand province on Monday.
The US government has settled a long-running case over royalties owed to American Indians.Under the deal the interior department will share $1.4bn (£859m) among 300,000 tribe members as compensation. The tribes claim they have been cheated out of billions of dollars worth of natural resources since 1887. The agreement ends a case which has been running for 13 years. The secretary of the interior department said it would aid reconciliation.
The US government has settled a long-running case over royalties owed to American Indians.
Under the deal the interior department will share $1.4bn (£859m) among 300,000 tribe members as compensation.
The tribes claim they have been cheated out of billions of dollars worth of natural resources since 1887.
The agreement ends a case which has been running for 13 years. The secretary of the interior department said it would aid reconciliation.
Ex-spy chief Sir John Scarlett has told the Iraq war inquiry there was "no conscious intention" to manipulate information about Iraq's weapons.He denied being under pressure to "firm up" the September 2002 dossier which contained the claim Iraq could use WMD within 45 minutes of Saddam's order. But he said it would have been "better" to have made clear it referred to battlefield munitions not missiles. He was not asked about an MP's claim a taxi driver was the claim's source.
Ex-spy chief Sir John Scarlett has told the Iraq war inquiry there was "no conscious intention" to manipulate information about Iraq's weapons.
He denied being under pressure to "firm up" the September 2002 dossier which contained the claim Iraq could use WMD within 45 minutes of Saddam's order.
But he said it would have been "better" to have made clear it referred to battlefield munitions not missiles.
He was not asked about an MP's claim a taxi driver was the claim's source.
A spokesman claiming to represent al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings last month of four Europeans in Mali and Mauritania. The claim was made in an audiotape obtained by Al Jazeera on Tuesday. "Two units of the valiant mujahedeen managed to kidnap four Europeans in two distinct operations: the first in Mali where Frenchman Pierre Camatte was seized on November 25, and the second in Mauritania where three Spaniards were held on November 29," the spokesman, who identified himself as Saleh Abu Mohammad, said on the tape.
A spokesman claiming to represent al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings last month of four Europeans in Mali and Mauritania.
The claim was made in an audiotape obtained by Al Jazeera on Tuesday.
"Two units of the valiant mujahedeen managed to kidnap four Europeans in two distinct operations: the first in Mali where Frenchman Pierre Camatte was seized on November 25, and the second in Mauritania where three Spaniards were held on November 29," the spokesman, who identified himself as Saleh Abu Mohammad, said on the tape.
