Ethiopia used aid to bribe voters - Human Rights Watch

Aid was denied to those known who belong to opposition parties, Human Rights Watch found

Ethiopia's government has been denying foreign aid to opposition supporters, a Human Rights Watch report says. It urged donors to make sure their aid money was distributed transparently. Ethiopia is one of the world's largest recipient of development aid - in 2008 international donations to the country totalled $3bn (£1.8bn). Its government has not yet commented on the report but has rejected similar accusations in the past as "ridiculous and outrageous". Human Rights Watch says its findings are based on a six-month investigation last year. "We visited 53 villages in 26 districts in three regions of Ethiopia and we talked to about 200 people," Human Rights Watch researcher Ben Rawlence told the BBC's Network Africa programme. "We found systematic discrimination from one end of the country to another against people who were members of the opposition party or people who disagreed with the regime." Villagers, who are often subsistence farmers, were rejected for micro-credit loans, seeds, fertiliser, food aid, housing if they were a member of an opposition party, he said. "University places are conditional on ruling party membership, promotion in the civil service - if you're a teacher or a nurse or a bureaucrat in a government ministry - all of these things are conditional on loyalty," Mr Rawlence said. "People are being asked to disassociate themselves from political parties - rescind comments they've made and write out letters of regret - in order to obtain food aid."

Efforts to confirm the stories of discrimination with regional officials, civil society, opposition leaders and journalists revealed that this was how things commonly operated, he said. The group says many donor officials privately acknowledge there is a deteriorating human rights situation and growing authoritarian rule. At the same time it is generally accepted that Ethiopia is making impressive progress as it tries to develop. BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says this leaves donors in a dilemma because they are reluctant to turn off the taps as they feel this would reverse the gains. In May, Ethiopia's governing party trounced the opposition in elections - only one opposition MP was elected in the 536-seat parliament. In contrast, the opposition won more than 170 seats and swept the board in the capital, Addis Ababa in the previous election, in 2005. However, they said they had been cheated of victory and organised street protests. Nearly 200 opposition supporters and several policemen were killed and a comprehensive crackdown on the opposition followed, with politicians and supporters jailed. Many analysts suggest the muzzling of the opposition was a major factor behind the governing party's sweep to victory in May. Our correspondent says the government has worked hard to deliver services to the population. But Human Rights Watch accuses the donors of focusing only on the development and ignoring the repression as they continue to pour money into the country. "Hopefully it [the report] will cause donors to sit up," Mr Rawlence said.

"Ethiopia is now one of the most repressive societies in the world."

 

Shiv Sena calls for ban on burqa

calling for a ban on burqa (veil) worn by Muslim women.

Shiv Sena, which is facing flak over forcing Mumbai University to drop Rohinton Mistry's acclaimed book, on Tuesday opened a new front, calling for a ban on burqa (veil) worn by Muslim women. "If the burqa is to be used to steal children, then we demand that it be banned as per law," an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana' said. The demand is in reference to a burqa-clad woman stealing a two-month-old child from a municipal hospital in Mumbai recently. Referring to France risking the wrath of the Islamic world by banning 'burqas' and other full-body robes worn by some Muslim women, the editorial said the French President had taken a 'revolutionary step' to ban the burqa. "When burqa was banned in Turkey by Kemal Pasha, Islam did not come in between. Why only is it so in India," it said. Indian-born Canadian writer Rohinton Mistry has voiced dismay over Mumbai University providing "deluxe service via express delivery" in quickly dropping his Booker Prize nominated book 'Such A Long Journey' from college syllabus following a demand by the Shiv Sena. "A political party demanded change in syllabus and Mumbai University provided deluxe service via express delivery making the book disappear the very next day," Mistry, who is based in Canada, has said.

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Missing American's wife pleads for husband's body

Tiffany Hartley: 'Want my husband back'

The wife of an American reportedly shot dead by gunmen in Mexico pleaded for help in finding her husband and said she hoped a search would resume Tuesday. "I plea to the people who did this. To anybody who knows who did this," Tiffany Hartley said on CNN's "AC 360" Monday night. "Just give me my husband back. I want to take him home and honor him. And I am sure somebody out there knows. Just help me bring my husband home." Earlier in the day, Hartley said she finished a series of interviews with federal and state authorities in Mexico. She said she told authorities a detailed account of what happened on September 30, from the time she and her husband David left their McAllen, Texas, home until she left a sheriff's office that night. The interviews conducted Friday and Monday took longer than eight hours, Hartley said. Hartley recounted the incident Monday, saying she and her husband headed to Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, to "enjoy a day on the lake." The two decided to ride their personal watercraft to the Mexican side of the lake to see a historical church there, she said. But she said the couple was confronted by three boats, and gunmen -- believed linked to a Mexican drug gang -- began firing shots at them when they tried to flee the area. She said she saw her husband shot, and attempted to pull him on board her watercraft.

David Hartley's body has not been found, despite extensive searches by both U.S. and Mexican authorities. Mexican authorities say they have suspended the search. That announcement came last week after the lead Mexican investigator in the case was beheaded. It was earlier reported that the officer's head was delivered to authorities in a suitcase but a U.S. State Department official said Monday the head was found on a road near the lake. "Mexican authorities told the U.S. Consulate that the suspension of the search was only temporary and would continue at a later date," said Brian Quigley, a spokesman for the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros, Mexico. "We are going to hold them to that." Hartley said Monday night that she hopes the search will continue. "I don't know when they are going to pick up the search. But I pray that they do pick up the search again," Hartley said. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said he wonders if the search will ever be resumed by Mexican authorities. "Solving this case and looking for David is looking pretty bleak at this point," Poe said. Poe said he wants the U.S. government to take a greater role in the search.

Attack on Chechen parliament in Grozny leaves six dead

Special forces moved quickly to quell the assault

At least six people were killed and 10 others injured as attackers stormed parliament in the restive Russian republic of Chechnya. At least two security personnel and a civilian worker died - along with at least three attackers, two of whom are thought to have blown themselves up. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said all the militants were dead. Correspondents say the incident in the capital Grozny is a reminder that the region is far from stable. Last year Moscow declared victory against Chechen separatists and there had been a relative lull in the violence under President Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed strongman. But the whole North Caucasus is seeing an insurgency led by Islamist rebels, correspondents say. Militants struck at about 0845 (0445 GMT), attacking policemen guarding the parliament building, Mr Kadyrov told Russian news agency Interfax. "As a result of co-ordinated actions, a special operation lasting 15-20 minutes was carried out to eliminate the militants and free the MPs and technical staff who were inside," he said. He added that all the deputies inside the parliament were alive and safe, after being evacuated from parliament.The attack began at the start of the working day, as deputies were arriving at parliament.

The attackers stormed the building, sparking several exchanges of fire with security guards. Two of the attackers appear to have detonated explosives just outside the building. Chechen police spokesman Ramzam Bekkhoyev told the Associated Press news agency that attackers had run inside the building, shouting "Allahu Akbar" - Arabic for "God is great" - before opening fire on people inside. A spokesman for the Chechen parliament, Zelim Yakhikhanov, said deputies had feared they would be taken hostage when they heard shooting outside the building. "We managed to take refuge on the third floor where we stayed until the end of the operation," he told AFP news agency. Reports say some hostages were briefly held but have now been freed. It is still unknown how such a small group of armed men penetrated the usually heavily fortified government building. The pro-rebel news website Kavkaz-Tsentr quoted its own unnamed sources in Grozny as saying they had heard a "powerful" explosion, followed by heavy gunfire for more than 30 minutes. The city has been sealed off and armoured vehicles were patrolling the streets, it added.There has been no confirmation of the identity of the attackers.

Gunmen kill 25 as people go to vote in Karachi

Gunmen have killed at least 25 people in Karachi

Gunmen have killed at least 25 people in Karachi in the past 24 hours, raising tensions in Pakistan's largest city as voters cast ballots Sunday to replace a provincial lawmaker murdered in August. Police said they were still investigating the motives behind the shootings, but many so-called "target killings" in Karachi have been linked to gangs controlled by the city's main political parties, which have been feuding for much of the last 20 years. "We cannot say whether all the killings were politically motivated or some gangs were involved because the killings took place in different parts of the city and were not confined to the area where the elections were being held," Karachi police Chief Fayyza Leghari said. The two parties most linked to violence in Karachi -- the Muttahida Quami Movement and the Awami National Party-- have their electoral bases in different ethnic groups that make up a large chunk of the city's population. The MQM claims to represent the Urdu-speaking descendants of those people who came to Karachi from India soon after the birth of Pakistan in 1947. It is secular and likes to speak out against the so-called Talibanization of the city, a jab at the Awami National Party, which represents the ethnic Pashtuns from the Taliban heartland in the northwest.

Raza Haider, the member of the provincial assembly who was gunned down in August, was a senior member of the MQM. In the wake of the shooting, the MQM accused the ANP of supporting Islamist militants suspected of being behind the murder -- an allegation denied by the ANP. Both parties were competing for Haider's vacant seat, but the ANP announced Saturday evening that it would boycott the election, saying the MQM would rig the vote. The shootings began around the time the ANP made its announcement. At least 25 people have been gunned down in Karachi since Saturday evening, said Zulfiqar Mirza, the home minister of Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital. He called on party leaders to come forward to "help us turn Karachi back into the city of light and peace." "If someone has a complaint, it should not be settled on the street," Mirza told a news conference. "It is disappointing that we are shedding our priceless blood with our own hands."

The dead include members of a broad range of ethnic groups in the city, he said. Haider Abbas Rizvi, a senior MQM leader and member of Parliament, accused the ANP of being behind the shootings, saying "19 of our workers and supporters have been killed so far." Senior ANP member Amin Khattak denied the accusation, saying, "we are not involved in killings, and I think that this blame game should be stopped." Leghari, the police chief, said at least three of the killings did not seem to be politically motivated and were carried out during "other criminal offenses." The killings were reminiscent of the violence that followed Haider's murder. At least 45 people died in the days following his killing.

Police have arrested at least 60 people in connection with the most recent shootings, Mirza said. But few killers in such cases have ever been brought to justice, and motives for the attacks have not been revealed. The rising tension between the MQM and the ANP represents a serious danger to stability in Karachi, a city of some 16 million people and Pakistan's commercial hub. Pashtuns have been arriving in the city in greater numbers in recent years, fleeing Pakistan army offensives against the Taliban. An estimated 4 million Pashtuns are now in Karachi and many live in sprawling slums on the outskirts that are "no-go" areas for authorities. Violence has surged in Karachi this year with hundreds of people slain in target killings. This increase has echoes of the city's bloody past. In the 1980s and 1990s, Karachi was regularly convulsed by violence in which hundreds were killed. MQM leader Altaf Husein fled to London in 1992 as a result of that bloodshed and was granted asylum. He regularly addresses large gatherings of supporters by telephone link.

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Congolese rape victims march against sexual violence

Congo march to end rape

Many of Congo's rape survivors took to the streets Sunday to speak out against sexual violence in a country where it has become a weapon of war. "My heart is in pain, why are you raping me?" sang the rape victims, many of whom left hospital beds to join the march in eastern Congo. "They have had enough, enough, enough, enough," said Nita Vielle, a Congolese women's activist, of the women marching. "Enough of the war, of the rape, of nobody paying attention to what's happening to them." The United Nations has named the Democratic Republic of Congo the "rape capital of the world," with 15,000 women raped in eastern Congo last year. The attacks occurred in parts of the country where armed rebel groups moved into areas considered to be pro-government but lacking in army or police protection, according to the U.N. Margot Wallstrom, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative on sexual violence in conflict, said recently that one distraught Congolese woman had told her that "a dead rat is worth more than the body of a woman." "It was an expression of how human rights violations against women are still the lowest on a fool's hierarchy of war time horrors," she said. Sunday's march was organized by the World March of Women in association with local women's groups. Organizers hoped the march would combat the stigma attached to rape victims and draw international attention to the problem of rape as a war tactic.

"It's just great to have so many women out on the streets," said Celia Alldridge, a representative from World March of Women. "We believe that women should not be made prisoners in their own homes." Among throngs of marchers, many clad in bright traditional garb and carrying homemade signs, one Congolese marcher echoed that sentiment. "I tell you, it's a wonderful thing to see all the women together, just for one reason -- for the peace of the women of Congo," said Mary Georges. "This is the freedom of the Congo women." Last month, a U.N. report slammed Congo's security forces for failing to prevent a wave of mass rapes over several days during the summer. The preliminary report confirms the rape of at least 303 civilians between July 30 and August 2 in the Walikale region of Congo's North Kivu province. The report points to serious shortcomings in the preparedness and response of the local detachments of the Congolese army and the police stationed in the area. It also notes that their failure to prevent or stop the attacks was compounded by subsequent failings on the part of U.N. stabilization mission forces in Congo.

"My heart is in pain, why are you raping me?"

The report said the force had not received any specific training in the protection of civilians, and suffered from a number of operational constraints, including a limited capacity to gather information, as well as the lack of a telecommunications system in the area. "The scale and viciousness of these mass rapes defy belief," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. "Even in the eastern part of DRC where rape has been a perennial and massive problem for the past 15 years, this incident stands out," Pillay said, "because of the extraordinarily cold-blooded and systematic way in which it appears to have been planned and executed."

France: Saudis warn of new al-Qaeda threat

French security forces have been on high alert for several weeks following earlier attack warnings

Saudi Arabia has warned France it is the target of an imminent al-Qaeda attack, French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux has said. He said Saudi intelligence agencies spoke of a threat to Europe, and "France in particular", from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. France is already on high alert following warnings of possible attacks aimed at France, Germany and the UK. The Eiffel Tower was evacuated twice in September over security alerts. "I can tell you - and it's not information that's been made public yet - that even a few hours, a few days ago, [we received] a new message, from the Saudi [intelligence] services, indicating to us that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was certainly active, or expecting to be active," Mr Hortefeux said in a joint radio and television interview. He said the threat concerned "the European continent and France in particular". Mr Hortefeux gave little detail about the information the Saudis had provided, but said the threat was real.

It appears to have been released by the government as a warning to the French public that they must remain vigilant, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris. The authorities have been criticised for scaremongering, our correspondent says. The official threat level in France remains one below the highest level of scarlet. The Saudi warning is the latest to put French security forces, and those of other European countries, on heightened alert. Word of a plot threatening France, the UK and Germany emerged last month. That plot was said to be linked to al-Qaeda and involved European militants training in Pakistan who were preparing to mount a Mumbai-style attack on the three countries. Ten gunmen attacked targets in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008, killing 166 people in a three-day rampage. Increased drone missile attacks in the tribal regions of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan were said by officials to be an attempt to disrupt the plot. Earlier in October, France warned its citizens travelling to Britain to be "extremely vigilant" amid fears of a possible attack. A few days previously, Britain had raised its alert level from general to high for travellers to Germany and France.

WikiLeaks to release 4 lakh secret Iraq documents

WikiLeaks to release 4 lakh secret Iraq documents

The Pentagon scoured through an Iraq war database on Monday to prepare for potential fallout from an expected release by WikiLeaks of some 4,00,000 secret military reports.  The massive release, possibly early this week, is set to dwarf the whistle-blower website's publication of 77,000 classified US military documents on the war in Afghanistan in July, including the names of Afghan informants and other details from raw intelligence reports. Another 15,000 are due out soon. In order to prepare for the anticipated release of sensitive intelligence on the US-led Iraq war, officials set up a 120-person task force several weeks ago to comb through the database and "determine what the possible impacts might be," said Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman. The Department of Defense is concerned the leak compiles "significant activities" from the war, which include incidents such as known attacks against coalition troops, Iraqi security forces, civilians or infrastructure in the country.
   
The data was culled from an Iraq-based database that contained "significant acts, unit-level reporting, tactical reports, things of that nature," said Lapan, noting that Pentagon officials still do not know how many and which documents would be released. He urged WikiLeaks to return the documents to the US military, which he said found no need to redact them in the interim. "Our position is redactions don't help, it's returning the documents to their rightful owner," Lapan said.

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NATO official: Bin Laden, deputy hiding in northwest Pakistan

NATO official: Bin Laden hiding in northwest Pakistan

"Nobody in al Qaeda is living in a cave," said the official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the intelligence matters involved. Rather, al Qaeda's top leadership is believed to be living in relative comfort, protected by locals and some members of the Pakistani intelligence services, the official said. Pakistan has repeatedly denied protecting members of the al Qaeda leadership. The official said the general region where bin Laden is likely to have moved around in recent years ranges from the mountainous Chitral area in the far northwest near the Chinese border, to the Kurram Valley which neighbors Afghanistan's Tora Bora, one of the Taliban strongholds during the U.S. invasion in 2001. Tora Bora is also the region from which bin Laden is believed to have escaped during a U.S. bombing raid in late 2001. U.S. officials have long said there have been no confirmed sightings of bin Laden or Zawahiri for several years. The area that the official described covers hundreds of square miles of some of the most rugged terrain in Pakistan inhabited by fiercely independent tribes. The official also confirmed the U.S. assessment that Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, has moved between the cities of Quetta and Karachi in Pakistan over the last several months.

The official would not discuss how the coalition has come to know any of this information, but he has access to some of the most sensitive information in the NATO alliance. Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Monday that similar reports of bin Laden and Mullah Omar's whereabouts have proven false in the past. Malik denied the two men are on Pakistani soil, but said that any information to the contrary should be shared with Pakistani officials so that they can take "immediate action" to arrest the pair. The NATO official, who has day-to-day senior responsibilities for the war, offered a potentially grimmer view than what has been publicly offered by others. "Every year the insurgency can generate more and more manpower," despite military attacks, he said. Although there has been security progress, he pointed to an internal assessment that there are 500,000 to 1 million "disaffected" men between the ages of 15 and 25 along the Afghan-Pakistan border region, he said. Most are Afghan Pashtuns and make up some of the 95 percent of the insurgency who carry out attacks just to earn money, rather than fight for a hard-core Taliban ideology. The official said it is now absolutely vital for the Afghan government to address the needs of this group with security, economic development and jobs in order for the war to end, and for Afghanistan to succeed.

 

"We are running out of time," he said. The entire scenario is made more complex by the fact that "there is a huge criminal enterprise in this country," dealing in human, drug and mineral trafficking, he said. Those crimes are also tied into the insurgency. He acknowledged the overall strategy now is to increase offensive airstrikes and ground attacks in order to increase the pressure on the Taliban and insurgents groups to come to the negotiating table with the current Afghan government. There is a growing sense that many insurgent leaders may be willing to accept conditions such as renouncing al Qaeda because they want to come back to Afghanistan. But, the official cautioned, hard core Taliban groups such as the Quetta Shura run by Mullah Omar, the Haqqanis, the HiG (Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin) and the Pakistani Taliban still could potentially muster as many as 30,000 fighters. The U.S. continues to face a more localized insurgency in the south. In places like Marja and the Helmand River Valley, the majority of the fighters are captured within a few miles of their homes. The insurgent leader Mullah Abdullah Zakir has increased his strength in the south, the official said. He essentially exerts some levels of control and influence both in the greater Kandahar region and across the south from Zabul to Farah province. The official continued to stress the urgency of getting the Afghan government to deal with the multitude of problems it faces. Right now, the U.S. war plan approved by President Barack Obama extends through 2014, the official said. That is the official document that spells out matters such as troop rotation schedules.The U.S. military could sustain a war "'indefinitely," the official said. But the goal is to achieve reconciliation and allow the Afghan government to function and provide security and services to the people.

Super Typhoon Megi hits northern Philippines

An intense "super typhoon" has made landfall in the northern Philippines, lashing the area with heavy rains and winds of more than 225km/h (140mph). Thousands of people in the path of storm Megi have fled their homes. Emergency services are on high alert and schools are closed in many areas. Megi is the strongest storm the Philippines has faced for four years. In 2006, a storm with winds of 155km/h triggered mudslides, burying villages and killing about 1,000 people. Tropical cyclones formed in the Pacific Ocean are called typhoons, but are classified on a scale of one to five in the same way as Atlantic Ocean hurricanes. Category Five typhoons, with sustained winds of at least 155 knots (140mph; 250km/h), are commonly referred to as super typhoons. Forecasters said Megi was a super typhoon as it made landfall, but was likely to weaken slightly as it made its way across the northern Philippines. The northern provinces of Cagayan and Isabela are on the highest storm alert, and were braced for heavy damage as Megi made landfall on Monday morning. Reuters news agency reported that Megi hit north-eastern Isabela at about 1125 (0325 GMT). Details from the areas directly in the path of the storm have been slow to emerge, but the Associated Press reported huge waves and strong rains as well as powerful winds winds that brought down power lines.

One man in Cagayan was reported missing after he fell into the fast-flowing Buntun river. The man was named as Vicente Decena, a candidate in next week's local elections. Officials have warned that the heavy rain and high winds could damage buildings, power supplies and agriculture. Emergency services have been stocking up on food and medicines, says the BBC's Kate McGeown in the capital, Manila. Government forecasters say waves off the east coast could be greater than 14m (46ft). Sea travel has been banned. The coast guard has been instructed to forbid all fishing vessels from setting out to sea in the north, says AFP news agency. Thousands of soldiers and officers are on standby to deliver aid and rescue people stranded by the floods. Trucks, rescue boats and food packs have been pre-positioned near vulnerable areas, said Benito Ramos, a senior disaster-response official. "This is like preparing for war," he told the Associated Press. "We know the past lessons and we're aiming for zero casualties." Schools in the north were closed on Monday. Farmers were urged to harvest as many of their crops as possible before the typhoon hit, our correspondent says. The area in the storm's path is one of the country's main rice-growing regions. In July, President Benigno Aquino sacked the head of the weather bureau after he failed to predict a typhoon which unexpectedly changed course and hit Manila, killing more than 100 people. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center of the US Navy says Megi is expected to weaken to typhoon intensity as it crosses the Cordillera mountain range. However, it will then re-emerge into the South China Sea and re-intensify as it heads for southern China.

CWG: Saina clinches gold after thrilling win

Saina clinches gold after thrilling win

Top seed Saina Nehwal became the first women Indian shuttler to win a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games after a grueling three-game victory over Malaysian Mew Choo Wong in the individual badminton event here on Thursday.
World number three Saina bounced back from a game down to battle past Wong 19-21 23-21 21-13 in a nerve-wrecking 70-minute title clash in the women's singles amid the continuous cheering from the vociferous crowd at the Siri Fort Sports Complex. Aparna Popat won a silver in women's singles at Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games in 1998, while Prakash Padukone was the first Indian to win a gold at the 1978 Edmonton edition, followed by Syed Modi, the last shuttler to win a gold in the quadrennial event in 1982 Brisbane Games. In the first game, Saina found it difficult to judge the shuttle and lost few points at the forecourt and nets to see the game slip out of her hands after she trailed 8-11 at the break.But the Indian came back strongly in the second. Saina started playing more cross shots and kept pushing the shuttle at the back in the long rallies to come back from a 0-2 deficit to lead 14-10. But Wong narrowed the gap and wrested the lead at 21-10 before the Indian closed the game with two more points to roar back into the contest. In the decider, Saina employed a similar strategy and kept her rival away from the nets and used her deceptive drops and tosses to lead 11-7. She consolidated on her lead as Wong's game crumbled. The Malaysian kept hitting the shuttle out of the court and hit the nets in the final point as Saina burst into tears and run into her mentor Pullela Gopichand's arms.

Flooding displaces nearly 700 people in Nigeria

Flooding displaces 700 in Nigeria

Nearly 700 people in a small town within Lagos, Nigeria, will be moved to a relief camp due to heavy flooding that has plagued the region since September, according to a state governor. Babatunde Raji Fashola made the announcement Monday while on a tour of flood-impacted areas. In all, 681 people from the town of Ajegunle will be relocated to camps specially built for relief efforts, he said. The flooding began last month when the Ogun River rose above its banks after the opening of a dam. No casualties have been reported. While speaking to affected residents, Fashola emphasized that the area is in a flood plain and that people must be ready to move. He said that the government alone can't solve the problem and they need help from everyone in the area to get through the flooding and limit the damage, asking residents to refrain from using flood-stricken roads. "We have to wait for this water to subside," Fashola said. "Nature will take its course, but what we can do as a people is work together to mitigate the advanced consequences." The commissioners for Special Duties, Health and Environment will work together with emergency management officials to relocate the displaced residents, Fashola said.

French strikes biggest so far, say unions and police

Police say about 85,000 people took to the streets of Paris to demonstrate

French unions have staged their biggest strikes and demonstrations so far in opposition to the government's pension reform plans. Unions put the national turnout on the third day of protests this month at 3.5m, while police said 1.2m people were involved. The cabinet wants to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, and from 65 to 67 for a full state pension. Some unions say they might extend or continue the strikes. On Tuesday evening, strikers in the RATP Paris transport network voted to renew their action.Workers in the SNCF national rail company and several other sectors are due to vote on Wednesday on whether to strike for a second day. If there are rolling strikes they would be organised by serving notice of 24-hour stoppages and renewed each day before they expired. One cement worker demonstrator in the central town of Angouleme told Agence France-Presse: "I'm prepared to extend the strike. I started working at 17 and now I'm 50, and I'm starting to get really fed up with it." Transport was badly affected on Tuesday. Half of all flights to and from Paris Orly airport, and one in three at Charles de Gaulle and Beauvais were cancelled for Tuesday. Just one in three TGV high-speed trains was running. Although Eurostar says its service between Paris and London has been operating normally.

"This is one of the last chances to make the government back down," said Francois Chereque, the leader of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT). "The large majority of employees cannot afford to pay for repeated days of strikes." In Paris, hundreds of tourists were ushered away from the Eiffel Tower after staff joined the strike in early afternoon. Students and school pupils also joined the movement for the first time, with some barricading the entrances to their schools with plastic bins. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon described the strikes as "irresponsible" and said: "We are determined to carry through this reform." The French oil industry has been hard hit. Workers at the Fos-Lavera oil port in southern France are striking for a 15th day, forcing up diesel prices in Europe. Diesel supplies have run out on Corsica, and one union is warning of petrol shortages if the strike continues. Some 56 petrol tankers and 29 cargo ships are stranded outside Fos-Lavera port. Eleven of France's 12 mainland refineries have been affected.

Economic Co-operation and Development

Workers at two of Total's refineries are striking for 24 hours, another two for 48 hours - both are cutting output to minimum levels and halting fuel supply. The French upper house, the Senate, is currently voting on the pension reform plans, article by article. The most contentious parts - raising the standard minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, and the age for a full state pension to 67 from 65 - have already been approved. The rest of the bill is expected to be passed by parliament in the coming weeks. "We're not here to do what's easy, we don't always have the people's approval," Labour Minister Eric Woerth said. "It's difficult to tell the French that the they have to work more, up to 67 years, but it has to be done." Last week, President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would inject more money into his retirement reform bill so some mothers could receive a full pension even if they had taken years out of work. The changes will be financed by new taxes that will bring in 3.4bn euros (£3bn). French workers can expect to spend more of their life in retirement than those in any other country, according to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Ukraine: 43 killed in bus, train collision

The crowded passenger bus collided with a train in eastern Ukraine Tuesday, killing 40 people and leaving 11 in critical condition, police said.

A train locomotive rammed through a stalled passenger bus on a railroad crossing in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, killing 43 people and injuring eight others as the bus was pushed 300 meters (yards) down the tracks. Investigators said the bus driver ignored the siren of the oncoming train, and the bus stalled on the tracks as the driver tried to shift gears. Witnesses said the driver also ignored a red light. The yellow bus was smashed into a pile of metal by the blue locomotive, which was not pulling any cars. Television footage showed emergency workers piling bodies alongside the tracks outside the town of Marhanets in the Dnipropetrovsk region. "The driver violated traffic rules," said Lyudmila Bolshakova, spokeswoman for local police. Ukraine's Railways said the train driver saw the bus heading toward the tracks from 500 meters (yards) away and sounded the distress siren, which the driver ignored. The train driver applied the emergency brake system, but the locomotive was traveling at a speed of 75 kilometers (47 miles) per hour and was unable to stop in time. Ukraine's ombudsman Nina Karpachova cited crash survivor Dmytro Olyinik, 30, who was headed to work in a nearby mine, as saying that the passengers tried to stop the driver from crossing the tracks when they saw the red light and heard the siren. They started screaming "Where are you going?" Olyinik was reported as saying.

Local railway officials said the bus was packed with commuters traveling from Marhanets to the nearby city of Nikopol, most of them heading for work. Relatives of those killed raced to the accident site and embraced one another as they wept with grief. Road and railway accidents are common in Ukraine, where the roads are in poor condition, vehicles are poorly maintained and drivers and passengers routinely disregard safety and traffic rules. But officials said this was the deadliest auto accident in the country's history. The Dnipropetrovsk branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry said 38 people died on the spot and five more in the hospital. The victims included a child and two teenagers. President Viktor Yanukovych declared a national day of mourning Wednesday. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov ordered his government to pay the family of each of the dead passengers 100,000 hryvna ($12,600). He also instructed transport officials to install automated crossing gates at all railway crossings to prevent cars, buses and trucks from ignoring signals.

Florida won't appeal ruling stopping adoption ban by gay men, lesbians

Licensed foster parent and Florida resident Frank Martin Gill sued for the right to adopt two foster children under his care.

Florida won't be appealing a court ruling that found the state's ban on adoptions by gay men and lesbians unconstitutional. The Florida Department of Children and Families announced Tuesday evening that the state agency would not appeal the September decision by the 3rd District Court of Appeals. "We had weighed an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court to achieve an ultimate certainty and finality for all parties," said Joe Follick, the department's communications director. "But the depth, clarity and unanimity of the DCA opinion -- and that of Miami-Dade Judge Cindy Lederman's original circuit court decision -- has made it evident that an appeal would have a less than limited chance of a different outcome." The appeals court opinion lifted a three-decade ban making adoption possible for gay men and lesbians in Florida statewide. Florida was the only remaining state to prohibit gay adoption. The state agency said they have removed from adoption forms the question about an applicant's sexual orientation. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the department to stop enforcing the law after Lederman's ruling. Licensed foster parent Frank Martin Gill, who wanted to adopt two boys who had been placed in his care after the Department of Children and Families removed them from their home for neglect, sued to have the ban overturned.