AP

SEOUL, JUL 28 -

Walls of mud barreling down a hill buried 10 college students sleeping outside Seoul, and flash floods submerged streets and subway stations in the South Korean capital, killing at least 38 people.

The students were engulfed by a landslide Wednesday in Chuncheon, about 68 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of Seoul, said fire marshal Byun In-soo. A married couple and a convenience store owner also died.

The roar of the landslide sounded like a massive explosion or a freight train, witnesses interviewed on television said. They described people screaming as buildings were carried away by rivers of mud.

About 670 firefighters, soldiers, police and others rushed to rescue those trapped and extract the dead from the mud and wreckage in Chuncheon, where 24 others were injured and several buildings destroyed.

The 10 South Korean students attended Inha University in Incheon, just west of Seoul, and they were volunteering at a local elementary school, Byun said.

In southern Seoul, at least 15 people died when mud crashed through homes at the foot of a mountain. The National Emergency Management Agency reported 10 more deaths due to a stream flooding and landslides in towns near Seoul.

Emergency official Kim Wu-min said Thursday that a total of 38 people have been found dead and four others are reported missing in the wake of the heavy rains.

Fast-moving mudwaters filled the streets in Seoul on Wednesday, sending residents scrambling to the roofs of their partially submerged cars.

Water filled some subway stations and spewed from sewers. TV images showed people in one flooded subway station using shovels, brooms and a wooden board in an effort to keep more rain from coming in. Yonhap news agency reported Internet and wireless connections failed in southern Seoul due to power failures.

Footage showed officials rescuing hikers stranded on mountainsides. People plodded down streets covered with knee-deep water, many barefoot, their pants rolled up. In Seoul's center, cars were restricted from entering the lower part of a submerged two-level bridge.

The heavy rain since Tuesday left about 620 people homeless and flooded 720 houses and about 100 vehicles throughout South Korea, the emergency management agency said.

About 17 inches (440 millimeters) of rain fell on Seoul and more than 13 inches (340 millimeters) on Chuncheon in the last two days, about 15 times more than the average two-day rainfall at this time of year, according to the state-run Korea Meteorological Administration.

Weather officials said another 10 inches (254 millimeters) could fall in northern South Korea, including Seoul, through Friday.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency issued a traffic emergency, mobilizing more officers to deal with the inclement weather.

Seoul, a bustling capital of 10 million, shut down portions of two major highways stretching along each side of the main Han River because of high water, said disaster official Kim Ji-hwan.

A dam located just east of Seoul was discharging 16,400 tons of water per second, said Cha Jun-ho from the Han River Flood Control Office. The dam already discharged about 1,000 tons per second days before the recent downpours.

People in Seoul, where smartphones are ubiquitous, posted dozens of photos on Twitter and Facebook showing inundated streets and mud-covered cars. Many complained online that Seoul had neglected to prepare for the downpours.

AP

BEIRUT, JUL 27 -

A roadside bomb blew up next to a United Nations convoy carrying French peacekeepers in south Lebanon on Tuesday, wounding at least five of them in the second attack on the U.N. force in two months, the United Nations said.

The bomb went off at the southern entrance of the port city of Sidon as a U.N. convoy with several vehicles was passing by.

The U.N. Security Council called the bombing a "terrorist attack" and condemned it "in the strongest terms." It also condemned all attempts to threaten the security and stability of Lebanon.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also strongly condemned the attack and "is deeply disturbed" at the second major incident targeting the peacekeeping force in two months, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. But political tensions are rising in Lebanon over a U.N.-backed tribunal's indictment last month of four Hezbollah members in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah is the most powerful political and military force in Lebanon today and it has refused to hand over the suspects. The tribunal is expected to publish details of the indictments after a 30-day deadline that expires at the end of the month.

There are also concerns that unrest in neighboring Syria, which has seen more than four months of protests against the autocratic government there, could spill over into Lebanon.

U.N. peacekeepers have been deployed in southern Lebanon since 1978 to monitor the border with Israel. The force was boosted to almost 12,000 troops after Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006. Under the U.N. resolution that ended the fighting, the force is monitoring a zone south of the Litani River where Hezbollah is banned from keeping weapons.

The Security Council reaffirmed its determination to ensure that no acts of intimidation prevent the U.N. force from carrying out its mandate to monitor the Israeli-Lebanon border.

In a similar attack about two months ago, a roadside bomb ripped through a U.N. convoy carrying Italian peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, wounding six. The May 28 attack was the first since 2008.

UNIFIL spokesman Neeraj Singh said five peacekeepers were injured in the latest bombing and three went to a hospital. He did not say what nationality they were, but Lebanese security officials said they were French.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and the Security Council said six French peacekeepers had been wounded.

The discrepancy in casualty numbers could not be immediately reconciled.

In a statement, Juppe said he condemned the attack and demanded that Lebanese authorities conduct an investigation and do everything possible to bring those responsible to justice.

The Lebanese officials said at least one of the wounded suffered injuries to the face and chest. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

A police official said this bombing appeared to be smaller than the May blast. Both happened in the same area. He said preliminary investigations showed the bomb contained around two kilograms (4.5 pounds) of explosive material.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced the bombing and ordered an immediate investigation, his office said.

The Security Council welcomed the Lebanese government's commitment to launch an investigation to bring to justice the perpetrators of the attack.

Singh said U.N. forensic experts were at the scene, adding UNIFIL was working in coordination with the Lebanese armed forces to investigate.

The deadliest attack on UNIFIL was in June 2007, when a bomb hit an armored personnel carrier near the Israeli border and killed six Spanish peacekeepers.

No group has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

AP ,
MANILA, PHILIPPINES, JUL 26 - A slow-moving storm unleashed massive floods and landslides Tuesday in the northeastern Philippines, killing at least eight people with 18 missing and several towns isolated.

Gov. Joey Salceda said three children died in a landslide in a mountainside village in his Albay province's Polangui town, while two men were pinned to death by a fallen coconut tree in Pio Duran town. Two other people died in storm-related accidents in the hard-hit province.

A man was electrocuted by a cable from a damaged power post in eastern Catanduanes province, officials said.

Waist-deep floodwaters swamped the houses of about half a million people, or nearly half of Albay's population, after Tropical Storm Nock-ten set off pounding rains overnight and forced many to flee to safer areas, including churches and village halls, Salceda said.

He said that four men were reported missing after the storm flooded and isolated many of Albay's 15 farming towns and three cities.

Fourteen other mostly fishermen also were reported missing in the nearby provinces of Catanduanes and Quezon, said Benito Ramos, administrator of the Office of Civil Defense.

"Many of our towns seemed like islands. They were isolated from each other," Salceda told The Associated Press by telephone from the provincial capital of Legazpi, where he was overseeing rescue efforts for stranded villagers.

Salceda said the storm caused power outages and canceled classes.

Forecasters said Nock-ten was packing sustained winds of 47 miles (75 kilometers) per hour and gusts of 56 mph (90 kph) off eastern Camarines Norte province. It dumped heavy rains as it moved slowly toward Luzon's eastern coast.

Regional disaster-response official Raffy Alejandro said the storm inundated seven towns of Camarines Sur in the province's worst flooding in five years.

Army troops and coast guard personnel planned to bring seven rubber boats to rescue some villagers trapped on roofs but a key highway was blocked by floodwaters and mudflows from Albay's Mayon volcano, Alejandro said.

Alejandro said his typhoon-prone region did not have even one helicopter for rescue operations. The air force pulled out their aircraft from the area for unspecified reasons a few months ago despite his appeal for at least two standby choppers during the typhoon season that started in June, Alejandro said.

Nock-ten, a Laotian word for bird, is the 10th of about 21 typhoons and storms expected to lash the Philippines this year.

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

(Updated)
OSLO, July 26: The lawyer for the gunman behind last week´s attacks in Norway laid out his feelings about the case and his client Tuesday, painting a picture of a cold and paranoid "warrior" who appears to be insane.

"This whole case indicates that he´s insane," Geir Lippestad told journalists about Anders Behring Breivik, who has claimed responsibility for Friday´s bomb attack on the Oslo government and subsequent shooting spree on a nearby island.



"He believes that he´s in a war and he believes that when you´re in a war you can do things like that without pleading guilty," the lawyer said of the 32-year-old Norwegian who wants to bring about an anti-Muslim revolution.

"He´s in his bubble," Lippestad added.

If his client is adjudged medically insane after blowing up eight people in Oslo and shooting dead 68 mainly youth members of the Labour Party on Utoeya island, Lippestad said: "He can´t be punished in a jail."

Paving the way for a defence that could see his client escape prison, after medical experts acceptable to the prosecution are found, Lippestad said Behring Breivik "has a view on reality that is very, very difficult to explain."

He said his client used unspecified drugs to make himself "strong, efficient, to keep him awake" going into Friday´s rampage.

"He thought he´d be killed after the bombing, after the action on the island, and he also thought he´d be killed at trial," Lippestad said.



In fact, "he was a little bit surprised that he succeeded, that in his mind he succeeded," Lippestad added.

Asked whether Behring Breivik had shown any empathy for his mainly young victims, Lippestad said: "No."

Behring Breivik wrote and published a 1,500-page manifesto immediately before starting his bombing and shooting spree.

"He believes this war will continue for 60 years and in 60 years this war will be won," Lippestad said of the events he believes he has triggered, preparations for which are painstakingly chronicled in the tract.

Behring Breivik said he was part of an organisation that has two cells in Norway and several others abroad. "Where I don´t know," Lippestad said.

"He looks on himself as a warrior and he has started this war," Lippestad said, adding that one of the reasons Behring Breivik´s first court appearance on Monday was behind closed doors was for fear he would send coded signals to other cells.

His client was disappointed that the hearing was not open to the public, Lippestad said.

"In his mind he´s at war and therefore he said this was necessary," and that´s why while admitting responsibility he does not plead guilty.

"He says that he´s sorry he had to do this but it was necessary to start the revolution... He hates anyone who believes in democracy."

"My point of view is that he´s a very cold person."

Farik Zolkepli
The Star

Her once beautiful face is now badly scarred by acid splashed by her father but that does not stop Nurul Dahyatul Fazlinda Mat Haizan from missing him.

The nine-year-old Malaysian girl, better known as Lin, said she had never blamed her father Mat Haizan Mat Yassin, 29, for the incident.

“It was just a horrible accident,” she said of the day in August last year when her father splashed acid on her, her brother Muhammad Irfan Firdaus, three, mother Ku Huzaimah Che Ku Awang, 29 and grandmother Minah Omar, 56.

Lin suffered severe burns on her face and chest, while her mother had injuries on the hand and body. Both Muhammad Irfan and Minah suffered minor burns.

Mat Haizan is serving a 10-year sentence in Marang Prison for hurting his family after a quarrel with his wife.

“I have already forgiven my father. He loves us and would never intentionally hurt us,” she said, adding that her only communication with him now was through the letters he sent from prison.

“I just want him to know that my love for him outweighs everything. It would be wonderful to see him after all this time,” she said.

Ku Huzaimah said her former husband deeply regretted his actions.

“He is always asking me to do my best to cure Lin, including sending her for corrective surgery so that she will regain her beautiful face,” she said, adding that she has sent pictures of the children to Mat Haizan.

“We were happy for 11 years but that one incident scarred our family. However, I want to put it behind me and focus on improving Lin's appearance,” she said.

Lin had gone for a reconstructive surgery early this year but the scar did not heal properly as she refused to wear a pressure mask which she said was uncomfortable. She is due for another follow-up surgery soon.

PARIS, JUL 21 -

Muammar Gaddafi could stay in Libya if he gives up power, France said Wednesday, signaling a new effort to find a diplomatic solution to a five-month-old war that has failed to oust the resilient leader.

The United States said Gaddafi must quit, but whether he remained in Libya after that would be up to the Libyan people.

"He needs to remove himself from power ... and then it's up to the Libyan people to decide," White House spokesman Jay Carney said when asked if Washington share France's view.

However, Gaddafi's foreign minister swiftly dismissed the French proposal, saying Gaddafi's departure after 41 years in power was not a matter for discussion.

On the battlefield, rebels suffered heavy casualties in fighting for the eastern oil hub of Brega, a town they must capture if they are to advance toward the capital, Tripoli.

Eighteen rebel fighters were killed and up to 150 wounded in the latest clashes with forces loyal to Gaddafi for control of Brega, a doctor at a rebel-controlled hospital said.

"Yesterday, it was a disaster," Dr Sarahat Atta-Alah told Reuters at Ajdabiya hospital in eastern Libya Wednesday.

Rebels have said they have encircled Brega, but fighters said they were still coming under fire from pro-Gaddafi forces.

Rebels also reported heavy fighting near the western town of Misrata, an insurgent stronghold. Medical workers at the city's Hikam hospital said seven rebel fighters had been killed and 35 wounded. Hospital officials earlier reported that one pro-Gaddafi soldier had been killed.

The head of NATO said opposition forces had made progress and that rebels in the east and west of Libya would join up.

"I think that progress will continue because the opposition forces are now more experienced, better trained, better coordinated," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Wednesday.

"So, I think we'll see east and west join forces and move forward," he said, adding that the military situation was "absolutely not a stalemate" and that as rebel forces had advanced, Gaddafi had suffered "a very, very clear weakening."

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said foreign powers were now ready to let Gaddafi stay in Libya if he stepped down.

He told French LCI TV that a U.N. envoy, Abdul Elah al-Khatib, was now coordinating contacts with the Gaddafi camp, and said no talks with Gaddafi emissaries were under way in Paris.

"One of the scenarios effectively envisaged is that he stays in Libya on one condition which I repeat -- that he very clearly steps aside from Libyan political life," Juppe said.

"A ceasefire depends on Gaddafi committing clearly and formally to surrender his military and civilian roles."

The proposal to let Gaddafi stay in Libya after stepping down reflected an awareness that it would be hard, if not impossible, to flush him out of Tripoli by force or persuasion.

"WHEN AND HOW"

"The issue now is not whether Gaddafi goes, but when and how," Juppe said. "There's the military side and the political side, which is progressing, with contacts which have not yet produced results but are coordinated by Mr al-Khatib."

A U.N. Security Council diplomat said Khatib might go to Libya next week and that the envoy sensed "a greater mood in Tripoli to engage with the proposals that he's putting forward."

The diplomat gave no details of the proposals, but said military and diplomatic pressure on Gaddafi was building up, although it was too early to gauge the Libyan leader's response.

The rebels have this week reported military progress, but Gaddafi has vowed to fight on.

U.S. officials and representatives of Gaddafi held a rare meeting Saturday after Washington formally recognized the Benghazi-based NTC as Libya's legitimate interim government.

Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi, who is in Moscow, said his government was not talking about Gaddafi's potential departure from power, the Interfax news agency reported.

"Gaddafi's departure is not being discussed," Obeidi said after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Brega, which provides access to most of Libya's eastern oil network, has changed hands several times in five months of fighting along Libya's Mediterranean coast.

Rebels said Tuesday they had encircled the town, which if captured would mark a major boost for their campaign to oust Gaddafi. Insurgents said they were dug in to the south and east of Brega and in control of its eastern residential sector.

The Libyan government has denied the rebels' reports, saying its soldiers are in Brega.

A rebel lieutenant, who gave his name as Ihab, said rebel forces were between 5 and 10 km (3 and 6 miles) outside Brega and Gaddafi's forces were still in the city.

He said the area was littered with mines and Gaddafi's forces had filled trenches with petrol, which could be set on fire if rebels approached.

A rebel soldier named Izzel-Deen said: "Yesterday we saw Brega. We were very close but we turned round when they started shelling us."

In the west, Tunisian residents reported Grad rockets fired by Libyan forces had fallen on Tunisian soil near the Dehiba border crossing. No casualties were reported.

Three Libyan rebel leaders met French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris and said they had asked him to persuade France's Arab allies to provide them with weapons.

"France can help us get this help from friendly Arab countries," Souleiman Fortia, a representative of the NTC, told reporters after the meeting. "With a bit of help we can be in Tripoli soon."

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said France could keep up its air strikes in Libya as long as necessary.