In the developing city of Mosul in northern Iraq a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into a Kurdish village in north Iraq before dawn on Thursday, killing at least 19 villagers and wounding 25, Iraqi police said. The blast in the village of Wardek, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, seemed calculated to fan ethnic tensions between Kurds and Arabs, whose politicians are embroiled in a bitter dispute over claims to territory and oil. Women and children were among the dead and many houses were destroyed, police said. Another truck bomber tried to set off a second blast in the village but local Kurdish Peshmerga forces opened fire and killed him before he reached its outskirts, Iraqi police said.Wardek is 30 km (18 miles) east of the volatile northern city of Mosul, where al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups are making a last stand after being driven out of their former strongholds in Baghdad and western Iraq.
U.S. officials say insurgents are increasingly seeking ways to attack Kurds in ethnically mixed parts of northern Iraq in a bid to foment ethnic violence between them and Arabs at a time of rising tensions over land disputes. Earlier, a car bomb killed eight members of a single Arab family and leveled at least one house in Kirkuk, the city at the heart of the row between Arabs and minority Kurds. The blast occurred near the home of an Arab leader of pro-government local militias known as 'Awakening' councils, in the east of the city. The militias, including many former insurgents who switched sides, are a favorite al Qaeda target. Home to a volatile mix of ethnic Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, northern Iraq is the battleground of a standoff between Baghdad's Arab-led government and leaders of the largely autonomous Kurdistan region, who claim Kirkuk and other bits of the north as their ancestral homeland.Major-General Jamal Taher Bakr, Kirkuk's police chief, said a displaced family from Iraq's Diyala province further south had been taking refugee in the house when it was hit. Police and local residents pulled bodies from the collapsed house. As distraught residents looked on, they wrapped corpses in bed sheets or mats and loaded them onto a pick-up truck. Abdul Rahman Mustafa, Kurdish governor of Kirkuk province, vowed to hunt down those responsible.” What are these children and women guilty of that they should be targeted?
The aim of such terror attacks is to ignite strife in Kirkuk," he said.U.S. And U.N. officials have sought to forge a compromise over disputed territories in northern Iraq, seen as a major threat to Iraqi security just as sectarian violence ebbs. They have had little success so far. In August, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite Arab, and Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan regional government, held a rare meeting that some hoped signaled the beginning of the end to the long-running feud. Defusing such tensions is crucial as U.S. troops, who have mediated between Kurdish and Arab leaders over the past year, prepare to withdraw entirely from Iraq by 2012. Islamist militants are believed to exploit Kurd-Arab tensions in areas claimed by both camps to undermine security.
QUESTIONS.
1).Who is the Prime Minister of Iraq and the President of the KRG?
2).Who is the Police Chief of Kirkuk?
3). According to the passage why insurgents are are increasingly seeking ways to attack Kurds?
4).Which two groups are facing ethnic tensions as mentioned in the passage.
5).What is pro-government local militias known as?
6).What does Arab-led government and leaders of the largely autonomous Kurdistan region claim?
7).What did local residents do to the dead bodies?
8). Where did the first blast take place?
9).From where are al Qaeda and Sunni Arab insurgent groups being chased from?
10).What did U.S. And U.N. officials try to do?
Garbage trucks lead to discovery of dead Fla. Girl TIME 15 MINUTES
ORANGE PARK, Florida. – After 7-year-old Somer Thompson vanished on her way home from school, investigators tailed nine garbage trucks from her neighborhood to a Georgia landfill nearly 50 miles away, then picked through the trash as each rig spilled its load. They sorted through more than 225 tons of garbage before their worst fears were realized: Sticking out of the rubbish were a child's lifeless legs. Sheriff Rick Beseler said the quick discovery of Somer's body on Wednesday, two days after she disappeared, may have saved precious evidence that could lead to her killer.” Had we not done this tactic, I believe that body would have been buried beneath hundreds of tons of debris, probably would have gone undiscovered forever," he said Thursday. An autopsy to establish the cause of death was performed Thursday, but authorities would not disclose their findings. At a news conference, Beseler would not say if Somer had been sexually assaulted or answer other questions about the condition of the body.” I fear for our community until we bring this person in. This is a heinous crime that's been committed," Beseler said. "And we're going to work as hard as we can to make this community safe."
Searching landfills is common when children disappear, but it is unusual to try to zero in on them more efficiently by tracking a neighborhood's garbage trucks, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.” Time is the enemy in these cases and the sheriff used every resource," Allen said. The sheriff said police have questioned more than 155 registered sex offenders in the area so far. State online records show 88 sex offenders live in Orange Park, a Jacksonville suburb of about 9,000 people just south of Jacksonville Naval Air Station.Beseler would not say whether investigators believe the crime was committed by more than one person.Somer's father and other family members were "torn up" upon hearing the news, aunt Laura Holt said. As for the killer or killers, "I don't think they deserve to live," Holt said. "I don't think there's anything worse that a person can do — to kill a child and dump her in the dump like a piece of trash?” The girl disappeared in a heavily populated residential area about a mile from a stretch of fast-food restaurants and other businesses. Investigators will presumably try to pinpoint the trash bin or garbage can where she was dumped, based on the trash around her and the truck's pickup route.
Tuesday was trash day in Somer's neighborhood, and it was Detective Bruce Owens' idea to track the garbage trucks to the landfill they use in Folkston, Ga., 48 miles way.” At that time I realized that this is probably not going to turn out good," the 10-year veteran of the Clay County Sheriff's Office told The Florida Times-Union. But he said he had been expecting to find perhaps a backpack or a piece of clothing, not a body. The sheriff said he had told the girl's mother, Diana Thompson, to prepare for the worst, and called her after receiving the news Wednesday night.” Needless to say, she was absolutely devastated," Beseler said. "It was the hardest phone call I've ever had to make in my life, and I hope I never have to make another one like that."Somer vanished on Monday during her mile-long walk home from school. Authorities said she squabbled with another child and walked ahead of the group. She was last seen outside a vacant house that was on her route home, sheriff's spokeswoman Mary Justino said. Investigators are examining the house for evidence, Justino said.
On Thursday, flowers and dozens of teddy bears were heaped around an oak tree across the street from Somer's home where about 200 people gathered for a candlelight vigil in front of the family's home just after sundown. Diana Thompson came out to thank the group who sang "Amazing Grace" and "You Are My Sunshine," then recited the Lord's Prayer. "I wish I could hug every one of you," Thompson said. "I love every one of you." Neighbor Carter Beukema shouted his comments about if the accused killer goes to trial: "I hope I'm on the jury. He will pay." Somer "was always happy unless she couldn't find anyone to play with," neighbor Robert Ocain said. "She trusted anybody. Honestly, I think all the kids around here do." At the tree, Catherine Sullivan held her teary-eyed 5-year-old daughter, Nya Frederick. They drove to the Thompson’s' neighborhood from Jacksonville because Sullivan wanted to show her child the dangers of being too friendly with strangers. "She seemed to understand when I explained to her mommy wouldn't see her anymore," the mother said.
QUESTIONS.
1). what did people do in front of a house on Thursday?
2).What did the Clay County Sheriff's Office tell The Florida Times-Union Office about the Murder?
3). What was used to confirm the cause of death?
4). Who is the Sheriff of Orange County, Florida and what did he say about the crime?
5). What is the full form of NCMEC?
6). Who was arrested for the killing of the seven year old child?
7). Where exactly did the girl disappear?
8). \Where was the child’s body found?
9). What is the name of the victim’s mother?
10). What did investigators do in Orange Park, Florida, after 7-year-old Somer Thompson Vanished on her way home from school?
2 dead, 14 hurt in eastern Oregon van rollover
PORTLAND, Oregon nearly everyone aboard a van carrying 16 Colorado church group members was likely thrown from the vehicle when it rolled several times on an icy Oregon highway and killed two people, according to state police. The 14 college-age survivors were all injured, some critically, as the van veered out of control and rolled Thursday on Interstate 84 near Baker City in eastern Oregon. Their church, the New Life Worship Center in Federal Heights, Colo., held a candlelight vigil Thursday night and set up a fund at a local bank to help the families. Joshua John Pischura, 20, of Geneva, Ohio, died shortly after the crash, while Taune Nicole Winter Pepper, 23, of Deer Trail, Colo., died Thursday afternoon after being flown to a Boise, Idaho hospital, authorities said.
Five other passengers with serious or critical injuries were also flown to Boise. Three were taken to a hospital in La Grande, Ore.; and six were treated and released from St. Elizabeth Health Services in Baker City, Oregon State Police said. State police said they believe that at least 13 of those aboard were ejected during the crash. The nine women and seven men were members of the Rocky Mountain Masters Commission, a training program affiliated with the New Life Worship Center, said Christy Gimer, center spokeswoman. They were on their way to a conference in Portland to earn money working as ushers and doing other tasks.Gimer said about a third of the people in the van were from the Denver area. She said others were from Florida and Utah, and one woman was from Iraq. She declined to provide names or conditions of any of the survivors.
She described the New Life Worship Center as a church facility where students live in dorms, take classes and earn their minister's license. She said 10 students stayed behind and didn't make the trip to Oregon. Grief counselors were being provided to those students.” People here are devastated," Gimer said. "They are gathering in the church for prayers. We are going to keep the church open throughout the evening for them.” The wreck happened at about 5:20 a.m. when the 2002 Ford van encountered icy conditions on the freeway that links Oregon to Idaho. The driver, Nicole Elaine Byrd, was wearing a seat belt and suffered non-life-threatening injuries. But 13 of the 16 people aboard are believed to have been ejected, troopers said. Oregon State Police said its investigation is ongoing and it has yet to determine how many passengers were wearing seat belts. The Rev. John Privett of the Baker City Church of the Nazarene said he was putting up seven of the survivors in his home, and that local people had donated food, medicine and clothing.” They are all pretty shook up," Privett said of the survivors. "These guys are grieving and cried all day.” There are broken legs and bones, backs, ankles, elbows," he added.
QUESTIONS.
1). How many passengers were not wearing seat belts?
2). How many students did not go on the trip to Oregon?
3). What time and where did the accident take place?
4). What happened to the vehicle and how many people died in the accident?
5). How many injured were sent to hospital and where?
6). Mention what the local church did for the affected families?
7). How many survivors were living with the church Pastor?
8).According to the passage what is the name of the bus driver and also mention what happened to
her?
9).What group did some of the passengers belong too?
10). How many passengers were thrown out from the ill fated bus?
No comments:
Post a Comment