Tag: Evening Edition

But if Georgie Dicks hadn’t been prepared to brave towering waves, howling winds and Japanese harpoon ships to save whales from slaughter in Antarctic waters, she would never have volunteered to be an activist.

“We’ve always got our lives on the line and if we can’t accept that, we really shouldn’t be here,” the 23-year-old told AFP from onboard the Steve Irwin, a vessel owned by the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

“Deputy governor Abdul Latif Ashna had just left his home and was on his way to his office when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up near his vehicle,” said Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wesa.

One of his bodyguards and his driver were wounded, as were two passers-by, he added. A fifth person was slightly hurt and did not need hospital treatment.

Security forces fired warning shots and tear gas, as some groups threw stones in the main government quarter where protesters have remained camped out in front of Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi’s offices for five days.

Protesters had demanded a clean break with the old regime, calling for Ghannouchi to step down. The premier has been in charge since 1999 and has stayed on despite the end of Ben Ali’s 23-year iron-fisted rule on January 14.

David Kato, 43, was killed on Wednesday with initial investigations showing that a man entered his home in the capital Kampala and struck him on the head before fleeing, his lawyer John Francis Onyango said.

Police chief Kale Kayihura said the killing had nothing to do with Kato’s gay rights activism.

“Interpol can confirm that its National Central Bureau (NCB) in Tunis has issued a global alert via Interpol’s international network to seek the location and arrest” of Ben Ali and six members of his family, it said in a statement.

The cross-border police agency said that Interpol member states, which include Saudi Arabia, were asked to “search, locate and provisionally arrest Mr Ali and his relatives,” pending a formal extradition request from Tunisia.

Government spokesman Taieb Baccouch was quoted by the state news agency TAP as saying a cabinet reshuffle would be announced on Wednesday. He earlier told AFP that the changes would involve at least six ministerial posts.

But a source close to the government said that talks over the possible replacement of the defence, foreign and interior ministers were “blocked”.

“Our revolution, your revolution, the revolution of the young, risks being lost … There are forces that are calling for a void, a power vacuum. The void brings terror, which brings dictatorship,” Rachid Ammar told the protesters.

Speaking through a megaphone and surrounded by soldiers, the popular general said the army would act as a “guarantor” for the revolution that ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and would respect the country’s constitution.

In a surprise move after a week of political turmoil, Cowen said he wanted the centrist party to fight the election “free from internal distractions” — while he could now focus on getting budget laws passed to cement an EU-IMF bailout to revive Ireland’s battered economy.

“Taking everything into account, and having discussed the matter with my family, I have decided on my own counsel to step down as uachtarain (president) of Fianna Fail and leader of Fianna Fail,” Cowen told a Dublin news conference.

During a four-and-a-half hour hearing, he also criticised US President Barack Obama’s soft approach to Iran and urged the West to use force if necessary to curb the Islamic republic’s nuclear ambitions.

Making his second appearance before the inquiry, an emotional Blair addressed the condemnation he faced following his first hearing last January when he said he had “no regret” about removing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The attacks mostly targeted pilgrims marking a Shiite holy day, and were the latest in a series of bombings that have shattered a relative calm in Iraq following the formation of a new government last month.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed the Karbala attacks on “takfiris,” an Islamic term for apostates but used by the premier to mean anti-Shiite Al-Qaeda militants.