Officials still don't know what caused Texas fertilizer explosion

WEST (TEXAS) April 21: Investigators have located the spot where the horrific Central Texas fertilizer plant explosion in the US occurred but do not yet know what triggered the deadly blast, town officials said Sunday.

West, Texas, fire officials said at a news briefing that there is no evidence of criminal activity in last Wednesday's massive explosion at the West Fertilizer Co., and that there are no longer any fires burning at or around the decimated facility.

The blast rocked the town of West just before 8 p.m. local time Wednesday. At least 14 were killed, 200 injured, and scores of nearby homes and businesses damaged or destroyed in one of the worst American industrial accidents in years.

A fire official announced the city has identified the “seat" -- origin -- of the explosion, but did not specify the exact site.

“We do have a large crater,” Assistant State Fire Marshal Kelly Kistner said.
Fire officials also announced plans for a memorial service at Baylor University in Waco, Tex., on Thursday, in honor of the volunteer firefighters who died in the explosion.

“It hits close to home for us all,” said Joe Ondrasek, an executive board member of the Texas Line of Duty Task Force.

At Sunday's briefing, officials read statements by some of the families who lost loved ones.

Wendy Norris, director of the Texas line of duty death task force, read a statement on behalf of the family of brothers Doug and Robert Snokhous, recalling the volunteer firefighters' close bond. “They were always together, and we were comforted that they were together in the end,” she said.

Five volunteer firefighters and four emergency services workers are among the dead, Sgt. Jason Reyes Reyes said on Friday.

60 killed in US fertiliser plant blast

WEST (TEXAS), April 18: An estimated five to 15 people were killed and up to 160 injured when a devastating blast, likened to a "nuclear bomb", ripped through a fertilizer plant that forced authorities to evacuate half the residents of a small Texas town.

Tommy Muska, the Mayor of the town of West, said, "It was like a nuclear bomb went off. There are a lot of people that got hurt. There are a lot of people that will not be here tomorrow," Muska said.

Sgt William Patrick Swanton of the nearby Waco Police Department said between five and 15 people had died while George Smith, the emergency management system director of the city, said fire officials fear that the number of casualties could rise as high as 60 to 70 dead.

The United States Geological Survey said the explosion last night at the West Fertilizer plant shook houses 50 miles away and measured as a 2.1-magnitude seismic event.

What caused the blast was not immediately known, CNN reported.

West, a township of mostly Czech immigrants, is a community of about 2,800 people, about 130 kilometres south of Dallas.

Authorities are going door to door in the area checking on residents.

The blast knocked out power to a large area surrounding the plant.

A member of the city council, Al Vanek, said there is a four-block area around the explosion "that is totally decimated."

Department of Public Safety spokesman D L Wilson said the damage was comparable to the destruction caused by the 1995 bomb blast that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Muska said that about six firefighters were unaccounted for and that 131 people were safely evacuated from a local nursing home, according to Waco Tribune.

3 killed, 100 hurt in Boston terror blast

BOSTON, April 16: Two bombs ripped through the crowd at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing three people, causing several amputations and injuring more than 100 in what a White House official said would be handled as an "act of terror."

It was the worst bombing on US soil since security was tightened after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and US President Barack Obama promised to hunt down whoever was responsible for the attack on a day when tens of thousands of spectators packed the streets to watch the world-famous race.

No one has been arrested and the White House official said it would have to be determined whether the attack came from a foreign or domestic source.

Many runners were heading for the finish when a fireball and smoke rose from behind cheering spectators and a row of flags representing the countries of participants, video from the scene showed.

The cheers turned to screams and panic.

"I saw people who looked like they had their legs blown off. There was a lot of blood over their legs. Then people were being pushed in wheelchairs," said Joe Anderson, 33, a fisherman from Pembroke, Massachusetts, who had just run the race holding a large US flag.

A Rhode Island state trooper told The New York Times body parts littered the scene.

"These runners just finished and they don't have legs now," Roupen Bastajian said.

"So many of them. There are so many people without legs. It's all blood. There's blood everywhere. You got bones, fragments. It's disgusting. It's like a war zone."

Ambulances, fire trucks and dozens of police vehicles converged at the scene, and spectators could be seen crying and consoling each other.

The dead included an 8-year-old boy, the Boston Globe reported, citing two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation.

US willing to 'reach out' to North Korea, Kerry says

TOKYO, April 14: US secretary of state John Kerry on Sunday stressed the United States is willing to engage with North Korea as long as it takes steps to give up nuclear weapons.

He also vowed the United States would protect its Asian allies against any provocative acts by the North, but said Washington wants a peaceful solution to rising tensions in the region.

"We are prepared to reach out but we need (the) appropriate moment, appropriate circumstance," Kerry said, adding that North Korea had to take steps towards giving up its nuclear programmes.

"They have to take some actions. Now how many and how much I want to have a discussion with folks back in Washington (about)... but they have to take action," Kerry told a small group of reporters.

The North has threatened for weeks to attack the United States, South Korea and Japan since new UN sanctions were imposed in response to its latest nuclear arms test in February. Speculation has mounted of a new missile launch or nuclear test.

"I think it is really unfortunate that there has been so much focus and attention in the media and elsewhere on the subject of war, when what we really ought to be talking about is the possibility of peace. And I think there are those possibilities," Kerry earlier told a news conference in Tokyo after a meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida.

Kerry was in Japan for the final stop on an Asian tour aimed at solidifying support for curbing North Korea's nuclear programme, and reassuring US allies.

Kerry said the United States would "do what was necessary" to defend its allies Japan and South Korea, but added: "Our choice is to negotiate, our choice is to move to the table and find a way for the region to have peace."

Kerry also sought to clarify his comments made in Beijing on Saturday, which some took to suggest he might be offering to remove recently boosted missile defence capabilities in Asia if China persuaded North Korea to abandon its atomic programmes.

The Pentagon in recent weeks has announced plans to position two Aegis guided-missile destroyers in the western Pacific and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile defence system to Guam.

"The president of the United States deployed some additional missile defense capacity precisely because of the threat of North Korea. And it is logical that if the threat of North Korea disappears because the peninsula denuclearises, then obviously that threat no longer mandates that kind of posture. But there have been no agreements, no discussions, there is nothing actually on the table with respect to that," Kerry said.

Japan's Kishida told the same news conference that the two allies want Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

"We agreed that North Korea should cease provocative speech and behaviour and show it is taking concrete action toward denuclearisation," he said. "We cannot allow North Korea in any way to possess nuclear weapons."

Bill Clinton hints Hillary could run for President in 2016

WASHINGTON, April 7: Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, could run for the 2016 presidential elections, her husband Bill Clinton has hinted. Bill Clinton, one of the most popular American presidents in recent past, added fuel to the speculation when at an event on Saturday night he said that the country would have some good choices in the 2016 presidential elections. This drew wide applause from the audience in St Louis, who presumed that he was referring to Hillary.

"I think America will have some very good choices for president," he said in response to a question at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), which was first reported by the CNN.

Clinton said he favored a two-term limit for a president, but said he wouldn't oppose allowing future presidents to run for a third term not immediately after their second.

"I'm quite sure there are going to be lots of talented people who are dying to become president of the United States," Clinton said.

Hillary, who made two public appearances this week after relinquishing the post of secretary of state in February, is widely being speculated to run for 2016 presidential polls.

Though she has neither denied nor responded positively to such rumors, her supporters have already formed a super PAC in anticipation of her presidential campaign.

Republican senator Lindsay Graham said Hillary could be a formidable candidate but much depends on the success of the Obama administration.

"I think after eight years of Barack Obama, if things don't change the next Democrat running for president will in trouble. She will be a formidable candidate," he told the NBC news channel.

"I think her time as secretary of state is mixed. Benghazi is yet to be told completely. But anybody who underestimates her on the Republican side would do so at a peril. But, yes, she can be beat. Anybody can be beat in this country," Graham said in response to a question.

Obama pledges to keep Iran from nuclear weapon

WASHINGTON, March 20: Eager to reassure an anxious ally, President Barack Obama on Wednesday promised to work closely with Israel and do whatever is necessary to keep Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, "the world's worst weapons."

He also pledged to investigate whether chemical weapons were used this week in the neighbouring Syria's two-year-old civil war.

Obama, after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said of Iran's nuclear ambitions: "We prefer to resolve this diplomatically and there is still time to do so."

But he added that "all options are on the table" if diplomacy falls short. "The question is, will Iranian leadership seize that opportunity," he added.

The president said Iran's past behaviour indicates that "we can't even trust yet, much less verify."

Netanyahu, at Obama's side for a joint news conference, said that while he appreciated US efforts to thwart Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons through diplomacy and sanctions, he said those tools "must be augmented by a clear and credible threat of military action."

Although preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon is a top priority of both Israel and the United States, Netanyahu and Obama have differed on precisely how to achieve that.

Israel repeatedly has threatened to take military action should Iran appear to be on the verge of obtaining a bomb.

The US has pushed for more time to allow diplomacy and economic penalties to run their course, though Obama insists military action is an option.

Hagel should Correct his Distorted Views on India

By Lisa Curtis

WASHINGTON, Feb 26: Former Senator Chuck Hagel’s (R–NE) unfounded comments on India’s role in Afghanistan during a speech in 2011 provide yet another indication that he is poorly qualified to lead the U.S. Department of Defense.

In a video recording of an unreleased speech by Hagel at Cameron University in Oklahoma, the nominee for Defense Secretary alleges that India has over the years “financed problems” for Pakistan in Afghanistan and “always used Afghanistan as a second front.”

The statement is not only contrary to reality; it goes directly against the policy of the Obama Administration, which has been to support a robust Indian role in Afghanistan. Senior Obama officials have rightly avoided being baited by the Pakistanis into thinking that India is the source of trouble for U.S. interests in Afghanistan. By contrast, India has been one of the largest donors to Afghanistan, assisting with its humanitarian needs, energy projects, and even the construction of the parliament building in Kabul—the most powerful symbol of the burgeoning democratic process in the country.

New Delhi strongly supports the U.S. goal of ensuring that Afghanistan never again becomes a haven for international terrorism. Indeed, the Indians would be more directly impacted by a Taliban victory in Afghanistan, since the Islamist extremist group would most likely facilitate terrorist training camps for jihadists seeking to stir the pot in Kashmir, as they did in the 1990s.

The U.S. has long tried to convince Pakistan to crack down on the Taliban leadership and the affiliated Haqqani network, which finds safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, but to no avail. To assert that India is somehow at fault for supporting the same anti-Taliban elements that the U.S. supports in Afghanistan borders on absurdity.

The fact that the nominee for U.S. Secretary of Defense could misjudge so badly the situation in one of the world’s most important regions is alarming. The Indian embassy has also registered its shock at Hagel’s statement but acknowledged that he had been a “long-standing friend of India and a prominent votary of close India-US relations.”

Perhaps Hagel misspoke. If he hopes to restore credibility both here in Washington and in this important part of the world, especially with India — a crucial Asian partner of the U.S. — he needs to correct the record. Otherwise, he will have handed his critics one more reason to doubt his credibility for the nation’s top defense position.

Lisa Curtis is Senior Research Fellow for South Asia in the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation.

India dismisses Hagel's remarks

By Deepak Arora

NEW DELHI/ WASHINGTON, Feb 26: India has dismissed comments by US Defence Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel's comments that New Delhi had over the years “financed problems” for Pakistan in the war-torn country.

In a strong reaction, India has said such comments are “contrary to the reality” of its unbounded dedication to the welfare of Afghans.

Official sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said "the Government of India has close and frequent discussions with the United States on all issues of mutual interest including on Afghanistan, and we have consistently received support and encouragement from our US partners for our constructive role in Afghanistan."

A video containing the remarks from an unreleased speech of Hagel at Oklahoma’s Cameron University in 2011 was uploaded by Washington Free Beacon, sparking a strong reaction from India.

Hagel, during the speech said, “India for some time has always used Afghanistan as a second front, and India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan on that side of the border”.

“And you can carry that into many dimensions, the point being [that] the tense, fragmented relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been there for many, many years,” Hagel said.

Reacting to this, the Indian Embassy in Washington DC said,“Such comments attributed to Senator Hagel, who has been a long-standing friend of India and a prominent votary of close India-US relations are contrary to the reality of India’s unbounded dedication to the welfare of Afghan people”.

It added that India’s commitment to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan is unwavering, “and this is reflected in our significant assistance to Afghanistan in developing its economy, infrastructure and institutional capacities”.

“Our opposition to terrorism and its safe havens in our neighbourhood is firm and unshakable. “India’s development assistance has been deeply appreciated by the people and the Government of Afghanistan, and by our friends around the world including the US.

“We do not view our engagement with Afghanistan as a zero sum game,” the Embassy said. Hagel’s remarks are in sharp contrast to viewpoint of Obama Administration that has always been in praise of India’s developmental role in Afghanistan and in fact has been pressing New Delhi to do more in Afghanistan. Significantly, a deeply divided Senate is in the process of voting on US President’s contentious nominee to head the Defence Department."

Hagel confirmed as next US secy of defence

WASHINGTON, Feb 27: The US Senate finally confirmed Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defence Tuesday, ending an acrimonious nominations process and handing President Barack Obama a boost as he fills his second-term cabinet.

After Hagel's bruising confirmation hearing and a 10-day delay thrown up by Republicans, Senators voted 58-41 to confirm the former Republican senator and decorated Vietnam War veteran to replace outgoing Pentagon chief Leon Panetta.

Hagel, 66, is likely to be sworn in on Wednesday.

Four Republicans -- surprisingly including tea party-backed Senator Rand Paul -- joined the majority Democrats in approving Hagel, compared with the 18 Republicans who had voted earlier in the day to overcome the blocking tactics and allow a full vote.

In an early reaction from the White House, press secretary Jay Carney said on Twitter that the confirmation is "great news for our men & women in uniform."

The nomination was held up by several Republicans' demands for information on Hagel's finances and transcripts of speeches that he gave to international organizations.

But some of his strongest critics, including Republican Senators Bob Corker, Lindsey Graham and John McCain, agreed to allow an up-or-down floor vote, even though all three eventually voted against Hagel's confirmation.

The outcome ended a politically charged saga that saw Hagel unsettled in congressional testimony when critics savaged his record on issues related to the Middle East.

He also survived a tense committee vote that saw him subjected to such harsh comments that fellow Vietnam veteran McCain warned fellow Republicans that they should not impugn the patriotism of "an honorable man."

Senate majority leader Harry Reid sounded relieved, but got in a few more digs at his opponents.

"Senator Hagel is the first nominee for secretary of defence to be filibustered in the history of the United States," Reid said.

"Politically motivated delays send a terrible signal to our allies and to the world," as well as to US troops serving in Afghanistan, Reid said. "For the sake of national security, it's time to set aside this partisanship."

Kerry defends liberties, says Americans have 'right to be stupid'

BERLIN, Feb 26: US Secretary of State John Kerry offered a defense of freedom of speech, religion and thought in the United States on Tuesday telling German students that in America "you have a right to be stupid if you want to be."

"As a country, as a society, we live and breathe the idea of religious freedom and religious tolerance, whatever the religion, and political freedom and political tolerance, whatever the point of view," Kerry told the students in Berlin, the second stop on his inaugural trip as secretary of state.

"People have sometimes wondered about why our Supreme Court allows one group or another to march in a parade even though it's the most provocative thing in the world and they carry signs that are an insult to one group or another," he added.

"The reason is, that's freedom, freedom of speech. In American you have a right to be stupid - if you want to be," he said, prompting laughter. "And you have a right to be disconnected to somebody else if you want to be.

"And we tolerate it. We somehow make it through that. Now, I think that's a virtue. I think that's something worth fighting for," he added. "The important thing is to have the tolerance to say, you know, you can have a different point of view."

Kerry made the comments on his first foreign trip since becoming secretary of state on February 1. After one-night stops in London and Berlin, he visits Paris, Rome, Ankara, Cairo, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Doha before returning to Washington on March 6.

While speaking to the students and earlier to U.S. diplomats, Kerry reminisced about the time he spent in Berlin in the 1950s as the intrepid son of an American diplomat and retold a story of sneaking across to East Berlin with his bike.

"I used to have great adventures. My bicycle and I were best friends. And I biked all around this city. I remember biking down Kurfuerstendamm and seeing nothing but rubble. This was in 1954 ... the war was very much still on people's minds," he told the diplomats, referring to West Berlin's main shopping avenue.

"One day, using my diplomatic passport, I biked through the checkpoint right into the east sector and noticed very quickly how dark and unpopulated (it was) and sort of unhappy people looked," he added, saying it left an impression "that hit this 12-year-old kid."

"I kind of felt a foreboding about it and I didn't spend much time. I kind of skedaddled and got back out of there and went home and proudly announced to my parents what I had done and was promptly grounded and had my passport pulled," he added.

"As a 12-year-old, I saw the difference between East and West," he later told the students. "I never made another trip like that. But I have never forgotten it. And now, it's vanished, vanished."

Sikh man shot at in Florida in suspected hate crime

WASHINGTON: A Sikh man has been admitted to a hospital after being shot at several times by some unidentified attackers in the US state of Florida. The victim Kanwaljit Singh, 46, was attacked by the truck-borne assailants near Daytona Beach last Saturday night.

Accompanied by his son who managed to escape unhurt, Kanwaljit received multiple injuries in his thigh and torso and is currently undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

"Although no clear motive (behind the attack) has been established, initial indications are this shooting was not a random act. There was no previous confrontation between occupants of either vehicle," Wayne Miller, Port Orange's Assistant Chief of Police was quoted as saying by local daily Daytona Beach News Journal.

Meanwhile, the authorities said yesterday that the incident of shooting will be probed by the agencies as a hate crime.

Condemning the act, the Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund (SALDEF) and Sikh Coalition called on the law enforcement officials and requested them to conduct a thorough probe into the incident.