News Update Place

MILWAUKEE (AP) -

Highways remained slippery for some holiday travelers Monday in the upper Midwest in the aftermath of a blustery snowstorm that blacked out thousands of homes and businesses and snarled air travel.

At least 18 deaths were linked to the weekend-long blast of ice and windblown snow, which led to multi-car pileups that closed sections of several major highways on the Plains.

Conditions had eased Monday, with sunshine across much of the region, but that didn’t necessarily mean safer roads, authorities cautioned.

Highways in northwestern Wisconsin still had slippery patches Monday, said State Patrol dispatcher Linda Luhman in Spooner.

“We haven’t had anything major, accident-wise. Slide-ins and minor property damage, but no serious injuries or fatalities,” Luhman said.

Early Monday, Sgt. Tim Elve of the Dane County Sheriff’s Office said: “The roads aren’t quite as ice-covered but we’re still telling people not to drive unless they have to. The interstate is still slick and the rural roads are really bad.”

Authorities had issued urgent pleas for travelers to stay home Sunday but officials worried that people would insist on driving Monday, regardless of the weather, to get to Christmas Eve destinations.

“I know it’s the holidays but we hope people use some common sense when traveling,” said Sgt. Chad Breuer of the Grant County Sheriff’s Department in southwest Wisconsin. “There are a lot of people saying, ‘I’ll just leave that much earlier’ but still, the roads are not favorable for traveling.”

The storm rolled through Colorado and Wyoming on Friday, then spread snow and ice on Saturday from the Texas Panhandle to Wisconsin. On Sunday, snow fell across much of Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota and parts of Michigan and Indiana.

Up to 15 inches of snow fell over the weekend on parts of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which typically gets heavy snow, and freezing drizzle glazed some highways Monday morning in counties along Lake Michigan. The area of Madison, Wis., got three to four hours of freezing rain early Sunday, making driving treacherous.

The storm system had blown out to sea Monday morning, but in its wake wind blowing at 25 mph picked up moisture from Lake Erie to create lake-effect snow in Buffalo, N.Y. Five to 10 inches of snow was possible there and in other parts of western New York by Tuesday morning, the weather service said.

Wind was measured at 88 mph over Lake Michigan, with gusts of 50 to 68 mph across the Chicago region, according to the National Weather Service.

Because of the wind, airlines canceled more than 300 flights Sunday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, the city Aviation Department said. Municipal officials said the wind had knocked out nearly 170 traffic signals, and there were more than 500 reports of fallen trees and limbs.

More than 11,000 homes and businesses were without power at some point Saturday in Wisconsin because of the freezing rain, ice, gusty wind and heavy snow, utilities said. Michigan utilities reported some 31,000 customers were still without power Monday morning, and in Illinois about 3,900 ComEd customers remained without power Monday, down from a Sunday morning peak of more than 225,000.

Accidents on highways slippery with snow and ice killed at least seven people in Minnesota, three in Indiana, three in Wyoming, three in Wisconsin and one each in Texas and Kansas.

Pope Benedict XVI has elevated 23 prelates from around the world to the position of cardinal and delivered a pressing appeal for an end to war in Iraq.

One of the new cardinals is Emmanuel III Delly, the Baghdad-based Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans.

Emmanuel III, who is 80, said that the honour was for ‘all Iraqis’

During a ceremony in St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, the pope said Christians in Iraq were “feeling with their own flesh the dramatic consequences of an enduring conflict”.
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Gary Kasparov, a Russian opposition leader, and former world chess champion, has been detained by police during a protest against Vladimir Putin, the president.

Around 3,000 people attended the protest, organised by the Other Russia group, headed by Kasaparov.

Opposition groups in Russia say the upcoming elections will not be ‘free and fair

Kasparov and one of his bodyguards were grabbed by riot police on Saturday and forced into a police bus which then drove them away.

“Freedom! Freedom!” supporters shouted as the bus drove off in central Moscow.
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Sergei Storchak, Russia’s deputy finance minister, has been charged with attempting to embezzle $43 million in budget funds, his lawyers say.

Sergei Storchark was arrested and interrogated last week
Storchak, who is responsible for conducting Russia’s debt policy and international financial relations, was detained last week and questioned for over four hours. (more…)

Russian concerns over proposed US missile defences in eastern Europe “are being listened to” in Washington, Russia’s president has said.

Putin has warned that the proposed missile shield could spark an arms race (more…)

French transport networks have started returning to normal after union workers voted to end a nine-day strike.

The strike wound up on Friday after unions agreed to hold talks on pension changes proposed by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.

Transport services are gradually returning to normal

Services on the national rail network and the Paris underground continued to improve as staff returned to work.

RATP, the Paris public transport firm said it expected 70 per cent of Metro trains to be running on Friday, with bus services and trams running at 75 per cent and 80 per cent.

Normality returning

State owned rail operator SNCF said it expects high-speed TGV rail links between Paris and other cities to be running normally but only one in two TGV trains linking cities other than Paris would be running.

However, disruption was likely to last throughout the weekend.

Raymond Soubie, Sarkozy’s aide for social affairs, told French broadcaster Europe-1 Radio: “The worst of the crisis is over.”

Pockets of resistance remained but the majority of the voters agreed on Thursday to end the strike.

Rail unions, SNCF and government officials are expected to continue talks for at least another month.

Only Sud Rail, one out of eight labour groups, has called on its members to carry on striking during the talks.

Contested reforms

The dispute has been the biggest challenge for Sarkozy since he took office in May.

Protests reached a peak when civil servants and students staged separate strikes

Sarkozy has vowed to stand firm over the central point of the dispute, scrapping a privilege that allows half a million state workers to retire on a full pension two and a half years earlier than most other employees.

Under the plan, railway and energy workers will have to work for 40 years to qualify for full pensions compared to the current 37.5 years.

But the SNCF has offered some concessions such as including certain bonus payments in the calculation of pension rights or pay rises for those approaching retirement.

Public opinion has been firmly on the government’s side in the dispute.

A recent poll showed that the president has the support of the public, with 68 per cent believing the strike is “not justified”.

Protests in France reached a peak when civil servants staged a separate one-day strike over pay and job cuts.

Some unions warned they might renew their protests next month.

The government has argued changes to pension schemes are essential to modernising the French economy.

Sarkozy’s rivals, however, fear it spells the beginning of the end of the labour protections considered part of the French way of life.

Jacques Chirac, the former French president, is under formal investigation over allegations he gave fake jobs to supporters while he was the mayor of Paris.

Chirac was mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995

The move, which could mark the first step towards criminal charges, came after Chirac was interviewed for three hours on Wednesday by Xaviere Simeoni, the investigating judge.
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NOUAKCHOTT (Mauritania), Nov 6: At least 45 African migrants have died of cold and thirst after their boat ran aground in the Atlantic Ocean trying to reach Europe, a Mauritanian security official said on Tuesday.

Mauritanian soldiers who discovered the beached vessel on Monday also found 98 survivors aboard the boat, which had set sail from Senegal some 20 days ago, trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands.

Of those survivors, six were in a coma and two died during the night at a hospital in Mauritania’s second city of Nouadhibou. Four others were in a critical condition. According to the official, the dead were “victims of cold, thirst and hunger and (they) were thrown overboard by the survivors”.

The group left Senegal’s southern city of Ziguinchor on Oct 16 and a week ago, the boat’s engine broke down off Morocco. Currents and winds drove it aground at Laguerra, on Mauritania’s border with Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.

A Red Cross official reached by phone from the capital confirmed the survivors were extremely tired.

“We are helping with feeding, medicine and with hospital care,” a local Red Cross official Mohamed Ould Hamada said.

Local administrative officials said the migrants were mainly from Senegal, with a few from Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Gambia.

An unknown number of migrants die every year trying to reach the Canaries.

The Canary Islands have been a magnet in recent years for mainly sub-Saharan immigrants aspiring to reach Europe after a security crackdown in Morocco and two Spanish enclaves there.

Recent days have seen an upsurge of departures despite the stepped-up maritime patrols off Africa’s Atlantic coast by the European Union border agency Frontex, which cooperates with some west African nations.

The surveillance system is considered water tight, but migrants try to avoid it by setting sail from the unmonitored Gambian waters and later take on to the international waters.—AFP

MILAN (Italy), Nov 6: The Italian government said on Tuesday it had “decapitated” a pan-European network recruiting suicide bombers, with raids targeting 20 suspects in Italy, France and Portugal.

The “very important operation has decapitated a jihadist network that operates across Europe … with the aim of preparing men to send to the Iraqi and Afghan theatres,” Interior Minister Giuliano Amato told a news conference in Rome.

The group primarily consisted of Tunisians, Amato said, adding that the operation was carried out in cooperation with security forces of several other countries.

“Looking at the places involved, it is clear that there’s a terrorist network that knows no boundaries and that operates clandestinely in many countries,” Amato said.

Eleven people were arrested in Italy, including 10 in various parts of northern Italy and one in southern Calabria, the ANSA news agency said, adding that three apartments served as logistical bases, two in the Milan area and one in Reggio Emilia, also in the north.

Nine other suspects are sought in France, Portugal and Britain under European arrest warrants issued by a Milan court.

A Tunisian suspect was arrested in a Paris suburb, French officials said, while another suspect was picked up in Portugal, the Portuguese news agency LUSA reported.

The raids in Italy uncovered remote electronic detonators and poisons, as well as instructions on guerrilla warfare techniques, ANSA said.

Investigators also found evidence of psychological training, according to Milan anti-terrorist prosecutor Nicola Piacente.

“During a telephone call there was a conversation in which a person pretended to be in a car full of explosives,” Piacente said.

He said there was evidence that moderate Muslim countries were targets as well as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Officers were searching for foreign nationals suspected of having formed “jihadist” cells, ANSA said, adding that the investigation had begun in 2004.

The suspects are also accused of falsifying identity documents allowing them to travel clandestinely from one European country to another.

The investigation stemmed from the break-up in 2002 of a radical Islamist cell based in Italy with connections in France.

A bi-annual report in August warned that Italy faces “heightened risks” of attack and an influx of Muslim radicals, and cited 60 threats in the first half of 2007.

Italy saw a “rise in Islamic meeting places which, even if they are primarily organised and frequented by law-abiding people, remain potentially exposed to infiltration by radicals,” the report said.

It highlighted “networks of north African origin” while stating that “interactions or contacts with other radical milieux” from the Balkans, the Middle East or central Asia were also possible.

An Iraqi said to be close to Al-Qaeda was arrested at Venice airport in September on suspicion of belonging to a group blamed for several kidnappings and attacks in Iraq.Hussein Saber Fadhil was allegedly planning to go to Iraq to carry out attacks using aircraft to be purchased from an Italian firm.—AFP

The Turkish prime minister has defended plans for an overhaul of the constitution amid a nervous response from the country’s secular establishment to his call for an easing of the ban on the hijab, the Islamic headscarf.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose wife and daughters observe the Islamic dress code, was quoted in Wednesday’s Financial Times as saying: “The right to higher education cannot be restricted because of what a girl wears.”

He said: “There is no such problem in Western societies, but there is a problem in Turkey and I believe it is the first duty of those in politics to solve the problem.”
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