8 theSun | WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 25 2009

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Officials: Australian wildfire danger looms for months

MELBOURNE: The wildfire emergency
in Australia that has killed more than
200 people will continue until early
April if dry conditions persist in the
nation’s parched southeast, officials
said yesterday. As 3,500 firefighters
took advantage of milder weather to
try to contain six fires raging across
Victoria state, the Department of
Sustainability and Environment (DSE)
warned the reprieve was temporary.
“There’s no room for complacency,”
said DSE spokesman Stuart Ord.
Ord said the deadly combination of
searing temperatures and high winds
that whipped up the firestorms that
claimed 210 lives and razed entire
towns on the weekend of Feb 7 could
return at any time. Firefighters had a
scare on Monday, when flames threat-
ened dozens of communities to the
northwest and east of the southern
state’s capital Melbourne.
Ord said the fires were expected
to intensify again on Friday and emer-
gency workers were racing to prepare
for the threat.
“This is how it will be until late
March-early April unless we get some
rain. We’ve just had the driest January
on record in Victoria with virtually no
rain all year – combine that with a 13-
year drought and the forest floors and
bush are tinder dry,” he said
Officials yesterday released revised
figures showing 2,029 homes were
destroyed in the fires, up from 1,800
previously, with more than 6,000 insur-
ance claims lodged, totalling A$775
million (TM2.8 billion). Some 450,000ha
have been burned out in Victoria since
the fire season began in November.
Firefighters have little hope of
extinguishing the massive blazes,
which can stretch for more than
100km, instead pursuing a policy of
containment where they concentrate
on saving lives and property.
Ord said a worst case scenario
would be a repeat of the conditions
on Feb 7, which created a perfect fire-
storm that destroyed all in its path.
On that day, dubbed “Black Satur-
day” in Australia, temperatures hit a
record 46.4°C and 80kph hour winds
sent firestorms racing through towns.
Ord said the winds sent burning
embers up to 20km through the air,
sparking spot fires and making the
blazes impossible to control.– AFP

Guantanamo detainee
returns to Britain
alleging ‘torture’
LONDON: A British resident
detained at Guantanamo Bay
yesterday spent his first full
day of freedom in more than
six years after returning to
Britain and alleging he was
“tortured in medieval ways”.
The transfer of Binyam Mo-
hamed (pix) – who was born in
Ethiopia but held
British resi-
dency at
the time
of his
arrest
– was
the first
under US
President
B a r a c k
Obama, who
ordered the
closure of the “war on terror”
prison on Cuba two days after
taking office on Jan 20.
His release came as a review
of conditions at the detention
camp by the US Department
of Defence called for easing
the isolation of some inmates
and allowing them more social
contact and recreation.
Dressed in casual clothes,
Mohamed, 30, landed in a
small plane at RAF Northolt
airbase in northwest London
and was escorted across the
runway by officials.
He was then detained by
police officers under anti-terror
laws and questioned for nearly
five hours before being freed
and told he would face no
further action. “He’s now been
released, full stop, that’s the
end of it,” said a Metropolitan
Police spokesman.
His lawyer Clive Stafford
Smith told reporters Binyam
then had a “tearful reunion”
with his sister, who he had not
seen for seven years, and was
heading for a secret location.
“He just wants to go to a
place we’ve got for him tonight
where he can be by himself
with his sister and hopefully
begin to put his life together
again.” Stafford Smith added
that Mohamed was not angry
but “sad” and “grateful” for the
support he had received.
In a statement released
through his lawyers earlier, Mo-
hamed said he could not face
talking to the media yet and
alleged that British officials had
colluded with his “abusers”.
“It is still difficult for me to
believe that I was abducted,
hauled from one country to the
next, and tortured in medieval
ways – all orchestrated by the
United States government.”
He alleged that British of-
ficials had questioned him in
Pakistan and that evidence
was then used by “the people
who were torturing me”.
Mohamed faces an uncer-
tain future in Britain while his
immigration and security status
is established, with deportation
to Ethiopia possible. – AFP
Thaksin supporters demand
new elections
BANGKOK: Thousands of anti-gov-
ernment protesters besieged the Thai
prime minister’s office yesterday to
demand snap elections, unleashing
fresh political turmoil days before
the kingdom hosts a key summit.
Red-shirted demonstrators loyal
REUTERSPIX
to ousted premier Thaksin Shina-
watra called on Prime Minister
Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve his two-
month-old government, and said
they would camp out at Government
House for at least three days.
Demonstrators shouting “We
don’t want this government” broke
through barbed wire barricades
manned by hundreds of police and
soldiers and took control of the
roads around Government House,
an AFP correspondent said.
The so-called “Red Shirts” have
campaigned against the govern-
ment since a court dissolved the
pro-Thaksin former ruling party
in December, paving the way for
British-born Democrat Party leader
Abhisit to take power.
In the dock...
Ieng Sary’s wife told Cambodia’s
Khmer Rouge “Killing Fields” court
yesterday she only worked with
Chinese experts on humanitarian
issues and had no hand in the
deaths of the regime’s estimated
1.7 million victims. Ieng Thirith, 76,
Pol Pot’s social minister, is charged
with crimes against humanity
but said she only oversaw teams
rebuilding hospitals destroyed
by the years of civil war that
preceded the fall of Phnom Penh
in 1975. “I don’t know why a
good person like me has been
accused of such crimes,” she said
during a bail hearing at the joint
Cambodian-international court
yesterday.
“We are ready to stay, whether
it is three days, seven days, one
month or one year,” said Jatuporn
Prompan, one of the protest leaders.
Readying for a night on the
streets, protesters began construct-
ing tents, food stalls and a stage
outside the gates of the compound.
The rally has already forced
Abhisit to move his weekly Tuesday
cabinet meeting to the beach resort
of Hua Hin, where he will host a
summit of Association of Southeast
Asian Nations leaders from Friday.
Abhisit insisted that he would
go to work at Government House
today as usual.
“I can walk in but protesters
must be unarmed. Protesters said
they will not obstruct officials from
working. Core leaders must give
assurances that protesters will
comply with their promise.”
Police said around 10,000 flag-
waving demonstrators dressed in
signature crimson tee-shirts had
massed outside Government House
after travelling on motorbikes,
trucks and on foot from a down-
town Bangkok parade ground.
Some tried to overturn a police
truck before a group carrying
hammers and wirecutters broke
through the huge coils of razor
wire sealing off the main road in
front of the building.
Protesters using crowbars also
smashed up concrete barricades
behind the sprawling complex.
Authorities have deployed about
3,700 police officers and 1,680 sol-
diers for the protests. – AFP

recovery of 48 children being prostituted domesti-

briefs
North Korea preparing
to launch satellite
SEOUL: North Korea said yesterday it was prepar-
ing to launch a satellite on one of its rockets, which
analysts have said would actually be a test-launch
of its longest-range missile. The announcement,
which unsettled financial markets in South Korea,
follows weeks of angry rhetoric from Pyongyang
aimed at Seoul and warnings that the Korean
peninsula was on the brink of war. Analysts said
Pyongyang was using brinkmanship to put pres-
sure on the new US government and its main allies
in the region, South Korea and Japan, to reverse
tough policies against the North. “The preparations
for launching an experimental communications
satellite ... are now making brisk headway,” North
Korea’s KCNA news agency said. – Reuters
48 minors recovered
from prostitution rings
WASHINGTON: US authorities recovered 48
minors from child prostitution rings in a series of
raids across the country over a three day period,
the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Mon-
day. The bureau said 571 people were arrested on
charges of trafficking children for prostitution and
solicitation as a result of the operation. Dubbed
“Operation Cross Country III”, the operation was
carried out in 29 cities by the FBI and local law
enforcement agencies. The operation “led to the
cally,” the FBI said. It was the outgrowth of an
initiative begun in 2003 to bring together state
and federal law enforcement agencies to focus on
the problem. The task forces have recovered 670
children since then, the FBI said. – AFP
Jobless ex-con asks for
more prison time in Taiwan
TAIPEI: A jobless Taiwan man released from
prison two years ago asked police to send him
back so he could eat, local media said yesterday,
a grim sign of hard economic times. When police
found the 45-year-old convicted arsonist lying
on a street in a Taipei shopping district, he re-
quested a return to life behind bars, nostalgic for
the 10 years he had already served, the China
Post newspaper reported. Officers who found
him bought him a boxed lunch but declined to
send him back to prison. – Reuters
Stay married and save the
planet: Aussie lawmaker
CANBERRA: Staying married is better for the
planet because divorce leads the newly single
to live more wasteful lifestyles, an Australian
lawmaker said yesterday. Senator Steve Fielding
told a Senate hearing in the Australian capital
Canberra that divorce only made climate change
worse. When couples separated, they needed
more rooms, more electricity and more water. This
increased their carbon footprint, Australian Associ-
ated Press quoted Fielding as telling the hearing on
environmental issues. Such a “resource-inefficient
lifestyle” meant it would be better for the planet if
couples stayed married, he said. – AFP