Rocket Attack Kills 3 American Soldiers in Iraq

A rocket attack on a U.S. base near Iraq's border with Iran killed three American soldiers, an official said Thursday, blaming the strike on a Shiite militia linked to Tehran.

The deaths came at the end of the bloodiest month for U.S. troops in Iraq in two years, and with just six months before the American military is scheduled to leave after more than eight years of war.

Wednesday's rocket attack struck a U.S. base in southern Iraq that is located a few miles (kilometers) from the Iranian border, a U.S. military official said. He said the type of weapons used bore the hallmarks of a Shiite militia with strong links to Iran.

The official refused to give more details, and would not describe what kind of rockets were used against the base, or where it was. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

American intelligence officials have long believed that the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, is one of the only militias to use weapons known in military jargon as IRAMs, or improvised rocket-assisted mortars, against U.S. troops. The weapons are made in Iran.

Kataib Hezbollah, which has links to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group, is solely focused on attacking U.S. troops and other American personnel.

The U.S. military is preparing to leave Iraq by the end of the year, as required by a 2008 security agreement between Baghdad and Washington.

But as both governments now consider extending the deadline to have thousands of troops remain in Iraq into 2012 -- in part to counter Iran's influence over the unstable nation -- at least three major Shiite militias have stepped up attacks on soldiers to force the military out.

Classic College reaches quarters

Classic College International defeated Kathmandu University by 31 runs on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Fourth CCRC ICC T20 Tournament.Classic College won the toss and elected to bat first at the TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur. The match was reduced to seven overs an innings due to persistent rain and Classic College put up 64/6 in the allotted seven overs. 

Niraj Chand was highest scorer for the Classic College with unbeaten 27 runs off 10 balls. Chand struck three sixes and a boundary during his blistering knock. Kshitiz Lamichhane took three wickets for Kathmandu University in two overs giving away nine runs.
In the run chase, Kathmandu University was restricted to 33/7 in the seven overs. Basant Regmi, who was adjudged player-of-the-match, took three wickets and made a run out possible in helping Classic College seal the victory. Ankit Bikram Poudel (9 runs) was highest scorer for Kathmandu University as no batsman from the team scored in double digits.
Classic College will take on host CCRC ´A´ in the quarterfinal while Bridgewater International will play against Jubilant College. Likewise, Triton International will lock horns with CCRC ´B´ and Sudur Paschimanchal Academy, Dhangadi, will clash with KIST Medical College.

According to the host, the quarterfinals and the remaining matches of the tournaments are postponed until next notice owing to rainy weather.

U.S., NATO Forces Join Gunbattles With Attackers in Afghanistan Hotel Raid

The popular Inter-Continental hotel in Kabul came under attack by suicide bombers and gunmen Tuesday, a U.S. official told Fox News. U.S. forces were called in to assist in gunbattles with assailants in the hotel, while NATO said its helicopters killed three of the attackers.

Afghanistan news agency TOLOnews is reporting at least 10 people have been killed in the attacks, but that number has yet to be independently confirmed.Afghan officials said there were four suicide bombers and four gunmen involved in the raid, who all appeared to have been killed. Multiple explosions were heard in the initial attacks. Later, two bodies were seen at the hotel's entrance.

After the blasts, Afghan officials reported gunfire between insurgents on the hotel's roof and police stationed on hilltops in the surrounding area. Associated Press reporters at the scene said another two blasts -- about a minute apart -- occurred around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Afghan police battled the assailants with machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades as tracer rounds went up over the blacked-out building. 

Two NATO helicopters flew over the roof of the hotel and killed three of the attackers. At least one rocket was fired from the helicopters.The police have secured the area around the hotel, which is one of Kabul's most heavily guarded. 

International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Gadhafi

ICC Judge Sanji Mmasenono Monageng read aloud the decision to issue warrants for Gadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, and his brother-in-law Abdullah al-Sanussi.The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Monday for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and two of his relatives.Saif Al-Islam Gadhafi is a close adviser to his father. His arrest warrant came two days after his 39th birthday. Al-Sanussi serves as Gadhafi's head of intelligence.       The announcement at The Hague came as fighting inside Libya inched closer to the capital. A rebel fighter, Hassan al-Jiwali, told CNN that rebel forces were 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Tripoli on Monday.Libya is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the international court's authority, and the court does not have the power to enter Libya and arrest the leaders. Many of those cheering in Misrata saw the news as a sign that the world recognizes the conduct that rebels say Gadhafi's regime has been engaged in.The warrants are "for crimes against humanity," including murder and persecution, "allegedly committed across Libya" from February 15 through "at least" February 28, "through the state apparatus and security forces," the court said in a news release.The three-judge Pre-Trial Chamber I at The Hague found "reasonable grounds to believe that the three suspects committed the alleged crimes and that their arrests appear necessary in order to ensure their appearances before the court," the announcement said. The court also believes the warrants are needed to ensure that the three men "do not continue to obstruct and endanger the court's investigations; and to prevent them from using their powers to continue the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the court."The U.N. Security Council referred the matter to the ICC through a resolution February 26, following widespread complaints about Gadhafi's efforts to crush a rebellion. The resolution said that, while "states not party to the Rome Statute have no obligations under the statute, the Security Council urged all states and concerned regional and other international organisations to cooperate fully with the court and the prosecutor."

World Bank to take stock as Egypt scraps IMF loan

The World Bank said on Sunday it would have to take stock of plans to lend to Egypt after the International Monetary Fund confirmed the authorities no longer wanted an IMF-backed loan program.Egyptian Finance Minister Samir Radwan said on Saturday Egypt would not borrow from the World Bank and the IMF after revising its budget and cutting the deficit target to 8.6 percent of gross domestic product from 11 percent.A World Bank spokesperson said it was not informed of the decision.

"As far as we are aware these discussions are ongoing and we have heard nothing from the government to suggest the contrary," a World Bank spokesperson said.If there is no IMF program, we will have to take stock," the spokesperson added.The IMF said Egypt had scrapped plans for a $3 billion IMF loan agreed last month. The World Bank and other international donors usually look to the IMF as a seal of approval to lend to governments.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on May 24 the poverty-fighting institution would make available $4.5 billion over the next 24 months for Egypt. The funding included $1 billion this year in budget support and another $1 billion next year to help cover a huge budget shortfall after the economy was plunged into turmoil by mass protests that drove Hosni Mubarak from office on February 11.

The World Bank program was also aimed at improving transparency and boosting employment, which were part of demands of the protesters.Radwan said Qatar had provided Egypt with $500 million for budgetary support in the past week, and Saudi Arabia had offered a similar amount..

India will get access to Swiss Bank

Once the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) is ratified at the Parliaments of India and Switzerland, India will be given access to the information it wants on bank deposits and accounts of Indians.

Switzerland’s Ambassador to India H E Philippe Welti disclosed this here on Friday.

At a session on ‘Switzerland- India: A strong partnership, investment & business opportunities’, he said the Indian Parliament was ready to ratify the DTAA and Switzerland would do it soon.

Switzerland, Welti said, still had distinction between tax fraud and tax evasion.“ While tax fraud is a crime, tax evasion is not, though it is prohibited in our country.

                 We have strict rules for banks and have signed about 70-75 bilateral treaties and agreements with several SAARC countries,” he explained.Further, he said around 120 Swiss manufacturers had their presence in India, out of which 20-30 were inBangalore. “We are especially focused on manufacturing, science and technology, and hi-tech sectors, such as information technology and nanotechnology,” said Welti.

        Informing that there was a 30 per cent growth in the number of visa applications from India over the past year, he said the new South Consul General office in Bangalore would be functional in near future and would cater to thevisa applicants from south India.At the meet, Executive Director of Swissnex India, Sylvia Hostettler, said they were involved in 22 research projects in the country. “Our key areas of focus are nanotech, IT, health sciences, urban development and renewable energy, among others,” she explained.

15 killed as thousands march in Syria

Syrian security forces shot dead 15 protestors and injured dozens as tens of thousands of anti-regime demonstrators surged onto the streets, prompting Europe to blast the "shocking" crackdown.
Friday´s demonstrations were a response to a call by the Facebook group Syrian Revolution 2011, a driving force behind three months of protests against the autocratic rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
Five people died in Damascus, another five in the town of Kiswah south of the capital, three in Homs and two others near the central city, activists told AFP.

"Security forces tried to break up a rally calling for the fall of the regime with tear gas before opening fire," killing five and wounding 25 others, said an activist in the Damascus neighbourhood of Barzeh.
Activists said dozens of people in Barzeh were arrested in house-to-house searches and a curfew was also imposed there, although it was not clear when it would be lifted.At least five demonstrators were killed in the town of Kiswah south of Damascus, another activist told AFP.

"Demonstrators left the mosque after Friday prayers and marched for a few minutes until security forces opened fire to disperse them, killing five people and wounding six others," said Mohammad Enad Suleiman.Three people were killed in Homs and two others near the central city when security forces opened fire on protesters, according to activists at the scene.
Demonstrations rocked many other cities, including the eastern oil hub of Deir Ezzor where 30,000 protesters filled the streets, said Rami Abdel Rahman of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Security forces also arrested between 70 and 80 protestors in Mareh near Aleppo, Syria´s largest city, after anti-government protests, activists said.
State television blamed the civilian deaths in Barzeh on "armed men," saying they also wounded several security force members including an officer.
It added that a police officer was also shot dead in the Damascus suburb of Kadam, and the official SANA news agency reported that "several members of the security forces were hit by gunfire in Kiswah."
Syria blames the violence on "armed terrorist gangs" and says the protests are being orchestrated from abroad.
Syrian rights groups say that more than 1,300 people have been killed and 10,000 have been arrested in the regime´s brutal crackdown on dissent since the protests erupted on March 15.

11 missing in Philippine storm chaos

     Tropical storm Falcon (international name Meari) caused chaos across the Philippines on Thursday, dumping heavy rains in the capital, leaving 11 people missing in other parts of the country and grounding dozens of flights.

Head-high floods swept through parts of Manila during the evening rush hour, leaving thousands of people stranded in their cars and others in their offices as traffic turned to gridlock.Authorities said they had dispatched rescue workers in rubber boats to help residents of badly-affected riverside areas.

        There were no immediate reports of casualties in Manila, but authorities said at least 11 people were missing and thousands of others had been forced to flee their flooded homes elsewhere in the Philippines.

More than 7,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the Bicol peninsula of the main island of Luzon, said Raffy Alejandro, civil defence officer for the mainly rural region.Ten fishermen were declared missing after they failed to return to port in Bicol, Alejandro said, adding that heavy seas prevented authorities from launching a search operation.

A woman had also been washed away by a flash flood in Bicol and authorities did not know whether she was alive, Joey Salceda, governor of one of the provinces in the region, said in a television interview.

Aviation authorities cancelled at least 56 flights to and from Manila, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said. Thirty were foreign flights.

          The state weather service said Falcon had not directly hit Luzon, but it had caused a lot of damage across the island because it combined with seasonal monsoon weather and a tropical depression at sea.

It had packed maximum gusts of 90 kilometers per hour on Thursday, said government weather forecaster Sonny Pajarillo, adding that the storm could continue dumping rains on Luzon until Sunday.

An average of 20 storms and typhoons, some of them deadly, hit the Philippines every year.

Over the past 6 weeks, more than 50 people have been killed in a series of storms, one of which became a typhoon.

Obama orders withdrawal of 33,000 troops

President Barack Obama has announced the withdrawal of 10,000 US troops from Afghanistan this year and another 23,000 by the end of September 2012.Speaking from the White House, he said it was "the beginning, but not the end, of our effort to wind down this war".Mr Obama's announcement, after a month-long strategy review, outlined the exit of the forces he sent to the country at the end of 2009 as part of a "surge".The reductions are larger and faster than military commanders had advised.

They told the president that the recent security gains were fragile and reversible, and had urged him to keep troop numbers high until 2013.That would have given them another full "fighting season" - in addition to the one now under way - to attack Taliban strongholds and their leaders.Nevertheless, about 68,000 US troops will remain in Afghanistan. All US combat troops are scheduled to leave by 2013, provided that Afghan forces are ready to assume responsibility for security.

NSC chief promises to cleanse sports associations

 National Sports Council (NSC) Member-secretary Yuvaraj Lama said that all the national sports associations would be checked whether they are complying with legal provisions or not within two months. There would be stringent monitoring of these bodies, he said.

"Sports Act directs that every association should have its bodies and activities at least in 16 districts but some of our associations are not in existence even in a room," said Lama during an interaction program organized by Nepal Sports Journalists Forum on Tuesday. "If we follow the law, half of the sports associations will be automatically dissolved," he added. 

Reform in associations

Member-secretary Lama said that NSC would soon issue a notice to all the associations, who have not conducted regular general assembly, to conduct it within two months. "If some associations have conducted it regularly, we´ll ask them to submit the reports. Through this, we´ll look into their financial transparency also," said Lama.

Olympics dispute 

Lama also promised to resolve disputes about Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) as soon as possible. "One NOC body led by Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan has international recognition and the Supreme Court´s decision has made NOC body led by Rukma Samsher Rana alive within the country. Now, both bodies lack options other than searching a common ground," said Lama.

S.L.C 2068 result published

 The pass percentage in the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination has nosedived again, by nine percentage points, this year.

Out of the total of 397,759 students who appeared in the SLC examination conducted in the academic year 2067 B.S. (March 2011), only 220,766 students got through this most vital exam of their school life. 

The pass percentage in this year´s SLC exams stands at 55.50 percent -- nine percentage points lower than in the previous year (2066 B.S.), when 64.31 percent of students passed through the ´iron gate´.

Last year´s pass percentage, which was four percentage points lower than in the year immediately before (2065 B.S.), had raised eyebrows among education policymakers. The dismay that policymakers felt was largely due to the euphoria of constant increase in SLC pass percentages in the last few years, especially since the academic session of 2061 B.S. 

This year´s further decline in the SLC pass percentage has baffled government officials also. Education Secretary Shankar Prasad Pandey, who briefed journalists about the SLC results published by the Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE) on Sunday, appeared puzzled as to why the pass percentage dropped drastically this year. 

“The drop in SLC pass percentages may be due to the more disciplined and stricter conduct of exams,” Pandey said, responding to journalist´s queries. “This question can be dealt with better by education experts.” 

The percentage has dropped in spite of the OCE board´s decision to continue the tradition of grace marks. According to Surya Prasad Gautam, controller of examinations, the OCE board has given a maximum of 5 grace marks to students who failed two subjects. 

According to Gautam, altogether 17,740 students have benefited from the OCE board´s decision on grace marks this academic sesssion. This means that only 51.04 percent of students would have passed the SLC exams had there been no grace marks. 
Simply put, barely only one in two students has succeeded in this year´s SLC examination. This is the worst SLC pass percentage since the academic session of 2062 B.S. That academic year, only 46.52 percent students made it through the iron gate. The percentage had risen constantly since 2062 B.S. until last year. 

The pass percentage under the exempted category is even more shocking. Of the total 56,263 exempted students, only 17.30 percent succeeded, with none of them obtaining distinction marks. Last year, almost 30 percent of exempted students had passed. 
In what seems the only satisfactory point about this year´s SLC results, the number of students obtaining distinction marks has gone up to 20,111. Last year, only 16,859 students had achieved distinction.