Nepal govt heads to Everest for landmark meet

NEPAL:  Nepal's cabinet will meet in the shadow of Mount Everest next week to highlight the impact of global warming on the Himalayas ahead of United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen, officials said Saturday.

Twenty-six ministers, together with staff, will travel to the town of Gorakshep, high up in the foothills of Everest, for the special climate-themed meeting, said Bishnu Rijal, press advisor to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.

"We're going to host a ministerial level cabinet meeting on Friday, December 4 at Gorakshep to draw the attention of the whole world" to the effects of global warming on the Himalayas, he told AFP.

"Our glaciers are melting and glacial lakes are growing and are on the verge of overflowing. That will create a Himalayan tsunami. Even though we do not contribute to global warming, our country is highly vulnerable."

The U.N. talks, aimed at setting targets to curb greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, take place Dec. 7-18.

Gorakshep, a sandy plateau 5,165 meters (17,000 feet) above sea level, is the last village before the Everest base camp and the place from where mountaineers seeking to climb the celebrated peak set out.

Originally the cabinet planned to meet at the base camp itself, a little higher at 5,360 meters (17,585 feet).

But the venue was changed as it was too difficult to get all the ministers and officials there by helicopter, Rijal said.

Russia train disaster was terrorist attack: official

RUSSIA:  A train disaster that killed more than 39 people and injured 100 was caused by a bomb, indicating it was a terrorist attack, the head of Russia's FSB domestic intelligence service said on Saturday.

The alleged attack on an upscale passenger train speeding through the forest from Moscow to Saint Petersburg mangled and overturned carriages across the tracks and down the railway embankment as scores of orange-vested rescue workers searched urgently for further victims that could be trapped under the wreckage.

The incident occurred late Friday and targeted the same train hit by a bomb attack in August 2007 that injured dozens of passengers, and officials said they believed the latest incident was also caused by a bomb.

"Operational-investigative teams are treating as their main theory the detonation of an unidentified device by unidentified persons," Vladimir Yakunin, head of the state firm Russian Railways, said earlier on television.

"To put it simply, a terrorist attack," Yakunin said.

Witnesses including passengers on the train and inhabitants living near the site said they heard a loud bang just before the train went off the rails and police told AFP at the site there was a large crater under the track.

An unnamed security official quoted by the Interfax news agency said the crater was around one meter (three feet) in diameter.

A blast along the track in the 2007 attack ripped out a long segment of rail, causing the train to careen off the tracks.

The crater could have been caused by an "explosion from a device placed underneath one of the wagons," the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted another security official as saying.

There were conflicting reports on the death toll, but Alexander Basulin, an official at the emergency situations ministry, was quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency as saying "in all, there are 39" dead.

Basulin said this number comprised 25 victims found immediately and another 14 people discovered later, outside the train carriages.
Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said 95 people were injured and hospitalized.

Saudi flashfloods kill 77 as Muslims perform Hajj

Floods gridlocked major roads by traffic in Saudi

JEDDAH: A day-long downpour fouled the start of the annual Hajj (pilgrimage) on Wednesday, soaking thousands of people as they walked from Mecca to Mina and killing up to 77 people with the number expected to rise. Flashfloods also caused snarling traffic that trapped buses for hours.

Millions of Muslims from around the world continued their pilgrimage on Thursday in the holy city of Mecca as Hajj reached its climax with pilgrims ascending to the top of Mount Arafat, which is the integral part of the annual event.

Pilgrims then made their mass move (nafra) from Mount Arafat to Muzdalifah after sunset to continue the remaining rituals of the annual Hajj within the coming few days.

Obama sends Hajj, Eid greetings to Muslims

WASHINGTON:  President Barack Obama sent greetings early Thursday on behalf of the United States to pilgrims performing the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia and to Muslims worldwide celebrating the Eid al-Adha holiday.

"The rituals of Hajj and Eid al-Adha both serve as reminders of the shared Abrahamic roots of three of the world's major religions," read a White House statement.

"On behalf of the American people, we would like to extend our greetings during this Hajj season -- Eid Mubarak," Obama said, using a traditional Muslim greeting.

A sea of pilgrims from around the world, dressed in white robes and towels, began the five-day Hajj late on Tuesday and early on Wednesday, circling the Kaaba shrine inside Mecca's Grand Mosque.

Few people appeared concerned over the main threat to the hajj, swine flu, despite the news that four pilgrims had died from the disease before the rites officially began.

Obama said in the statement that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services partnered this year with the Saudi Health Ministry "to prevent and limit the spread of H1N1" during the Hajj.

"Cooperating on combating H1N1 is one of the ways we are implementing my administration's commitment to partnership in areas of mutual interest," the president said.

Swine flu has killed some 6,750 people around the world this year, the World Health Organization said on Friday, and Saudi authorities have deployed as many as 20,000 health workers.

Eid al-Adha is the holiday that marks the end of the Hajj.

IMF boosts lending scheme to 600 billion dollars

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that a lending scheme to aid countries hit hard by the financial crisis had grown to 600 billion dollars.

The Washington-based Fund said that an additional 13 potential countries had agreed to join 26 nations in committing money to the so-called New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB), which was originally targeted at 500 billion dollars.

They also vowed to bring more flexibility to the NAB, a standing set of credit arrangements under which participants commit supplementary resources for IMF lending when needed.

The IMF executive board is expected to make a formal decision on the expanded NAB in the coming weeks.

To ensure that the IMF continues to have sufficient resources to meet demand, the Group of 20 emerging and developed economies committed in September to triple its available resources, up from a pre-crisis level of about 250 billion dollars.

G20 leaders agreed in April that immediate financing of 250 billion dollars from members would subsequently be folded into an expanded and more flexible NAB, increased by up to 500 billion dollars.

Among the countries that contributed to the scheme are developed nations such as the United States, Britain, France, Japan and Italy and developing states like China, Brazil and India.