Chad's Deby says "in control" after rebel attack

By Moumine Ngarmbassa and Emmanuel Braun

N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad's President Idriss Deby said on Wednesday his government was in total control of the country after beating back a rebel offensive in fighting which killed at least 100 civilians at the weekend.

Making his first public appearance since rebels attacked the capital N'Djamena on Saturday and besieged his presidential palace, Deby accused the president of neighboring Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, of backing the rebel offensive.

"We have total control of the situation, not only in the capital, but also the whole country," Deby, wearing military uniform, told a news conference at his palace in N'Djamena after meeting French Defense Minister Herve Morin.

Morin flew in to Chad to show French support for its former colony, where it has warplanes and more than 1,000 troops stationed. France initially said it was "neutral" as fighting raged at the weekend, but later threw its weight behind Deby.

The bodies of at least 100 civilians lay in N'Djamena's three main hospitals and as many as 700 more people were being treated for bullet wounds and injuries from mortar fire, Guilhem Molinie, head of mission for MSF-Brussels, told Reuters.

He said the death toll was likely to rise as Red Cross workers were still recovering bodies.

After obtaining U.N. Security Council support for Deby's government, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday his country could intervene if needed against the rebels, whom Chad says are supported by Sudan. Khartoum denies this.

Deby, who has fought off several rebel bids to end his 18-year rule in the central African oil producer, said he had not yet asked the French army to step in.

After meeting Morin, the former French-trained helicopter pilot said he could consider pardoning six French aid workers jailed by Chad for abducting children, if France requested it.

The members of charity Zoe's Ark were jailed in December for eight years for trying to fly 103 African children to Europe without permission. France's close relationship with Chad had already helped secure their transfer to a French jail and a pardon would be a further sign of mutual cooperation.

REBELS VOW RETURN

Rebel forces said they were still occupying positions "around N'Djamena" and vowed to fight any French intervention.

"If we are attacked, then we have the right to legitimately defend ourselves," rebel spokesman Ali Ordjo Hemchi said, urging France not to back a "failed regime".

He said rebel forces had routed early on Wednesday a column of pro-Deby "Toro-boro" Sudanese rebels north east of the capital, but there was no independent confirmation of this.

Deby's government said it had defeated its Chadian rebel foes, who had made a lightning advance last week from the eastern border with Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

A second rebel spokesman, Abderamane Koullamalah, said an army helicopter was bombarding insurgents 100 km (62 miles) northeast of N'Djamena. But he added the rebels would return.

"We'll retake the offensive in a few days," he said.

The increased conflict has delayed the deployment of a 3,700-strong European Union peacekeeping force to east Chad to protect thousands of Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians who have fled violence spilling over from Sudan's Darfur.

Relief officials said the unrest was blocking aid flights to more than half a million refugees and civilians in the east.

The British charity Save the Children called on the United Nations to organize urgent supply airlifts from neighboring Cameroon and Central African Republic.

"It has to happen within 48 hours," said Gareth Owen, Save the Children's Head of Emergencies. "Otherwise the humanitarian aid effort will start to unravel."

Tens of thousands of N'Djamena residents fled into Cameroon and Nigeria after the fighting, but hundreds started returning on Wednesday. A Chadian police officer with a megaphone told the crowd at the border: "Come back home. N'Djamena is at peace".

French warplanes have been flying reconnaissance missions over rebel positions and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Wednesday that a rebel force of between 100 and 200 vehicles was still somewhere east of the capital.

Source : reuters.com

Maya Soetoro, Senjata Rahasia Barack Obama

Oleh A Jafar M. Sidik

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Sepanjang sejarah pemilihan Presiden Amerika Serikat (AS), baru sekarang nama Indonesia sangat kerap disebut oleh media massa setempat.

Selasa (5/2), nama Indonesia disebut lagi secara luas setelah Barack Obama menang dalam pemungutan suara pemilih Partai Demokrat di Indonesia, kaukus suara di luar negeri yang sekarang menjadi salah satu yang amat menarik untuk diberitakan.

Barack Obama-lah, calon Presiden AS dari Partai Demokrat, yang membuat Indonesia tiba-tiba begitu dekat dengan AS.

Keterikatan Obama dan Indonesia bahkan lebih pekat dari yang diperkirakan setelah pemberitaan mengenai peran dan identitas adik perempuannya yang berdarah Jawa, Indonesia, Maya Soetoro Ng, semakin luas.

Sebelumnya, orang Indonesia lebih mengenal Obama hanya sebagai seorang AS yang menghabiskan sebagian masa kecilnya di Indonesia. Kini, pengetahuan itu bertambah dengan kepopuleran Maya Soetoro.

Ayah kandung Obama yang bernama Barack Hussein Obama adalah seorang Afrika berkewargnegaraan Kenya, sedangkan ayah kandung Maya adalah Lolo Soetoro, pria Jawa Timur tulen. Baik ayah kandung maupun ayah tiri Obama menganut keyakinan Islam.

Obama dan Maya beribu sama, seorang perempuan kulit putih bernama Stanley Ann Dunham.

Selama ini orang AS mengenal Michelle Obama, istri Obama, sebagai orang kuat di balik kampanye kecalonpresidenan dan karir politik Obama.

Tapi, setelah kampanye itu memasuki babak terpanasnya, orang AS mulai ingin mengenal lebih dekat sosok Obama, terutama keluarganya.

"...(selain Michelle) ada dua lagi senjata rahasia Barack Obama, yakni kakak perempuannya Auma Obama dan adik perempuannya Maya Soetoro Ng," tulis Amy Argetsinger dan Roxanne Roberts dari Washington Post (22/1).

Kedua wartawati The Post itu menyebutkan, aset politik terbesar Obama adalah tradisi multikultur yang ada dalam keluarganya. Tradisi itu dikembangkan oleh para perempuan di sekitar Obama, mulai ibunya sampai Maya Soetoro.

Begitu besarnya peran perempuan terhadap Obama tercermin dari perangai dan sikapnya yang lembut. Hampir semua orang terdekatnya adalah perempuan. Lima perempuan menjadi kekuatan inti pribadi Barack Obama, yaitu Michelle, ibundanya yang almarhum, sang nenek, Maya, dan Auma.

Keluarga Obama yang unik, karena berkomposisi ras warna-warni, sungguh menarik perhatian banyak orang di AS.

Auma adalah asli keturunan Kenya. Ibunda Auma adalah istri pertama dari Barack Obama Sr. Sedangkan, Maya, membawa darah campuran Asia (Jawa, Indonesia).

Saudara-saudara Obama yang lain hidup tenteram di Iowa, New Hampshire, dan jauh dari publikasi media, sehingga menyembunyikan keunikan keluarga Obama yang sesungguhnya merangsang apresiasi publik AS itu.

Meski berbeda ayah, mereka selalu berdekatan dan berkomunikasi sangat rekat, khususnya hubungan antara Maya dengan Obama.

Sampai sekarang Maya yang tumbuh besar bersama Obama di Indonesia dan Hawaii tetap mengenang masa kecil yang indah bersama sang abang. Berjam-jam ngobrol di telepon, menjadi tempat berkeluhkesah tatkala dibelit frustasi dan dirundung bingung, atau sebagai pelindung yang kadang terkesan protektif.

"Dia membantuku menentukan pilihan," kata Maya kepada Chicago Sun Times edisi 9 September 2007.

Maya yang sering dikira orang Latin atau hispanik itu sekarang telah menjadi istri pria Kanada keturunan Cina, Konrad Ng. Mereka dikarunia anak perempuan berusia 3 tahun bernama Suhaila.

Maya memeroleh gelar PhD dari Universitas Hawaii, dan sekarang mengajar pada sebuah sekolah di Honolulu, sedangkan suaminya adalah PhD ilmu politik yang aktif dalam kampanye kepresidenan Obama.

"Apakah anda akan berkampanye untuk kakak anda?" tanya wartawati New York Times, Deborah Solomon, dalam satu wawancara dengam Maya pada 20 Januari 2008.

Maya menjawab antusiastis, "Ya."

"Di bemper mobil ku ada stiker bertuliskan, `1-20-09. End of an Error` (Akhir bagi Kekeliruan)," kata Maya.

Kombinasi angka 1-20-09 merujuk pada waktu pelaksanaan pemungutan suara untuk pemilihan Presiden AS pada 20 Januari 2009, sedangkan maksud kalimat "akhir dari kekeliruan" adalah bahwa kemenangan si abang menjadi Presiden AS akan mengakhiri kekeliruan bangsa AS, karena telah memilih rezim yang salah.

Bersama para selebritis top, seperti Robert de Niro dan Oprah Winfrey, Maya kini aktif berkampanye bagi pencalonan Obama sebagai kandidat Presiden AS dari Partai Demokrat dan presiden kulit hitam pertama AS.

"Kukira hal terpenting yang bisa kulakukan sekarang adalah membagi alasan dengan orang-orang mengapa saya tergerak mendukung kampanye presidensial Obama, bahkan jika dia bukan abang ku," kata Maya.

Kepada New York Times, Maya menerangkan nilai-nilai moral dan kemanusiaan yang bersemayam dalam keluarganya, terutama setelah ditanam oleh sang ibu. Nilai-nilai keluarga ini pula yang merasuki pikiran, pandangan, dan prilaku Obama.

Maya menyebut ibunya sebagai seorang agnostik (masih mempertanyakan keberadaan Tuhan dan konsep Ketuhanan), tetapi sang ibu pula yang mengajarkan kebaikan-kebaikan ajaran spiritual.

"Mama kerap menghadiahi kami buku-buku bagus, Injil, Kitab Hindu Upanishad, Budhisme, dan Tao Te Ching. Beliau menginginkan kami meyakini bahwa setiap orang mempunyai sesuatu yang indah untuk disumbangkan kepada dunia," kata Maya.

"Anda tak menyebut-nyebut Al Quran? Anda khawatir kalau menyebut Islam akan mengundang kampanye hitam yang memburukkan citra politik kakak anda?" tanya Deborah.

Maya yang mengaku secara filosifis Budhis menjawab, ibunya tak mengajarkan banyak hal soal Al Quran, namun keluarga kerap membacanya, bahkan setiap pagi mereka mendengarkan lantunan ayat suci Al Quran selama di Indonesia.

Maya menolak kekhawatiran identitas keislaman yang menempel ketat pada keluarganya --terutama ayah kandung dan ayah tirinya-- akan mencederai citra Obama.

"Aku tidak menyangkal Islam. Aku kira sangatlah penting untuk diketahui bahwa kami memiliki pemahaman yang lebih baik tentang Islam. Tapi, akan sangat salah jika itu dihubung-hubungkan dengan abang ku karena ia berkeyakinan Kristen sejak 20 tahun lalu," kata Maya.

Maya mengungkapkan, pesan keberagaman, kebersamaan, cinta, dan sikap saling menghormati yang diajarkan ibunya kepada mereka telah membuat mereka tumbuh sebagai anak-anak yang menoleransi perbedaan dan bercita-cita demi toleransi itu.

Keluarga mereka, bahkan dinilai sangat melambangkan keragaman AS.

"Saya adalah wujud dari kebijakan luar negeri dan kekuatan Amerika. Jika nanti anda kabarkan pada orang-orang bahwa `Kita mempunyai presiden yang neneknya tinggal di satu gubuk di pinggir Danau Victoria dan mempunyai adik setengah Indonesia yang menikahi seorang Cina Kanada,` maka orang-orang akan menilai si presiden adalah orang yang akan lebih memahami apa yang dihadapi rakyat dan negerinya. Dan, mereka benar," kata Obama kepada New York Times edisi 4 November 2007.

Tak hanya soal keberpihakan pada kaum terpinggirkan, Obama juga menjadi salah seorang kandidat presiden yang lebih bisa menawarkan cara kreatif dalam pendekatan internasional AS yang lebih ramah dan dialogis.

Obama yang dikenal santun berperilaku dan berucap akan menjadi bekal dalam membangun dialog antar-bangsa yang lebih terbuka, berderajat, dan saling menoleransi.

Selama ini pendekatan internasional AS pimpinan Presiden George Bush yang agresif penuh retorika keras dan anti dialog telah membuat AS keliru untuk kemudian gagal membina hubungan baik dengan dunia.

Untuk alasan mengakhiri kekeliruan ini pula Maya Soetoro menyebut Obama sebagai yang tertepat untuk rakyat AS. Namun, banyak pihak tentunya berkomentar, "Kita lihat saja nanti." (*)

Sumber : antara.co.id

Kapal Turki Terbakar di Lepas Pantai Kroasia

Zagreb (ANTARA News)- Sebuah kapal barang Turki terbakar dekat wilayah perairan Kroasia, Rabu dan kemungkinan tenggelam, tetapi semua awak dan penumpang telah diselamatkan, kata para pejabat maritim Kroasia.

Kementerian kelautan dan transpor Kroasia mengatakan musibah itu terjadi 13 mil laut barat kota Rovinj, Laut Adriatik.

Buritan kapal itu hancur seluruhnya sementara haluannya masih terbakar," kata kementerian itu dalam sebuah pernyataan.

Pernyataan itu mengatakan kapal yang panjangnya 193 meter itu "Und Adriyatik" sedang dalam perjalanan dari Istanbul menuju Trieste dan mengangkut "200 truk dan lima ton bahan berbahaya".

Seorang pejabat urusan darurat lokal mengatakan kargo itu termasuk truk-truk. Pejabat itu mengatakan pesawat-pesawat pemadam kebakaran Kroasia berusaha memadamkan api tetapi kapal itu tidak bisa ditolong.

Kementerian itu mengatakan 22 awak kapal itu dan sembilan penumpang semuanya telah diselamatkan oleh sebuah kapal Yunani yang melintasi lokasi itu dan sedang dalam perjalanan ke Venesia, demikian Reuters.(*)


Sumber : antara.co.id

Tornadoes rip through South, killing 27

ATKINS, Ark. (AP) -- Authorities went door-to-door trying to find additional victims of tornadoes that killed at least 27 people, ripped the roof off a shopping mall and blew apart warehouses as they tore across four states.
The dead included 13 people in Tennessee, 11 in Arkansas, and a mother and father who died in Kentucky with their adult daughter. Those killed in Arkansas included another set of parents, who died with their 11-year-old in Atkins, about 60 miles northwest of Little Rock.
The family died from trauma when the storm their home "took a direct hit" from the storm, Pope County Coroner Leonard Krout said.
"Neighbors and friends who were there said, 'There used to be a home there,'" Krout said.
The twisters, which also slammed Mississippi, were part of a line of storms that raged across the nation's midsection at the end of the Super Tuesday primaries in several states. As the extent of the damage quickly became clear, candidates including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee paused in their victory speeches to remember the victims.
Northeast of Nashville, Tenn., a spectacular fire erupted at a natural gas pumping station northeast of Nashville that authorities said could have been damaged by the storms. An undetermined number of people were reported dead.
Eight students were trapped in a battered dormitory at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., until they were finally freed.
Well after nightfall Tuesday, would-be rescuers went through shattered homes in Atkins, a town of 3,000 near the Arkansas River. Around them, power lines snaked along streets and a deep-orange pickup truck rested on its side. A navy blue Mustang with a demolished front end was marked with spray paint to show it had been searched.
Outside one damaged home, horses whinnied in the darkness, looking up only when a flashlight reached their eyes. A ranch home stood unscathed across the street from a concrete slab that had supported the house where the family of three died.
Gov. Mike Beebe planned to tour Atkins on Wednesday.
In Memphis, high winds collapsed the roof of a Sears store at a mall. Debris that included bricks and air conditioning units was scattered on the parking lot, where about two dozen vehicles were damaged.
A few people north of the mall took shelter under a bridge and were washed away, but they were pulled out of the Wolf River with only scrapes, said Steve Cole of the Memphis Police Department.
In Mississippi, Desoto County Sheriff's Department Cmdr. Steve Atkinson said a twister shredded warehouses in an industrial park in the city of Southaven, just south of Memphis.
"It ripped the warehouses apart. The best way to describe it is it looks like a bomb went off," Atkinson said.
The power was knocked out briefly at a Little Rock convention hall that hosted a watch party for Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor seeking the GOP nomination for president.
"While we hope tonight is a time for us to celebrate election results, we are reminded that nothing is as important as the lives of these fellow Arkansans, and our hearts go out to their families," Huckabee said.
At the W.J. Matthews Civic Center in Atkins, a shelter was empty except for American Red Cross volunteers and a single touch-screen voting machine. The civic center had hosted an election precinct earlier Tuesday. Traffic was snarled on nearby Interstate 40, with tractor-trailers on their sides.
Officials do not know what started a fire at the Columbia Gulf Natural Gas pumping station near Green Grove, about 40 miles from Nashville. The blaze could be seen in the night sky for miles around, with flames shooting "400, 500 feet in the air," said Tennessee Emergency Management spokesman Donnie Smith.
The couple killed with their adult daughter were in their mobile home near Greenville in western Kentucky when a tornado went through their trailer park.
On Jan. 8, tornadoes were reported in Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Two died in the Missouri storms.

Source : AP

NASA clears space shuttle for liftoff Thursday

By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA managers on Tuesday cleared space shuttle Atlantis for liftoff in two days on a mission to deliver Europe's first permanent space laboratory to the International Space Station.
Launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. EST (1945 GMT) on Thursday.
Meteorologists are predicting a cold front will be moving through the area, possibly causing rain and clouds that would prohibit the launch. The chance conditions would be suitable for liftoff was 40 percent, Air Force meteorologists said on Tuesday.
Nevertheless, mission managers were optimistic about getting the first shuttle launch of the year under way.
"The team feels like we're in a very good place to go fly on Thursday," said LeRoy Cain, the head of NASA's shuttle mission management team.
"We're all thinking that Thursday's the day -- regardless of what the weather guy might tell ya," added launch director Doug Lyons.
Atlantis was scheduled to deliver Europe's Columbus module in December but the mission was delayed when problems surfaced with a shuttle emergency engine cutoff system.
The delay will cut short the time available for European astronaut Leopold Eyharts, who will be staying aboard the space station after Atlantis' departure, to get Columbus set up before the next shuttle arrives in March with his replacement.
Eyharts' planned 12- to 13-week stay likely will be cut to just six or seven weeks, said Alan Thirkettle, European Space Agency's space station program manager.
"It's been compressed (but) we've also taken account that the crew that's currently onboard there is just performing out of their socks," he said. "They're doing incredible work at a rate that the dreamers wouldn't have come up with, let alone the planners."
"We're kind of hoping that that will rub off on the shuttle crew," he added.
NASA plans to quickly follow Columbus' launch with the first flight for Japan's Kibo complex.
In all, the agency plans to take a sizable bite this year out of the 13 remaining missions on the shuttle's roster before the fleet is retired in 2010. In addition to 12 space station construction and resupply flights, NASA plans a mission in August or September to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
(Editing by Jim Loney and Todd Eastham)

Source : reuters.com

Britney Spears said drugged and controlled by manager

By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Britney Spears has been "drugged" by her self-styled manager in a bid to take control of her home, life and finances, the troubled pop star's mother charged in court documents made public on Tuesday.
Lynne Spears, in a sworn declaration submitted to the court to obtain a temporary restraining order against Sam Lutfi, paints a disturbing picture of her 26-year-old daughter as confused, numbed by drugs and virtually held captive by her sometime-manager.
The Grammy-winning superstar has been hospitalized since last week for a mental evaluation, and a Los Angeles judge has appointed a psychiatrist to determine if she is capable of understanding the legal proceedings around her.
The restraining order against Lutfi, which was granted by the same judge, forbids him from contacting Spears in any way.
"Mr. Lutfi drugged Britney. He has cut Britney's home phone line and removed her cell-phone chargers. He yells at her. He claims to control everything -- Britney's business manager, her attorneys and security guards at the gate," Lynne Spears wrote in the declaration.
She describes arriving at her daughter's Los Angeles home on January 28, days before she was forcibly hospitalized, finding Lutfi was in charge and the entertainer confused.
"Britney ... became very agitated and could not stop moving," Lynne Spears wrote in the court papers.
"She cleaned the house. She changed her clothes many times. She also changed her dogs' clothes many times. Britney spoke to me in a tone and with the level of understanding of a very young girl," she said.

Lynne Spears said Lutfi told her and a friend that he gave Britney Spears pills ground up in her food to keep her quiet and at one point he told her she had to take "10 pills a day" if she wanted to see her two young children.
The bitter custody battle between Spears and her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, has been put on hold while she is hospitalized at UCLA Medical Center for her mental issues.
Her father, Jamie Spears, and attorney Andrew Wallete have been granted temporary control of her assets, including her house, pending further legal proceedings.
Spears, a former child star and chart-topping singer, has seen her personal life descend into turmoil since she filed for divorce from Federline in 2006, while in recent months Lutfi has become an almost constant presence in her life.
The Louisiana native was hospitalized in January for a mental evaluation after becoming badly agitated when Federline's representatives tried to retrieve the children.
(Editing by Steve Gorman)

Source : reuters.com

Heat and Suns discuss O'Neal-Marion switch: report

MIAMI (Reuters) - The Miami Heat and Phoenix Suns are discussing a trade to send Shaquille O'Neal to Phoenix in a swap deal involving Shawn Marion, the Miami Herald said on Tuesday.
The 35-year-old O'Neal, reportedly due to fly to Phoenix to have his injured hip examined, failed to make the All-Star team for the first time in 15 seasons with a career-low average of 14.2 points per game.
The powerful center, known as "The Diesel", has two years left on a five-year contract worth $20 million per year.
Miami president and coach Pat Riley refused to comment but Marion, a four-times All-Star, has reportedly agreed to the trade.
The forward is averaging 15.8 points and 9.9 rebounds per game this season.
Guard Marcus Banks is also poised to join the Heat as part of the deal.

Source : reuters.com