LOS ANGELES: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of about 200 homes in the fire-threatened coastal resort of Big Sur as 1,400 wildfires raged out of control across parts of the state.
Thousands of exhausted firefighters have been struggling to contain several blazes in the region 125 miles (200 kilometers) south of San Francisco, where popular tourist sites lie in and around the Los Padres National Forest.
"We have a very stubborn fire here," Schwarzenegger told a gathering of emergency services personnel in Big Sur, noting that two firefighters had been injured.
The area is a tourist mecca in summer, with scores of popular hiking and camping sites. Hundreds of hotels, resorts and restaurants boasting precious beachfronts and ocean views have closed due to the fire threat.
"So far 52,430 acres (21,200 hectares) have burned, three percent only is contained so far, 20 buildings have been destroyed, and more than 1,400 structures are threatened," in and around Big Sur, the governor added.
A total of 19,000 emergency personnel are fighting the northern California fires, the first of which were sparked on June 21 by lightning strikes in the dry, hot wilderness.
TEHERAN - Iran might give the go-ahead for more supervision of its nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog, ISNA news agency reported Thursday.
ISNA said that in case of resumption of talks between Iran and the five UN veto powers plus Germany (5+1), strengthening the supervision of the IAEA of Iranian nuclear sites could be on the agenda.
Iran currently cooperates with the IAEA on the basis of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and more supervision could mean that Teheran might resume implementation of the IAEA Additional Protocol, which, contrary to the NPT basis, would also allow snap inspections of all nuclear sites.
ISNA, which did not mention from where it gained its information, further wrote Iran would also vow for realization of nuclear disarmament worldwide and more guarantees by all countries that nuclear activities would not be deviated towards military projects.
Another aspect raised by ISNA was Iran's willingness for joint cooperation in achieving peaceful nuclear technology, including guaranteeing technological and financial aid for Iran's nuclear projects and resumption of technical cooperation by the IAEA.
The IAEA technical cooperation with Iran was cut after the Islamic state defied to follow the UN Security Council demand to suspend uranium enrichment.
BAGHDAD - US soldiers found the bodies of 14 civilian men in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra, officials said Thursday.
A government spokesman said the dead had not yet been identified.
The Aswat Al Iraq news agency reported late Wednesday that the bodies of two Iraqi soldiers had been found in Tigris, south of the capital Baghdad.
The soldiers from Wasit Province had been tortured before being killed, according to the report.
TOKYO - Israel is ready to use military action ‘without hesitation’ in Gaza to prevent attacks, an Israeli minister said Thursday after a Palestinian driving a bulldozer went on a deadly rampage in Jerusalem.
‘Terror and smuggling are the two grounds for Israeli military action in Gaza,’ Environment Minister Gideon Ezra said during a visit to Tokyo.
‘If there will be no terror or smuggling we will not need to act. But if we do have to resort to military action, we'll do it without any hesitation,’ he said.
A Palestinian on Wednesday killed three people and wounded 45 more as he rammed a bulldozer into buses and cars before being shot dead by Israeli police, who branded it a ‘terrorist attack’.
‘Israel is walking a very thin rope while trying to do everything possible not to escalate the region into another armed conflict,’ Ezra said at a conference here on prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
‘But as you all know, the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah are doing the exact opposite with encouragement of the rule of terror,’ he said.
Wednesday's attack was the first in Jerusalem since a Palestinian gunman killed eight Jewish students at a religious school in March.
JEDDAH - Saudi Arabia is the number one abuser of stimulants in the region despite the warning on Saudi Customs forms that drug traffickers are given the death penalty, according to a new report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Based on a ruling by the Supreme Ulema, drug smugglers and those who receive and distribute drugs from abroad, if caught, would receive the death penalty.
The UNODC report, which uses words like ‘unprecedented’ and ‘dramatic increase’ to describe the abuse of stimulants in the Kingdom, said stimulants from Bulgaria and Turkey are being trucked through Syria and Jordan and distributed throughout the Gulf region.
“More illegal amphetamines are being seized in the Gulf than in the United States, China and Britain combined,” says the 303-page report released last week. It adds that Captagon pills - a mixture of the stimulants fenethylline and caffeine - are available for only a few riyals on the streets of Jeddah, Manama and Doha.
The UNODC report documents how Captagon seizures mushroomed from 291 kgs in 2000 to 12.3 tons in 2006, and reveals how young Saudis and Arabs fall prey to drugs and addiction.
Captagon was originally prescribed for treating severe conditions such as depression and narcolepsy.
