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A miraculous tale of human ingenuity and bravery lies behind an exhibition of treasures from Afghanistan that opens in the British Museum this week.

In 17 a long time of war soon after the 1989 Soviet withdrawal, and five a long time of Taliban rule, nearly all of the Afghan national museums riches ended up looted and a few ended up deliberately destroyed.

But the most beneficial objects survived, in a vault deep beneath the presidential palace, due to five guys – among them museum director Omar Khan Massoudi.

‘He stored his nerve through the Talibans rule of Afghanistan and displayed enormous courage in not submitting to their demands and threats to reveal its spot,’ says British Afghan skilled and member of parliament Rory Stewart.

‘It was an act of extraordinary courage and he carried out an incredible company to his country.’

The Kabul national museum is located some kilometres south of the funds, in a region that repeatedly modified fingers as mujahideen militias vied for influence in the early 1990s.

Every time it absolutely was used, the museum was looted again. Of your approximated a hundred,000 object on display in 1979, some 70% had gone from the mid-1990s.

A rocket destroyed a 4th Century wall painting in 1993. Priceless goods, some looted to order, modified fingers to the global artwork marketplace. Other individuals ended up buried in rubble or burned as firewood.

But the legendary Bactrian gold – which professionals feared had been stolen and melted down – had in fact been packed up, along with quite a few important objects in the assortment, and moved to a Central Bank vault in the Presidential Palace in 1989.

Mr Massoudi was among five guys who had keys towards the vault. All five keys ended up required to open it – and every single of the guys risked their lives to not hand them about towards the militants.

The holders of the keys stored their spots key – if a important holder died, it absolutely was agreed, the key can be handed on towards the keepers eldest kid.

In that way, the priceless artefacts ended up preserved.

‘Mr Massoudi and his workers are unquestionably unsung heroes,’ says exhibition undertaking curator Constance Wyndham.

‘Without his initiative its highly unlikely this wonderful assortment can be around today.’

Ms Wyndham says the Soviet-backed President Mohammad Najibullah, whose govt fell in 1992, also played a part, however it stays unclear precisely how intently he was involved.

‘All that we do know is that the selection was produced by a committee and President Najibullah ordered the objects to get moved towards the presidential palace,’ she mentioned.

After the ingenuity of the rescue arrived the bravery that was essential to keep the hoard risk-free.

Mr Massoudi and his workers have in the intervening a long time remained modest – and considerably reticent – about their achievement.

But his comments in the museums guidebook give some thought of the hazards of holding the treasure risk-free from ‘terror, violence, civil war and the Taliban’.

Despite becoming subjected to numerous threats from the Taliban – often at gunpoint – individuals who realized of the key spot gave practically nothing away.

It was not until eventually 2003 the shop of 22,000 gold and glass objects ended up revealed.

‘Today with the grace of Allah Almighty, we now have succeeded in viewing the central treasure of Afghanistan,’ President Hamid Karzai declared.

Chelseas new £50m signing Fernando Torres has said it could be ‘destiny’ to score against former club Liverpool when the teams meet on Sunday.

By coincidence, the Spaniard could make his debut for the Blues against the side he left on Monday.

The 26-year-old striker has not asked to be left out of the Premier League clash and stated: ‘It is like destiny.’

He admitted: ‘It isnt best but if I have the chance to play, I will do my very best and hopefully I can score.’

Torres departure from Anfield, where he spent the very best component of four years, was greeted with anger by many fans, some of whom burnt replica shirts bearing their former heros name.

But the player stressed: ‘I only have great words about Liverpool. They made me a top player and gave me the chance to play at the top level.

‘I will by no means say anything bad about Liverpool. I have been very happy there but now the history is diverse and I am playing for Chelsea.’

Torres, who scored 81 objectives throughout his spell on Merseyside, risked further annoying fans of his former club when he told Chelsea TV: ‘I am joining a team that is at the top level. There is not an additional level after Chelsea.

‘I am joining with massive names like [John] Terry, [Frank] Lampard, [Didier] Drogba and [Nicolas] Anelka and I can be component of this wonderful team.’

Torres admitted he had not yet met up with the Blues manager Carlo Ancelotti but said: ‘I wanted to join due to the fact Chelsea often have shown a massive respect for me.

‘They genuinely want me and it is essential whenever you have the support of the men and women within the club, along with the support of the fans who often showed respect to me when I came to Stamford Bridge and at Anfield.

‘Now I am very happy to be a Chelsea player.’

Fans of the Stamford Bridge outfit will probably be relieved not to have Torres lining up against them for once, after he proved to be a thorn in their side with seven objectives against them while playing for Liverpool.

The striker added: ‘I have great memories and bad memories of games against Chelsea. All the objectives are great memories due to the fact all of them are unique.

‘If theyre happy also due to the fact I am not going to score any much more against them then it is great.’

Jenny

The president said he had instructed the appropriate government departments to allow religious groups and students to travel towards the communist-run island.

President Obama said he believed the brand new, more peaceful, guidelines which also allow it to be simpler to send remittances to Cuba will support civil society there.

The modifications will not end the decades-old US trade embargo.

The guidelines will likely be modified to, amongst other objects:

* Permit religious organisation to sponsor religious travel to Cuba beneath a widespread licence
* Permit accredited institutions of increased education to sponsor travel to Cuba
* Permit any US individual to send remittances (as a lot as 500 per quarter) to non-family members in Cuba to support private financial activity
* Permit remittances to become sent to religious institutions in Cuba in support of religious activities
* Permit US airports to use to give solutions to licensed charters

Improved contact

Within a statement, President Obama said the modifications were aimed at developing ‘people-to-people’ contacts by way of more academic, cultural and religious exchanges.

The moves follows an easing of the trade embargo in April 2009, when the president ordered curbs on remittances and travel by Cuban-Americans browsing family members on the island to become peaceful.

But Florida Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said the modifications wouldnt support enhance the situation in Cuba.

‘They will not make the Castro regime show respect for human rights, and so they definitely will not support the Cuban people entirely free themselves through the despotic tyranny which oppresses them,’ she said. see also

The modifications are anticipated to come into force in approximately three weeks.

The European venture to build a space jet for fare-paying passengers continues to be really considerably alive, says EADS Astrium.
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The plane, which would make short hops over the ambiance, was introduced in 2007 and then nearly instantly set on hold due to the global downturn.

But Astrium, Europes largest space organization, says internal improvement work continues and it is going to devote a further 10m euros (£9m) around the concept in 2011.

‘We preserve the investment going,’ said Astrium CEO François Auque.

‘We proceed to mature the concept, maintaining the minimal staff, in purchase that when we discover the appropriate partnership we are ready and also have progressed sufficiently,’ he told reporters on Wednesday on the companys rocket production facility at Les Mureaux just north of Paris.

The Astrium car would be regarding the dimension of a organization jet and would get off from a standard runway, employing normal aircraft engines to climb to about 12km. It would then ignite a liquid oxygen-methane rocket to push the car to about 100km.

At this altitude, the five passengers onboard could experience a few minutes of weightlessness prior to strapping themselves back again within their seats for the return flight to your ground.

Astrium has carried out substantial work already around the Romeo rocket engine that would power the climb to space, and wind tunnel testing has proven the aerodynamic shape.

What exactly is at present lacking will be the investment of a partner that would move the venture from concept to manufacturing.

‘As you recognize, we had discussions from the Gulf prior to there was a alter from the economic predicament. Now we now have other discussions in other parts from the entire world and I am really optimistic,’ said Mr Auque.

Considerably more superior is British billionaire Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic venture. This can use an American rocket plane formulated by Californias Scaled Composites organization to send fare-paying passengers on sub-orbital trips.

Enterprise, as this rocket plane is recognized, is already developed and conducting glide exams. It truly is expected Enterprise will fire its rocket motor and make demonstration flights over the ambiance later this 12 months.

Mr Auque was talking on the yearly New Year press conference from the European Aeronautic Defence and Area (EADS) group. Furthermore to owning the Astrium satellite and rocket concern, EADS also owns the airline manufacturer Airbus.

US authorities have charged a 22-year-old man above Saturdays Arizona shooting by which a congresswoman was seriously wounded and 6 folks died.

Federal prosecutors charged Jared Loughner with looking to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords, forty, and killing two other government officials.

Mr Loughner, who is on account of seem in court, could deal with the death penalty.

Ms Giffords is in a important condition following becoming shot in the head at a public meeting in Tucson.

She had been holding an open-invitation meeting with constituents outside a supermarket when a man holding a gun approached and opened fire.

She was shot from shut array by the gunman, who then commenced shooting to the crowd.

Among the dead had been a nine-year-old lady and a federal judge. A complete of 14 folks had been injured, furthermore to the 6 who had been killed.

Nearby Sheriff Clarence Dupnik mentioned a woman tackled the gunman as he attempted to reload, snatching a magazine of bullets.

Patricia Maisch, who was waiting to get her photograph taken using the congresswoman, grabbed the bottom with the suspects weapon to prevent him from reloading.

He managed to reload with one more magazine, however the gun malfunctioned and two guys then restrained him.

‘Somebody mentioned Get the magazine! so I got the magazine, and I was ready to secure that,’ Ms Maisch mentioned. ‘Thats what necessary to be performed.’

The sheriff mentioned theyd prevented a much larger tragedy.

Police searching Mr Loughners Tucson house mentioned theyd located an envelope with messages saying ‘I planned ahead’, ‘my assassination’, as well as the title Giffords.

Up to now, Mr Loughner continues to be charged only with offences relating to the assault on government employees, that is the duty of federal prosecutors.

They charged him with two counts of first-degree murder for your killings of Federal Judge John Roll and Gabe Zimmerman, an aide of Ms Giffords.

He was also charged with tried assassination above the shooting of Ms Giffords, and two counts of trying to murder two other aides.

The justice department mentioned he would seem in court in Phoenix on Monday.

State authorities are expected to bring expenses from him later for attacking non-government employees.

An unidentified man, whose picture was captured on the safety digital camera shortly prior to the assault and who had been suspected of acting as an accomplice, was cleared on Sunday of any involvement in the assault, Mr Dupnik mentioned.

The man was a cab driver who walked to the supermarket with Mr Loughner simply because he did not have modify to get a 20 note. The shooting occurred just following the two exchanged dollars, Mr Dupnik added.

Japan has unveiled sweeping changes to its nationwide defence polices, boosting its southern forces in response to neighbouring Chinas military rise.

Japan, which shares a maritime border with China, said Beijings military build-up was of worldwide problem.

Japan may also strengthen its missile defences towards the threat from a nuclear-armed North Korea.

China has responded stating it really is a pressure for peace and improvement in Asia and threatens no-one.

Chinas Overseas Ministry said no country had the correct for making irresponsible feedback on Chinas improvement.
Flashpoints

The Nationwide Defence Programme Guideline has become approved by the cabinet and will form Japans defence policy for the upcoming 10 years.

Japan is changing its defence policy in response for the shifting stability of power in Asia, analysts say.

Defences will probably be scaled down within the north, exactly where theyve been deployed for the reason that Cold War to counter probable threats through the former Soviet Union.

The military concentrate will now be within the south of Japan, closer to China and distant flashpoint islands close to Taiwan.

The suggestions say Japan is concerned by Chinas increasing military shelling out, modernisation of its armed forces, and increased naval assertiveness within the East China and South China seas.

‘These actions, coupled using the lack of transparency on Chinas military and protection problems, the pattern can be a problem for the region along with the worldwide community,’ the new suggestions say.

Relations between Japan and China deteriorated sharply in September, following collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japanese patrol boats close to a chain of disputed islands within the East China Sea.
North Korea concerns

The assessment paper outlines a shift in sources through the army for the air pressure and navy.

Japans submarine fleet will probably be expanded from 16 to 22 and fighter jets upgraded, even though the number of tanks will probably be reduce by a third to 400.

North Koreas missile and nuclear programmes have been also described as being a ‘pressing and critical destabilising factor’.

Pyongyang has fired missiles about Japan and staged nuclear tests in recent years.

Last month it unveiled a new uranium enrichment plant to US authorities, and released an artillery assault on the South Korean island, killing four people.

In response, Japan says more Patriot interceptor batteries will probably be deployed throughout the country, along with the number of warships which could shoot down missiles will probably be increased from four to six.

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Dozens of people are feared to have drowned right after a boat carrying suspected asylum seekers crashed into rocks on Australias Christmas Island. wavertoa auto insurance vehicle

Pictures from the scene showed the boat, thought to become carrying Iranians and Iraqis, smashed to items.

Witnesses said they might do small to assist as the seas had been also tough to tactic the vessel.

The boat appeared to become wanting to land at Christmas Island, the place Australia has an immigration detention centre.
Engine failed

The BBCs Nick Bryant, in Sydney, says he understands that about 70 folks had been to the vessel and about forty had been rescued.

Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan, standing in for Julia Gillard whilst she is on holiday, confirmed that many people had died but could not say what number of.

‘A quantity of folks are already rescued, but sadly some bodies are already retrieved,’ he said.

A spokeswoman for your Royal Flying Medical doctor Service said 30 folks had been becoming treated for injuries and three of them had been critically sick.

Residents of Christmas Island said they had been alerted to your disaster by the seems of screaming from the shore.

‘We threw ropes through the cliffs and we must have thrown in a couple of hundred life-jackets,’ a single resident was quoted as saying by the West Australian newspaper site.

‘About 15 or 20 folks managed to acquire into the jackets but you will discover bodies all around the water.

‘There are dead babies, dead women and dead young children inside water. The swell is unbelievably big.’

Yet another resident, Simon Prince, informed Related Press: ‘The engine had failed. They had been washing backward and forward incredibly shut to your cliffs here, that are jagged limestone cliffs, incredibly nasty.

‘When the boat hit the cliff there was a sickening crack. Each of the folks on board rushed to your land side, which can be the worst issue they might do.’

Australian media said citizens alerted the police at 0545 (2045 GMT on Tuesday).

Australia Customs released two inflatable boats to rescue survivors.

One witness, documentary maker Philip Stewart, said he arrived with the shore about an hour right after the boat initial hit the rocks and it was currently in items.

He said he noticed about seven survivors but conditions had been also tough for rescuers to acquire shut enough to assist.

‘They had been waving and shouting and screaming for help,’ he informed Australias ABC Information.

‘They had been desperate, by that stage that they had been inside water for an hour currently.

‘They hung on for so long as they maybe could and every single certainly one of them was at some point thrown off into the sea on to your rocks.’

He said he noticed a single particular person picked up whilst the other folks drowned.

Australia has noticed an increase this calendar year in asylum seekers arriving by boat.

There are presently pretty much three,000 folks inside Christmas Island processing centre waiting for officials to rule on their circumstances.

The island is inside Indian Ocean, about one,200km (750 miles) north-west from the Australian mainland and about 300km south of Indonesia.

Australias overseas minister has stated the US would be to blame for that launch of a huge number of diplomatic cables on Wikileaks, not its Australian founder, Julian Assange. auto insurance insurance for car

Kevin Rudd stated the discharge raised inquiries about US safety.

Mr Rudd stated he did not ‘give a damn’ about criticism of him within the cables.

Mr Assange, arrested within the UK over intercourse crime allegations in Sweden, has accused the Australian government of ‘disgraceful pandering’ to the US.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard had earlier named Mr Assanges launch with the cables ‘grossly irresponsible’.

About the previous two weeks, Wikileaks has released a huge number of categorized messages from US envoys about the globe, from more than 250,000 it has been given.

Washington has named their publication ‘irresponsible’ and an ‘attack around the worldwide community’.
First class job

In an interview with Reuters information company, Mr Rudd stated: ‘Mr Assange is just not himself accountable for that unauthorised launch of 250,000 paperwork from the US diplomatic communications network. The Americans are accountable for that.’

Mr Rudd, the former prime minister who was replaced by Julia Gillard in June, added: ‘I believe you can find true inquiries to be asked about the adequacy of [the US] safety methods as well as the level of entry that individuals have had to that content.

‘The core duty, and therefore authorized liability, goes to individuals people accountable for that initial unauthorised launch.’

The White Home has ordered US government agencies to tighten their dealing with of categorized paperwork within the wake with the Wikileaks releases.

Mr Rudd was dismissed in one leaked US cable as being a ‘mistake-prone manage freak’.

In cables revealed by the Sydney Morning Herald former US ambassador Robert McCallum stated Mr Rudd made ‘snap announcements without consulting other countries or inside of the Australian government’.

The US was also angered at what it named Mr Rudds ‘self-serving and inaccurate leaking’ of a phone call with then US President George W Bush in which Mr Rudd was reported as declaring: ‘Stunned to listen to Bush say, Whats the G20?’

Mr Rudd shrugged off the criticism, declaring: ‘Im positive considerably worse has been written about me prior to now and probably considerably worse will likely be written about me within the long run but frankly, mate, I will not care.

Ms Gillard defended Mr Rudd, declaring: ‘Hes bringing [his] expertise to bear for that Australian nation and carrying out an completely first class job.’

Mr Assange has been very vital with the Australian governments stance around the launch with the cables.

In an opinion piece within the Australian on Wednesday, Mr Assange accused the Australian government of ‘disgraceful pandering’ to the Americans and of putting the powers with the government absolutely in the disposal with the US.

From the piece headlined ‘Dont shoot the messenger for revealing unpleasant truths’, he says: ‘Democratic societies want a strong media and Wikileaks is a component of that media. The media helps keep government sincere.’

He adds: ‘The Australian attorney-general is carrying out every thing he can to help a US investigation clearly directed at framing Australian citizens and transport them to the US.’

Mr Assange has been refused bail by a court in London but has vowed to fight extradition to Sweden.

He denies sexually assaulting two ladies in Sweden but was remanded in custody pending a listening to up coming week.

Mr Assanges lawyer, Mark Stephens, has claimed the fees are ‘politically motivated’.

On a check out to Serbia on Wednesday, Swedish International Minister Carl Bildt stated there had been no contact with US authorities about the possible extradition of Mr Assange from Sweden to the US.

The US has begun a legal investigation and vowed to punish anyone found accountable for illegal leaks.

No-one has been charged with passing the diplomatic information to Wikileaks, but suspicion has fallen on US Army non-public Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst arrested in Iraq in June and charged over an earlier leak.

The Swiss post offices bank, PostFinance, has frozen the accounts of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. 6articles comuf

The whistle-blowing website says the freeze incorporates a defence fund and individual property really worth 31,000 euros.

Wikileaks has published countless secret US diplomatic cables, angering the US authorities and triggering moves by several firms which includes PayPal and Amazon to end their providers.

At the same time, a warrant for Mr Assanges arrest has reached the uk authorities.

Sources have informed the BBC that the European Arrest Warrant for Mr Assange arrived on Monday afternoon.

Swedish prosecutors would like to question Mr Assange in connection with allegations of rape, which he denies.

Hes believed to become in hiding someplace in south-east England. The moment the police have located him, he would be expected to appear at a magistrates court inside 24 hrs, pending extradition to Sweden, says the BBCs protection correspondent Frank Gardner.
Setbacks for Wikileaks

Sweden initially issued an arrest warrant for Mr Assange on 18 November but it was invalidated by a procedural error. A brand new warrant was issued on 2 December.

The move by Switzerlands PostFinance to freeze the Wikileaks accounts could be the most recent setback to hit the whistle-blowing website seeing that it began publishing the US cables last week.

Inside a statement on its website, PostFinance explained Mr Assange had ‘provided fake information and facts concerning his location of residence’ during the account opening method.

‘(Mr) Assange entered Geneva as his domicile. Upon inspection, this information and facts was found to become incorrect.

‘(Mr) Assange are unable to supply proof of residence in Switzerland and thus isnt going to meet the factors to get a consumer romance with PostFinance. For that reason, PostFinance is entitled to close his account.’

For its part, a Wikileaks statement says it and Mr Assange have misplaced 100,000 euros in property inside a week.

‘Late last week, the world wide web payment large PayPal froze 60,000 euros of donations to the German charity the Wau Holland Basis, which have been targeted to advertise the sharing of know-how by way of Wikileaks,’ Wikileaks explained inside a statement.
Verging on the criminal

On Monday, Wikileaks introduced an intensive record of amenities all around the globe that, in accordance to the most recent leaked cables, the US describes as crucial to its national protection.

The record incorporates pipelines, communication and transport hubs.

Quite a few UK web-sites are listed, which includes cable locations, satellite web-sites and BAE Methods plants.

It is most likely essentially the most controversial document nevertheless from the Wikileaks organisation, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus.

Former UK Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind explained WikiLeaks steps have been ‘verging on the criminal’.

He informed the BBC: ‘Its not just negligence, it is not just stupidity, it is something which can be of energetic help to terrorist organisations.’

UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox echoed Sir Malcolms remarks, stating: ‘I think you have to ask about the motives for all those who are behind a number of the WikiLeaks materials. Do they see on their own as some kind of force of anarchy?

‘These are some comments, these are selective leaks constructed to drive a wedge in between us as well as the Americans and I dont think we ought to tolerate that.’

Whistle-blowing website Wikileaks continues to be compelled to change its internet tackle right after the business supplying its domain identify minimize off service. suv auto cars and autos teen drivers

EveryDNS.net explained it had terminated solutions mainly because Wikileaks.org had come under huge cyber attacks.

But Wikileaks has currently reappeared employing a Swiss internet tackle.

Wikileaks has also used the micro-blogging web-site Twitter to urge its followers to redistribute its ‘raw’ net tackle so it can be viewed at any time.

This numerical internet protocol (IP) tackle stays stay and accessible even when internet domains – the standard ‘www’ addresses used to entry most websites – are unavailable.

Experts say it really is probably that Wikileaks has performed specials with lots of hosting companies, although a lot of are more likely to back away from dealing with the controversial web-site inside light of latest internet attacks.

There is certainly also a published listing of mirror websites, which Wikileaks hopes will deliver frequent entry to the web-site.

A few of these websites have merely copied Wikileaks articles and put it on a diverse internet server, even though other folks are employing diverse domain names to point at the unique articles.

The additional of those websites there are, the harder it should be to shut Wikileaks down, security analyst Paul Mutton told the BBC.

In France, Trade Minister Eric Besson has called to get a ban of Wikileaks on French servers.

A single on the mirror websites, Wikileaks.ch, is presently hosted on servers in France.
Downtime

In a submit on Twitter, Wikileaks acknowledged that its domain had been ‘killed’ by EveryDNS.net.

It was not clear how long disruption to the wikileaks.org web-site would last.

In a assertion on its website, EveryDNS.net explained it had issued a 24-hour termination recognize to Wikileaks which ended at 0300 GMT on 2 December.

It explained the domain wikileaks.org had grow to be the goal of ‘multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks’.

‘These attacks have, and long run attacks would, threaten the stability on the EveryDNS.net infrastructure, which permits entry to virtually 500,000 other web pages,’ it explained.

‘Any downtime on the wikileaks.org website has resulted from its failure to make use of one other hosted DNS service provider,’ it additional.

Web pages use internet hosting firms these as EveryDNS.net to translate their uncooked IP addresses to a additional memorable internet tackle these as Wikileaks.org.

But the IP tackle of a web site will also immediate customers to the web-site.

A single internet skilled explained that Wikileaks had managed to re-establish internet entry by means of a diverse tackle.

‘Users visiting the www.wikileaks.ch website seem to be directed by means of a Swedish website on to a server in France that is now internet hosting their principal website,’ explained Sebastien Lahtinen, director of hosting agency NetConnex.

In a shocking twist, the .ch tackle is also hosted by EveryDNS.

‘It appears an odd choice provided that they pulled the plug around the .org tackle just some hrs in the past,’ explained Paul Mutton, a security analyst at internet solutions agency Netcraft. ‘It might be that Wikileaks is quite pleased to play a cat and mouse sport with them,’ he additional.
Death threats

Working with a Swiss domain might be Wikileaks anticipating the following line of attack – having its IP tackle de-registered, thinks Mr Mutton.

‘Moving to a non-US domain is sensible. Its preceding domain was registered having a US business and as these has to work within US legal guidelines, with potential for the authorities to lean on it and get it suspended,’ explained Mr Mutton.