10 œ theSun | TUESDAY JULY 21 2009

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Asthmatics should carry
written action plan
BERLIN: Asthmatics who are travelling
should carry a written action plan with them
in addition to their medications in case of an
asthma attack, advises the German Society of
Pulmonology and Respiratory Medicine (DGP).
It said the plan, containing important patient
data, would help both the asthma sufferer
Obama’s approval rating drops below 60% for first time
WASHINGTON: For the first time
since taking office, US President
Barack Obama’s job approval rating
has dropped below the 60% thresh-
old as Americans expressed doubts
about his handling of the economy,
the deficit and health care, a new
opinion poll showed yesterday.
The ABC News/Washington
Post survey showed Obama’s job
approval rating fell to 59%, down 10
points from its springtime peak.
Slightly more than half of Ameri-
cans, 52%, now approve of his work
on the economy, down eight points
from its peak, according to the poll.
Just under half, 49%, approve of his
handling of health care, a drop of
eight points. And only 43% approve
of his handling of the budget deficit,
with 49% disapproving, the survey
indicated. Obama has scheduled
a prime-time news conference for
late Wednesday to address the is-
sues at hand.
The president’s falliing numbers
have offered some hope to Republi-
cans, but the GOP’s overall approval
ratings remain low, the poll showed.
Approval of the way the Republicans
in Congress are handling their job is
up six points since spring and up 11
points from a year ago.
However, it still stands at just
36%, with 58% disapproving, ac-
cording to the survey.
The poll was conducted by tel-
ephone July 15-18 among a random
national sample of 1,001 and had a
3.5-point margin of error. – AFP

Mumbai attack gunman

and any bystanders to take the right actions.
One action that helps alleviate acute difficult
breathing is to assume a posture that facili-
tates breathing and to employ special breath-
ing techniques, the DGP noted. Bystanders
should also assist the asthma patient in taking
the proper medications at the right times and
in correct dosages. – dpa

Cambodian police seize 61

home-made guns
PHNOM PENH: Cambodian police seized
61 home-made guns during a sweep of
the southern province of Kampong Cham,
national media reported yesterday. Provin-
cial police chief Noun Samin said officers
confiscated the weapons from hunters,
gang members and gun makers during
searches of villages along the Mekong
River last week, the Cambodia Daily news-
paper reported. He said the guns used
compressed air to fire ball bearings, and
while the weapons did not look extraor-
dinarily dangerous, they were powerful
enough to fire shots through sheet metal.
Eight gun makers were briefly detained for
questioning and warned they could face
charges if caught making more weapons,
Noun Samin said. – dpa
New York Times: Author
Frank McCourt dead
NEW YORK: Frank McCourt, the Irish-Ameri-
can author best known for his dark depiction
in “Angela’s Ashes” of a childhood in 1930s
Ireland has died in New York, The New York
Times reported on Sunday. The cause of
death was metastatic melanoma, according
to Susan Moldow, executive vice president
and publisher of Scribner, McCourt’s publisher.
AFPPIX
in surprise guilty plea
MUMBAI: The sole surviving
gunman from last year’s Mum-
bai attacks, a Pakistani national,
yesterday pleaded guilty at his
trial, admitting for the first time
his part in the atrocity that killed
166 people.
Mohammed Ajmal Kasab,
21, told a special prison court
– where he had originally
pleaded not guilty – that he
wanted to confess, taking the
judge, prosecution and his own
defence lawyer by surprise.
“I plead guilty,” he told the
court in Mumbai, before narrating how the
attacks were carried out, and giving details
of his journey from Pakistan with nine other
gunmen.
Kasab and accomplice Abu Ismail opened
fire with AK-47 assault rifles and threw hand
grenades at commuters at the Chhatrapati
Shivaji Terminus, killing 52 and wounding
109 in the bloodiest episode of the 60-hour
reign of terror.
The pair then fled the station, firing indis-
criminately on the way, killing civilians and
a number of senior police officers, including
the head of the city’s Anti-Terrorism Squad,
Hemant Karkare.
Kasab, who also placed a 8kg bomb in a taxi
that took him to the station and later exploded
near Mumbai’s airport, killing the driver and a
passenger, was the only one of the 10 gunmen
to survive.
“I was firing and Abu was hurling hand
grenades,” he told the court, according to the
Press Trust of India news agency.
“I was in front of Abu who had taken such
a position that no one could see him. I fired at
a policeman after which there was no
firing from the police side.”
Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told re-
porters outside court that Kasab had
realised “the cat was out of the bag”
after 134 witnesses gave evidence
against him since the trial began in
April.
DNA, fingerprint and closed-
circuit television evidence was also
produced in court.
Nikam linked the confession to the
forthcoming trial in Pakistan of five
men accused of involvement in the
attacks, including key Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT) operatives Zarar Shah and Zaki-ur-Reh-
man Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind.
LeT, a banned, Pakistan-based group, is
said to have trained, equipped and financed
the Nov 26-29 attacks, which targeted luxury
hotels, Mumbai’s main railway station, a
popular restaurant and Jewish centre.
The attacks, which wounded more than
300 people and left 26 foreign nationals dead,
frayed already strained relations between
India and Pakistan and sparked international
condemnation. – AFP

McCourt, 78, had been gravely ill with menin-

gitis for the past two weeks, having developed
the disease after receiving treatment for skin
cancer. The writer authored numerous books,
but was most famous for the Pulitzer Prize-
winning “Angela’s Ashes,” which was made
into a hit movie. – AFP
US astronauts call
for Mars exploration
WASHINGTON: As the world marked the 40th
anniversary of the first lunar landing yesterday,
the last man to walk on the surface of the moon
urged Americans to go back to the moon and
on to Mars. “We need to go back to the moon,”
Eugene Cernan, who walked on the moon as
part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, told a
news conference held with half a dozen other
astronauts. “We need to learn a bit more about
what we think we know already, we need to
establish bases, put new telescopes on the
moon, get prepared to go to Mars. Because the
ultimate goal is to go to Mars,” Cernan said. On
Sunday, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong,
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin – the first and second
men on the moon – and Michael Collins urged
Americans to use the memory of the lunar
landing 40 years ago as inspiration to prepare
for a space journey to Mars. – AFP
Three men shot dead in
fresh Thai south unrest
YALA (Thailand): Suspected separatist mili-
tants in Thailand’s restive south have shot
dead three men in separate fresh attacks,
police said yesterday. They said a 31-year-
old man was killed in drive-by shooting
in Pattani province yesterday morning. A
day earlier in neighbouring Yala province,
a 48-year-old rubber plantation owner was
shot dead in an ambush as he returned
home by motorbike on Sunday evening.
In Narathiwat province a 65-year-old gold
seller was shot five times by four militants
who opened fire through his shop door. He
died in hospital later. – AFP
Tensions rise as Honduran crisis talks fail
TEGUCIGALPA: Honduras’ political
rivals were on a collision course
yesterday after negotiations col-
lapsed and deposed President
Manuel Zelaya vowed to return
home despite warnings from a
defiant de facto government.
Zelaya says resistance is being
organised in Honduras to pave the
way for his return this weekend
and that nobody can stop him. The
interim government installed after
his June 28 military ouster has
threatened to crack down on any
protesters who stir trouble.
The looming confrontation
raises the specter of a repeat of
clashes in which at least one pro-
tester was killed during Zelaya’s
abortive attempt to fly back into
the Central American country on
July 5. Troops blocked the runway
and stopped him from landing.
“I have no doubt that this will
raise the tension levels,” said Efrain
Diaz, a political analyst with the
Centre for Human Development,
a Honduran non-governmental or-
ganisation. “We could see violence
if Zelaya tries to return by force.”
Pro-Zelaya protesters plan a
march to Congress in the capital,
and have called for a national strike
on Thursday and Friday.
A police spokesman on Sun-
day appealed to children and the
elderly to stay away from protests
planned for this week, saying the
security forces would “not be tol-
erant with anyone who acts like a
Costa Rican
president Oscar
Arias (centre),
Rixy Moncada,
member of
Honduran
ousted
president
Manuel Zelaya’s
delegation,
and Carlos
Lopez (right),
member of de
facto president
Roberto
Micheletti’s
delegation, walk
outside Arias’s
residence, in
San Jose.
terrorist in our country”.
Talks to end the crisis broke
down on Sunday when the interim
government’s delegation told the
mediator, Costa Rican President
Oscar Arias, that his proposal to
reinstate Zelaya was “unacceptable”
and meddling in Honduran affairs.
A somber-faced Arias, a Nobel
Peace Prize winner, fretted that the
collapse could lead to bloodshed
and he called on the two sides to
give him another 72 hours to try
and solve the worst crisis in Cen-
tral America since the Cold War.
“What is the alternative to dia-
logue? ... What happens if, tomor-
row, a Honduran shoots at a soldier
and then a soldier shoots his gun
at an armed citizen?” – Reuters
Indonesia TV
identifies hotel
bombing suspect
JAKARTA: An Indonesian television
station yesterday named a likely
suspect in the suicide bombings of
two luxury hotels in Jakarta, saying
he had school links to members of
the radical Jemaah Islamiah.
Police are still investigating
Friday’s attacks on the JW Marriott
and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta’s
main business district which killed
nine people and injured 53, including
foreigners and Indonesians. Jemaah
Islamiah is a prime suspect.
So far, the police have only identi-
fied one of the attackers as “N” but
have not given further details.
But MetroTV, a private station,
went further and named a suspect
as a man named Nurhasbi whose
family said he had not returned
home and they had been unable to
contact him by telephone.
The family also said Nurhasbi had
attended the Ngruki Islamic boarding
school in Solo, Central Java. Ngruki is
the Islamic boarding school run by
militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir and at-
tended by several members of Jemaah
Islamiah, the group responsible for a
string of attacks in Jakarta and Bali.
Local media reported that the
police had also visited Nurhasbi’s
family, possibly to assist in DNA tests
as they try to identify bodies at the
scene of the blasts.
The two bombs ended a four-
year lull in such acts of violence and
carried the hallmarks of Jemaah Is-
lamiah, police said, in particular of a
breakaway faction led by Malaysian
extremist Noordin Top. – Reuters