More than THOUSAND still trapped after Taiwan typhoon

More than 1,300 people are still trapped in remote mountainous villages in southern Taiwan, victims of treacherous mudslides and floods from Typhoon Morakot, the country's semiofficial Central News Agency said Saturday.

Rescue officials quoted by the news agency said 1,373 were trapped, and 75 helicopters were scheduled to conduct rescue missions Saturday in the counties of Kaohsiung, Pingtung, Taitung and Chiayi.

The storm hit last weekend, dropping 2.6 meters (102 inches) of rain on Taiwan. After hitting Taiwan, Morakot roared on to mainland China on Sunday, killing at least six people and displacing 1.4 million, authorities said.

The toll was much higher in Taiwan, where the storm was blamed for killing 123 people, according to the latest figures from Taiwan's National Disaster Prevention and Protection Commission.

Mary Yu, spokeswoman for the commission's Central Emergency Operation Center, said 53 people were unaccounted for.

At least 1,375 people awaited rescue in towns inaccessible to rescuers who have faced torrential downpours, dense fog, rugged terrain and raging rivers. Washed-out roads and bridges have made some rescue operations impossible, the disaster commission said.

Despite the obstacles, 2,518 people were rescued on Saturday, Yu said.

Southern and central Taiwan were hardest hit by the storm.

Mudslides flattened some places in southern Taiwan, including the small village of Shiao Lin. Authorities believe hundreds of people could be trapped under five stories of mud in the village.

A memorial service was being held under a tent where framed pictures of the dead were crowded on tables.

"He's gone, he's gone, that one's gone, all these grandchildren are gone," said a tearful Yu Chin Chih. She lost 10 members of her family.

Dozens die in Kuwait wedding fire

Some 41 women and children have been killed and dozens more injured by a fire that broke out in a tent at a wedding in Kuwait, officials have said.

The fire began late on Saturday evening while the women and children were celebrating the marriage at a party in the al-Jahra area, west of Kuwait City.

A number of the injuries were caused by a stampede that followed the blaze, officials say, and the deaths may rise.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. An investigation has begun.

'Packed with people'

Four teams of fire-fighters were dispatched to the scene, as well as a large number of ambulances needed to take the injured to hospital.

Kuwait's state news agency Kuna quoted a security official as saying that 41 bodies were recovered from the tent.

The director-general of Kuwait's Fire General Directorate, Maj-Gen Jassem al-Mansouri, said rescuers were still sifting through the debris and charred items, searching for more casualties, Kuna reports.

Gen Mansouri said "the number of fatalities might increase due to the large number of injuries as result of a stampede that followed the outbreak of the fire at the tent that was packed with people".

Wedding celebrations in the conservative Gulf state are held separately for men and women. Children attend the women's party.

SHOWBIZ: Anger at US Bollywood detention

The Indian government has asked the United States to explain why a leading Bollywood film star was held for two hours at New York's Newark airport.

Shah Rukh Khan, who was released after India's embassy in the US intervened, said he felt angry and humiliated.

The actor, who is promoting a film on racial profiling, said he was stopped because he had a Muslim name.

In July, a US airline apologised to a former Indian president for frisking him before he boarded a flight.

The US ambassador to India, Timothy Roehmer, said the embassy was looking into Mr Khan's case.

Speaking in Delhi, Mr Roehmer said: "Shah Rukh Khan, the actor and global icon, is a very welcome guest in the United States. Many Americans love his films."

He said the embassy was trying to "ascertain the facts of the case - to understand what took place".

Popular celebrity

Mr Khan, 44, told the Press Trust of India news agency he had been detained by immigration officials at Newark airport because his name came up on a computer check list.

He told the agency that he had been released after he was allowed to message a politician in India, who contacted the Indian embassy in Washington on his behalf.

Mr Khan was on his way from New York to Chicago to attend an Indian independence day celebration when he was stopped.

The news was widely reported by Indian media outlets.

Mr Khan has appeared in more than 70 films and is considered one of India's most recognisable and popular celebrities.

Last month, America's Continental Airlines apologised to APJ Abdul Kalam amid outrage in India when it emerged that the former Indian president had been frisked and made to remove his shoes at Delhi airport in April.

The airline said in a statement that it had not intended to offend Mr Kalam or the sentiments of the people of India.

Leader of Gaza extremist group killed: Hamas

RAFAH: Hamas security forces killed the leader of an al Qaeda-inspired group in the Gaza Strip Saturday in a shootout that claimed the lives of 22 people, Hamas said.

The fighting erupted Friday when Hamas forces surrounded a mosque in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on the Egypt border where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up.

The head of the radical Islamist group, Abdul Latif Musa, was killed when fighting resumed after dawn Saturday, Ihab Ghussein a Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman told the Associated Press.

‘The operation is over and what is going on right now is searching and clearing the area,’ he said, adding that it wasn’t clear if Musa died from an explosives belt he was wearing or from Hamas gunfire.

Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry official in Gaza said a total of 22 people, including six Hamas police officers and an 11-year-old girl, were killed in the violence that also wounded 150.

The group’s Web site vowed vengeance, meanwhile, saying ‘we swear to God to avenge the martyrs’ blood and we will turn their women to widows.’

Hamas also confirmed the death in the fighting of one of its high level commanders, Abu-Jibril Shimali, whom Israel said was behind the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier three years ago in a cross border raid.

Jund Ansar Allah claims inspiration from al Qaeda’s ultraconservative brand of Islam but no direct links have been confirmed.

The confrontation was triggered when the leader of the group defied Gaza’s Hamas rulers by declaring in a Friday prayer sermon that the territory was an Islamic emirate.

Jund Ansar Allah and a number of other small, shadowy radical groups seek to enforce an even stricter version of Islamic law in Gaza than that advocated by Hamas.

These groups are also upset that the Hamas regime has honoured a cease-fire with Israel for the past seven months.

Hamas says it does not impose its religious views on others, but only seeks to set a pious example for people to follow, while more hardline organizations call for a more forceful imposition of Islamic law.

The groups also call for a wider global jihad against the entire Western world while Hamas maintains the struggle is only against the Israeli occupation.

‘They are inspired by unbalanced ideologies and in the past they carried out a number of explosions targeting internet cafes and wedding parties,’ said Ghussein, adding that they did not have any external ties.

The hard-line groups are perhaps the most serious opposition Hamas has faced since it seized control of Gaza and ousted its rivals in the Fatah movement in a five-day, bloody civil war in June 2007.

Hamas security blocked all roads to Rafah and declared the town a closed military zone. They said they have arrested about 40 members of the group so far.

Saeb Erekat, a senior peace negotiator with Israel and a member of Hamas’ Palestinian rival Fatah group in the West Bank, described the situation in Gaza as ‘alarming.’

‘Gaza is going down the drain in chaos and lawlessness and those who rule by the sword will know that the sword will also be the communications language,’ he told the AP.

Jund Ansar Allah first came to public attention in June after it claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to attack Israel from Gaza on horseback.

In July, three Muslim extremists from the group holed themselves up in a building in southern Gaza, surrendering to Hamas police only after a lengthy standoff.

It is unclear how many adherents Jund Ansar Allah or other similar extremist groups have in Gaza. — AP