18 September 2001, Copyright © Turkish Daily News

FAILED TRIP? Pakistani officials fail to persuade Taliban to hand over terror suspect bin Laden

'Mighty giant' vows all-out war

The White House on Monday vowed retaliation by a "mighty giant" awakened by the world's worst terror acts.

The Bush administration pledged to avenge the devastating attacks by hijacked airliners that plowed into the trade center's twin towers and the Pentagon near Washington, but warned the fight could be hard and long. The White House said Islamic zealot Osama bin Laden was the prime suspect.

Those who attacked the United States "made a terrible mistake ... they have roused a mighty giant," President George W. Bush told reporters on return to Washington from his weekend retreat at Camp David.

"It's time for us to win the first war of the 21st century so our children and grandchildren can live peacefully."

Taliban won't hand over bin Laden

Meanwhile, senior Pakistani officials failed on Monday to persuade the Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar to hand over bin Laden to avert U.S. armed retaliation, the AIP news agency said.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press quoted Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutamaen saying that over three hours of talks between the sides had not resolved the key issue of turning over the multi-millionaire Islamic militant accused of involvement in the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.

"The meeting looked in detail at the aspects of the problem. The talks were positive but I cannot give the details," Mutamaen said. "We are 60 percent hopeful that conditions will be normal."

But on bin Laden, who the Taliban have termed a "guest", Mutamaen reported no progress: "There was no clear discussion on this particular topic."

The Pakistan delegation arrived early in the morning in the southern city of Kandahar and went immediately into talks with Taliban Foreign Minister Mullah Maulawi Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil.

The Pakistani officials, including intelligence chief General Mahmood Ahmed, won permission from the United Nations to break a ban on flights to Afghanistan to try to convince the landlocked country's purist Islamic rulers of the gravity of their situation.

"The delegation is motivating and advising Mullah Omar and the Taliban leadership that they should consider the pros and cons of not cooperating with America and others on matters of terrorism...", Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said during a visit to Kuwait.

"Because if Afghanistan does not do the logical, balanced attitude in this regard it will be a problem for Afghanistan and its people," he said.

Witnesses said on Monday that Taliban officials had started to flee Kabul amid growing expectations of U.S. attacks. The officials and their families were heading for the countryside but it was not clear if this way under instruction from their spiritual leader.

Fear no evil

Bush on Monday urged Americans not to let the threat of terror attacks intimidate them as he prepared to go to the Pentagon for more military planning.

Bush shook hands and offered words of encouragement to employees showing up for their morning cup of coffee at a cafeteria in the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House.

Despite the grim circumstances Bush was jovial with the employees, telling one, "Have a cup of coffee on me," and posing for a picture with a woman and her ham sandwich.

Employees had fled the building last Tuesday on warnings the White House complex could come under attack from a hijacked airplane.

"I'm here to remind people the best way to fight terrorism is to not let terrorism intimidate America," Bush said.

71 percent in US ready for war casualties

Around 71 percent of American voters are ready to see the United States go to war against countries which "harbor or aid terrorists" even if it means suffering substantial U.S. casualties, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Monday.

But the poll of 1,018 registered voters conducted by pollster John Zogby Sept. 14-16 found much less confidence that a military operation would succeed in rooting out and destroying terrorism -- the stated goal of U.S. policy.

Only 48 percent of respondents thought the United States would succeed while 42 percent said it would not. The poll carried a statistical margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

Asked if they would support "an all out of war against countries which harbor or aid terrorists," 75 percent said they would while 18 percent were opposed.

The number slipped only a little when respondents were asked if such a war would be worth it "even if it involved substantial American casualties." In that case, 71 percent said they supported war; 21 percent did not with the rest unsure.

Massive crackdown

U.S. law enforcement agencies hunted for the network behind the attacks which left more than 5,000 dead or missing and destroyed the World Trade Center -- a symbol of American prosperity -- and dealt a heavy blow to the heart of U.S. military power.

As part of the strategy, the White House is considering lifting an executive order banning U.S. involvement in overseas assassinations and Vice President Dick Cheney said the CIA may once again be allowed to recruit agents to conduct "the mean, nasty, dirty, dangerous business" of spying on extremists.

While Washington rattled its saber, a delegation from Pakistan took the first steps to head off a military crisis by meeting with neighboring Afghanistan on Monday to press the ruling Taliban to hand over bin Laden, who has lived for years in the Islamic nation.

Chilling search, poignant moments

Weary rescue workers labored for a seventh day over the smoldering World Trade Center ruins in the heart of New York's financial district, but prospects dimmed that any of the nearly 4,957 people now listed as missing in the concrete and steel sarcophagus survived.

In a chilling discovery, the body of a male air crew member was found bound hand and foot, a police source said. Earlier, the body of a flight attendant was found with her hands bound.

Away from the site, thousands of posters of those missing covered bus shelters, telephone booths and subway walls.

One, poignant in its simplicity, read: "Have you seen my Daddy? Jason Jacobs." It carried a telephone number and a photograph of a smiling toddler playing with her father.

In the most recent count, 190 people were confirmed dead, including 37 firefighters and rescue workers.

Across New York, mourners struggling to make sense of the carnage packed churches for memorial services and flocked to firehouses to pay tribute to "New York's Bravest."

More than 300 firefighters and emergency service workers are among the missing. "The worst part is when you come across bunker gear, and you know you've got a firefighter. It's horrendous. They pulled my chief out yesterday," firefighter Joseph Tustin said.

In last Tuesday's attacks two hijacked airliners struck the World Trade Center, another the Pentagon and a fourth crashed into a Pennsylvania field.

As more details emerged of the nightmarish day, Cheney said Bush had made the "horrendous" decision to shoot down civilian airliners if they threatened the Capitol or the White House.

Hundreds attended a memorial for 31-year-old Jeremy Glick in the upstate New York resort of Windham on Sunday. He was one of four passengers who apparently overpowered hijackers causing one plane, bound for Washington, to crash in Pennsylvania.

Glick had called his wife, Lyzbeth, by cellular telephone from the doomed airliner shortly before it crashed and had told her: "We're going to rush the hijackers."

"In the darkness of last Tuesday, Jeremy Logan Glick was a light," Rep. John Sweeney, a New York Republican, told mourners.

The FBI has 4,000 agents tracking 40,000 leads. U.S. officials said on Sunday that two more "material witnesses" had been taken into custody, joining two others already detained. Such witnesses are usually considered important enough to affect the outcome of a case.

A further 25 people were taken into custody on alleged immigration violations and were being questioned, and the FBI was seeking more than 100 others for questioning.

Investigators hoped the arrests and detentions would eventually lead them to the man the White House said with growing conviction was their prime suspect -- bin Laden.

Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other senior officials stressed that there were more people and groups involved than just bin Laden and the danger from them was far from over.

Rumsfeld said on ABC's "This Week" the battle would take years. "It will be political, economic, diplomatic, military."

Blair asks Iran to cooperate

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has sent a message to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and other Islamic leaders calling for cooperation against terror groups and an end to the clash of cultures and religions.

Blair's Downing Street office said on Monday the message was sent in a letter last week after the terror attacks on New York and Washington. The prime minister's overture to the reformist Khatami received wide play in Iranian newspapers.

"We won't be releasing a copy of the letter, but we can confirm that he did write to President Khatami. He also wrote to a number of other leaders of Islamic countries in similar terms," a Downing Street spokesman told Reuters.

"The reasons are fairly obvious. What you have got there is pretty self explanatory."

US-Russia meeting

In Moscow, a top U.S. diplomat indicated Monday that Washington is pushing Moscow hard on its own alleged contribution to terrorists' arsenals by allowing the proliferation of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said that after last week's terrorist strikes against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, "there has never been more attention to the dangers that terrorists - especially those who might have access to weapons of mass destruction - pose.

"So when in the past it was at one level of priority, I don't think anyone doubts at the moment that it is now at the highest priority."

Russia contends it has provided Iran and other nations only with nonmilitary nuclear technologies, but U.S. and Israeli officials have repeatedly accused it of aiding their weapons programs and repeatedly demanded a halt.

Washington/New York - Reuters

Iraq braces for American retaliation

Iraq's most influential newspaper said on Monday it expected the country to be a target of U.S. retaliation after last week's attacks in New York and Washington.

"We do not rule out that we are in the forefront of countries that America wants to attack," said Babel, the newspaper of President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday.

Babel said U.S. concentration on Afghanistan as the primary focus of any revenge strike could be a cover for a plan to hit other countries like North Korea, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

Al-Thawra, an official newspaper, said the United States was intent on using the attack as an excuse to "humiliate totally" Arabs and Muslims.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said Washington will go after countries that harbour "terrorists and their organisations" in retaliation for the attacks, which left more than 5,000 dead and missing.

A U.S.-led coalition bombed Iraq heavily during the 1991 Gulf War. Iraqi targets still come under attack by Western planes policing two "no-fly" zones in the north and south of the country.

Iraqi officials declined to comment on whether Iraq would be the subject of U.S. retribution. Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told Reuters that Iraq hoped the attacks on New York and Washington would force America to reconsider its foreign policy.

Privately, officials in Baghdad expressed relief after U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington did not possess evidence linking Iraq to the attack.

Life in the Iraqi capital on Monday was normal and people went on with their routine business. The exchange rate was stable at 2,003 dinars to the dollar. Government buildings, which were targets of previous Western bombardment, remained well lit at night.

At the Trabeel border crossing with Jordan, a main land outlet available to Iraq, drivers said movement was subdued.

"People don't know what to expect," one man said. "They are postponing their journeys in both directions."

An Iraqi official said: "When you've gone through as much bombardment as we did, life goes on normally, even under the present circumstances."

Baghdad - Reuters

Stock markets volatile as Americans talk war

The United States, still counting bodies from last week's attacks, on Monday cut interest rates to bolster economic confidence and stock markets stabilized above their lows after initially falling about 5 percent.

Following a two-minute silence and the singing of "God Bless America," Wall Street resumed operations only three blocks from the smoking rubble of the World Trade Center's twin towers where thousands of bodies remain to be recovered and the death toll is expected to exceed 5,000.

In New York, hope virtually died of finding any survivors from last Tuesday's attacks. No one has been pulled alive from the towers' wreckage since last Wednesday and the task now seemed to be to extract and identify body parts.

Just three blocks away, Wall Street reopened after a four-day shutdown, its longest since World War One. In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrials dropped by over 500 points and the Nasdaq was 100 points lower -- both representing falls of about 5 percent to 6 percent. But both markets then stabilized and rebounded above their lows.

Just before Wall Street reopened, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by half a percentage point to bolster confidence and keep markets functioning.

With Washington's war talk fueling uncertainty and fears of a global recession growing, traders had been prepared for sharp declines. The White House said the initial fall was expected but the economy was fundamentally strong.

The latest toll of missing people in New York is 4,957, with 190 more confirmed dead. Another 188 died at the Pentagon and 45 in the crash of a hijacked plane in Pennsylvania.

Washington/New York - Reuters

Chechens say they launch biggest attack in months

Chechen militants said on Monday they had launched their largest-scale offensive in months with a series of coordinated attacks across the region's lowlands, seizing buildings and shooting down a helicopter.

Russian officials confirmed a surge in fighting was under way, including clashes in the second city Gudermes, in which several police were injured, and said they were looking into other reports.

"There has been a surge in activity, but on just what scale we are still checking," an official in the office of Kremlin Chechnya spokesman Sergei Yastrazhembsky said.

Movladi Udugov, a Chechen spokesman seen as close to guerrilla commander Shamil Basyaev, said militants had seized a Russian military headquarters in Gudermes, launched a suicide car-bomb attack on a checkpoint in the town of Argun, attacked an armoured convoy and shot down a helicopter in the capital Grozny.

"This is a coordinated military operation," Udugov said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Interfax news agency said militants had shot down an Mi-8 helicopter in Grozny, killing nine people on board, including a general, Anatoly Pozdnyakov.

The Defence Ministry said there was an accident on board and did not give any further details or confirm deaths.

Udugov said militants also took control of administrative buildings in the mountain village of Nozhai-Yurt and attacked targets in the lowland districts of Naursk and Shchyolkovskoi.

Separatists have battled Russian forces in Chechnya for much of the past decade in their fight for independence from Moscow.

Russia links them to Islamic extremists abroad, including Osama bin Laden, the Afghanistan-based Saudi exile named by Washington as a prime suspect in last week's attacks on the United States.

Clashes in second city

Initial reports focused on clashes in Gudermes, Chechnya's second city and main railway crossroads.

The Kremlin initially played down reports of clashes there but later confirmed fighting was under way, with "several tens" of militants having infiltrated the city. An official in Yastrzhembsky's office said several police had been hurt there.

Russian news agencies quoted witnesses as saying administrative buildings had come under attack and shooting was heard throughout the town. Interfax said at least one Russian policeman was killed.

Udugov said the Chechens had seized the town's commandant headquarters, the base of the military administration. Russians guarding the building were sheltering in the cellar and negotiating with militants, he said.

In Argun, just east of Grozny, Udugov said a guerrilla had detonated a car bomb at a checkpoint, killing himself and several Russian troops. A firefight followed.

Russian forces, which withdrew from Chechnya after a 1994-96 war, returned there in 1999 and have since occupied most Chechen territory. But they have failed to kill or capture top Chechen leaders and troops still come under regular attack.

Moscow - Wire Dispatches

Koreas try to close gaps after meetings

North and South Korea wrapped up ministerial talks on Monday with little apparent progress in efforts to restart a stalled reconciliation process and without a joint anti-terrorism declaration sought by Seoul.

South Korean officials said delegates from the capitalist South and the communist North were holding informal working-level discussions to try to bridge gaps on how to implement reconciliation projects stalled for most of this year.

South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hong-jae indicated to reporters the two sides would announce on Tuesday agreements on a troubled tourism project and on resuming reunions of families separated since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Seoul had hoped the two Koreas, still technically at war after the Korean War ended without a formal peace treaty, would make a breakthrough on implementing projects made after a landmark summit in Pyongyang last year.

Reflecting the lack of dramatic progress, however, the two sides would conclude the visit by the North Koreans on Tuesday with a joint press statement, rather than a joint declaration, a Seoul official said.

Another Unification Ministry spokesman Rhee Bong-jo told reporters the two sides also failed to meet South Korea's goal of producing a joint anti-terrorism statement in the wake of attacks on the United States last Tuesday.

North seeks rice, electricity

On the eve of the North Koreans' return home after a four-day stay in Seoul, they paid a visit to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for efforts at Korean reconciliation.

Kim relayed greetings to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, his partner in the historic June 2000 summit.

The delegates from North Korea, plaqued by grave food shortages since at least 1995 due to natural disasters and mismanagement, asked Kim Dae-jung for more food aid, Seoul's YTN television network reported.

The rice request followed a demand from the North Korean delegation on Sunday that Seoul supply it with power. The energy-starved North had asked for 500,000 kilowatts of electricity when ministers from the two Koreas met in December.

That meeting was the last before Pyongyang broke off official contact with Seoul in March to protest against U.S. policies towards the North. Only a few symbolic steps have been taken on the summit accords that raised hopes for Korean reconciliation.

Seoul did not respond to the first electricity request and Rhee played down its repetition on Sunday, saying it was "merely mentioned by the North on a list of other items."

The two sides held only two hours of talks over two days during the four-day visit by the North Korean delegation, which went sightseeing in Seoul and attended a series of banquets. They will not publicise details of the talks until the trip ends.

Anti-terrorism statement

Rhee also put the best face on the lack of an anti-terrorism statement, saying a North Korean statement condemning the attacks on the United States last week had "made its position very clear."

North Korea called the New York and Washington attacks "regretful and tragic."

Seoul's call for a joint Korean statement on terrorism prompted demands from opposition leaders and media for a North Korean apology for a 1983 blast in Myanmar that killed 18 South Korean officials and the 1987 mid-air bombing of a Korean Air jet that killed 115 people.

Pyongyang is the chief suspect in both attacks, the second of which landed North Korea in 1988 on a blacklist of states Washington accuses of sponsoring terrorism.

Project holdups

South Korea's delegation chief, Unification Minister Hong Soon-young, said on Monday night that "if the North and South implement their promises as members of civilised society, it would create a powerful trend for peaceful reunification and for obtaining the trust of the international community."

In a jab at South Korea's alliance with the United States, North Korean delegation leader Kim Ryong-song told the same farewell banquet that "whoever hopes for reunification must not join hands with foreign forces, but should work together with his own nation to implement the joint statement."

North Korea has frustrated the South by failing to follow through on pledges made in the historic June 15, 2000, summit declaration, including Kim Jong-il's promise to visit Seoul to reciprocate Kim Dae-jung's ice-breaking trip to Pyongyang.

The projects include restoring rail and road links between the Koreas, flood prevention in a cross-border river and completing an overland tourist route between the South and Mt Kumgang, a popular tourist area in the North.

Seoul - Reuters

NATO troops in Skopje endangered by shootings

NATO accused Macedonian security forces of provoking a major cease-fire violation at the weekend, endangering alliance troops involved in disarming ethnic Albanian guerrillas under a peace accord.

NATO spokesmen said on Monday security police fired light and heavy weapons including grenade launchers into a mainly ethnic Albanian village on Sunday night, triggering four-and-half hours of sporadic but heavy shooting exchanges.

No NATO personnel were injured.

But a brigade officer in the guerrilla movement that has voluntarily surrendered two thirds of its declared arsenal to NATO said an 11-year-old boy and 40-year-old man were wounded by the barrage on the village of Semsovo.

The incident occurred about 10 km (six miles) northeast of Tetovo, the country's largest mainly ethnic Albanian city, and 35 km (21 miles) west of the capital Skopje.

"We had NATO troops... in the area who were able to make a comprehensive and accurate observation of events. Their clear conclusion was that the exchanges were initiated by Macedonian police forces," said NATO spokesman Mark Laity.

He denied reports by the pro-government media that "Albanian terrorists" had attacked the police position. "In the exchanges that followed, the great majority of fire including the use of heavy weapons came from Macedonian forces. The assessment by NATO liaison teams was that this placed our forces in the area in some danger," he told a news conference.

Laity said NATO had taken the matter up with the government and expected urgent action to prevent a recurrence.

The shooting originated from an area between the villages of Zilce and Ratae where Western diplomats say undisciplined police reservists and associated paramilitaries have harassed ethnic Albanians, including demobilized fighters, at checkpoints and triggered numerous bouts of gunfire.

Western officials say unaccountable elements of the security services itching to avenge humiliating territorial losses to guerrillas pose the worst threat to the peace pact, under which minority Albanians are to get better civil rights.

Laity said Macedonian security units subjected the village to two sustained rounds of gunfire before anyone fired back.

"This incident emphasizes again that at this sensitive fragile time there is a need for (local) forces to be totally controlled. (Weapons-collections) require maximum restraint. This is the worst possible time for provocations."

Violence counter-productive

Major Alexander Dick said such violence was "not conducive" to guerrillas disarming voluntarily and Laity said the longer it persisted, the longer it would take for Macedonians displaced from areas taken by rebels to return home in safety.

Earlier on Sunday, three off-duty Macedonian policemen were beaten up after going into an Albanian shop in Vratnica, 20 km (12 miles) north of Ratae, to buy a tractor tire.

"Our assessment is that this had no connection with the subsequent shooting. It was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time," Dick said. But the weekend violence underscored ethnic enmities that simmer on.

Plans are being drawn up for a small NATO security force to deter violence so that international monitors who will oversee the return of Macedonian institutions and refugees to guerrilla zones can operate free of intimidation.

The government had ruled out a longer-term NATO presence, believing it would mutate into a "Green Line" behind which Albanian separatists would cement a breakaway fiefdom ethnically cleansed of Macedonians.

Western sponsors remain concerned about the solidity of the peace accord because Macedonia's parliament is hesitating to pass constitutional amendments to improve the status of the large Albanian minority.

Skopje - Reuters

HARDLINE Sharon says Israel will not make concessions to Palestinians

Arafat calls for truce as violence rages

Palestinian and Israeli leaders jockeyed over urgent U.S. calls for truce talks on Monday as fighting raged on in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Washington has pushed for intensified efforts to end a year of Israeli-Palestinian bloodletting since last week's terror attacks in New York and Washington.

U.S. President George W. Bush wants to include Arab and Islamic states in his effort. Experts say calming the Israeli-Palestinian storm, in which 579 Palestinians and 167 Israelis have died in a year, would do much to ease that campaign.

As the fighting continued, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat repeated a cease-fire order in greetings to Israelis, released by his office, to mark the Jewish New Year holiday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Israel will not bend over backwards to help the United States attract Arab countries. On Sunday he blocked his dovish foreign minister, Shimon Peres, from meeting with Arafat, making such talks conditional on at least 48 hours of peace and quiet.

"I have issued strict instructions for a total commitment to the cease-fire and I hope the Israeli government will respond to this peace appeal and will take the decision to cease fire," Arafat said in his letter.

Sharon aide Raanan Gissin commented: "We welcome his greetings but we wish he will really act on his words and take the necessary action to stop the shooting."

Gissin said the Israeli government had not received a copy of the letter.

Sharon said on Sunday he was making the cease-fire appeal to Arafat "in the light of the U.S. commitment to uproot all the terrorist organizations' networks and in order to prevent continued bloodshed in our region."

Fighting despite truce talk

In the West Bank, Palestinian hospital officials said 11 people were wounded in fighting near Ramallah. Several houses were damaged by Israeli tank shells. The Israeli army said a soldier was seriously wounded.

A 33-year-old Palestinian was killed on the sidelines of a battle between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt.

Clashes also erupted near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in Gaza. Some 500 Palestinian students lobbed stones at Israeli tanks. Palestinian hospitals said a 16-year-old was badly hurt.

Israeli security forces were on alert for attacks by Islamic militants over New Year, or Rosh Hashanah, despite capturing, in a raid on Ramallah on Sunday, what they described as a "terror cell" planning bombings during the holiday.

Rosh Hashanah starts at sundown on Monday and ends at sundown on Wednesday.

Israel sets up buffer zone

Sharon insisted Israel was not under U.S. pressure to make compromises to entice Palestinians to end their revolt.

"There is no pressure. Not now and not before," Sharon told Israel Radio.

While the world continued to focus on events in the United States, the Israeli army announced it would make a 30-km (18-mile)-long area of the West Bank adjacent to the Israeli border off-limits to Palestinians, save for local villagers.

The army called the move a security measure to block suicide bombers from reaching Israeli cities.

"This Israeli plan harms thousands and thousands of Palestinians and kills the Oslo peace deals," Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told reporters, referring to the 1993 interim Israel-Palestinian peace accords.

Jerusalem - Reuters

DELUGE Nari sweeps Taiwan, triggering deadly landslides and flash flooding

Taipei shut down by typhoon-driven floods

Tropical storm Nari whirled over northern Taiwan on Monday, killing 23 people in mud slides and flash floods that swallowed up homes and blocked main streets in the capital.

Only the tops of cars could be seen on some Taipei thoroughfares that were submerged in muddy flood water that looked like chocolate milk.

Rivers of rainfall came roaring down mountains in the city's suburbs and swamped the basements and first floors of homes, where several people drowned in their sleep.

In eastern Taipei, truck driver Chen Wen-lin was trying to deliver food to his two brothers who were trapped on the second floor of the family's delivery company.

"Water rose quickly to their chest and they could not get away," Chen said of his brothers.

The storm blacked out more than 820,000 homes, and about 8,000 people had to evacuate their houses, emergency officials said.

"We hope people won't go down to their first floors. It's just too dangerous. If you need anything, we'll bring it to you," Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou told state-run radio.

"The amount of rain was unprecedented in the city," Ma said. "All the rivers were raging, overwhelming the drainage system."

By late morning, the torrential rain eased in Taipei, where about 800 millimeters (32 inches) of rainfall was recorded since Sunday. But the storm headed southwest toward the island's third-largest city, Taichung, and could sweep past that city on Tuesday afternoon, forecasters said.

The deaths included five people buried in mudslides and two were electrocuted. The rest drowned in flooding, emergency officials said.

Six people were missing, including two firefighters, and 53 people were injured, officials said.

Nari lost strength early Monday and was downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm. The slow-moving storm still posed a serious threat because forecasters said it could linger over Taiwan until Tuesday afternoon, saturating areas prone to landslides and testing the strength of river dikes.

The storm was packing winds of 75 kph (46 mph) and was moving at 4 kph (2.5 mph).

Anticipating the danger Sunday, officials wasted no time canceling schools, grounding flights, shutting down the stock market and urging companies to close their offices on Monday. They also said that today schools, the stock market and offices would be closed.

Nari, named after a Korean flower, hit the island about two months after Typhoon Toraji caused flash flooding and landslides that killed more than 100 people in eastern and central Taiwan.

Taiwan is a mountainous island, and the island's population of 23 million people make it one of the most densely populated places in the world. Many Taiwanese live or farm on mountain slopes that are prone to mudslides when soaked with typhoon rains.

For weeks, Nari has been churning in the Pacific north of Taiwan, seemingly taunting the Taiwanese by making erratic turns toward and away from the island.

Over the weekend, land and sea warnings were posted, railway lines were closed and flights were canceled. Rescue officials were put on alert at typhoon relief centers all over the northern half of Taiwan.

Taipei - The Associated Press

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