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Rain, snow hit Pakistan quake relief
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China quake toll 17
9 die as quake hits southern Iran island
Swiss court books Benazir in criminal case
Suu Kyi’s house arrest extended
Most Britons unhappy with Blair: poll
Al-Qaida plan to kill Saddam foiled
Militants threaten Bangladesh SC Judges
Pope ushers in Christmas season
Hurley to marry Arun Nayar next year: report
Madonna wants to direct film
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Rain, snow hit Pakistan quake relief
Islamabad, November 27 The Meteorological Department said snow had fallen in some high-altitude areas and up to 32 mm of rain had fallen in some lower areas. ‘’Flights are off for today,’’ said a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Muzaffarabad, the capital of occupied Kashmir. An official of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said their air operations had also been called off because of the weather. The October 8 earthquake killed more than 73,000 persons, most of them in the Pakistani Himalayas, and seriously injured a similar number. A race against time is on to ensure that hundreds of thousands of homeless survivors are given adequate shelter and enough food to see them through a bitter winter. Aid officials say disease could sweep through cold, poorly nourished survivors of Pakistan’s worst natural disaster, causing a second wave of death. The ICRC official said good weather up to now meant aid deliveries were slightly ahead of schedule, but prolonged bad weather would be a worry. ‘’We have been very lucky or the survivors have that we’ve been able to fly for a month without interruption,’’ said Pauli Immonen, in charge of the ICRC air operations. — Reuters |
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China quake toll 17
Beijing, November 27 In the eastern Jiangxi province, the quake, which struck yesterday morning, killed at least 16 persons and injured more than 370, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said, adding that 20 among the wounded were in critical a condition. Several aftershocks were also reported following the quake. At least one person was killed and 81 others, including 78 children, were injured in the neighbouring Hubei province, the Provincial Civil Affairs Department said. So far, 216 houses were destroyed while 1,075 were damaged in Wuxue City, Huangmei, Jichun and Tongshan counties, all in the Hubei province. The quake hit a region between Jiujiang, a well-known summer resort on the middle reaches of the Yangtze river, and Ruichang, in Jiangxi Province, at 8.49 a.m. yesterday, China National Seismic Observation Network said. Some 130,000 homes were damaged in the worst-hit Jiujiang and Ruicheng counties, while 420,000 persons were evacuated to safer places. An emergency work group sent by the State Seismic Bureau, together with one on-the-spot work team arrived at the scene of the quake. Teams dispatched by local seismic bureaux of Jiangxi, Hubei and Fujian provinces are also on their way to the quake-stricken region to render help to the victims. — PTI |
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9 die as quake hits southern Iran island
Tehran, November 27 The quake hit Qeshm island at 1:53 pm local time (1553 IST) and was felt for more than 10 seconds, the official news agency IRNA said. The island, home to some 100,000 people, is situated off the coast of the port city of Bandar Abbas. “The death toll stands at nine, and 10 persons have been injured. I am still touring the damaged villages,” the Governor of Qeshm island, Heydar Alishbandi, said. It hit almost two years after the southeastern city of Bam was razed in a quake that left more than 31,000 persons dead. The island has a busy commercial and fishing port, and is also a popular weekend getaway for Iranian tourists. However, he said the island’s main town, also called Qeshm, was undamaged. The affected villages were identified as Gabardin, Tonban, Tourian and Khaldin — all situated in the less densely populated west of the island. The head of the Iranian Red Crescent’s rescue unit, Shahram Alamdari, said two villages on the island suffered 90 per cent damage. — AFP |
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Swiss court books Benazir in criminal case
Islamabad, November 27 Bhutto, who lives in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai, was summoned by Judge Fournier in Geneva in connection with criminal proceedings pending against her. She was required to answer charges of aggravated money laundering on November 24 and 25, a media report here said in a report from Geneva. At the start of the two-day hearing, Ms Bhutto levelled allegations against Hassan Wasim Afzal, Deputy Chairman of the NAB, saying that he had tortured certain witnesses appearing in court proceedings in Pakistan in cases against her. Afzal took strong exception to these remarks, the spokesman said, adding that he addressed the court and lodged protest against Ms Bhutto stating that these remarks were frivolous and unfounded and were aimed at tarnishing his fair image and reputation, The News reported. Consequently, the court registered a criminal case against Ms Bhutto on charges of slander. The case has been forwarded to the Attorney-General, Switzerland, for proceedings against her under law. Meanwhile, Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian (PPP) yesterday refuted a government spokesman’s claim that a Swiss court has registered a criminal case against her on charges of slandering Afzal.
— PTI |
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Suu Kyi’s house arrest extended
Yangon, November 27 The source said officials from the former Burma’s military government had visited Suu Kyi in her Yangon home to read her a statement outlining the decision, which came exactly one year after she received a similar 12-month extension of her detention. U. Lwin, a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which won a landslide election victory in 1990 only to be denied power by the army, said they had been kept in the dark about any possible extension. However, a repeat of last November’s one-year decision had been expected, he said. Typically in one of the most secretive countries in the world, there was some confusion as to the exact terms of the extension, with no official word from the government and another Home Ministry source, saying it might only be six months. Suu Kyi, (60), has spent around 10 of the past 15 years either in prison or under house arrest as the military — which has run Myanmar under various guises since 1962 — shows little sign of wanting to loosen its grip on power. Her latest period in custody started on May 30, 2003, after pro-junta demonstrators attacked Suu Kyi’s convoy as she travelled in the countryside north of the capital. — Reuters |
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Most Britons unhappy with Blair: poll
London, November 27 Fiftyseven per cent of those polled were unhappy with the government’s performance while only 33 per cent were satisfied, according to the poll conducted by
Ipsos-MORI and published in The Observer newspaper. Mr Blair’s own performance was a little better, with 55 per cent saying they were dissatisfied with him against only 37 per cent who were satisfied. In contrast, nearly half of those polled said they were happy with the performance of Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, widely tipped to replace Mr Blair in the run-up to the next general election.
Fortynine per cent said they were satisfied with the way Brown was doing his job against 35 per cent who were not. Despite Mr Blair’s poor showing, Labour still enjoyed a healthy lead over the Conservatives, according to the poll of nearly 2,000 persons conducted between November 17-22.
Labour were on 42 per cent — up from the 36 per cent of the vote it took in the last election in May — while the Tories were barely changed from the 33 per cent they polled then. Mr Blair has said he will not stand for a fourth term in office after leading Labour as the Prime Minister since 1997, while the Tories are locked in a leadership battle between David Cameron and David Davies to see who will replace Michael Howard.
— Reuters |
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Al-Qaida plan to kill Saddam foiled
Baghdad, November 27 “We arrested 12 members of a cell linked to the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaida during a dawn raid on a house in eastern Kirkuk,” in northern Iraq, police Colonel Anwar Kader said yesterday. “They confessed during questioning to planning to kill chief judge Raed al-Juhi this week.” Juhi is the chief investigative judge on the Iraqi High Tribunal, which is tasked with judging former regime officials, including Saddam, for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. Kader said all the suspects were Iraqi Sunni Arabs from Kirkuk, from Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit or from the restive western province of Al-Anbar. The 12 suspects also confessed to helping to carry out suicide attacks in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah in October in which 10 persons were killed, he said.
— AFP |
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Militants threaten Bangladesh SC Judges
Dhaka, November 27 The threat came today
in a letter addressed to advocate Mahbubey Alam, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
— UNI
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Pope ushers in Christmas season
Vatican City, November 27 The pontiff addressed crowds in St Peter’s Square during his traditional Sunday blessing that also marked the beginning of Advent, which starts four Sundays before Christmas and is the beginning of the ecclesiastical year. “We could say that Advent is the time when Christians should awaken in their hearts the hope that they can change the world, with the help of God,” Benedict said. Advent is “a time of great religious inspiration, because it is steeped in hope and spiritual expectation,” Benedict said. “Every time the Christian community prepares to remember the birth of the Redeemer, it experiences a quiver of joy that it transmits to a certain extent to the whole of society.” — AP |
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Hurley to marry Arun Nayar next year: report
London, November 27 The pair is planning to tie the knot in a lavish three-day ceremony with Arun making an eye-popping entrance on an elephant, The News of the World tabloid reported today quoting a pal of the couple. — PTI |
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Madonna wants to direct film
London, November 27 The pop singer is about to appear in a documentary about her life, “I’m Going To Tell You A Secret,” that will be shown on December 1 in Britain by Channel 4 television. “I would love to direct a film. I felt very inspired by making this movie, and I learned a lot about filmmaking and storytelling. I would like to do it on my own next time,” she said in an interview with Channel 4. — AP |
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