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Quake jolts western Iran
Indo-Pak peace process slow: Musharraf
12 children die in school blaze |
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Colombo, March 31 Sri Lanka's ruling People's Alliance today romped to a landslide victory in the local elections where parties of Buddhist monks and Marxists were given a raw deal by the voters. Model Naomi Campbell charged
Liz Hurley may settle in India
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Quake jolts western Iran
Tehran, March 31 Another 988 persons were injured in the quake in the province of Lorestan with a force of 6.0 on the Richter scale, state news agency IRNA quoted head of the local medical university Qodratollah Shams Khoramabadi as saying. Television footage showed survivors in some of the worst-affected areas between the cities of Doroud and Brujerd digging through the rubble of their mud-brick homes. About 330 villages suffered 40 to 100 per cent damage, Lorestan provincial Governor Mohammad Reza Mohseni Sani was quoted on state television as saying. "By nightfall we will be able to give an accurate number of the casualties and the damage inflicted by the quake," he added. State television reported that rescue workers had been dispatched to the most devastated areas in the province near the border with Iraq and that the number of casualties was expected to increase. Survivors were in the urgent need of food stuff, blankets and medical supplies, Interior Ministry Public Relations Director Mojtaba Mir-Abdollahi told AFP, but said there was "no need for international aid." "Currently the hospitals of the province are packed with injured, and the wounded are now being sent to neighboring provinces," Mir-Abdollahi said. "According to the inspection done by the local Governor-General's office, the death toll is not expected to reach 100 persons," he added. Iran sits astride several major faults in the earth's crust, and is prone to frequent earthquakes, many of them devastating. Media reported that the weather was now sunny but that inhabitants of Dorud and Borujerd, terrified by the successive tremors, spent much of the night in parks in cool temperatures. Some local reporters said people in the area were not fully satisfied with the rescue operations The tremor, registering 6.0 on the Richter scale, struck at 4:47 am (0537 IST) following two others measuring 4.7 and 5.1, Iranian television quoted the national seismological institute as saying. The Strasbourg Observatory in eastern France announced an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale in western Iran. Iranian television said the quake caused an electricity blackout in Dorud where the inhabitants rushed out into the streets in panic. The tremor was felt as far away as Hamedan in the province of the same name to the north.
— AFP
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Indo-Pak peace process slow: Musharraf
Colombo, March 31 "The pace of improvement is not sufficient and it could move faster," Musharraf told the state-run Daily News here when asked about ties between India and Pakistan. The interview was done in the backdrop of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's visit to Pakistan starting today. Gen Musharraf reacted sharply to a suggestion that he was a dictator, claiming that he was a moderniser and stabiliser of Pakistan. "I am not a dictator. I was not a dictator or a harsh person even in the army. Even then I believed in carrying along others with me and I continue to do so. Anyone can speak against me. Read our newspapers, watch our TV. Anyone can speak against me. What the Opposition is telling. Just look at the media", he said, adding there could not be media freedom in the country if he was a dictator. Asked about terrorism, Gen Musharraf said the funding for it must be dried up globally and its must be defeated. Maintaining that he was against separatism in Sri Lanka, Gen Musharraf said, "We believe and respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka". Asked how he saw LTTE's engagement in suicide terror which killed President R. Premadasa and former Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi and others, the Pakistani leader said: "Yes. They started the cult of suicide bombings. I have always said funding of terrorism must be dried up globally and terrorism must be defeated." —PTI
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12 children die in school blaze
Kampala, March 31 The victims were boys and girls aged between seven and 13, police spokesman Patrick Onyango said. The Islamic East Kabarole Primary School had been using candles due to a power crisis that has caused blackouts across the country. “It seems one pupil left a candle and it caught a bed sheet before spreading from there,” Onyango said.
— Reuters
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Lanka’s ruling party wins local polls
Colombo, March 31 According to the Sri Lankan Election Department, President Mahinda Rajapakse's party won 205 out of the 247 councils, results for which were officially declared. A total of 266 local councils went to the polls yesterday. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) had secured just 28 councils while the Marxist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, only managed to retain a council they had won in 2002. The party of Buddhist monks did not win a single council. The two minor parties are supporting Rajapakse at the national-level, but contested the local election separately. — PTI
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Model Naomi Campbell charged with assault
New York, March 31 A police spokesman said Campbell had been charged with second degree assault and the housekeeper was taken to hospital after the incident. The spokesman had no further details on the woman’s injuries. Campbell, still one of the biggest names in fashion at the age of 35, was fingerprinted and photographed at a police station and was due to be taken to court later for arraignment, a police spokeswoman said. Campbell’s agent, Amanda Silverman, said in a statement: ‘’We believe this is a case of retaliation, because Naomi had fired her housekeeper earlier in the morning. We are confident the courts will see it the same way.’’ — Reuters
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Liz Hurley may settle in India
London, March 31 "Sadly I have business commitments here at the moment, but maybe in 10 years' time we might be there," she added. Hurley also revealed that she and Arun Nayar are very
happy, adding that little Damian even calls him Papa. "Arun would like a baby very much and he's working on persuading me at the moment, so we'll see. He'd love a little girl that looks like him. Damian has a male role model in his life... (he) was only about nine months old when Arun and I met and he's never really known a life without him”.
— ANI |
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