W O R L D

90 feared dead in Ethiopian crash
 Beirut, January 25
All 90 people aboard an Ethiopian Airlines plane were feared dead after it plunged into the Mediterranean, minutes after taking off from Beirut in stormy weather today.  At least 23 bodies were recovered.
Relatives of passengers who were aboard an Ethiopian Airlines plane which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday. — Reuters

Lanka goes to poll today
Chandani Kirinde writes from Colombo
Around 14 million Sri Lankans will go to the polls on Tuesday to elect the country’s next president after a bitterly fought campaign between the two main contenders for the post - incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa and opposition’s General Sarath Fonseka. Political analysts say the contest is a closely fought one and have refused to say who is likely to emerge winner. Both Rajapaksa and Fonskea have expressed confidence of victory.

Contempt case against Malik adjourned
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad
The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the contempt of court proceedings against Interior Minister Rehman Malik till February 18 after rejecting his explanation as unsatisfactory. “Not only that your explanation is inadequate, you seem to have no remorse for interfering in the court’s working,” Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry told Malik. He directed the Attorney-General to also attend the next hearing and ensure presence of the minister during the proceedings.

Oz Assaults
Warne ready to play peacenik
Less than a week after he publicly differed with national icon and former chief of defence staff General Peter Cosgrove that attacks against Indians had a racial dimension, Victoria’s Premier John Brumby has sought a meeting with cricketer Shane Warne to discuss issues stemming from violent attacks on Indians and on how to defuse tensions between the two countries.

‘Holy water’ poisons 200 in Russia
Moscow, January 25
Over 200 people are suffering from poisoning in the Siberia city of Irkutsk after consuming ‘holy water’ from wells purified during the Orthodox Christian Epiphany last week, according to reports. Even as the Church officials have denied the poisoning cases are due to sanctified water, the number of victims has hit 228 as of today, of which 114 of them have been hospitalised, the consumer health and sanitary watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said.

 

90 feared dead in Ethiopian crash

Beirut, January 25
All 90 people aboard an Ethiopian Airlines plane were feared dead after it plunged into the Mediterranean, minutes after taking off from Beirut in stormy weather today. At least 23 bodies were recovered.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Lebanon has seen stormy weather since last night, with crackling thunder, lightning and pouring rain.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said terrorism was not suspected in the crash of Flight 409, which was headed for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

“Sabotage is ruled out as of now,” he said.

Weeping relatives streamed into Beirut’s airport to wait for news on their loved ones. One woman dropped to her knees in tears; another cried out, “Where is my son?” Andree Qusayfi said his 35-year-old brother, Ziadh, was traveling to Ethiopia for his job at a computer company, but was planning to return to Lebanon for good soon.

“We begged him to postpone his flight because of the storm,” Qusayfi said, his eyes red from crying. “But he insisted on going because he had work appointments.” Zeinab Seklawi said her 24-year-old son Yasser called her as he was boarding.

“I told him, ‘God be with you,’ and I went to sleep,” Seklawi said.

She begged reporters at the airport for information, saying: “Please find my son, I know he’s alive and wouldn’t leave me.”

The dead include several children, according to a Lebanese defense official who asked that his name not be used because he is not authorized to speak to publicly.

The Boeing 737-800 took off around 2:30 a.m. local time and went down 3.5 kilometres off the coast, said Ghazi Aridi, the public works and transportation minister. The Lebanese army said in a statement the plane was “on fire shortly after takeoff.’ “The weather undoubtedly was very bad,” Aridi told reporters at the airport.

Pieces of the plane and debris were washing ashore in the hours after the crash, including passenger seats, a baby sandal, a fire extinguisher and bottles of medicine.

The wife of Denis Pietton, the French ambassador to Lebanon, was on the plane, according to the French embassy.

Helicopters and naval ships were scrambled for a rescue effort as huge waves slammed into the shore. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced a day of mourning and closed schools and government offices.

Ethiopian Airlines’ CEO Girma Wake told journalists in Addis Ababa that he had no information on the fate of those on board or about the cause of the crash. He said the aircraft had been serviced on December 25 and passed inspection. — AP 

Lanka goes to poll today

Chandani Kirinde writes from Colombo
Around 14 million Sri Lankans will go to the polls on Tuesday to elect the country’s next president after a bitterly fought campaign between the two main contenders for the post - incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa and opposition’s General Sarath Fonseka. Political analysts say the contest is a closely fought one and have refused to say who is likely to emerge winner. Both Rajapaksa and Fonskea have expressed confidence of victory.

The country’s former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who belongs to Rajapaska’s political party - the SLFP, threw in her lot behind Fonseka on Monday giving the country’s former army commander a boost in his bid to win the presidency.

Contempt case against Malik adjourned

Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad
The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the contempt of court proceedings against Interior Minister Rehman Malik till February 18 after rejecting his explanation as unsatisfactory. “Not only that your explanation is inadequate, you seem to have no remorse for interfering in the court’s working,” Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry told Malik. He directed the Attorney-General to also attend the next hearing and ensure presence of the minister during the proceedings.

Malik who also faces possible prosecution on corruption and abuse of authority after annulment of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) found himself in deep trouble in another case of fleeing the country without passport to escape these charges 10 years ago. An additional judge of Peshawar on Monday granted him bail before arrest.

The Supreme Court had taken a suo motu notice against Rehman Malik in the Pakistan Steel Mills case and directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe massive corruption in country’s largest state enterprise. Instead, the minister interrupted the probe last December. He removed the highly reputed FIA chief Tariq Khosa, named a favourite in his place and formed a separate panel to investigate corruption in the Pakistan Steel Mills.

Malik had claimed he had acted in accordance with the court directive though the court took an opposite view of his actions designed ostensibly to derail the inquiry. But the apex court said it was satisfied with the investigation of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Chief Justice while addressing Rehman Malik said: “You have no idea how much did the probe in the Steel Mills’ corruption case suffered because of you.”

Malik said that the FIA is not eligible to audit Steel Mills therefore we are hiring a foreign firm.

In reply, the Chief Justice said conducting audit of Steel Mills is not within the authority of interior minister.

Rehman Malik appeared before the court on Monday without a counsel to defend his position why he stopped investigations by the FIA. He submitted a written reply saying he had no intention of showing any disrespect to the court and maintained that he formed a new panel for investigations because the FIA did not have the requisite expertise to audit accounts. The court noted that this explanation was not satisfactory. 

Oz Assaults
Warne ready to play peacenik

Dinesh Kumar writes from Melbourne
Less than a week after he publicly differed with national icon and former chief of defence staff General Peter Cosgrove that attacks against Indians had a racial dimension, Victoria’s Premier John Brumby has sought a meeting with cricketer Shane Warne to discuss issues stemming from violent attacks on Indians and on how to defuse tensions between the two countries.

Warne, a famous leg spinner and Melbournian, who successfully coached and captained the Rajasthan Royals to victory in the first edition of the IPL, appeared on national television on Monday to say that he was willing to play interlocutor by visiting India “to help ease tensions” in the wake of frayed tempers over the spate of attacks on Indians.

“I believe I can make a difference and that’s important. If I can help the relationship between both the countries and make a difference and help, then I am putting my hand up to do that,” the spin king told TV channels here. “Both people are passionate about cricket and sports. This has to stop. It’s not right what’s happening,” he added.

Brumby, who has been economical in acknowledging that racism may be a motive behind some of the attacks on Indians, said Warne’s popularity in India and his own understanding of Australia as a country makes him a perfect candidate for the repair work.

“He is highly regarded, he is much loved in India, and he has got a great sense of the Australian psyche, so I think these two things can come together and we'll see what we can make out of it to strengthen that Australia-India relationship,” Brumby said.

“There's a lot of friendship between Australia and India, and this problem we’ve had in the last year is, sort of, eating away at that relationship,” Brumby said. Both Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and Australian High Commissioner to India Peter Verghese have cautioned that the otherwise good bilateral relations between the two countries can get adversely affected if attacks on Indians continued Down Under.

In another development, parishioners at one of Melbourne’s most famous churches were on Sunday urged to pray for forgiveness for “dishonouring other cultures” and failing to listen to the concerns of members of the Indian community who were described by an Anglican bishop as “oppressed in this land”.

“Forgive us for our arrogance in closing our eyes to other people’s cultures. Forgive us for not honouring the cultures of others, and thus taking away their self-respect…forgive us for not listening to the grief’s of all who are oppressed in this land, especially for Indians who are feeling vulnerable”, prayed the Bishop of Melbourne’s northern and western regions where most of the attacks against Indians have been occurring.

The first month of the year has witnessed one murder, two acts of arson and violent attacks on about half-a-dozen Indian taxi drivers in Victoria alone. Last week accounted for a spate of revelations starting with Victoria’s police chief, Simon Overland, acknowledging that his force has been aware of the attacks on Indians for over two years; that some of these assaults had a racist dimension; and that Indians were over-represented in robberies.

Other revelations last week included the fact that the two apex police bodies never discussed the issue of attacks against international students, including Indians, for 17 long months from July 2008 to November 2009; and that both the federal and state governments ignored warnings by the country’s apex university body about problems being faced by overseas students, including those from India.

‘Holy water’ poisons 200 in Russia

Moscow, January 25
Over 200 people are suffering from poisoning in the Siberia city of Irkutsk after consuming ‘holy water’ from wells purified during the Orthodox Christian Epiphany last week, according to reports. Even as the Church officials have denied the poisoning cases are due to sanctified water, the number of victims has hit 228 as of today, of which 114 of them have been hospitalised, the consumer health and sanitary watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said.

The sanitary watchdog said the tests showed that water from the city’s Archangel Michael Church was in accordance with the norms, but samples taken from two nearby wells and a swampy lake showed the concentration of chloride and nitrates was twice the normal level. — PTI