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Suicide bomber kills provincial minister, seven others in Pak
Search on for Philippine quake survivors as toll touches 151
A resident retrieves belongings from his family's home, which fell into a river, after an earthquake hit central Philippines on Wednesday. — Reuters |
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Jhumpa Lahiri loses out in Booker race to Kiwi author
A house and an electric pole smashed by large rocks from a collapsed slope caused by heavy rain in Tokyo on Wednesday. — AFP
London traffic cop slaps £80 fine on Hillary
Syria blast kills 21, US urges
Nixon ‘kept quiet’ on Hindu genocide by Pak army
Ready for inspection of nuclear sites: Iran
Jail trial for Musharraf in Lal Masjid case
49 feared dead in
Laos plane crash
Ties with US in turmoil, says Egypt Senior Dutch diplomat beaten up in Russia
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Suicide bomber kills provincial minister, seven others in Pak Peshawar, October 16 Officials said the suicide bomber opened fire, killing two guards posted outside the residence and then entered the gathering of Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government Israrullah Khan Gandapur in the Kulachi area of Dera Ismail Khan. The 32-year-old Israrullah was receiving Eid greetings from the residents of the area, when the suicide bomber blew himself up as he neared the minister. More than 30 persons were wounded in the attack, including Gandapur’s elder brother, said Irfan Mahsud, the assistant commissioner in the city of Dera Ismail Khan. About 500 people were present when the bomber struck. The injured were shifted to Khan Hospital from Kulachi tehsil. Israrullah was the son of former provincial Chief Minister Inayatullah Khan Gandapur who ruled the province in the early seventies. Israrullah was elected as an independent candidate during the 2013 general elections but later joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Expressing shock, Tehreek-e-Insaf party chief Imran Khan tweeted, "It is imperative the federal govt move forward to implement political consensus arrived at the APC. KP ppl and govt are frontline
targets.” Imran has been pitching for talks with the Taliban who have stepped up their attacks in
the region. President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have strongly condemned the blast. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has sought report from the IG Police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the incident. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Shaukatullah and Chief Minister Parvez Khattak have also condemned the attack. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.
— PTI 30 injured in Attack
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Search on for Philippine quake survivors as toll touches 151
Loon, October 16 The number of persons confirmed killed on Bohol and neighbouring islands climbed from 93 yesterday to 151 today as the full scale of the disaster became clear, and there were no tales of miracle rescues. At Loon, a small coastal town of about 40,000 persons just 20 km from the epicentre of the earthquake, shocked survivors used their bare hands to scour through the rubble of their homes. “We’re trying our best to keep hopes up, but in this desperate situation there is nothing much we can do beyond giving comforting words,” local priest Father Tomas Balakayo said as he stood in front of Loon’s destroyed limestone church. "I try to be strong but this is terrible, what have these people done to deserve this?" Loon farmer Serafin Megallen said he dug with his hands, brick-by-brick, to retrieve his mother-in-law and cousin from the rubble of their home yesterday. "They were alive but they died of their injuries three hours later. There was no rescue that came, we had to rely on neighbours for help," he said. With destroyed bridges, ripped-open roads and power outages fragmenting the island of about one million people, authorities said it had proved difficult for police and government rescue workers to reach isolated communities today. Loon was one of the most badly affected communities, with 42 persons confirmed killed there so far, according to Bohol police chief Senior Superintendent Dennis Agustin. But for most of today the only people involved in the search and rescue efforts were local residents and police, with only a few rescue workers arriving by boat, and no heavy equipment that could have plied through the rubble.
— AFP |
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Jhumpa Lahiri loses out in Booker race to Kiwi author
London, October 16 "I thank the Man Booker Prize for providing value and worth jointly with this extraordinary prize," Catton, who began writing the novel when she was just 25, said last night. She was presented with the coveted award by Camilla Parker-Bowles, Duchess of Cornwall, at a glittering ceremony in London's Guildhall. Catton's novel is the longest work ever to win the prize. Travel writer Robert Macfarlane, who chaired the judging panel, called 'The Luminaries' "dazzling," "luminous" and "vast without being sprawling." "It is beautifully intricate without being fussy," Macfarlane said. "It is experimental ... but does not by any means neglect the traditional virtues of storytelling." London-born Lahiri's 'The Lowland', a tale about two brothers brought up in Calcutta in the late 1960s, was lauded by the judges as a "seismological" story which was told with "impeccable lucidity". Raised in London, Boston and Rhode Island by immigrant parents from West Bengal, the book is 46-year-old Lahiri's second novel and fourth book. This year’s Booker shortlist, announced last month, included six writers of different nationalities, including Canada, Britain, Ireland, New Zealand and, for the first time in the prize's history, Zimbabwe. — PTI Youngest winner
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Typhoon Wipha whips Tokyo, 17 dead
Tokyo, October 16 Public broadcaster NHK and Jiji Press reported at least 16 persons had died and 51 were unaccounted for on Oshima, after houses were destroyed or swept away by a series of landslides and floods on the island, 120 km south of the Japanese capital. "We've confirmed that 13 persons have died, and the number is likely to increase later," a police official in Oshima said. A woman was confirmed dead in western Tokyo after her body was recovered from a river. Many of the bodies of those who died on Oshima were found in houses that had been splintered by huge volumes of earth sent crashing down mountainsides by torrential rains and strong winds. Footage from the island showed ruined wooden houses half buried in mud. Mangled trees and other debris were piled up around them. The storm dumped more than 12 cm of rain on Oshima in an hour, according to the meteorological agency. Many local residents had sought shelter in evacuation centres, reporting dirty water had been gushing into their homes, according to local media. "City hall and fire station officials are doing rescue work in places accessible," a local official said. The local authority has not been able to confirm the whereabouts of 51 of the island's more than 8,300 residents, Jiji Press reported.
— AFP Nari leaves 6 Dead in Vietnam Hanoi: Typhoon Nari killed six persons in Vietnam, left seven others missing and destroyed or damaged thousands of homes, officials said on Wednesday.The storm slammed into Vietnam's central coast early on Tuesday after leaving 13 persons dead in the Philippines over the weekend. — AP
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London traffic cop slaps £80 fine on Hillary
London, October 16 Her security staff were seen discussing the penalty notice with a Westminster Council traffic warden, but he refused to remove the ticket, the BBC reported today. Clinton currently does not enjoy diplomatic status or number plates. According to a photographer, her bodyguards got of out of their vehicle into the drizzle after the unidentified warden issued the ticket. Voices were raised, a badge was flashed and fingers pointed, but nothing fazed the attendant, something Londoners have long grown used to. Westminster City Council cabinet member for business Daniel Astaire said: "The former US Secretary of State was parked for nearly 45 minutes without paying. “I'm sure she will understand that we have to be fair to everyone, regardless of their status on the world stage.” “For future reference, Mrs Clinton can now download a new parking app for her iPhone which will tell her in real time where a parking space is available in Westminster, the only place in London where this is possible," Astaire said. Clinton was awarded this year's Chatham House Prize in recognition of her contribution to international diplomacy and work on behalf of gender equality and opportunities for women and girls. She has not commented on the ticket, the report said. The fine would be reduced to 40 pounds if the possible future leader of the free world pays up within 14 days, The Telegraph reported. It is not known if Clinton intends to pay the fine. The US embassy In London referred enquiries to Bill Clinton's charitable foundation in New York. The foundation in turn did not respond, the paper said.
— PTI |
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Syria blast kills 21, US urges oppn to join talks
Damascus, October 16 “Twenty-one persons were killed in the Nawa area (of Daraa), among them four children and six women, in a blast that detonated as their vehicle went past Tal al-Jumua,” the Britain-based Observatory said. Activists have accused regime troops of planting the explosives, the watchdog said. A battalion of troops loyal to Assad "is positioned there, and is under siege by rebel forces", it added. Daraa is the cradle of the uprising that broke out against Assad in March 2011. The Observatory says more than 115,000 persons have been killed in the war that erupted after Assad's troops unleashed a brutal crackdown against protesters calling for political change. The latest civilian deaths come as the United States presses efforts to persuade a key Syrian opposition group to drop its refusal to join planned talks in Geneva. A stalled peace initiative dubbed Geneva 2 has been proposed by Washington and Moscow aimed at bringing rebel and regime representatives to the negotiating table.
— AFP 41 dead in fighting Beirut: At least 41 fighters have been killed in violent clashes pitting Kurds against jihadists and Islamist rebels in northeastern Syria, a monitoring group said on Wednesday. — AFP 11 sites checked The Hague: The world's chemical weapons watchdog said on Wednesday its inspectors have checked 11 out of 20 sites identified by Damascus as it works to eliminate Syria's banned weapons. — AFP
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Nixon ‘kept quiet’ on Hindu genocide by Pak army
Washington, October 16 While the Indian Government was aware of it, it tried to play it down and instead referred to it as genocide against the Bengali community in Bangladesh so as to avoid an outcry from the leaders of the then Jan Sangh, the predecessor of the today’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, says Gary J Bass, author of the book “The Blood Telegram: Nixon Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide”, which recently hit the book stores. “Rather than basing this accusation primarily on the victimisation of Hindus, India tended to focus on the decimation of the Bengalis as a group,” Bass, who is a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, says. “The Indian foreign ministry argued that Pakistan’s generals, having lost an election because their
had too many Bengalis, were now slaughtering their way to a wholesale reduction in the population of East Bengal so that it would no longer comprise
a majority in Pakistan,” said Bass. As the Pakistan Army continued with the systematic targeting of the Hindu community, the book says, Indian officials did not want to provide further ammunition to the irate Hindu nationalists in the Jana Sangh party.
— PTI |
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Ready for inspection of nuclear sites: Iran
Tehran, October 16 He was replying to a question about whether the application of the additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which allows unannounced inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites, was included in the proposal. Araqchi had on Tuesday been cited by IRNA as saying the implementation of the additional protocol "does not exist" in the offer. The additional protocol allows reinforced and unannounced inspections of a country’s nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and requires that information be provided on all activities regarding the nuclear fuel cycle. As it stands now, Iran is only obliged to inform the IAEA three months ahead of transferring fissile material into the nuclear site. Iran, a signatory of the NPT, voluntarily implemented the additional protocol between 2003 and 2005 but ceased to apply it after its nuclear case was sent to the United Nations Security Council.
— AFP The protocol
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Jail trial for Musharraf in Lal Masjid case
On the request of the capital police, the city administration has ordered the jail trial for former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in the murder case of a Lal Masjid cleric and his mother during the 2007 operation.
The case was registered with the Aabpara police on September 2 .The request for the jail trial was made in view of threats to the former President.
“According to the intelligence report, militant outfits have planned to assassinate the former president,”an official of the city administration said. On April 23, a car loaded with 45 kg of explosive, was found near Musharraf’s farmhouse in Chak Shahzad which has been declared a sub-jail. Meanwhile, sources in the police claimed that the Islamabad's Aabpara police had I refused to collect evidence and record the statements of witnesses against the former President in the Lal Masjid case. The spokesman for Lal Masjid Shuhada Foundation, when contacted, claimed that the investigating officer had deliberately refused to record their statements to give benefit to the former President.
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49 feared
dead in Laos plane crash
Bangkok, October 16 The Ministry of Public Works and Transport, which operates the airline
as a state enterprise, said 44 passengers and five crew members were
aboard flight QV301 from the Lao capital, Vientiane, to Pakse in the
country’s south. Earlier reports had said there were 39 passengers on
board.
“Upon preparing to land at Pakse Airport, the aircraft ran into
extreme bad weather conditions and reportedly crashed into the Mekong
river,” the ministry said in a statement. It said there was no word of
survivors. The airline flies an ATR-72 twin-engine turboprop plane on the
467-km route.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee said his country’s
embassy in Vientiane was informed that the plane crashed 7-8 km from the
airport at Pakse.
A passenger manifest faxed by the airline listed 44 persons: 17 Lao,
seven French, five Australians, five Thais, three Koreans, two Vietnamese
and one person each from Canada, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and the United
States. Korean, French and Thai officials confirmed the totals for their
nationalities.
The Lao government said the airline “is taking all necessary steps to
coordinate and dispatch all rescue units to the accident site in the hope
of finding survivors.”
It said the crash is being investigated and the airline hoped to
announce its findings tomorrow. A Laos Airlines employee contacted by
phone at Vientiane’s Wattay airport said a news conference would be held
tomorrow. — AP
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Snowden leaks harmed security: Cameron 3 get 30-yr jail for robbing Indian Americans Presumed dead, Haj pilgrim found alive Malaysian leaders speak out on Allah ruling
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Survivors of a huge earthquake that killed more than 150 persons in the Philippines rummaged hopelessly today through ruins for friends and relatives, as rescue workers struggled to reach isolated communities.
London, October 16
