Train-mini bus crash kills 26 in Egypt
Cairo, November 18
At least 26 persons were killed in Egypt when a train ploughed into a truck and a mini-bus at a railway crossing early today, the health ministry said.

Islamabad/Peshawar, November 18
Sectarian tensions continued to simmer in Pakistan today as curfew was imposed in the northwestern cities of Hangu and Kohat after three persons died in an exchange of fire.

Protests were organised in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad over sectarian clashes on Friday that left 10 dead.

The army took control of Kohat and Hangu in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and a curfew was clamped in the cities following an attack on an imambargah or Shia prayer hall at Zargaranabad in Kohat district.

Police officer Mazhar Jaan was quoted by the Dawn newspaper as saying that unidentified persons attacked the imambargah this morning. Two policemen and a civilian were killed in an exchange of fire between two rival groups, he said.

Several others were injured and a mob comprising members of a group set on fire several shops in Tirah Bazaar.

Activists of the Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat, a front for the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba, had organised a rally in Kohat city to protest the clashes in Rawalpindi.

In the face of mounting tensions, authorities imposed a curfew in Kohat and Hangu and the army took control of both cities.

In Rawalpindi, fresh protests were held after curfew was lifted this morning. Students of a seminary and traders gathered outside Raja Bazaar at 11 am and shouted slogans against the administration. The demonstrations began soon after Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah's press conference, during which he assured the public that the government would take swift action against those behind the clashes.

Army and police personnel arrived at Raja Bazaar soon after the protests started and all routes leading to it were closed.

Vehicles and pedestrians were barred from passing through the area. The local administration banned the sale of petrol for motorcycles. — PTI

Islamabad, November 18
The Pakistan government today asked the Supreme Court to launch treason proceedings against former dictator Pervez Musharraf for imposing emergency in 2007, the first time the civilian administration has sought the criminal prosecution of a military ruler.

A letter sent by the Law Ministry to the apex court Registrar's Office sought the formation of a special court with three judges to try the 70-year-old former army chief for high treason, a charge that could entail the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The letter, to be put before the Supreme Court Chief Justice for further action, stated the trial should be held as soon as possible. The prosecutor for the case too should be selected immediately, it added.

Musharraf's spokesperson has described the government's decision to initiate the case against him as a "vicious attempt to undermine the Pakistan military". The military has ruled Pakistan for about half of its 66-year history and no ruler or top military commander has ever faced criminal prosecution.

Meanwhile, the Sindh High Court today adjourned the hearing of Musharraf's petition for removing his name from the Interior Ministry's Exit Control List till November 22. In his plea, Musharraf said he wants to go to Dubai to meet his ailing mother. Persons included in the Exit Control List are barred from travelling out of Pakistan. — PTI

Melbourne, November 18
Australian intelligence agencies have reportedly spied on Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and his close aides, prompting an angry Jakarta to recall its Ambassador and order a review of bilateral ties.

According to documents leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden and obtained by the ABC news and Guardian Australia, the country’s intelligence attempted to tap into Yudhoyono’s phone conversations at least on one occasion.

It was found through the documents the spy agencies also tracked activity on his mobile phone for 15 days in August, 2009. The latest disclosure has come after previous claims that the Australian embassy in Jakarta was involved in spying on Indonesia.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the envoy was being called back to Jakarta for “consultations” after secret documents leaked by Snowden named the President as well as his wife and senior ministers as targets of the surveillance.

“This is not a clever thing to do," Natalegawa said. “It violates every single decent and legal instrument that I can think of.” He said the onus was now on Australia to explain what happened and to make a commitment that it would never happen again. — PTI

Chapagaun (Nepal), November 18
Narayan Kumari Ghimire has lost faith in Nepal's powerful Maoists: the only reason they will get her vote in Tuesday's election is because her son died fighting for them during the insurrection that ended seven years ago. For the 62-year-old widow, the one-time guerrillas have turned out to be no better than the rest of Nepal's grasping and ever-bickering politicians since they took off their red bandanas, gave up arms and tasted power in a 2008 election.

"They are corrupt, they live in big houses. They have not done anything for the families of those who sacrificed their lives," she said at an election rally outside the capital Kathmandu. "But I will vote for them because I have a blood relationship, because of my son," said Ghimire, standing in open ground ringed by snow-capped mountains wedged between India and China.

Nepal will elect a new assembly to write a constitution following the abolition of the 240-year-old feudal monarchy that the Maoists fought against.

The Himalayan nation, the size of Greece, has lurched from one political crisis to another over the past five years since a first attempt to agree on a charter failed, leaving space for militant groups and criminal gangs to thrive. Five governments - two of them headed by the Maoist party - have come and gone as politicians wrangled over the structure of the proposed new republic and how it should be governed.

Economic growth in Nepal, where nearly a quarter of its 27 million people live below the poverty line, has hovered around 3.5 percent over the past 10 years, much lower than the pace achieved by China and India on its doorstep, forcing many people to seek work abroad.

Much of the ire for the drift is directed against Prachanda, the 58-year-old Maoist revolutionary whose party, riding a wave of hope in a war-weary nation, won the largest number of seats in the first constituent assembly that also functioned as the parliament. — Reuters

Cairo, November 18
At least 26 persons were killed in Egypt when a train ploughed into a truck and a mini-bus at a railway crossing early today, the health ministry said.

Another 28 persons were injured in the accident, which happened south of Cairo. Local police chief Kamal al-Dali told state television the mini-bus had been carrying guests home from a wedding.

The head of the Egyptian Railway Authority said the drivers of the vehicles had ignored warning lights and chains blocking entry to the crossing, and tried to go across the tracks.

"The bus stormed the crossing, according to initial reports," Hussein Zakaria told state television.

"The crossing was closed with chains, (and) there were warning lights," he said.

The train, whose driver survived the crash, continued for almost one kilometre before coming to a halt, he said. The Egypt's rail network has a poor safety record stemming largely from lack of maintenance and poor management.

In January, 17 persons died when a train transporting conscripts derailed, and in November, 2012, 47 schoolchildren were killed when a train crashed into their bus. — AFP

Washington, November 18
A fast-moving storm system triggered multiple tornadoes on Sunday that killed at least six persons and flattened large parts of a town in Illinois as it tore across the Midwest, authorities said. The tornadoes leveled scores of homes and demolished entire neighborhoods.

Some 80 tornado reports were received, along with 358 reports of damaging winds and 40 reports of large hail, according to Rich Thompson, a lead forecaster with the weather service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

Traffic was halted briefly at Chicago's two major airports, and tens of thousands of people in several states lost power.

By early Monday three persons were reported killed in Massac County, two in Washington County and one in the city of Washington, in Tazewell County, said Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

The National Weather Service confirmed preliminary EF-4 tornado damage in Washington County in southern Illinois, with winds of 166 to 200 miles per hour. The unusual late-season storms moved dangerously fast, tracking east at 60 miles per hourwith the bulk of the damage spanning about five hours, Thompson said. Wind damage threats continued across Pennsylvania and New York.

With communications difficult and many roads impassable, it remained unclear how many people were killed or hurt by the unusually strong late-season tornadoes.

"The whole neighborhood's gone. The wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house," said Michael Perdun, speaking by phone from the hard-hit town of Washington.

Local official Tyler Gee told WLS-TV that as he walked through neighborhoods immediately after the tornado struck, he "couldn't even tell what street I was on.” — Agencies

Islamabad, November 18
Ten entertainment television channels in Pakistan have been slapped with Rs 10 million fine for airing excessive Indian and foreign content, a media report said today.

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) imposed the fine on the channels and issued warning letters to them to desist from such practice in future, The News report said.

It quoted a document of the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage, as saying that the local channels were airing excessive Indian content, much more than the prescribed limits.

The PEMRA monitoring system is working round the clock to ensure the compliance of code of advertising, the report said.

Private TV channels of the country have been authorised to air only 10 per cent foreign content and 60 per cent of that 10 per cent should be Indian or other content and 40 per cent of the 10 per cent may be English content.

The channels that have been fined include Hum TV, Oxygen TV, Play TV, Kohinoor Entertainment and TV One Entertainment. — PTI

Kabul, November 18
With a sense of showmanship that would have impressed Freddie Mercury, Salahdeen, aged seven, struts his way through a passionate rendition of “We Will Rock You” all part of the learning process at Kabul's “school of rock”.

Founded two years ago in a living room in the Afghan capital, the school has grown into a busy youth club based at an arts centre with a recording studio and 35 students mastering singing, the guitar and drums.

The walls are covered in murals of local life and musical heroes such US duo The White Stripes, while the garden outside is decorated with graffiti paintings, including one of a woman struggling with her veil.

“This is the only place in Afghanistan to learn rock music,” said Omar Paiman, 18, a spiky-haired fan of Linkin Park. “I am interested in guitar, and I have had lessons for seven months. My family didn’t want me being a singer because Afghan people don't have a good opinion of rock music.”

“Some people threaten to kill artists. My dad is a construction engineer and wanted me to follow him," Omar added as he strummed through a few chords of the Bob Dylan classic “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”.

The Taliban outlawed almost all music during their 1996-2001 rule of Kabul, and Afghanistan remains a conservative Muslim country with widespread suspicion of Western influences.

But rock school founder Humayun Zadran said the hunger among young people for a blast of electric guitar became clear when teenagers clamoured to get involved with jam sessions that he held at his home with friends.

“Kids were asking ‘how do you play this riff?’ and ‘how do you hold this note?’. It got bigger and bigger and we thought about opening a proper rock school.

“We started with a couple of guitars, half a drum kit and seven students.” Zadran says that finding kit, funds and teachers to keep the project afloat is a constant battle. — AFP

A student prepares relief packages before distributing them to typhoon victims in the Philippines on Monday. Reuters

150 yrs later, paper retracts editorial panning Lincoln
Washington: In one of the oldest corrections in journalism’s history, a US newspaper has retracted a 150-year-old editorial that dismissed President Abraham Lincoln’s revered Gettysburg Address as “silly remarks”. “Our predecessors, perhaps under the influence of partisanship, or of strong drink, as was common in the profession at the time, called President Lincoln’s words silly remarks,” the editors of the Pennsylvania-based newspaper said of the editorial published on November 24, 1863. — PTI