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Annan pledges UN support to Sri Lanka
India yet to endorse SAARC summit dates
Prabhakaran dead or missing?
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Indian nuke engineers pass out from Russian centre
PPP rejects division of Hyderabad
Suicide car bomber kills four
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Annan pledges UN support to Sri Lanka
Habantota (Sri Lanka), January 8 "This is a beautiful country but I am sorry for the people who suffered this destruction. (The UN) will try to reconstruct it as much as possible," the UN secretary general said on landing by helicopter in this badly-damaged town on Sri Lanka's east coast. On his arrival, he was met by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and World Bank President James Wolfensohn. During their tour of the town, their motorcade stopped at Galwella Buddhist temple, where Annan spoke to monks about the devastation wrought by the earthquake-triggered tsunamis. He later drove to the Tabeer Jumma mosque in the town where 80 tsunami-affected Muslim, Hindu and Christian families are housed, while thousands of other people had also gathered to see the Secretary General. At the camp Annan met the tsunami victims and posed for photographs with three orphan children who lost their parents in the giant sea waves and have since stayed at the mosque which is doubling up as a relief camp. Here he met clerics from the three religions who briefed him on the overall conditions of the people in the camp. Annan also spoke to the head of the camp and enquired about the availability of food and was informed that there was a steady supply. After the brief stopover at the camp the UN chief headed to the government agent's office in the town. On his way to Hambantota, Annan flew over the southern town of Galle to view firsthand the destruction caused by the massive waves, said an AFP photographer on the media flight with him. Annan arrived in Colombo yesterday from Indonesia for a two-day visit to Sri Lanka, which saw three-quarters of its coastline smashed by the tsunamis.
— AFP |
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India yet to endorse SAARC summit dates
Islamabad, January 8 Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar has contacted the Foreign Secretaries of the other member-countries about the new dates. Sri Lanka has approved the proposed dates while Nepal and the Maldives have conveyed that these dates suited them. Bhutan’s
position is that it will accept the dates approved by the other
member-countries. A reply was awaited from India. As soon as a response
was received from India, Pakistan would announce the final dates for the
summit. “If the summit meeting falls on the proposed dates then the
meeting of ministerial council will most probably take place from
February 5-6,” a Pakistan Foreign office spokesman said.
— PTI |
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Prabhakaran dead or missing?
Colombo, January 8 It sparked fresh tension between the government and the rebels who immediately denied the report. The Island newspaper, meanwhile, reported today that an expensive coffin “for a top LTTE leader” had been smuggled into a northern Tiger area inside a container carrying relief for tsunami survivors. The
LTTE, in a statement posted on its official Peace Secretariat website, slammed the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation for carrying the reports, saying now was “not the time for gossip mongering and malicious propaganda”. ”The LTTE and the Tamil people strongly protest against this mischievous act of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, stooping down to such low level of broadcasting news that is fabricated by interested parties,” the statement said. The radio reports quoted a Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri as saying that Prabhakaran and Amman were among those killed or missing in the tsunami disaster.
— AFP |
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Indian nuke engineers pass out from Russian centre
Moscow, January 8 After the training at Russian Nuclear Power Agency’s “RosEnergoAtom” centre in Novo-Voronezh in southern Russia, the engineers are to undergo a six-week practical training at the Kalinin nuclear power plant in Tver region north of Moscow, where a VVER-1000 nuclear reactor was recently commissioned. The Kudankulam power plant, being constructed with Moscow’s assistance, is to have two similar light-water nuclear power units. First among them with a 1000 mw watt capacity is to be commissioned in 2007. “These are highly qualified engineers, all of them with higher education, which they received from various Indian universities,” chief of the training centre Alexander Ivanchenko was quoted as saying. In all 150 Indian specialists are to be trained in Russia to work as operators and maintenance engineers at the Kudankulam power plant which would have a 2000 mw capacity after completion in 2008.
— PTI |
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PPP rejects division of Hyderabad
Hyderabad, January 8 Speaking at a press conference at the Press Club yesterday, the district president of the party, Sattar
Bachani, MPA Zahid Bhurgari and Mohsin Shah Bukhari warned if the district, whose sizeable Urdu-speaking population could play a role of bridge between Mohajirs and
Sindhis, was divided on ethnic lines, it would once again lead to hatred in the province. They said the two communities had completely done away with the hatred over the past several years. They criticised the Muttahida Qaumi Movement for its duplicity over Sindh issues and said though it had changed its nomenclature but had floated proposal for the division. They said the plan would vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of the district where Urdu-speaking people and Sindhis had ironed out their differences created by the
MQM. They said the city district government Karachi was created by merging five districts while Hyderabad was being divided to create a city district. They said such issues negated President Musharraf’s own policies and added that the MQM had foreseen its defeat in the next local bodies’ poll. They said separate districts were created but no separate budgetary allocations were made by the Sindh Government in the annual budget. They said if Hyderabad was bifurcated then the PPP would not only move the court but it would also take to the streets. They said if the Sindh Government forced any such decision on the people of Hyderabad an FIR would be lodged against the Chief Minister. |
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Suicide car bomber kills four
Baghdad, January 8 They said most of those killed were queuing at the fuel station in the village of Mahaweel, about 80 km south of the capital. The explosion wrecked at least three cars but did not hurt any of the police or soldiers manning the checkpoint a little further down the road.
— Reuters |
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UN
chief Kofi Annan today pledged support for the reconstruction of Sri
Lanka's battered coastlines as he toured areas of the island ravaged
by the December 26 tsunami. "This is a beautiful country but I am
sorry for the people who suffered this destruction.
In
video: Schools turned into refugee camps in Sri Lanka.
