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77,000 evacuated as typhoon nears Chinese province
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Killers' families tell of their grief and horror
THE families of the London suicide bombers have expressed grief and anguish over the attacks.The wife of Germaine Lindsay, 19, from Aylesbury, said she was horrified at her husband's involvement in the King's Cross blast.
Saudi woman ‘drives’ into row
India opens counter for medical visas in Pak
G4, AU to continue talks on UNSC expansion
Award for Urdu novelist Sattar
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77,000 evacuated as typhoon nears Chinese province
Beijing, July 18 The provincial meteorological station of Zhejiang forecast that haitang was to land the coast between the southern part of Zhejiang and the central regions of Fujian tomorrow. The station also predicted heavy rain in most parts of Zhejiang province tonight and tomorrow. The Wenzhou city government held an emergency tele-conference on Sunday to tighten security and relocate people from 1,388 risky places that were prone to geological disasters. The provincial government has also ordered flood control authorities to be on guard and minimise damages, Xinhua news agency reported. Last year, Typhoon Rananim caused the most destructive mud-rock flow since 1949 and claimed 47 lives in the city of Yueqing. The city, determined to draw a lesson from last year’s tragedy, has arranged round-the-clock patrol at reservoirs and embankments and recalled all fishing boats. Fujian province on the southeastern coast has reported strong gales and heavy rain today and the provincial maritime bureau had called back all fishing boats. The provincial tourism administration has told local travel services to suspend operation and banned all coastal hotels from receiving guests. A total of 19 flights flying from Hong Kong to Taiwan have been cancelled and another 25 flights are expected to be delayed, according to reports from Hong Kong. Twenty-four flights from Taiwan to Hong Kong will also be cancelled, Xinhua news agency reported. To reduce the damage caused by typhoon Haitang to the minimum, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has urged the local governments to be well prepared. The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters issued a circular, calling on local governments in Fujian to move people to safe places and to take effective measures to safeguard the people’s life and property. Already, floods this summer have killed 764 people and left 191 people missing in China, according to latest official figures. Floods have affected 90.21 million people in 27 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country. Over 14 million acres of crops were destroyed and 702,100 houses collapsed during the disaster, which has caused 47.65 billion yuan ($ 5.79 billion) of direct loss, media reports said yesterday.
— PTI |
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Three London bombers visited Pak: officials
Islamabad, July 18 Shezad Tanveer and Muhammad Siddque Khan, two suspected bombers of the Pakistani origin, arrived in Karachi on November 19, 2004, by Turkish Airlines from Istanbul and stayed in the country for three months. They returned to London by the same airline in February 8, 2005, immigration officials said. The other suspected bomber Hasib Hussain arrived in Karachi by a Saudi airliner from Riyadh on July 15, 2004, but no records were available about his return, they said. Staff of over a dozen seminaries in the rural areas of Islamabad and Rawalpindi was being interrogated in the probe into the London blasts, said Saood Aziz, the District Police Officer (DPO) of Rawalpindi. Pakistani officials swooped on some madarsas, run by banned terror outfits Lashker-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, even as British investigators examined the details of the calls made by some of the bombers from London to Pakistan, Geo TV reported. Intelligence agencies were checking hotels where the suspects were believed to have stayed, it said, adding airport officials were looking into the records about who had received them. The three reportedly visited Lahore and Faisalabad and went to a madarasa where the investigators were looking into the records, the TV report said. — PTI |
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Killers' families tell of their grief and horror
THE families of the London suicide bombers have expressed grief and anguish over the attacks.The wife of Germaine Lindsay, 19, from Aylesbury, said she was horrified at her husband's involvement in the King's Cross blast. Samantha Lewthwaite, 22, a white British Muslim convert, said Lindsay had been a "loving family man" until recently when he started making trips to Luton.
She said: "In four months he changed from a lovely family man to someone I hardly recognised. He was regularly travelling to Luton, sometimes two to three times a week, to meet new friends ... the truth is dawning that he somehow got mixed up in these bombings. My world has fallen apart and I'm horrified." Ms Lewthwaite, who is eight months pregnant with the couple's second child — they have a 15-month old son, Abdullah —condemned her husband's actions and said her thoughts were with the families who had lost loved ones. The mother of Shahzad Tanweer, 22, from Leeds, who detonated the Aldgate bomb, was said to be gravely ill last night. A family friend said she had been too ill to eat or talk since hearing of her son's involvement, and her condition was made worse by diabetes. The family of the Edgware Road bomber, Mohammed Sidique Khan, offered their "deepest and heartfelt sympathies" to the victims and called the attack an "evil and horrific act", in a statement released through West Yorkshire Police. "We are devastated our son may have been brainwashed into carrying out an atrocity since we know him as a kind and caring member of our family." A former girlfriend of the youngest bomber, Hasib Hussain, 18, from Holbeck, Leeds, said he went to Pakistan and came back a different person. "He became more extreme with his beliefs." The white British girl, who did not want to be named, met him when she was 12 and he was 15. —
By arrangement with The Independent, London. |
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Saudi woman ‘drives’ into row
Dubai, July 18 Now more than 100 sheiks, religious leaders of Mecca and Medina, imams, judges, Islamic scholars and teachers and the head of religious police say that allowing women to drive would corrupt the Islamic world. “The enemies of Islam are seeking to destroy the great role women have in Islam by attempting to corrupt them,” they said arguing that the presence of foreign drivers does less damage than the economic burdens of allowing women to drive. The Islamic ruling that women are not allowed to drive cars is because of the concept of “closing doors that lead to corruption” applies to it directly, they said. Although Saudi Arabia has signed the United Nations Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), women in the country are barred from driving and are excluded from many jobs despite high education.
— UNI |
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India opens counter for medical visas in Pak
Islamabad, July 18 Besides the patients, two of their attendants can be given visas to travel with them and the attendants can also apply along with the patients through the special counter, an announcement by the High Commission said. Those seeking visas in this category can apply with all relevant documents, including details of medical appointments and correspondence with hospitals concerned, it said. The announcement for a special counter for medical visas follows recent decision by India to provide more visas for Pakistani patients desirous of having treatment in India as the demand has gone up heavily in the recent
years. — PTI |
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G4, AU to continue talks on UNSC expansion
New York, July 18 The first-ever substantive meeting of Foreign Ministers of G4 countries and an 18-member African Union (AU) delegation led by Nigerian Foreign Minister Olu Adeniji here yesterday discussed in-depth ways to narrow down differences over the two groups’ respective draft resolution for the Security Council expansion. External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh along with his counterparts from Brazil, Germany and Japan held talks with the AU delegation at India’s UN mission. The Foreign Ministers of both sides will meet again in Geneva on July 25 to review in-depth discussions that their UN ambassadors in New York will begin soon to thrash out remaining differences.
— PTI |
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Ex-British PM Heath dead
London, July 18 During his tenure, the Conservative Prime Minister took Britain into the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union, and sent troops to Northern Ireland. Heath’s premiership (1970-74) was also marked by bitter industrial action that prompted him to call a national election, which he lost to Labour Party leader Harold Wilson. In 1975, he lost the Conservative leadership to Margaret Thatcher. — PTI |
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Award for Urdu novelist Sattar
Dubai, July 18 It is given to two writers, one from Pakistan and another from India, to promote Urdu and encourage understanding through literature. This year the Lucknow-born Pakistani short-story writer Hajira Masroor won the 10th annual award for his country. Museeb-ur-Rehman, founder of the Majlis, said the award would be given in Doha in November on the occasion of 12th International Mushaira, the Gulf Times reported.
— UNI
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