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Victims scuffle as aid arrives in PoK
45 dead in Iraq suicide bombings
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India to get oil from Sakhalin-1
Spacecraft with millionaire lands
in Kazakhstan
Indian-origin
Channel 4 journalist denied Pak visa
Booker goes to John Banville
Sudoku could bring back maths into fashion
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Victims scuffle as aid arrives in PoK
Muzaffarabad, (PoK), October 11 US military helicopters helped ferry wounded people from the wrecked city of Muzaffarabad, while international rescue teams joined the search for survivors before the window of hope for finding people alive begun to close. Pakistani government officially put the death toll at just over 20,000, but local officials estimated much higher fatalities — perhaps twice as high. With winter just six weeks away, the United Nations has said 2.5 million people in the worst-hit areas near the mountainous Pakistan-India border need shelter. About 10 trucks brought by Pakistani charities and volunteers rumbled into Muzaffarabad early today. Attempts by relief workers for an orderly distribution dissolved into chaos as residents scuffled for the handouts of cooking oil, sugar, rice, blankets and tents. It was the first major influx of aid since the monster 7.6 magnitude quake struck Saturday morning, destroying most homes and all government buildings in this city, and leaving its 600,000 people without power or water. Most have had to spend the three cold nights without shelter. Policemen looked on helplessly as more than 200 people raided a stockpile of foodstuff arranged by relief workers at a soccer field near the city center — one of the six designated aid distribution points in Muzaffarabad. One man could be seen making off with a big sack of sugar, another left on a motorized rickshaw with a big crate of drinking water.
— AP |
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45 dead in Iraq suicide bombings
Baghdad, October 11 In the deadliest attack in Iraq in nearly two weeks, the suicide car bomb exploded at about 11 a.m. in a crowded open market in the northwestern town of Tal Afar, killing 30 Iraqis and wounding 45, said Brig Najim Abdullah. He said all victims appeared to be civilians since no Iraqi or U.S. forces were in the centre of Tal Afar, which is 420 km northwest of Baghdad. Insurgents also used two suicide car bombs, three roadside bombs and four drive-by shootings in the Capital to kill a total of 14 Iraqis and wound 29, the police said. The worst attack involved a suicide car bomb that exploded at 12 noon at an Iraqi army checkpoint in a busy area of western Baghdad, killing eight Iraqi soldiers and a civilian and wounding 12 soldiers. The violence came four days ahead of Iraq’s key vote on the new draft constitution, which the Kurds and the majority Shiites largely support and the Sunni Arab minority rejects.
— AP |
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India to get oil from Sakhalin-1
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Russia), October 11 The Sakhalin-I fields, where ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) has 20 per cent stake, began producing oil and gas earlier this month. Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who was present along with Russian Energy Minister Viktor Borisovich Khristenko when the valves were opened, said OVL had given loans to Rosneft to fund the Russian company’s 20 per cent stake in the project as well as paying for its own 20 per cent share of development costs. “Our share of 20 per cent entitles us for 50,000 barrels per day of crude oil from peak output of 250,000 bpd. But since we have also financed Rosneft’s share, we would get their share of oil as well, till the loan is repaid,” he said on October 1 on Sakhalin Island. India, which imported 76 per cent of its crude oil requirement last year, is seeking stakes in overseas fields such as Sakhalin to feed the nation’s 7 per cent annual economic growth. OVL managing director R.S. Butola said the field would initially produce 23,000 barrels per day of oil and about 58-59 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. Oil production would rise to 50,000 barrels per day by April 2006 and hit the peak level of 250,000 barrels per day by 2006 end. Gas production will rise to 200 million standard cubic feet per day by next year, he said.
— PTI |
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Spacecraft with millionaire lands
in Kazakhstan
Arkalyk (Kazakhstan), October 11 The touchdown of the Russian Soyuz space capsule on the cold, wind-swept steppes of northern Kazakhstan, where Russia’s manned-space facilities are based, ended the third trip by a private citizen to the orbiting laboratory. The descent from the station orbiting approximately 400 km above the Earth took about 3 1/2 hours. Four search planes and 17 helicopters scrambled to meet the spacecraft and search-and-rescue crew members helped the men out of the capsule, sat them in chairs and draped fur-lined sleeping bags over their shoulders to ward off the early dawn chill. Rescuers reported that the crew’s condition was “good”. Olsen (60) appeared unaffected by the gut-wrenching trip home. He grinned ebulliently, ate a green pear and drank water with gusto as he chatted with ground personnel. “I feel great,” he said in both English and Russian. “I want to have a good steak, a red wine and, of course, a hot shower,” he told mediapersons after the crew was whisked by a helicopter to the nearby town of Kustanai from where they were flown to an air base just outside Moscow.
— AP |
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Indian-origin
Channel 4 journalist denied Pak visa
London, October 11 Guru-Murthy spent several hours at the visa desk set up by the Pakistan High Commission at Heathrow airport in London, but was finally refused permission to travel. He was told his parents' birthplace made it necessary for further background checks to be carried out. His crew eventually travelled without him. Fellow Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow was able to fly on a later flight. Guru-Murthy, who was born in Britain, is a leading light of Britain's Asian community. The Pakistan High Commission in London had set up a special desk at Heathrow to process emergency visa applications from journalists and relatives of Pakistan residents wishing to travel to the region. Reports say that other journalists who arrived at the airport had no problems getting visas to fly to Islamabad. Guru-Murthy had reported from Pakistan before, and while his background had reportedly caused minor delays before, this was the first time that he had been refused an emergency
visa. — IANS |
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Booker goes to John Banville
London, October 11 The 59-year-old was handed the 87,000-dollar award for “The Sea”, described by the judges as “a masterly study of grief, memory and love recollected”. Bookmakers had made Banville a 7-1 outsider for what is Britain’s best-known literary prize, also one of the most prestigious annual awards in the world for a single work of fiction. This year’s favourite had been British author Julian Barnes for his novel “Arthur and George”, followed by 1989 Booker winner Kazuo Ishiguro and 29-year-old British prodigy Zadie Smith. Instead, the judges said they had been torn between Banville’s work and “Never Let Me Go”, the latest work by Japanese-born British writer Ishiguro, with chairman of the judging panel John Sutherland having to cast a deciding vote. “In an extraordinarily closely contested last round, in which the judges felt the level of the shortlisted novels was as high as it can ever have been, they have agreed to award the Man Booker Prize to John Banville’s Sutherland said. “The judges salute all the shortlisted novels,” he added.
— AFP |
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Sudoku could bring back maths into fashion
London, October 11 According to Sir Michael Atiyah, the winner of the Abel Prize, mathematics' equivalent to the Nobel Prize, the lack of properly qualified teachers, and the rapid decline in the popularity of mathematics among present-day students, could be reversed due to the positive mania the game has generated among them, and could lead to more people turning back to the subject. "All kinds of mathematical games are a good thing," Sir Michael said.
— ANI |
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