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Blasts in two Iraq mosques; 74 killed
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WHO confirms two cases of bird flu in humans
Iran confirms processing new batch of uranium
UK racists attack Indian, Pak students
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Blasts in two Iraq mosques; 74 killed Baghdad, November 18 The suicide attackers targeted the Sheik Murad mosque and the Khaniqin Grand Mosque — both homes to Shiite Muslims — in Khanaqin, 140 km northeast of Baghdad, as dozens of people were attending Friday prayers, the police said. The police command said 74 persons were killed and 150 injured in the largely Kurdish town. The blast near the Hamra hotel in Baghdad knocked down the blast wall protecting the hotel and blew out windows, but did no structural damage. “What we have here appears to be two suicide car bombs (that) attempted to breach the security wall in the vicinity of the hotel complex and I think the target was the Hamra Hotel,” US Brig-Gen Karl Horst told reporters at the scene. The blasts — less than a minute apart — reverberated throughout the city centre, sent a mushroom cloud hundreds of feet into the air and was followed by sporadic small arms fire. — AP
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Colombo, November 18 Mr Rajapakse, a former movie star who turned 60 today, said “I am especially happy that this victory was on my birthday.” The lawyer-Prime Minister, who was the candidate of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), won the top job after beating his nearest rival and opposition United National Party leader, Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe, with a slim margin in yesterday’s election marred by sporadic violence and boycott by minority Tamils. He secured 50.3 per cent of the 10 million valid votes counted. The socialist Prime Minister received 4.88 million votes while the right-wing former premier Mr Wickremesinghe pulled in 4.69 million votes. He just managed by 28,632 votes, to cross the 50 per cent cut-off point necessary to avoid a second round of voting. Mr Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP), meanwhile, called for a fresh poll in the northern peninsula of Jaffna, where Tamil Tiger rebels reportedly prevented people from voting in the election. Analysts say their ballots could have tipped the balance in Wickremesinghe’s favour. Less than 0.01 per cent of the 700,000 electorate turned out to vote in Jaffna. Violence, meanwhile, continued to plague the country’s east, with unidentified attackers lobbing grenades into a mosque early today, killing four men at prayer and wounding at least 25 others, police said. Mr Rajapakse, who has a hardline approach on talks with the LTTE, allied with the island’s main Marxist party, the JVP, as a partner in the Presidential campaign. In the run-up to the election, he promised to review the existing ceasefire between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and called for conditional talks with the rebels. — PTI
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WHO confirms two cases of bird flu in humans
THE World Health Organisation has finally confirmed the suspicion of two cases of the bird flu virus affecting two human beings, a nine-year-old boy He Junyao in Hunan province and the other a 24-year-old woman farmer in adjoining Anhui province of China. Though the young woman farmer had died soon after admission to the district hospital on November 1, the case was reported and confirmed by the Health Ministry only on Wednesday night. He Junyao was admitted too hospital in the first week of October along with his sister He Yin. He survived but his sister did not.
The Chinese authorities had denied the possibility of bird flu virus affecting the reported cases for almost a month. Only on Tuesday night, it confirmed the suspicion of two cases and put a third one, the 12- year-old sister of He Junyao- He Yin, who died last month as a suspect case of bird flu viral. WHO refused to confirm it, claiming insufficient data regarding the medical tests carried out on her. WHO representative in Beijing Roy Wadia dismissed the suggestions of a danger of human to human contact and contamination as absolute nonsense. He said that there was no evidence to suggest such a possibility. With mainland China confirming the first human death due to new virus that is threatening the large parts of Asian countries, the Hong Kong authorities have been on a high alert and have begun to take preventive measures. The border check posts have been alerted with introduction of temperature checks flow of visitors without causing much trouble or unnecessary hindrances for visitors. There are two land points from where visitors enter Hong Kong from the mainland. The Chinese authorities are at pains to allay fears of a large-scale outbreak of viral disease by taking a large contingent of international and Hong Kong based media persons to Liaoning province that has reported four major outbreaks of bird flu virus in October resulting in culling of more than 15 million head of poultry. The follow-up measures of slaughter of bird heads and disinfections of poultry farms, farmers sheds and water sources have run up the costs to 80 million Yuan — roughly 425 million in Indian rupees. And that is not covering even a whole state. China has promised to vaccinate its entire poultry stock of 14.2 billion bird heads. The Health Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry officials confirmed that 83 villages of two provinces had suffered the bird flu viral outbreaks in October. The media team organised by the State Council Information Office of Hunan province visited several villages along with a team of 24 officials from various departments of the Hunan province. The media visitors were also taken to a large scale poultry farm in Anshan Taian district that was so far bird flu free. |
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Iran confirms processing new batch of uranium
Tehran, November 18 “We had informed the UN watchdog that Iran wanted to process a new batch of uranium and we have started it,” the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Larijani as saying. Accused by Western nations of running a covert atomic weapons programme, Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) late in October that it planned to process a new batch of uranium without giving a specific date. Larijani did not say when the processing began. A diplomat in Vienna first announced that work was underway on Wednesday. Larijani reiterated that Iran would never give up its nuclear programme, insisting that Tehran only wanted the technology to generate electricity.
— Reuters |
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UK racists attack Indian, Pak students
London, November 18 Nearly 500 students from the Indian sub-continent had come together to jointly celebrate Divali and Eid in Plymouth over the last weekend, but were subjected to racist abuse. Glass bottles were hurled at them by a group of white youths as they left the venue. The local police in areas where such incidents have occurred have taken prompt action. In Plymouth, the South Asian Society, organisers of the event, promised to continue holding such events next year. Plymouth’s top policeman, Chief Superintendent Morris Watts, was at the event along side the MP of Plymouth Sutton, Ms Linda Gilroy, and other dignitaries. Ms Gilroy said after the disturbances: “It’s the equivalent of us being attacked outside our Christmas party. “The Devon and Cornwall police, under Mr Morris Watts’ leadership, takes these incidents very seriously and I am sure will tackle it in a robust manner.” Mr Jon McKenzie, trustee of the South Asian Society, said: “Why should a small racist group prevent people from different cultures coming together for a festival which is in effect their Christmas?” he said. — IANS
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