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Heat wave sparks fires in S Europe
Cyclone kills 10 in Pak
48 dead in China rainstorms
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‘Om’ to resound in US Senate
Threats to Chaudhry unspeakable, Aitzaz tells SC
Sacred bull Shambo to be slaughtered
NRI barrister gets £1 m as fee
2 Indian hostages freed
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Heat wave sparks fires in S Europe
London, June 26 Hundreds were stranded in Sheffield, where military and police helicopters were scrambled to rescue people trapped in cars or those taking refuge from the fast-rising floodwaters on rooftops. Russia experienced a similarly chaotic weather, with four people dying in storms that hit the south of the country, part of the mountainous Ural area, western Siberia and parts of Siberia close to Mongolia. Conditions were radically different in southern and eastern Europe and in the Mediterranean, where a heat wave sparked fires fanned by strong southerly winds. The situation was particularly serious in Sicily, where guests at a number of hotels near the northwest coast reportedly had to be evacuated. A heat wave in Greece killed two during the weekend and pushed demand for electricity to new all-time highs, officials and news reports stated. Temperatures were expected to reach 43° C in some areas, the Greek weather service said. The heat wave that has already lasted several days has taken at least 25 lives.
— AFP
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Cyclone kills 10 in Pak
Karachi: A cyclone hit the coast of Pakistan today killing 10 persons, cutting roads and stranding hundreds, but it spared the country’s biggest city days after nearly 230 persons were killed there in a storm.
Authorities in Pakistan and neighbouring India have evacuated thousands of people from low-lying areas after weekend storms and flooding killed nearly 400 persons across the South Asian region. Tropical cyclone Yemyin, packing winds of up to 80 miles per hour roared over the Arabian Sea to the south of Karachi and hit the coast of Baluchistan province at about 11.30 am. Cyclone Yemyin dumped torrential rain but weakened rapidly as it moved inland, said chief meteorologist Qamar-uz-Zaman
Chaudhry.
— Reuters
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48 dead in China rainstorms
Beijing, June 26 The Met authorities in Zhejiang province said five people were killed by lightning yesterday when they were building a tomb. Most of the other deaths in lightning occurred in Jiangxi province, with 12 rural residents dying while working in the fields outside the city of Shangrao. Another 11 people died when their houses collapsed as a result of relentless rainstorms, a news agency reported. In the worst-hit area of Shangrao, 516,700 people were affected and 5,000 have been relocated. More than 16,000 hectares of crops were affected and 342 houses collapsed, incurring losses of 70 million yuan. Met stations have warned that lightning storms and downpours would not subside until tomorrow. —
PTI
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‘Om’ to resound in US Senate
New York, June 26 Zed, who has been officially asked to say the prayer, said he believes this may be the first time any Hindu prayer is delivered in the Senate since its formation in 1789. Zed is likely to choose the prayer from the Rig Veda, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. He said he plans to start and end the prayer with ‘Om’. The full text of the prayer will be included in the Congressional Record. There are an estimated 2 million Indian Americans in the US. Along with this, followers of Hindu groups like ISKCON may add up to another 1 million. “July 12 will be an illustrious day for all Americans and a memorable day for Indian Americans when prayers from ancient Hindu scriptures will be read in the great hall of democracy,” Zed said.
— IANS
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Threats to Chaudhry unspeakable, Aitzaz tells SC
Judges of the Supreme Court currently hearing suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry’s case have complained that they are being spied on by secret agencies and their telephones are being bugged.
The judges responded to CJP's lead counsel Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan's remarks that Chaudhry was bullied at Rawalpindi's presidential camp office on March 9 and was issued threats which cannot be repeated in an open court. "I cannot tell you what kind of threats were given to the CJP, when he was left at the mercy of the intelligence chiefs. But he stood firm. All other judges should follow his example," Ahsan said, as he presented his arguments on the CJP's petition challenging the presidential reference against him. Ahsan contented that the reference against the CJP was based on information gathered by the intelligence agencies. He rejected an affidavit submitted to the court by the President's chief of staff as "so much absurdity". He said the source of the information that the reference was based on should have been "legal and clean".“Intelligence agencies cannot be allowed to break into the houses of superior court judges," Ahsan said. Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, the presiding judge of the 13-member full court said judges were still being spied on.
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Sacred bull Shambo to be slaughtered
London, June 26 Shambo had tested positive in a routine bovine tuberculosis test at the Skandavale Temple in Llanpumsaint, Carmarthen, Wales in late April. The Hindu Forum of Britain had called for Hindus to form a human chain around the temple, where the bull was placed in isolation, to prevent local authorities from killing it. But the Welsh Assembly today said it had provisionally decided to give vets the go-ahead to slaughter Shambo in order to “protect animal and human health”, Timesonline reported. Priests at the temple insist there is no possibility of Shambo entering the human food chain and have isolated him from the rest of their herd of 55 cattle. “I am acutely aware of the distress that this will cause not only to the community, but also to many in the wider Hindu community,” said Jane Davidson, the assembly’s Sustainability Minister. “This is something that I regret deeply, but my view is that it is necessary that I take appropriate steps to protect animal and human health in this case.” She said the Skanda Vale community had until Friday to make final representations before the decision was rubber-stamped. A date for the slaughter is then expected to be set. Temple priests have warned that the stand-off over Shambo’s fate could spark an international incident.
— PTI
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NRI barrister gets £1 m as fee
London, June 26 The 48-year-old head of Equity Chambers in Birmingham, Balbir Singh, who has never been promoted to the rank of Queen’s Counsel (QC), earned more than the nine QCs on the list of ten highest-paid barristers in the UK. Ten years ago, Singh was cleared of professional misconduct after a television programme falsely accused him of telling a client how to destroy evidence and concoct an alibi.
— PTI
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2 Indian hostages freed
Lagos, June 26 The two, kidnapped near the town of Sapele on June 15, were handed over to officials of Delta state government. "They are okay. They are coming into our custody," said Brigadier-General Lawrence Ngubane, who commands a joint task force in the restive wetlands region. The authorities originally reported that the two hostages were Lebanese employees of a construction company, but later said they were Indians. Militants fighting for regional control over the delta's oil wealth have stepped up a campaign of kidnappings in Africa's top oil producer, but the region is lawless and most kidnappings are motivated by money.
— Reuters
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