Petion-ville (Haiti), November 8
About 75 schoolchildren and teachers were killed when a shantytown grade-school packed with hundreds of students collapsed during classes, a government official said.

The three-storeyed La Promesse (The Promise) School in Petion-ville, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, caved in a heap of cement slabs and twisted steel rods at about 10 a.m. yesterday, trapping scores inside.

By late in the day, around 75 bodies, most of them children, had been found, officials said.

“We have counted about 75 dead for the moment, and around 85 injured,” said Nadia Lochard of the civil protection bureau.

“But there are still numerous children stuck in the rubble. We have signs that they are still alive and we are trying to save them,” she said.

Lochard said French fire crews from Guadaloupe were to arrive overnight to help in the rescue.

As many as 700 students aged from three to 20 attend the church-run school in a suburb of the capital, but an accurate count of how many had been inside when it crumbled was not available.

A new storey had been under construction atop the three-storeyed school when it fell in, also damaging five homes next to it. — AFP

Aqaba (Jordan), November 8
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has said Palestinians should soon have their own state, though she made it clear she does not expect a breakthrough before Barack Obama moves into the White House.

“They are dignified people and I am certain the day is coming soon when they have a state that will be in accordance with that great national dignity,” she said yesterday after meeting Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah, the West Bank’s political capital, before heading later to Jordan.

Rice has nevertheless tacitly admitted that Israel and the Palestinians were unlikely to reach a peace deal by the time US President George W Bush’s mandate ends on January 20, despite earlier pledges to seek agreement by the end of this year.

“The distance to peace has been narrowed although peace has not been achieved,” she said at yesterday’s news conference in Ramallah.

In the absence of an accord, Rice is pushing the two sides to define the outlines of a deal before she hands over the thorny Middle East dossier to an Obama administration.

“One of the things we must do is that we must show... that Annapolis has laid the foundation for the establishment of the state of Palestine,” she said.

Rice had played a key role in reviving the peace process at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, one year ago after a seven-year hiatus.

“The Annapolis process is vital, it is vibrant and it continues,” she said, even though little tangible process has been achieved, with core issues dealing with the status of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the borders of a future Palestinian state still to be resolved. — AFP

Tehran, November 8
Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani today slammed US president-elect Barack Obama for saying that Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons was “unacceptable”, the official IRNA news agency reported.

“This signifies a pursuit of the same erroneous policy as in the past,” Larijani said when asked about Obama’s comment yesterday. “If the United States wants to change its standing in the region it should send good signals,” he added.

“Obama understands that change does not only mean a change of colour and superficial differences, change must also have a strategic basis,” the agency quoted Larijani as saying.

In his first new conference since winning the US presidential election on Tuesday, Obama said Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons was unacceptable and also that he would “respond appropriately” to a congratulatory letter from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon, I believe, is unacceptable,” Obama added. — AFP

US President-elect Barack Obama called Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday night and assured him of his full support for democracy in the country.

According to the official APP news agency, Obama expressed hope that the two countries would continue to work together to further expand their bilateral relationship.

Zardari congratulated the new US leader on his success in the November 4 elections and said Pakistan and the US were allies and would maintain their close ties.

Zardari said: “Pakistan seeks strengthening of long-term relations with the US.”

Obama’s historic victory enthused most Pakistanis with political leadership and the media expressing the confidence that he would review policy on war on terror shifting away from use of force to engagement and dialogue.

BRIEFLY

Media workers in poor health: Survey
BEIJING: Nearly 97.5 per cent of the Chinese media workers are in poor health due to sedentary lifestyle, which includes heavy smoking, irregular meals and sleeping hours, a survey has said. Chinese media workers are in sub-optimal health, meaning that their general physical condition is poor even though they have no specific disease, according to a survey released on the eve of China’s Journalists’ Day, which fell on Friday. Sub-optimal health is defined as poor health with no specific diagnosis and it is marked by physical weakness, low vitality and a poor immune system. — PTI

First Indian American elected district judge
HOUSTON: Indian-American Democratic employment lawyer R.K. Sandill, who entered the Harris County judicial race, has created history by becoming the first from the community to be elected a district judge in Texas. Sandill won the 127th judicial district court here on the Tuesday election, receiving a total of 554,482 votes and defeated incumbent Republican Judge Sharlyn Wood. However, another Indian-American candidate Ashish Mahendru, also contested on the Democratic ticket for judicial race, lost to Sharon McCally in the 334th judicial district race. McCally received 563,517 votes and Mahendru 532,135 votes. — PTI

Obama apologises to Nancy Reagan
CHICAGO: US President-elect Barack Obama has apologised to former first lady Nancy Reagan for his “careless” and “offhanded” remark in which he referred to her having held “seances” in the White House. Obama, who called Reagan after his press conference here, had a warm conversation with the widow of former President Ronald Reagan. The 87-year-old former first lady had consulted astrologers during her husband’s presidency as revealed by the President’s former chief of staff Donald Regan in his memoir ‘For the Record’. However, there have been no reports of seances being conducted in the White House during the Reagan administration. Ronald Reagan, who was President of the US from 1981 to 1989, died in 2004. — PTI