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Mine explosion kills 42, traps 66 in China
Maoists announce month-long protests
Former Pak PM Jatoi dead
IDPs to get travel freedom from Dec
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Six soldiers, 14 militants die in Pak gunbattle
Include Pak in talks on Kashmir: Qureshi
Pak minister offers to quit on Blackwater issue
Afghanistan world’s worst place to be born in: UN
Jesus Christ’s ‘death certificate’ imprinted on Turin Shroud
‘Spend time with family to beat stress’
Zardari, aides among NRO beneficiaries
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Mine explosion kills 42, traps 66 in China
Harbin, November 21 The blast ripped through the mine at about 2.30 am when there were 528 persons at work, but more than 400 have now got out safely, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing a rescue team spokesman. The blast was so violent it shook the surrounding area. Buildings near the mine mouth have partially collapsed, and some survivors were knocked unconscious temporarily. "I passed out for a while. I found I was shrouded by heavy smoke, when I regained consciousness. I groped my way out in the dark," 27 year-old electrician Wang Xingang told Xinhua. Wang is in hospital with 28 others who escaped the mine, said Pan Xiaowen, deputy director of the Hegang Mining Bureau Hospital. Six of them are seriously injured. The Xinxing mine is in Heilongjiang province, which borders Russia. It is owned by the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group, and produces 12 million tonnes of coal a year, Xinhua said, making it larger than most mines where accidents occur. Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang is heading to the site of the accident, and Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have given instructions about the rescue work, a sign of official concern about the latest in a long string of disasters. Rescue teams are on site, with 156 persons hunting for the missing miners, state television said Over 3,000 persons died in mine floods, explosions, collapses and other accidents in 2008.
— Reuters
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Maoists announce month-long protests
Despite their promise to solve the political deadlock through dialogue with the ruling coalition partners the main opposition party Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M) on Saturday announced a month-long phase of protests from November 22 to December 22 for upholding "civilian supremacy" in the country.
According to the Maoists leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai, the party will state launch the third phase of protests as the ruling parties had failed to address their demands even after their ultimatum issued by the party. However, the UCPN-M, which has been obstructing the regular business of the Legislature-Parliament for over four months has decided to let the parliament to run for three days so that the government would be able to endorse its budget. Talking to journalists, Maoists Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, said his party had decided to let the parliament open for "three days" to pass the budget. Before wrapping up its fortnight-long second phase protest programme on November 15, the Maoists had issued an week-long ultimatum to the government saying that if their demands were not addressed, they would start general strike. A few days ago Maoists Chairman Prachanda after his mysterious visit to Singapore to meet Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad P Koirala had claimed that a solution to the current political crisis was on the cards. He however, said, "Our consistent efforts to find a solution had failed to lead to any result as the ruling coalition partners try to ignore our concerns over upholding the civilian supremacy by debating on the controversial move taken up by the President Dr Ram Baran Yadav in the House." Meanwhile, Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra Poudel applauded the Maoists decision to let the parliament open to endorse the budget.
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Former Pak PM Jatoi dead
Islamabad, November 21 Jatoi joined the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in 1969 and was elected to Parliament for the first time the following year. He was Chief Minister of Sindh province during 1973-75 and served as caretaker Prime Minister for a brief period from August 6, 1990, to November 6, 1990, after the dismissal of the Benazir Bhutto government on corruption charges by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Jatoi also served as a minister in the federal government headed by late premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He died in a hospital in London yesterday. His body will be brought to Pakistan on a special flight tomorrow and will be buried in Naushehro Feroz district. Born on August 14, 1931, Jatoi was elected to the Sindh provincial assembly at the age of 27 in 1958. He played an important role in the Movement for Restoration of Democracy. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani have expressed grief at the death of the veteran politician. In separate messages, they lauded Jatoi's political contributions and services to the country and said Pakistan has lost a seasoned politician.
— PTI
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IDPs to get travel freedom from Dec
The nearly 135,000 remaining Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in welfare camps in the north of Sri Lanka will be free to travel wherever they wish from December, the government announced on Saturday. The IDPs were informed of this decision by Senior Advisor to the President, Basil Rajapaksa, when he visited Manik Farm, the biggest welfare camp.
The maintenance of the IDP camps had become a thorn in the flesh of the government with the UN and human rights groups saying people were denied their freedom of movement and were kept like prisoners since government troops defeated the Tamil Tigers in May this year. The number in the camps was around 300,000 originally but has now shrunk with rapid resettlement plans undertaken by the government. The government said it was also providing the IDPs with cash and building material for them to resettle in their originally places of residence. The welfare of IDPs has also become a political issue in the country with many of the opponents of President Mahinda Rajapaksa targeting him over the issue.
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Six soldiers, 14 militants die in Pak gunbattle
Islamabad, November 21 The Pakistan Army said in a statement that it had conducted search and clearance operations in a number of locations, where they found trenches and recovered huge caches of arms and ammunition. The soldiers fought "an intense battle" with militants and took control of Lakki Ghundi area, the army said. "During the operation 14 terrorists were killed," according to the statement. The six soldiers, including an officer, were also killed in the fighting and four other injured.
— DPA
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Include Pak in talks on Kashmir: Qureshi
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has warned that dialogue between the government of India and the leadership from Kashmir cannot succeed without engaging Islamabad, the nation too a party to the dispute. Qureshi said Pakistan wanted resumption of meaningful dialogue with India for resolution of outstanding disputes. “However, I am not seeking any photo-op for the sake of it,” he added.
Talking to journalists in Multan, the Foreign Minister said Pakistan was not engaged in back-channel diplomacy with India over Kashmir. He said he had met All Parties’ Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in New York and invited the Kashmiri leadership to Pakistan and a delegation was likely to visit Islamabad after Eid. Qureshi said he had held an informal meeting with the Indian Foreign Minister in Kabul where both attended the swearing-in ceremony of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He said he had made it clear to the Indian minister that Pakistan wanted meaningful dialogue. Qureshi said he had asked the Indian foreign minister about a roadmap for resumption of composite dialogue handed over to him during an earlier meeting in New York. He said the Indian minister had promised that he would inform Pakistan after discussing the matter with his government but there was no reply yet from his side.
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Pak minister offers to quit on Blackwater issue
Islamabad, November 21 Talking to reporters here today, Rehman Malik said US logistics company Dyne Corp had a presence in Pakistan since 2003, for providing transit assistance to the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan but it was not associated with Blackwater. He said then president Pervez Musharraf had permitted Dyne Corp to use the Pakistan route for assisting the international forces in Afghanistan. Malik said he had held talks with the authorities concerned, including the intelligence agencies, and Dyne Corp's presence in Pakistan would be regularised. The company, he said, is also imparting training to the paramilitary Frontier Corps and other law enforcement agencies. Malik’s remarks come even as the Lahore High Court has sought a detailed reply from the government on an application alleging that Blackwater was indulging in illegal activities in Pakistan and had a hand in the recent bomb blasts in Peshawar. Holding there was a possibility that Blackwater was behind the Peshawar terror acts, the petition, filed by advocate Zafarullah, has asked that it be banned, Online news agency reported yesterday. Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Sharif, while issuing notice to the government on the petition, directed the deputy attorney general to file a detailed reply by Dec 4. The petition contends that Blackwater was involved in unconstitutional and illegal activities in Pakistan and its personnel were freely roaming on the roads of Islamabad.
— IANS
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Afghanistan world’s worst place to be born in: UN
Geneva, November 21 It is, especially, dangerous for girls, the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said yesterday, in launching its annual report: The State of the World’s Children, the Online news agency reported. Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world -- 257 deaths per 1,000 live births, and 70 per cent of the population lacks access to clean water, the agency said. As Taliban insurgents increase their presence across the country, growing insecurity is also making it hard to carry out vital vaccination campaigns against polio, a crippling disease still endemic in the country, and measles that can kill children. “Afghanistan today is without doubt the most dangerous place to be born,” Daniel Toole, UNICEF regional director for South Asia, told a news briefing. A Taliban-led insurgency and militant attack on an international guest house in Kabul that killed five UN foreign staff last month prompted the world body to evacuate hundreds of international staff from Afghanistan for several weeks. Some 43 per cent of the country was now virtually off-limits to aid agencies due to insecurity, according to Toole. The Taliban had been building their forces in their traditional southern and eastern Afghanistan stronghold and were increasing attacks in the north and west. “Teaching girls is one of the practices they forbid. Some 317 schools in Afghanistan were attacked in the past year, killing 124 and wounding another 290,” Toole said. "We have seen a drop in the number of children who are attending schools and particularly young girls,” he added.
— IANS
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Jesus Christ’s ‘death certificate’ imprinted on Turin Shroud
London, November 21 Dr Barbara Frale, a researcher in the Vatican secret archives, said: “I think I have managed to read the burial certificate of Jesus the Nazarene, or Jesus of Nazareth.” The expert at the secret Vatican archive said she has found the words "Jesus Nazarene" on the shroud, proving it was the linen cloth that was wrapped around Christ's body. She said computer analysis of photographs of the shroud revealed extremely faint words written in Greek, Aramaic and Latin, which attested to its authenticity, reports The Times. However, her claims were instantly challenged by scholars who said radiocarbon dating tests in 1988 showed the shroud, kept in the royal chapel of Turin Cathedral, to be a medieval forgery. But Frale, who is to publish her findings in a new book, ‘La Sindone di Gesu Nazareno’ (The Shroud of Jesus of Nazareth) said the inscription provided "historical date consistent with the Gospels account". She claimed she had been able to decipher a jumble of phrases written in three languages, including the Greek words (I)esou(s) Nnazarennos, or Jesus the Nazarene, and (T)iber(iou), which she interprets as Tiberius, the Roman emperor at the time of Christ's crucifixion.
— ANI
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‘Spend time with family to beat stress’
Washington, November 21 “Psychological research has shown over and over again that what truly makes people happy is not money, not stuff, it's time with people you love,” she said. She further suggests that building family traditions like planting trees together or donating to a local shelter, can be useful in gelling with other members of the family. Wadsworth added that parents should try and explain things to children.
— ANI
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Zardari, aides among NRO beneficiaries Pakistan government Saturday issued the list of National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) beneficiaries, numbering 8,041, whose corruption and criminal cases were pardoned. Top on the list are President Asif Ali Zardari, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, MQM chief Altaf Hussain, Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, Principal Secretary of the President, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, PPP secretary general Jehangir Badar, IB chief Brig Imtiaz (retd), Salman Farooqi and others. Deputy Law Minister Afzal Sindhu, while releasing the list at a crowded news conference, said the list contains the name of only 34 politicians while the rest include bureaucrats and activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. Sindhu said President Asif Zardari enjoys immunity from prosecution or being summoned by any court of law on any criminal or other charges. He said the President was facing seven cases in court, none of which was proved. He said cases of beneficiaries of NRO would reopen after November 28 and assured that government would abide by decisions of courts. The list released by the government comprised two categories -- those who benefited from the NRO till February 4, 2007, when the ordinance expired and others whose cases were settled before that date. The entire top leadership of the MQM, including Altaf Hussain, Dr Farooq Sattar and Babar Ghauri, faced only criminal cases that were resolved before the expiry of the ordinance. Over 7,000 activists of the MQM were accused of charges ranging from murder, extortion, kidnapping and rioting. MQM deputy parliamentary leader Haider Abbas Rizvi said thousands of MQM leaders and activists were politically victimised between 1986 and 1999. No corruption charges were, however, levelled against any of them. Among those who took advantage of the Ordinance 7793 belong to Sindh, which is the maximum number of beneficiaries from one province. Three ambassadors on the list are Hussain Haqqani, (USA), Wajid Shamsul Hasan (UK) and MA Abbasi (Iran).
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