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Extreme weather causes deaths, traffic chaos in Europe
Council on Afghanistan |
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Sikh youth stabbed to death in London
Nepal seeks extension in UN mission’s tenure
Latest attack not racial: Oz cops
Gilani: We need China’s support to tackle terror
Report: MJ’s death certificate says he was murdered
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Extreme weather causes deaths, traffic chaos in Europe
Berlin/Moscow, January 10
Four people in the group were able to dig themselves free. Rescuers later found the corpses of the remaining five, including the expedition leader. In Britain, two men died after falling into a frozen-over lake, and a 90-year-old woman was found dead in her garden, where she had presumably slipped and fallen. In Britain, 25 people have died as a result of the cold spell that started before Christmas. In Spain, a man slipped and died from a head injury clearing snow, while a man in the Czech Republic had a heart attack performing the same activity. Across Europe, snowstorms and icy roads caused chaos on the roads including hundreds of accidents, some of which were fatal. In Germany, a 38-year-old died when the car he was in swerved into oncoming traffic. The vehicle was equipped with summer tyres and it appeared that the man had not been wearing a seatbelt. In Trier, a tractor driver died when he slid on a downhill slope, and was dragged under the vehicle. Across the border in Belgium, a man died when he lost control of his car on an icy road. In a separate incident, a lorry skidded and lost up to 700 litres of heating oil. In eastern Czech Republic 30 cm of overnight snow led to road chaos. Only the main throughways were cleared and people were urged to keep travel to an absolute minimum, according to a Czech news agency. Frankfurt airport cancelled 220 flights due to heavy snow, wind and poor visibility. There were delays at airports in Berlin, Dusseldorf and Munich, and the snow also brought train timetables into disarray. British Airways cancelled almost 60 flights from Heathrow, and the Eurostar train operating between London, Paris and Brussels cancelled a third of all journeys. Around 15,000 homes in southern France remained cut off from electricity supplies, as were 14,000 people in Silesia. On the German island of Fehmarn in the Baltic Sea, the mayor said conditions were catastrophic as 13,000 people on the island were cut off by piles of snow up to two metres deep. Italy experienced heavy snow in the north, where an avalanche killed a Dutch climber Friday. Further south, rivers including the Tiber burst their banks and uprooted trees. No casualties were reported. In Britain, seven out of ten premier football league games were cancelled due to snow. Meanwhile, Berlin's sub-zero temperatures have also reportedly led to a proliferation of mice seeking refuge in the German parliament, German daily Bild reported. US cold wave sprinkles rare snow on Florida
Washington: The frigid air mass holding much of North America hostage put Florida in a deep freeze early Sunday after sprinkling a rare phenomenon on the sunshine state of Florida: snow. The state was bracing for temperatures of minus 10 to minus 4 degrees Celsius through Sunday morning as orange and strawberry growers fought to save their crops. Large flakes of snow fell over the southern state, traditionally the refuge for sun lovers fleeing the grey winter of more northerly states. "This is very unusual," a spokesman for the National Weather Service said. Manatees, the large marine mammals in the inland waterways of the south, gathered near water outlets kept purposely warm by wildlife officials, CNN reported. Sea turtles were brought into marine sanctuaries. —
DPA
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Pak concerned over India’s inclusion
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad Pakistan has expressed reservations over the inclusion of India in a regional council on Afghanistan proposed by the United Kingdom, saying that such a move might compromise Islamabad’s interests. The UK has been actively working on setting up a "regional stabilisation council" after holding an international conference on Afghanistan, slated in London for January 28. The creation of a regional framework is being held up by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a key theme of the London conference. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani conveyed Islamabad’s concerns over the proposal to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband during a meeting on Saturday. “The forthcoming London conference on Afghanistan must exclusively focus on Afghanistan,” Prime Minister Gilani was quoted in a statement issued by his office after the meeting. Miliband told the Prime Minister that the UK considered Pakistan’s role vital as Afghanistan’s neighbour assuring him that Islamabad’s interests would not be compromised. The foreign secretary, at a joint press conference with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said Pakistan’s stability depended upon a stable Afghanistan. The Prime Minister emphasised that although Pakistan was not opposed to any regional cooperation for dealing with the Afghan imbroglio, it believed that only geographically contiguous countries should be involved in deliberations on peace and security matters of Afghanistan. Gilani discussed the use of Afghan soil by India for subversive activities in Pakistan and urged allied forces to address Pakistan’s concerns. “The historic neutrality of Afghanistan should be maintained with the commitment that Afghan soil will not be used against any … neighbours.” He proposed that any strategy for Afghanistan should enjoy Afghan endorsement. Pakistan on Saturday exchanged concept papers with Britain on strategic dialogue and the proposed Pak-UK Foundation in a meeting with Mr Miliband at the Foreign Office. Miliband said London would give its feedback through diplomatic channels. The question of delay in issuance of visas to Pakistanis was also discussed during the meeting. Pakistanis, according to recent home office figures, led the table of nationalities which are most often refused visas. Last year, the rejection rate for family visitor visas stood at 41 per cent. The Prime Minister underscored that Pakistani applicants, particularly students and businessmen, should not be discriminated against in granting visas and applicants’ passports should be returned to them while their cases were being processed. Gilani urged London to remove restrictions on recruitment of Pakistani doctors and stressed that Pakistan should be treated at par with other South Asian countries. Miliband assured the prime minister that he would look into doctors’ recruitment and said the United Kingdom was trying to resolve consular issues.
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Sikh youth stabbed to death in London
London, January 10 Sukhwinder, 31, a builder who had lived in Britain for 10 years, was immediately taken to Royal London Hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries. Describing the father-of-one’s actions as “very brave”, Detective Inspector of Metropolitan Police John Sandlin told the media: “This is a tragic death of a man who was killed for attempting to stop others committing crime, and our thoughts are with Sukhwinder’s family.” The Metropolitan Police has issued descriptions of two suspects who were described as black, aged in their 20s to 30s, and 5 ft 7 inches to 6 ft in height and also urged anyone who had seen the robbery, the following altercation or people fleeing the area, to approach officers. Nirmal Singh Gill, who represents the Longbridge ward on Barking and Dagenham Council, said he knew Sukhwinder by his nickname “Bittu”. “He was a very nice young man He used to go to gurdwara every evening and was always helping. “He would help anybody so it doesn’t surprise me that he was trying to help a lady. He didn’t deserve this, nobody deserves it, but he was a special young man.” —
PTI
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Nepal seeks extension in UN mission’s tenure
The Nepal government has sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) requesting it to extend the term of the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) till May 15.
Nepal’s permanent representative to the UN Gyan Chandra Acharya filed the letter on behalf of the Nepal government on Friday, a news posted in Nepali media said.
The UNSC meeting scheduled for the next week will discuss the issue. According to the current mandate, UNMIN’s term ends on January 23. Although, the UNMIN’s term was extended in six-month slots in the past, the government decided to extend the term only by four months this time. The government has also said that this would be the last time. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who also heads the most important committee to workout the management of the Maoist combatants confined inside the UN-monitored camps across the country, has floated a proposal to complete the integration and rehabilitation of the former rebels by 110 days to make the stalled peace process a success. According to the existing constitutional provision, Nepal has to manage the Maoist combatants and draft the new constitution by May 28. But the major political parties are at loggerheads over the controversial issue on whether to debate the President’s move to retain the sacked chief of army staff in Parliament or not.
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Latest attack not racial: Oz cops
Melbourne, January 10 Police said there were strange circumstances surrounding the attack on 29-year-old Jaspreet Singh, who was set on fire by a group of four men in suburb of Essendon in northwest Melbourne yesterday, which have led them to believe that it was not racially-motivated. Detective acting senior sergeant Neil Smyth said police are yet to locate the charred clothes that Singh, who received 20 per cent burns on his body, discarded shortly after the incident. He said police have a general description of who the offenders could be. “I believe there is no reason at this stage to consider this in any way as racially-motivated... the circumstances of him parking the car randomly in a side street and just some people approaching him are a bit strange," he said. "It's highly unlikely therefore to be a targeted attack on any individual." Meanwhile in Sydney, two men, believed to be Indian seasonal workers, were quizzed and had their passports seized at the city's airport after they were briefly detained by detectives probing the killing of 25-year-old Ranjodh Singh, whose partially-burnt body was found recently. Ranjodh, a seasonal work contractor, used to recruit Indian immigrants to work on farms in the Riverina. The two men are believed to have been employed by Singh. They were detained at Sydney airport's departure lounge as they were about to board a flight to Nepal via Singapore, Sydney Morning Herald reported. They were questioned and later released without charge but were forced to hand in their passports. Detectives believe Ranjodh Singh may have been murdered in a fight over unpaid wages at a Christmas party two days before his killing. A post-mortem examination revealed his throat had been slashed and he had suffered multiple stab wounds before being bound and set alight in an effort to conceal his identity, the report said.
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Gilani: We need China’s support to tackle terror Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said cooperation between the defence industries of Pakistan and China has not only helped in building Pakistan’s security, but has also served to promote stability in the region. Talking to China’s deputy chief of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General Staff, General Ma Xiaotian, Gilani said Pakistan needs China’s support and cooperation for countering terrorism in an effective way. Thanking China for its assistance in the country’s vital national defence projects, he underscored the need for strengthening maritime security cooperation between the two countries. “Pakistan is grateful for continued economic support and assistance from China,” Gilani said. The PM said the rollout of the first JF-17 was a landmark in the joint collaboration between the two countries. General Ma Xiaotian said China attaches high priority to its relations with Pakistan and concerted efforts would be made to further strengthen the ties in multi-dimensional fields.
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Report: MJ’s death certificate says he was murdered
London, January 10 "We are all keeping our faith with the police. We want them to do this case properly and put away the man who we feel is responsible for Michael's death," News of the World quoted a Jackson family source as saying. "We want the authorities though to release details of what happened to Michael in his last few hours. We want the paperwork to come out to show just what drugs were put inside him and what happened in his last few hours alive. "Much of the documentation has been kept secret - and we can't understand it. We still feel that there is more than one person responsible for Michael's tragic death," the source added. Jackson died on June 25 last year from "acute Propofol intoxication" due to an "intra-venous injection by another". His personal doctor Conrad Murray has been at the centre of the probe after he confessed injecting the star with Propofol and other drugs in the hours before his death. —
ANI
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Across Europe heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures led to deaths and travel chaos Saturday, as people braced themselves for a sudden worsening of already extreme winter weather.
