The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	US braces for hurricane Sandy Over 7,600 flights hit Wall Street shut Obama cancels Florida event New York, October 29 Hurricane Sandy, the monster storm bearing down on the US east coast, strengthened on Monday after hundreds of thousands moved to higher ground, public transport shut down and the US stock market suffered its first weather-related closure in 27 years. The US National Hurricane Center, in its latest bulletin, said Sandy was expected to make landfall early Monday evening. About 50 million people from the Mid-Atlantic to Canada were in the path of the nearly 1,600-km-wide storm, which forecasters said could be the largest to hit the mainland in US history. It was expected to topple trees, damage buildings, cause power outages and trigger heavy flooding. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Monday the Category 1 storm had strengthened as it turned toward the coast and was moving at 32 km per hour. It was expected to bring a "life-threatening storm surge," coastal hurricane winds and heavy snow in the Appalachian Mountains, the NHC said. Airlines cancelled more than 7,600 flights from Europe and Asia and began suspending train services across the north east. New York, which forecasters warned could bear the brunt of the superstorm and Philadelphia shut down their subways. Schools, malls, superstores and even the stock exchanges put up closure notices. Boston, Washington and Baltimore also called off schools. Nine US states have declared states of emergency, and with the US election eight days away President Barack Obama canceled a campaign event in Florida on Monday in order to return to Washington and monitor the US government's response to the storm. "This is a serious and big storm," Obama said on Sunday after a briefing at the federal government's storm response centre in Washington. "We don't yet know where it's going to hit, where we're going to see the biggest impacts." Sandy killed 66 people in the Caribbean last week before pounding US coastal areas with rain and triggering snow falls at higher elevations as it moved north. Forecasting services indicated early Monday the center of the storm would strike the New Jersey shore near Atlantic City on Monday night. While Sandy does not pack the punch of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, it could become more potent as it approaches the U.S. coast. New York and other cities and towns closed their transit systems and ordered mass evacuations from low-lying areas ahead of a storm surge that could reach as high as 11 feet. All US stock markets were closed on Monday and possibly Tuesday, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange said late on Sunday, reversing an earlier plan that would have kept electronic trading going on Monday. — Reuters
	AI, Jet cancel flights to US New Delhi: Jet Airways and Air India on Monday cancelled its flights to Newark and New York due to Hurricane Sandy which is set to hit the East Coast of the United States. Air India spokesperson said the airline's AI 191 Mumbai-Newark and AI 101 Delhi-New York, scheduled for Monday have been cancelled, while Tuesday's flights have been rescheduled for departure. Passengers have been informed about the cancellations and transit passengers have been provided hotel accommodations in Delhi, the spokesperson said. "We would be accommodating them in flights as soon as the operations to the US resume," he said. Besides, Jet Airways has cancelled its flights 9W 227 and 9W 228, operating between Brussels and Newark, an airline spokesperson said, adding the same flights scheduled for October 30 and 31 would be affected. The private carrier has offered passengers to change their plans as required, without any penalty for the affected flights only.
	Air strikes, car blast in Damascus wreck last day of Syrian ‘truce’ Amman, October 29 Syrian jets bombed suburbs of Damascus and a car bomb killed 10 persons in the capital on Monday, the last day of a four-day truce which UN chief Ban Ki-moon acknowledged had failed. Each side blamed the other for breaching the Eid al-Adha truce arranged by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who nevertheless promised to pursue his peace efforts. "I am deeply disappointed that the parties failed to respect the call to suspend fighting," Ban said in Seoul, where he was visiting to receive the Seoul Peace Prize. "This crisis cannot be solved with more weapons and bloodshed... the guns must fall silent," he said. Brahimi, after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, voiced regret that the ceasefire had not worked better. Asked whether UN peacekeepers might be sent to Syria, he said there was no immediate plan for that. Although President Bashar al-Assad's government and several rebel groups accepted the plan to stop shooting over the Muslim religious holiday, it failed to stem the bloodshed in a 19-month-old conflict that has already cost at least 32,000 lives. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition watchdog, 420 persons have been killed since Friday. Damascus residents reported heavy air raids on the suburbs of Qaboun, Zamalka and Irbin overnight and on Monday which they said were the fiercest since jets and helicopters first bombarded pro-opposition parts of the Syrian capital in August. Syrian state television said women and children were among those killed by a "terrorist car bomb" near a bakery in Jaramana, in the southeast of Damascus. Damascus residents say the district is controlled by Assad loyalists. State media said Assad's armed opponents had broken the truce throughout the Eid. "For the fourth consecutive day, the armed terrorist groups in Deir al-Zor continued violating the declaration on suspending military operations which the armed forces have committed to," state news said, later adding that rebels had attacked government forces in Aleppo and the central city of Homs. The Damascus air raids followed what residents said were failed attempts by troops storm eastern parts of the city. — Reuters
	Xinjiang militants in Syria: China Beijing: China today asked the international community to be on "high alert" and step up cooperation to fight against terrorism saying that Islamic militants from its troubled northwest province of Xinjiang, bordering PoK, were in Syria and battling government forces there. Confirming reports that the militants from Xinjiang, where China is grappling with ethnic unrest between Muslim Uyghur population and Han Chinese settlers, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said that the Xinjiang militants were "colluding" with international terrorist groups. "China opposes all forms of terrorism. The East Turkistan terrorist forces lead by the East Turkistan Islamic movement, (active in Xinjiang) have been colluding with international terrorist organisation," Hong told a media briefing without directly naming Al-Qaida. Earlier, state-run Global Times quoted unidentified Chinese anti-terrorism officials as saying that leaders from "East Turkestan" terror organisations sending their members to Syria to participate in their quest for jihad. — PTI
	Lensman who took topless Kate pics identified French police preparing to arrest the photographer London, October 29 A paparazzi photographer who took topless pictures of British royal Kate Middleton has been identified and is set to be arrested by French police, a media report has said. French judicial police are preparing to arrest the paparazzi linked to topless photographs of the 30-year-old Duchess of Cambridge, the Daily Mail reported. It has also been confirmed that the name of the photographer has been handed over to detectives investigating the alleged crime. Marie-Christine Daubigney, the French public prosecutor dealing with the case, confirmed that police were now aware of the name of the person who took the topless pictures, saying: "This new information regarding the photographer will be passed on to investigating magistrates." The snaps were clicked in September at Chateau d'Autet, a holiday retreat in Provence owned by the Queen's nephew, Viscount Linley. Prince William and Kate were said to be "devastated" after hundreds of intimate snaps were taken while they were holidaying at the resort They were first published in French Closer magazine, and then in numerous other countries, including Italy and Ireland. William called for the photographer responsible to be jailed, a possibility which is technically possible due to France's strict privacy laws. The judicial police, who have been investigating the matter following the issuing of a court order in Paris, can hold an alleged criminal under suspicion of an offence. If anyone is charged and found guilty of taking the pictures they could be jailed for up to one year and fined 36,000 pounds for breach of privacy. "A name has been offered," a source close to the case confirmed. "The photographer is expected to be held for and questioned imminently," the source added. Laurence Pieau, the woman editor of French Closer, hired a freelance photographer to watch the couple during their holiday at Chateau d'Autet, but refused to name the person. — PTI
	Australia to woo Asia’s skilled workforce Melbourne, October 29 Riding on an ambitious plan to tap Asian region, Australia is all set to woo highly skilled population from the region, including India in a bid to create an educated, productive work force to boost its economy. According to Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen, the government in its 'Asian Century White Paper' released yesterday, has highlighted the opportunities for the nation's growth by building deeper and stronger links with Asian reigon. "Even with the government's unprecedented investment in tertiary education and up-skilling Australians, we need migrants who bring their specialist skills to Australia," he said. Seven of the top 10 source countries in Australia's 2011-12 migration programme are in the Asian region: India, China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam. The Indian sub-continent is Australia's largest source region of migrants, providing 23 per cent of the migration program, while 18.3 per cent of migrants come from the north of Asia. "More than a quarter of our nation's migrants were born in an Asian nation and nearly 1.5 million Australians are fluent in one or more Asian languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Hindi, Punjabi, Indonesian, Korean, Tagalog and Japanese," Bowen said. "This means that Australia is uniquely placed to strengthen ties with Asian nations." So the country is "increasingly looking to Asia for skilled migrants who are crucial to the nation's economy and the development of business opportunities in the region", he said. With Tourism as one of the focus, it was said that new streamlined visa processes will encourage more people from the region to consider Australia as a destination of choice. "We are making it easier than ever for tourists from the Asian region to visit Australia and contribute to our economic and cultural growth," Bowen said. "We need to be able to take advantage of the expected increase in regional travel across Asia and the subsequent emerging tourist markets," he added. To facilitate this, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) is expanding its network of service and delivery partners to support online visa lodgement, multiple entry visas and longer visa validity periods. — PTI Migrant force The Indian sub-continent is Australia's largest source region of migrants, providing 23 per cent of the migration program, while 18.3 per cent of migrants come from the north of Asia.
	Australians turning to India for surrogacy Melbourne, October 29 Rising number of Australians are turning to India for surrogacy arrangements to fulfil their parenting dreams, according to a new study. India is being seen as a preferred destination for commercial surrogacy, followed by Thailand and the United States, according to the study by 'Surrogacy Australia', an agency involved in international surrogacy. According to Herald Sun, the agency had found there were 200 recorded surrogacy births in India to Australian couples so far this year, compared to 179 in 2011, 86 in 2010 and 47 in 2009. The research included Australian government statistics, data collected from 14 large overseas surrogacy agencies and a survey of 217 Australians. The survey of heterosexual and same-sex Australians who had considered or sought out surrogacy found many households were refinancing their homes to afford the thousands of dollars in agency and travel costs. The average cost of surrogacy in India was 77,000 Australian dollars while an arrangement in the US cost on average about 176,000 Australian dollars. Half of those surveyed mortgaged or refinanced their home to pay for surrogacy, while 45 per cent cut their spending. — PTI
	Ukraine’s sports heroes run wide of political mark Kiev, October 29 Boxing champ Vitali Klitschko failed to punch above his weight and football super-striker Andriy Shevchenko was badly off target in both Ukrainian heroes' first stabs at national politics. Early results from Sunday's parliamentary ballot showed the big boxer known as "Dr Ironfist" and his UDAR (Punch) party finishing in fourth place with a disappointing 13 per cent of the vote, about five points below initial projections. The Ukraine Forward! movement involving AC Milan's retired legend "Sheva" fared even worse by failing to make it into Parliament outright and collecting just a few per cent of the vote. The ruling party of President Vladimir Yanukovych and the well-established opposition alliance of the jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko appeared set to finish one-two to prove once again that experience and resources matter in Ukraine's bruising political world. "We must still analyse everything: why we could have won more votes but failed," a subdued Klitschko said as the first votes were being counted on Sunday night. But analysts appeared to have already determined that Shevchenko for one was a political non-starter who had better start thinking of a different career path after football. "This was a bad project that was doomed from the start," Mykhailo Pogrebynsky of the Kiev institute of political research said of Shevchenko's political aspirations. "I hope that he decides not to pursue this and reasonably takes on a different career." It is hard to say which man is the biggest hero in a nation with a proud sports tradition stretching back to Soviet times. Both were almost simultaneously compelled to enter the political fray this summer amid a sudden swell of trust from the corruption-stained nation in its stars' moral impregnability. Klitschko quickly became effective at driving home a populist message of breaking the state's ties to big business and making sure that Ukrainains' wages reached levels enjoyed by their partners in the eastern EU states. "How come the Czechs could do it and the Poles could do it and even the Georgians could do it-and the Ukrainians cannot," Klitschko asked in one of his favourite stump speeches about long-overdue reforms. "I am one of the six million Ukrainians who were forced to leave the country to earn a decent wage," he said in another. Both messages received warm applause from his listeners that invariably transformed into chants for Klitschko to run for president in early 2015, when Yanukovych's controversial first term expires. — AFP
	‘Democracy suffers setback’ Kiev, October 29 OSCE election observers said today that democracy in Ukraine had suffered a setback in legislative polls marked by the absence of the jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko. "Considering the abuse of power, and the excessive role of money in this election, democratic progress appears to have reversed in Ukraine," said OSCE special coordinator Walburga Habsburg Douglas. "One should not have to visit a prison to hear from leading political figures in the country." President Viktor Yanukovych's ruling Regions Party led yesterday's ballot with 35 per cent of the vote against the 22 per cent collected by the Tymoshenko alliance, partial results said based on half the precincts reporting. The 2004 Orange Revolution leader missed the polls because of a jail sentence she was given last October on abuse of office charges that both Tymoshemko and Western governments view as a vendetta by the President. A firmly-phrased OSCE report noted that the Verkhovna Rada vote was "characterised by the lack of a level playing field, caused primarily by the abuse of administrative resources, lack of transparency of campaign and party financing, and lack of balanced media coverage." — AFP