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Egypt in Gaza truce bid as rocket jolts Tel Aviv
Blast kills 17 Afghans on way to wedding
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Japan PM Noda dissolves lower house for poll
Jordan protesters call for ‘downfall of the regime’
ECHOES OF ARAB SPRING? Thousands of Jordanian protesters march in Amman during a demonstration against an increase in fuel prices, on Friday. — AFP
Maoist chief Prachanda slapped at public event
Pak court stops renaming of rotary after Bhagat Singh
A file photo of students celebrating the birth anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
Laloo’s name echoes in Pak Parliament
Bera is third Indian-American to make it to US Congress
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Egypt in Gaza truce bid as rocket jolts Tel Aviv Gaza, November 16 Prime Minister Hisham Kandil visited the Gaza Strip officially to show solidarity with the Palestinian people after two days of relentless attacks by Israeli warplanes determined to end militant rocket fire at Israel. A Palestinian official close to Egypt's mediators told Reuters that Kandil's visit "was the beginning of a process to explore the possibility of reaching a truce. It is early to speak of any details or of how things will evolve". Israel undertook to ceasefire during the visit if Hamas did too. But it said rockets fired from Gaza hit several sites in southern Israel as he was in the enclave and has begun drafting 16,000 reserve troops, a possible precursor to invasion. Tanks and self-propelled guns were seen near the border area of Friday and sirens sounded again over Tel Aviv, after witnesses in Gaza saw a long-range rocket launched. The Israeli police said it landed in the sea off Israel's commercial centre. A Hamas source said the Israeli air force launched an attack on the house of Hamas's commander for southern Gaza which resulted in the death of two civilians, one a child. Israel's military strongly denied carrying out any attack from the time Kandil entered Gaza, and accused Hamas of violating the three-hour deal. "Even though about 50 rockets have fallen in Israel over the past two hours, we chose not to attack in Gaza due to the visit of the Egyptian PM. Hamas is lying and reporting otherwise," the army said in a Twitter message. Kandil said: "Egypt will spare no effort ... to stop the aggression and to achieve a truce." At a Gaza hospital he held the bloodied body of a child. He left the Gaza Strip after meeting with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the enclave's prime minister. Palestinian medics said two people were killed in the disputed explosion at the house, one of them a child. It raised the Palestinian death toll since Wednesday to 22. Three Israelis were killed by a rocket on Thursday. The Palestinian dead include eight militants and 14 civilians, among them seven children and a pregnant woman. A Hamas rocket killed three Israeli civilians in a town north of Gaza, men and women in their 30s, hitting their apartment.
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Blast kills 17 Afghans on way to wedding
Kabul, November 16 "The latest toll we have shows that 17 civilians, the majority of them women and children, were killed and 14 more were wounded," said provincial police chief Aqa Noor Kintoz. "Among the wounded are nine women, one child and four men," he said, blaming Taliban militants for planting the bomb. Roadside bombs are the weapon of choice of the hardline Islamists fighting Afghan forces and some 100,000 NATO troops in an effort to topple the government of President Hamid Karzai. While the Taliban says their targets are military, civilians using the same roads are frequently the victims. —
AFP
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Japan PM Noda dissolves lower house for poll
Tokyo, November 16 Japan's sixth new prime minister in as many years set the revolving door of premiership spinning against resistance from his fragmenting party, but after having stared down his opponents over crucial legislation. "I want to seek a mandate from the people," Noda told reporters in the morning. The dissolution itself was a brief affair, with the lower house Speaker reading a short promulgation prepared by the premier and endorsed by Emperor Akihito, the constitutional head of state. An extraordinary meeting of the cabinet was to be held at which December 16 is expected to be formally announced as election day. Noda has been under pressure to call elections for months and offered dissolution of the main decision-making chamber in a parliamentary debate earlier this week. —
AFP
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Jordan protesters call for ‘downfall of the regime’ Amman, November 16 The mainly urban Muslim Brotherhood joined hitherto largely rural protests that have erupted in the last few days, raising the spectre of lasting instability in the kingdom, a staunch US ally with the longest border with Israel. Friday's demonstration near the main Husseini Mosque in downtown Amman was peaceful, with unarmed police separating the demonstrators denouncing King Abdullah from a smaller crowd chanting in support of the monarch. "Go down Abdullah, go down," the main crowd of about 4,000 protesters chanted as police, some in riot gear, largely stayed away from crowd. Protests have turned violent in impoverished towns across the kingdom since Wednesday when the government imposed a hike in the price of fuel. Unemployed youths and demonstrators have attacked police stations, closed roads with burnt cars and torched government buildings. One protester was killed on Thursday as a crowed tried to storm a police station in the northern city of Irbid. The provinces appeared to be quieter on Friday. The Brotherhood's decision to back Friday's demonstration adds the voice of the country's best-organised opposition movement to the protests, although top Brotherhood figures did not appear in person. Instability in Jordan would come at a dangerous time for the region, when Syria's war risks leaping borders and Israel is bombing Islamist-run Gaza. The slogan "the people want the downfall of the regime" has emerged as the main chant of Arab Spring demonstrations that toppled autocrats from Tunisia to Yemen, in many cases bringing to power elected Islamists allied to the Brotherhood. —
Reuters
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Maoist chief Prachanda slapped at public event
Kathmandu, November 16 The incident took place during a tea reception hosted by 57-year-old Prachanda's UCPN (Maoist) party to mark the festivals of 'Deepawali', 'Chhath' and Nepalese New Year here. A 25-year-old youth, identified as Pawan Kunwar from Baglung district of western Nepal, slapped Prachanda at the function, according to eye witnesses. Prachanda's spectacles flew off his face and one of the lens of his spectacles was shattered, eye-witnesses said. Soon after, Maoist cadres attacked Kunwar, who got seriously injured, before police took him into custody. He had got blood all over the face after the beating. Kunwar, a former member of the Young Communist League (YCL), the youth wing of the Maoist party, is undergoing treatment in Police Hospital, DIG Keshav Adhikari said. — PTI
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Pak court stops renaming of rotary after Bhagat Singh
Lahore, November 16 Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh of the Lahore High Court stopped the Punjab government from renaming Shadman Chowk as Bhagat Singh Chowk in response to a petition filed by Tehrik Hurmat-e-Rasool, a movement launched by the JuD. The judge issued notices to the Punjab government, the City District Government of Lahore, the Dilkash Lahore committee and the Bhagat Singh Foundation to file their responses to the petition by November 29. Zahid Butt, who filed the petition on behalf of Tehrik Hurmat-e-Rasool, alleged that Indian spy agency RAW had funded the Bhagat Singh Foundation to raise the issue of renaming Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh. He claimed the foundation had lobbied with the Dilkash Lahore committee, which had endorsed the move to rename the roundabout after Bhagat Singh. Senior JuD leader Amir Hamza is the head of the Tehrik Hurmat-e-Rasool. Hamza had earlier said his organisation would not allow places in Lahore to be renamed after Hindus, Sikhs or Christians. “Pakistan is a Muslim country and such ideas cannot be appreciated,” he had said. About two weeks ago, the City District Government of Lahore had put on hold a move to rename Shadman Chowk due to objections from hardline groups like the JuD and Jamaat-e-Islami and a section of local residents. The matter was referred to Dilkash Lahore, a committee set up to revitalise and beautify Lahore and to finalise new names for squares, roads and intersections after assessing their historical significant before the creation of Pakistan. The committee rejected all objections earlier this week and asked authorities to notify Bhagat Singh Chowk as the new name of the roundabout without any further delay, officials said. JuD leaders and traders from Shadman Market, located near the roundabout, protested against the government’s decision yesterday. Senior JuD leader Amir Hamza and Zahid Butt, the president of the local traders’ body, announced that they would refer to the roundabout as Hurmat-e-Rasool Chowk. Members of the Dilkash Lahore committee, while discussing the renaming of Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh, highlighted the importance of the place where the freedom fighter was hanged by the British. Bhagat Singh was hanged in March 1931 in the erstwhile Lahore Jail, which stood at the spot where the roundabout was built later.
— PTI
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Laloo’s name echoes in Pak Parliament
Islamabad, November 16 Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) lawmaker Sajid Ahmed made the suggestion in the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament while Parliamentary Secretary for Railways Noman Islam Sheikh was answering questions about the performance of the railways. Yadav is widely credited for guiding the turnaround of the Indian Railways. The Pakistan Railways has been plagued by several problems over the past few years, including the lack of locomotives, shortage of spare parts and fuel and the cancellation of dozens of trains due to lack of financial resources. Sheikh said new locomotives would have to be purchased for reviving the railways and making it a profitable organisation. — PTI |
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Bera is third Indian-American to make it to US Congress
Nearly 60 years after Dalip Singh Saund scripted history by becoming the first Indian-American to be elected to the House, Democrat Bera repeated the feat defeating incumbent Republican Dan Lungren in California’s Seventh Congressional District. While the counting of votes was still going on, local media projected Bera, 47, to have won the November 6 poll. The Sacramento County Registrar of Voters announced yesterday that Bera had increased his lead against Lungren and was now ahead by 2.2 per cent or 5,696 votes. Bera’s lead has widened with each new count. On November 6, Bera had a lead of just 184 votes, thus necessitating the counting of provisional and absentee ballots. This lead grew to 3,800 votes on Tuesday. Latest update shows that “we’ve processed another 38,510 ballots since Tuesday’s update. “It’s increasingly clear that the voters of Sacramento County want new leadership that puts the people first. Our lead continues to widen and we are confident that this election will be resolved in our favour,” Bera said in a statement. He is currently in Washington for an orientation course for new lawmakers, which incidentally is being led by Lungren. Bera would only be the third Indian-American to have been elected to the House of Representatives after Dalip Saund in the 1950s and Bobby Jindal in 2005 and 2008. — PTI |
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Former CIA director Petraeus to testify on Benghazi events UN court frees Croatia generals 113 rebels killed in DR Congo |
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emergency peace diplomacy in Gaza on Friday, but hopes for even a brief ceasefire while its Prime Minister was inside the bombarded enclave to talk to leaders of the Islamist Hamas movement were immediately dashed.
Amman, November 16
Days after an official panel endorsed the renaming of a roundabout in Lahore after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh despite opposition from the
Jamaat-ud-Dawah, a Pakistani court today barred authorities from going ahead with the move.
Washington, November 16
