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17 hurt in Pak military complex attack
Gunmen kill 5 anti-polio volunteers
‘Complex solution must to curb gun violence’
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Egypt to probe alleged vote violations
Scientists may have found 2 Higgs bosons
Ireland to legalise abortion when mother’s life is at risk
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17 hurt in Pak military complex attack
Islamabad, December 18 The militants struck at a time when a large group of youths was present at the gate to register for a recruitment drive, witnesses and police officials said. The militants hurled two grenades and fled. Police officials said five security personnel and 12 civilians were taken to hospitals in nearby Nowshera city with minor injuries. All the injured were stated to be out of danger and several of them were discharged after being provided first aid, they said. The gate for the military complex on the GT Road leads to the Risalpur Cantonment, the Pakistan Air Force academy and several army training facilities. Security forces, including army troops, cordoned off the area and launched a search operation but were unable to make any arrests. DSP Muhammad Riaz Khan told reporters that several roadblocks had been set up and additional forces deployed in the area. No group claimed responsibility for the attack though such incidents are usually blamed on the Pakistani Taliban. On Saturday, security forces foiled an attempt by Taliban militants to storm an air force base in Peshawar. Five militants were killed when troops repulsed the attack, while five more were killed during a gun battle in a neighbourhood near the airport. A policeman and four civilians were also killed in the incident.
— PTI grenade attack
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Gunmen kill 5 anti-polio volunteers
As many as 5 women health workers administering polio vaccines to children, including a 14-year-old girl, were killed in attacks by unidentified gunmen in the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Peshawar on Tuesday, prompting the authorities to suspend their anti-polio campaign.
A male volunteer engaged in the World Health
Organisation’s (WHO) anti-polio campaign was shot and killed in Karachi on Monday night, taking the number of anti-polio workers killed since yesterday to six. Four women workers were killed during attacks on the WHO polio teams in Karachi. A male worker of the polio team was also injured in the attack. The attacks took place in the Landhi and Orangi town areas of Karachi. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital Peshawar, gunmen targeted a group of anti-polio workers and injured a girl, who later succumbed to her injuries. Officials said the girl, identified as Farzana, was 14 years’ old. The health ministry in Karachi announced immediate halt in the anti-polio campaign in Karachi, while the authorities in Peshawar also stopped the drive. The WHO has launched a concerted anti-polio campaign across Pakistan which is opposed by the Taliban and extremist religious lobbies. The WHO and UNICEF said they would continue their anti-polio drive in Pakistan but urged the government to do its "utmost to protect health workers".
(With PTI inputs)
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‘Complex solution must to curb gun violence’
Washington, December 18 Asserting that no single piece of legislation could address the issue, White House press secretary Jay Carney said that it requires a complex set of solution. "It's a complex problem that will require a complex solution. No single piece of legislation, no single action will fully address the problem," he said. White House officials said President Barack Obama would make preventing gun violence a second-term policy priority with aides saying that stricter gun laws would only be part of any effort. In his address to the community in Newtown in Connecticut, Obama said that in the coming weeks he would use the power of his office to engage the American people and lawmakers, law enforcement, mental health experts, educators and others in an effort to try to prevent these kinds of terrible tragedies from happening in the future. "The President has taken positions on common-sense measures that he believes should be taken to help address this problem, but he made clear that more needs to be done, that we as a nation have not done enough clearly to fulfils our number-one obligation, which is to protect our children," Carney said. Obama yesterday held a meeting with Vice-President Joe Biden and some of his Cabinet members to discuss ways the country should respond to the Newtown shooting. Besides the White House, there appears to be growing consensus in te Congress on finding ways to curb rising gun violence in the US.
— PTI children returning to school Newtown: Most children returned to school for the first time on Tuesday in Newtown, as the toll of funerals for the 26 dead continued. Funeral was planned for one of the 20 young students, 6-year-old Jessica Rekos, as well as several wakes were held. — AP
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Egypt to probe alleged vote violations
Cairo, December 18 Justice Ministry said it would appoint judges to probe allegations of voting violations, including charges that some polling stations were supervised by court employees and not by judges, during the first leg of the referendum on December 15. The country's embattled prosecutor, general Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah, quit yesterday, just weeks after being appointed by President Muhamed
Mursi. Abdallah submitted his resignation to the head of the Supreme Judicial Council after growing demands from hundreds of public prosecutors asking him to quit. The Council will examine Abdallah's resignation next Sunday. — PTI
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Scientists may have found 2 Higgs bosons
London, December 18 The most recent release from the Atlas experiment at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) showed the scientists seem to have found one Higgs boson with one mass, and then another with a statistically significant slightly higher mass, the 'Daily Mail' reported. There seems to be one version of Higgs boson with a mass of 123.5 gigaelectron volts (the unit particle physicists prefer using to measure mass) and a second Higgs with a mass of 126.6 GeV. First proposed in 1964, the Higgs boson is the last missing piece of the Standard Model, a widely accepted theory that describes the basic building blocks of the universe. According to that model of our world, the Higgs particle must exist to bestow mass on other fundamental particles. However, until it was possible to build high-powered colliders like the LHC, it has been impossible to detect.
— PTI
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Ireland to legalise abortion when mother’s life is at risk London, December 18 The decision comes after a huge public outcry over the death of 31-year-old Savita, who died on October 28 at Galway University Hospital. She had been 17-week pregnant and was found to be miscarrying. Savita's husband said she asked repeatedly for a termination of the pregnancy but was refused and was told the foetal heartbeat was still present and "this is a Catholic country". The Irish government has decided to repeal legislation that makes abortion a criminal act and to introduce regulations setting out when doctors can perform an abortion when a woman’s life is regarded as being at risk, including by suicide, the Telegraph newspaper reported. Irish health minister James Reilly said the government was aware of the controversy surrounding abortion. "The government is committed to ensuring that the safety of pregnant women is maintained and strengthened," the paper quoted Reilly as saying. — PTI
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