|
|
|
|
|
Zardari stops release of Benazir Bhutto assassination report
Spurious cough syrup kills 12 in Pak
6 dead, 50 hurt in Karachi blast
4 killed as Russian airliner crashes on highway
23 Indian-origin figure in Queen's NY Honours List |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
Zardari stops release of Benazir Bhutto assassination report Islamabad, December 29 "Zardari barred Malik from presenting the
report at a meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that was held on Benazir's fifth death anniversary on Thursday. The move came in
the wake of an increase in differences between Zardari and Malik," the Urdu newspaper Daily Express quoted its
sources as saying. The President issued instructions to Malik not to make the report public just hours before the PPP held a rally
outside the Bhutto family mausoleum at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in Sindh on Thursday. Malik had earlier
told the media about his intention to make the report public. Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. The report said Malik wanted to present the report at the meeting of the PPP's central executive committee. He even suggested that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari should launch his political career by revealing the report, sources told the daily. Bilawal, who is expected to lead the PPP's campaign for next year's general election, formally launched his political career by addressing the massive rally at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh. Over the past few days, Malik has met members of the team from the Federal Investigation Agency that is investigating Bhutto's assassination and other senior officials. He had also personally overseen the publication of the investigation report running into several hundred pages. Malik had planned to
distribute copies of the report among PPP leaders and journalists, the report said. Zardari rejected Malik's suggestions and directed the Interior Minister
not to present the report before the rally in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh. On receiving these instructions, Malik directed officials to stop the publication of the report, which was in the final stages. There has been considerable speculation in political circles in Islamabad about the reported differences between Zardari and Malik, sources said. PTI
The veiled report
|
|
|
Spurious cough syrup kills 12 in Pak
Lahore, December 29 The total number of deaths this week has risen to 20, health officials said. As many as 18 deaths occurred in Gujranwala and Toba Tek Singh districts and the remaining in the provincial capital of Lahore. Another 40 persons are being treated in several hospitals. Over 20 men, a majority of them drug addicts, died in Lahore last month after drinking the Tyno cough syrup. The latest deaths involved a cough syrup named Dextromethorphan, Punjab Health Secretary Arif Nadeem said. The deaths in Gujranwala and Toba Tek Singh were very similar to those in Lahore, he said. Nadeem said an excessive dose of the active ingredient in cough syrups had resulted in the deaths.
PTI
|
|
|
6 dead, 50 hurt in Karachi blast Islamabad, December 29 Witnesses said the incident occurred at a spot located less than a kilometre from the Army House, the official residence of the Pakistan army chief when he visits Karachi. A bus had just left a terminal near the Cantonment Railway Station when the blast went off. Witnesses told TV news channels that they had seen body parts lying at the site. One man told reporters a young boy was torn in two by the explosion. Six persons were killed, said Sagheer Ahmed, the Health Minister of Sindh province. Officials at Jinnah Hospital said they had received 48 injured persons and eight of them were serious. Women and children were among the injured. The explosion hit several nearby shops, buildings, motorcycles and cars. A fire erupted in the bus, which was reduced to a heap of mangled and blackened metal. Ambulances rushed the injured to nearby hospitals. Footage on television showed the bus on fire as a thick column of smoke rose into the sky. Several police officials claimed soon after the incident that the blast was caused by the CNG cylinders of the bus. However, the cleaner of the bus told the media that the vehicle ran on diesel and had no CNG cylinders. No group claimed responsibility for the blast. Security forces cordoned off the area soon after the explosion.
PTI
|
|
|
4 killed as Russian airliner crashes on highway Moscow, December 29 The crash during peak holiday travel ahead of Russia's New Year's vacation, which runs from Sunday through Jan. 9, cast a spotlight on the country's poor air-safety record despite President Vladimir Putin's calls to improve controls. Television footage showed the Tupolev Tu-204 jet with smoke billowing from the tail end and the cockpit broken clean off the front. Some witnesses told state channel Rossiya-24 they saw a man thrown from the plane as it rammed into the barrier of the highway outside Vnukovo airport, just southwest of the capital, and another described pulling other people from the wreckage. "The plane split into three pieces," Yelena Krylova, chief spokeswoman for the airport, said in televised comments. Police spokesman Gennady Bogachyov said: "The plane went off the runway, broke through the barrier and caught fire." The pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer and a flight attendant were killed and the other four crew members aboard - all flight attendants - were in a serious condition in hospital with head injuries, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. Officials had earlier said there were 12 crew members. The mid-range Tu-204 was operated by the Russian airline Red Wings and travelling from the Czech Republic, Krylova said. Wreckage from the crash was scattered across the highway and the plane's wings were torn from the fuselage, witnesses said. "We saw how the plane skidded off the runway ... The nose, where business class is, broke off and a man fell out," a witness said. "We helped him get into a mini-bus to take him to the hospital." Another witness described pulling four people from the wreckage when he arrived at the scene before emergency service workers. "We could not get the pilot out of the cockpit but we saw a lot of blood," he told Rossiya-24. Russian investigators said preliminary findings pointed to pilot error as the cause of the crash. Reuters
|
|
23 Indian-origin figure in Queen's NY Honours List
London, December 29 Geetha Nagasubramanian, consultant gynaecologist and head of Service, Tower Hamlets Contraception and Sexual Health Services, also gets an MBE for services to Women and Young People. Vina Mayor, chair, nursing and midwifery council fitness to practice panel, Bedfordshire, also gets the same honour for services to the National Health Service. Among others who figure in the honours list are Mridul Hegde, director, financial stability, HM Treasury, services to the Stabilisation of the British Banking system (CB-Order of Bath) and Rustom Tata, Partner, DMH Stallard gets (MVO-Royal Victorian Order). —
PTI |
||||||
New
York
Moscow Abuja London
|
||||||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
z
Islamabad, December 29
At least six persons were killed and over 50 others injured when a powerful explosion ripped through a bus outside a railway station in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi today, witnesses and officials said.
