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US digs out from blizzard
Pascal case: Victim’s mother seeks meeting with Hollande
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Chinese naval ships patrol disputed isles
Taliban not serious about talks: Rehman Malik
Assailants kill 3 Asian doctors in Nigeria
Graft case against Zardari ends
3-year-old girl has IQ ‘higher than Hawking’
Rebels kill 100 in South Sudan
Over 100 persons, including women and children, were killed on Friday in a cattle raid by heavily armed rebels in South Sudan's troubled Jonglei state, the governor said.
Suicide bomber injures trooper in Mali
A suicide bomber blew himself, the second such attack in this northern Malian city since Friday, said a Malian army officer.
Daughters accept Ravi Shankar’s Lifetime Grammy
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US digs out from blizzard Boston/ New York, Feb 10 By early Sunday, utility companies were reporting roughly 3,50,000 customers still without electricity across a nine-state region after the wet, heavy snow brought down tree branches and power lines. About half a million had been down as of late Saturday. Air traffic began to return to normal today after some 5,800 flights were cancelled on Friday and Saturday, according to Flightaware, a flight tracking service. Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, and Long Island MacArthur Airport reopened on Sunday morning. Both were closed on Saturday. Boston's Logan International Airport reopened late on Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Rare travel bans in Connecticut and Massachusetts were lifted but roads throughout the region remained treacherous, according to state transportation departments. As the region recovered, another large winter storm building across the Northern Plains was expected to leave a foot of snow and bring high winds from Colorado to central Minnesota into Monday, the National Weather Service said. South Dakota was expected to be hardest hit, with winds reaching 50 miles per hour, creating white-out conditions. The storm was expected to reach parts of Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming and Wisconsin. Friday and Saturday's mammoth storm stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic and covered several spots in the north-east with more than 3 feet of snow. Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts took the brunt of the blizzard. Hamden in Connecticut, had 40 inches and nearby Milford 38 inches, the National Weather Service said. Seven persons were killed due to snow storm in the US alone. One of the victims was an 11-year-old Boston boy who died from carbon monoxide poisoning, as he was helping his father shovel snow and took a break to warm up in a car. The authorities warned residents to make sure home-heating vents were cleared of snow, saying a number of people had been taken to the hospital for carbon-monoxide inhalation.— Agencies
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Pascal case: Victim’s mother seeks meeting with Hollande Paris, February 10 Lawyers for the official, Pascal Mazurier, were received at Hollande's Elysee Palace last week in a move greeted with furious incomprehension by the mother, Suja Jones
Mazurier, and the women's and rights groups supporting her. They accuse France of supporting the husband at the expense of the interests of the rape victim and her two siblings, who are all French nationals. In a letter to Hollande's minister for women, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Algerian academic Marieme Helie Lucas argues the Elysee meeting was part of an orchestrated campaign in support of the father which amounts to an attempt to interfere with a criminal case going through the Indian courts. "We were very surprised to learn, through the press, that only the advocates of the accused, the father of the young victim, have been received at the Elysee," Helie Lucas, a prominent rights campaigner, writes in the letter. "We ask that you give your support to Ms Suja Jones's demand for a meeting with the president of the Republic during his upcoming visit to India." Aides to Hollande now have to decide whether to grant Jones Mazurier some kind of audience. If they do, they will draw further attention to a case they would like to go away. If they don't, they run the risk of adding to anger over how it has been handled. —AFP
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Chinese naval ships patrol disputed isles Beijing, February 10 The Chinese ships also patrolled South China Sea claimed by a host of South East Asian countries, reaffirming the country's territorial claims over the area. Two fleets of Chinese marine surveillance ships were carrying out regular patrol missions in the East China Sea and the South China Sea respectively during the Chinese New Year which is being celebrated all over the country today, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. One of the fleets constituting three ships were patrolling the "territorial waters" surrounding the Islands in the East China Sea, it said. The islands also called as Diaoyu by China and Senkakus by Japan were located in the East China Sea.The Chinese patrols continued in midst of deepening tensions between Japan and China. The patrols were highlighted by the official media in the backdrop of China rejecting Japan's allegations of that it frigates locked their fire control radars with that of a Japanese defence ship and helicopter, saying that Tokyo is playing petty tricks to portray 'China threat'. Significantly the Chinese official media also highlighted Chinese ships patrol of South China Sea area where China has maritime disputes with Vietnam, Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. — PTI
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Taliban not serious about talks: Rehman Malik
The Taliban are neither serious nor sincere about peace talks with the government, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said. “The Taliban have nominated a murderer and proclaimed offender for talks,” Malik told reporters here. The minister's remarks came after Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan offered "conditional" talks and called for the release of two former spokesmen Maulvi Said Umer and Muslim Khan. The spokesman said the two will lead the Taliban negotiation team. Malik said the Taliban's offer for dialogue was "suspicious" and that Ehsan has no credibility. He said the Taliban cannot fool the Pakistani nation with such "jokes". However, the minister appreciated the offer from the Taliban before the general elections and termed it a "good omen". "If they believe in Pakistan's sovereignty, they must stop killing innocent people," Malik said. "Taliban better send in elders to negotiate peace with the government. It would also show how serious they are to make talks successful", Geo News quoted Malik as saying. He said the Taliban also nominated Adnan Rashid, a "proclaimed offender" who fled last year when militants stormed a prison in Bannu in the country's north-west.
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Assailants kill 3 Asian doctors in Nigeria Abuja, February 10 Sanusi Rufai, the commissioner of police of Robe state, said the attack occurred in the town of Potiskum. "They invaded the apartment of the doctors suspected to be from South Korea and China and slit their throats," Rufai said. Residents say the slain doctors worked at a general hospital in the city. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Robe shares border with Borno state where terrorist group Boko Haram has its headquarters. Last week, nine health workers on polio vaccination drive were shot dead by suspected Islamists in northern city of Kano. Potiskum has witnessed repeated attacks by the group which has vowed to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state. The Boko Haram has a breakaway terrorist sect known as Ansaru which has attaced foreigners in the past. — PTI
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Graft case against Zardari ends
The Swiss authorities had conveyed their position in an official letter sent to the Pakistan government this week. The Swiss attorney general, in reply to a letter sent by the government three months ago, said the case could not be reopened because it had become time-barred under the Swiss law. The President enjoyed immunity from prosecution at home and abroad, he said. The government had written the letter to the Swiss legal authorities in November in line with the Supreme Court’s order seeking revival of the case against President Zardari receiving kickbacks in the award of a pre-shipment contract to a Swiss company in 1994. The standoff between the government and the apex court over approaching the Swiss authorities over the graft cases had cost former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani his job last year. The court disqualified Gilani after convicting him for contempt for refusing to revive the cases. Gilani's successor Raja Pervez Ashraf agreed to implement the apex court's orders in November after he was charged with contempt. The Supreme Court has been pressuring the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government to revive the graft cases against Zardari since December 2009, when it struck down a graft amnesty issued by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf. The National Reconciliation Ordinance, which was part of a secret deal between Musharraf and slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, benefited Zardari and over 8,000 others.
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3-year-old girl has IQ ‘higher than Hawking’ London, February 10 Alice Amos scored an incredible 162 in a test of the high IQ society Mensa - matching some of the world's most notable intellectuals. The toddler, from Guildford, Surrey, is already bilingual, speaking both English and Russian, where her parents are from, the 'Daily Mail' reported. Alice's advanced intellect means she is one of the "top one per cent", matching that of Hawking, who has never officially revealed his IQ, but which is estimated to be between 160 and 165. Alice's score means she is only one of 18 pre-school members of the society. She already spends her spare time reading Aesop's fables and other fairy tales, also enjoying singing, dancing, painting, crafts and reading. "We are delighted that Alice has joined the society," CEO of British Mensa, John Stevenage, said. “At Mensa we aim to provide a positive environment for gifted children as they develop and hope they will benefit from interaction with other bright children," said Stevenage. Alice was admitted to Mensa after her parents submitted a report by British psychologist Professor Joan Freeman. She scored 162 on the Stanford Binet test - an IQ quiz that looks to measure five factors of cognitive ability - fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, and working memory. The youngster works to an advance level in both literacy and numeracy. Her IQ of 162 ranks her higher than a list of the world's greatest luminaries. Former US Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin and Bill Clinton could only muster 128, 160 and 137, respectively. French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte scored 145 and Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud was still left trailing in the wake of Alice with a score of 156. There are currently more than 1,000 members of Mensa aged under 18. — PTI Small wonder
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Rebels kill 100 in South Sudan Juba, February 10 The people of Walgak in Akobo County were migrating north to the wetlands with cattle "and were being escorted by an army platoon when they came under attack by a huge force using automatic weapons", Jonglei governor Kuol Manyang said today. He said 103 persons were killed, including 14 soldiers from the platoon, while the rest were civilians, mostly women and children. Deputy military spokesman Kella Kueth confirmed the incident and said some 500 persons were still missing. He was not, however, able to confirm the military casualties. Manyang said the raiders were a mixture of civilians and armed rebels and were all ethnic Murle from Pibor County in Jonglei. Six months after South Sudan declared independence from Sudan, its eastern Jonglei state was engulfed in ethnic violence when thousands of youths from the Lou Nuer tribe marched on Pibor vowing to wipe out the Murle. — AFP
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Suicide bomber injures trooper in Mali Gao, February 10 The most recent attack occurred yesterday at about 11 pm at a checkpoint to enter the city, said Captain Daouda Diarra. The bomber set off the explosive belt he was wearing, killing himself and injuring a Malian soldier, said Diarra. The explosion occurred in the same place where an earlier suicide bomber killed himself on Friday morning. — AFP
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Daughters accept Ravi Shankar’s Lifetime Grammy
Los Angeles, February 10 Anoushka, a reputed sitarist herself, and Norah, who has carved a niche as a singer-songwriter, attended the pre-Grammy ceremony at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre to accept the honour bestowed on their iconic father, who passed away on December 11, 2012, at the age of 92. "We know he was very excited to be receiving this award. We really miss him. He lived and breathed music. He was tapping out rhythms on the breakfast table and making me do five over seven... I am still trying to get it. We are very happy to accept the award for him," said nine-time Grammy winner Norah, 33. "It was 60 days ago today that he passed away. It's kind of difficult to be standing up here, like Norah said, I am thrilled that he knew about this award before he passed away at least. But I wish we weren't standing up here for him," said Anoushka, 31, who has accompanied her father at concerts all around the world. "I want to say thanks to my mom... He did his last performance just a few weeks before he died and I believe she was the reason he was able to be as healthy and strong as he was. I am eternally grateful to her for that,” she said. — PTI
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Ahmadinejad: Will talk with US if pressure stops Curiosity rover collects Mars’ sample Dunford takes charge of NATO in Kabul
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Beijing, February 10
The corruption case against Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has finally ended in his favour after the Swiss authorities informed the government that the case cannot be reopened in their country on legal grounds.
