W O R L D

Over 1,000 hurt as meteor shower hits central Russia
Moscow, February 15
Over 1,000 persons, including more than 200 children, were injured today in a freak incident when a meteor weighing about 10 tonnes streaked across the sky above Russia's Ural Mountains, creating panic as shockwaves blasted windows and rocked buildings.
A wall of a local zinc plant damaged by a shockwave from a meteor in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk on Friday. — AFP& AP/PTI

Pak tests nuke-capable Hatf-II missile 
Pakistan on Friday successfully tested the nuclear-capable Hatf-II ballistic missile with a range of 180 km, marking the second test of a  missile system in four days as part of measures to evaluate the capabilities of its Strategic Forces.





Hatf-II launched from an undisclosed location on Friday. — AFP

Over 1,000 hurt as meteor shower hits central Russia

A meteorite contrail is seen over Chelyabinsk. — AFP& AP/PTI

Moscow, February 15
Over 1,000 persons, including more than 200 children, were injured today in a freak incident when a meteor weighing about 10 tonnes streaked across the sky above Russia's Ural Mountains, creating panic as shockwaves blasted windows and rocked buildings.

According to officials, 985 persons have sought medical attention in the disaster area, 112 of whom have been hospitalised. Among the injured there over 200 children.

Most of those hurt suffered minor cuts and bruises but some received head injuries, Russian officials said.

Gas supplies were cut off to hundreds of homes in the Chelyabinsk region as a safety precaution and over 3,000 buildings were reported to have been damaged, Ria Novosti news agency quoted officials as saying.

A fireball was seen streaking through the clear morning sky above the city of Yekaterinburg, followed by loud bangs, but much of the impact was felt in the city of Chelyabinsk, some 200 km south of Yekaterinburg.

President Vladimir Putin said he thanked God no big fragments had fallen in populated areas.

Putin also promised "immediate" aid for people affected, saying kindergartens and schools had been damaged, and work disrupted at industrial enterprises.

Russian space agency Roskosmos has confirmed the object that crashed in the Chelyabinsk region is a meteorite. They said in a statement, "According to preliminary estimates, this space object is of non-technogenic origin and qualifies as a meteorite. It was moving at a low trajectory with a speed of about 30 km/second." — PTI

Pak tests nuke-capable Hatf-II missile 
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

Pakistan on Friday successfully tested the nuclear-capable Hatf-II ballistic missile with a range of 180 km, marking the second test of a  missile system in four days as part of measures to evaluate the capabilities of its Strategic Forces.

The test of the Hatf-II or Abdali short range surface-to-surface ballistic missile was part of the "process of validation of land-based ballistic missile systems", the military said in a statement.

It described the test as successful but did not say where it was conducted.

The missile can carry nuclear or conventional warheads with "high accuracy", the statement said.

"The weapon system with its varied manoeuvrability options provides an operational level capability to Pakistan’s Strategic Forces," it said.

On February 11, Pakistan tested the nuclear-capable Hatf-IX tactical missile with a range of 60 km.

The military had said the weapon system was specially designed to defeat anti-tactical missile defence systems.

Analysts say the short-range Hatf-IX missile is primarily aimed at deterring India's Cold Start military doctrine, which envisages quick thrusts by small integrated battle groups in the event of hostilities.

Friday's test was witnessed by Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne, Strategic Plans Division Director General Lt Gen (retired) Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, Army Strategic Forces Command chief Lt Gen Tariq Nadeem Gilani, senior officers from the Strategic Forces and scientists and engineers of strategic organisations.

The President and Prime Minister congratulated the scientists and engineers on the test "which consolidates Pakistan’s deterrence capability both at the operational and strategic levels", the statement said.

(With PTI inputs)

Pakistan has about 90-110 nuclear warheads: Report

Washington, February 15
Pakistan's atomic arsenal probably consists of between 90 to 110 nuclear war heads, a latest Congressional report has said, informing the American lawmakers that Islamabad is interested in concluding a nuclear cooperation deal with the US, which would require their approval.

"Pakistan's nuclear arsenal probably consists of approximately 90-110 nuclear warheads, although it could be larger," said the report of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), an independent research wing of the US Congress.

"Islamabad is producing fissile material, adding to related production facilities, and deploying additional delivery vehicles. These steps could enable Pakistan to undertake both quantitative and qualitative improvements to its nuclear arsenal," the report said.

"Whether and to what extent Pakistan's current expansion of its nuclear weapons-related facilities is a response to the 2008 US-India nuclear cooperation agreement is unclear.

“Islamabad does not have a public, detailed nuclear doctrine, but its 'minimum credible deterrent' is widely regarded as designed to dissuade India from taking military action against Pakistan," it said.

Noting that Pakistan has in recent years taken a number of steps to increase international confidence in the security of its nuclear arsenal, the report however said instability in Pakistan has called the extent and durability of these reforms into question.

Observing that Pakistan appears to be increasing its fissile production capability and improving its delivery vehicles in order to hedge against possible increases in India's nuclear arsenal, the CRS report said Islamabad may also accelerate its current nuclear weapons efforts. — PTI

Budget cuts may hit US foreign policy, businesses, warns Kerry 

Washington, February 15
Sequestration or government-wide budget cuts due to take effect in March could have devastating impact on America's foreign policy and seriously undermining efforts to promote American businesses in countries like India, US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned.

Across the board automatic cut of $2.6 billion from 2013 budget of the State Department and USAID, beginning March 1, would badly hurt the US efforts in not only Middle East and North Africa both in terms of humanitarian assistance to countries like Syria or military assistance to countries like Israel, Jordan and Egypt but would also adversely affect its presence in Afghanistan - thus risking the chance of undoing the gains it has made in this war torn country in the Past 10 years, Kerry said in his letter to the Congress on February 11.

The automatic budgetary deductions would not only have an impact on its visa processing time overseas and thus reduce the flow of foreign tourists to the US but also cuts of this magnitude, Kerry warned, would "compromise our ability to help US companies capture opportunities abroad in growing markets such as India, Brazil and Mexico, with trade agreements, investment treaties, direct advocacy, and other diplomatic tools that open markets and ensure a level playing field."

A budgetary cut of the magnitude of $2.6 billion, he said, would seriously impair State Department's ability to execute its vital missions of national security, diplomacy and development.

"Our ability to influence and shape world events, protect US interests, increase job-creating opportunities for American businesses, prevent conflict, protect our citizens overseas, and defeat terrorism before it reaches our shores depends on day-to-day diplomatic engagement and increased prosperity worldwide," Kerry wrote. "These cuts would severely impair our efforts to enhance the security of US government facilities overseas and ensure the safety of the thousands of US diplomats," he said. — PTI 

Gunmen kidnap 100 civilians in Syria

Beirut, February 15
Over 100 civilians have been abducted by armed groups in the Syrian province of Idlib in separate incidents, a watchdog said today, expressing alarm over what it said were "sectarian kidnappings".

40,000 flee heavy fighting in Syria Geneva: An estimated 40,000 people have fled a town in eastern Syria after three days of heavy fighting between government troops and rebels, the United Nations food agency said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the kidnappings in the northwestern province occurred yesterday in two separate incidents.

A group of some 70 men and women passengers on four mini-buses were abducted near an army check point when travelling towards the provincial capital, also Idlib, by pro-regime armed men, said the Britain-based Observatory.

It said the kidnappers were from the Shiite-majority villages of Al-Fua and Kafraya, while the passengers hailed from the mostly Sunni villages of Saraqeb, Sarmin and Binnish.

Hours before their abduction, in the same area, another armed group kidnapped at least 40 other civilians, mostly women and children, the Observatory said.

They had been travelling on a bus from Al-Fua and Kafraya villages, it said.

Most Syrian rebels fighting troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are Sunni, while the President's clan belongs to an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

"I fear a rise in sectarian kidnappings," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. "Such acts are detrimental to the revolution."

The United Nations says almost 70,000 people have been killed so far in the Syrian conflict, which first erupted 23 months ago on March 15, 2011. — AFP

Only regime fall will change N Korea: Seoul

Seoul, February 15
North Korea can never be made to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak said today, arguing that only regime collapse could remove the threat from Pyongyang.

As the UNSC continues to debate how to punish the North for its latest nuclear test, the outgoing president suggested the best way forward was to try to foment unrest among the North Korean people. "It has become impossible to have North Korea give up its nuclear weapons through dialogue and negotiations", Lee said. — AFP

BRIEFLY

Indian-American jailed for 5 years for molesting model
New York: Indian-American celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon, already serving a 59 years’ sentence in the US for sexually abusing aspiring models, was jailed for five years after pleading guilty on a similar charge in a court. Jon admitted to one count of criminal sexual act in Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday and was sentenced to five years under a plea deal reached with federal prosecutors. — PTI

Swedish photographer Paul Hansen in Stockholm on Friday poses with the World Press Award winning picture of men carrying the bodies of two dead children in Gaza City. — AFP

Toddler swallows 42 fridge magnets
London: A 16-month-old boy in Russia had to be operated upon after he swallowed 42 fridge magnets within a few minutes of being left alone in the kitchen. The toddler's mother panicked after she noticed that all of the magnets from the family's fridge had gone missing after leaving him for a short period of time. — PTI

Pak state CM survives assassination bid
Islamabad: Chief minister of Pakistan's restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province Ameer Haider Khan Hoti on Friday survived an assassination bid by a Taliban suicide bomber who blew himself up near his motorcade in the country's north-west. The attacker blew himself up shortly after the Chief Minister's motorcade passed through College Chowk in Mardan city. — PTI