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Hot air balloon explodes; 19 killed in Egypt
World powers nudge Iran for N-cut
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Anti-terrorism Bill tabled in Pak House
Italy election impasse rattles Europe Sikh shot at in US in ‘hate crime’
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Hot air balloon explodes; 19 killed in Egypt
Cairo, February 26 Passengers in the balloon included 19 foreign tourists, from Hong Kong, France, Japan and Britain. An Egyptian pilot and another Egyptian were also on board, Luxor province spokesman Badawi al-Masri said. Luxor International Hospital received 19 bodies with severe burn injuries, Khaled said. Two persons, including the balloon’s pilot, survived by jumping out of the balloon before the crash. Security services cordoned off the crash site as the police inspected the charred remains of the balloon. The public prosecutor has begun a probe into the crash. Media reports said preliminary investigation showed that the balloon was about to land and had throw out the anchor. The anchor’s rope cut the tube of helium and the balloon caught fire. Air currents raised the balloon once again before it exploded. The remains of charred bodies spread over vast agricultural land. Sky Cruise operated the balloon and the British tour operator Thomas Cook has confirmed that four of its clients were on board the balloon, two of whom had died and two were in the hospital. “We are providing complete support to the family and friends of the deceased at this difficult time,” Peter Fankhauser, CEO of Thomas Cook UK and Europe, said. The Chinese Embassy in Egypt has confirmed that nine Hong Kong tourists had died in the balloon crash. The governor of Luxor has suspended hot air balloon activities in the governorate after the accident. Balloon rides offering scenic aerial views of the Nile and the ancient temples of Karnak and Hatshepsut are a popular tourist attraction in Luxor, about nine hours' drive southeast of Cairo.—PTI How it happened The balloon was about to land and had throw out the anchor. The anchor’s rope cut the tube of helium and the balloon caught fire zThe governor of Luxor has suspended hot air balloon activities in the governorate Balloon rides offering scenic aerial views of the Nile and the ancient temples of Karnak and Hatshepsut are a popular tourist attraction in Luxor
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World powers nudge Iran for N-cut Almaty (Kazakhstan), Feb 26 The world powers will offer Iran permission to resume its gold and precious metals trade as well as some international banking activity which are currently under sanctions, Western sources said. In exchange, Iran will have to limit sensitive uranium enrichment operations that the world powers fear could be used to make a nuclear bomb, they added. The first round of closed-door talks started at 1400 IST under high security at Rixos hotel in this Kazakh city under the shadow of the Tien Shan mountains, a Western official said. It was not clear how long the first session would last. Little progress has been made since the last talks in Moscow in June 2012 ended without any breakthrough and Iranian officials have insisted they will offer no special concessions at the two-day talks. “We have prepared a good and updated offer for the talks, which we believe is balanced and a fair basis for constructive talks,” said Michael Mann, the spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. “The offer addresses international concerns...on the nature of the Iranian nuclear programme, but is also responsive to Iranian ideas,” he said. An official involved in the negotiations said the offer would insist Iran to stop enriching uranium to 20 per cent and shut down its controversial Fordo plant hub of such activity occurs. But Iran denies it is developing nuclear weapons and wants the world to respect its international “right to enrich” uranium. In a sign of the tough negotiations ahead, a source in the Iranian delegation said the issue of 20 per cent enrichment was not a subject his country was ready to discuss at this stage.“We don’t expect any breakthrough. The Iranians have made different declarations in the last days. It depends if you take the positive or the negative ones,” a Western official said.—AFP
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Anti-terrorism Bill tabled in Pak House
The government has introduced a stronger anti-terrorism Bill in the National Assembly to tighten measures to curb terrorism. The Bill puts a bar on reviving banned groups under new names and on court bails for offences punishable with death or more than 10 years in prison. The Anti-Terrorism (second amendment) Bill will go to a house standing committee on interior for vetting before coming back for approval. The new 25-clause draft came only six days after the house unanimously passed another amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 to strength provisions against terrorism-financing. One clause of the new Bill says “If any or all office-bearers of a proscribed organisation form a new organisation under a different name, upon suspicion about their involvement in similar activities, the said organisation shall also be deemed to be a proscribed organisation and the government may issue a formal notification of its proscription.” The Bill also provides that if members of such organisations or their associates were found “continuing the activities of the proscribed organisation, they would be denied passports and foreign travel, and loans or financial support by any bank or financial institution and have their arms licences cancelled.” To meet a common complaint of law-enforcement agencies about courts releasing terrorism accused on bail, a clause of the bill says that “no court shall grant bail to a person accused of an offence under this Act punishable with death or imprisonment for life or imprisonment exceeding 10 years”. Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan spoke on his party’s role to change what he said would have been a “state within a state” under the original bill based on a Musharraf-era decree simply to a housing society adhering to normal government laws. “It is now just a housing society,” he said about the Islamabad DHA as well as a sister organisation set up for nearby Rawalpindi. Chaudhry Nisar, who recalled his one-time threat to physically block the original bill as introduced in 2009 if the government bulldozed it without incorporating about 30 PML-N amendments, claimed all credit for his party for the change he said had been negotiated by a party team with one from the army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. He acknowledged a team of government ministers had agreed with the PML-N that the previous Bill involved some “serious” constitutional anomalies, but said it would have been much better if the new bill had been made the product of consultations between the government and opposition rather than the opposition taking the case to the General Headquarters.
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Italy election impasse rattles Europe Rome, February 26 Stock markets in Europe, Asia and the US fell on fears of instability in the Eurozone.—AFP
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Sikh shot at in US in ‘hate crime’ Washington, February 26 “Although no clear motive (behind the attack) has been established, initial indications are that the shooting was not a random act. There was no previous confrontation between occupants of either vehicle,” Wayne Miller, Port Orange’s Assistant Chief of Police, was quoted as saying by local daily. Condemning the attack, the Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund (SALDEF) and Sikh Coalition called on the law enforcement officials to conduct a thorough probe into the incident. —PTI
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Policeman killed in attack on polio workers in Pak
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cop wanted to kill wife, eat others Car bomb kills 5 soldiers in Damascus Rocket attack in South Israel
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At least 19 persons, mostly Asian and European tourists, were killed today in one of the deadliest hot air balloon accidents near the ancient Egyptian temple city of Luxor.
