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Wave of car bombings in Iraq kills 54
People gather at the site of a car bomb explosion in Sadr City, Baghdad, on Monday. — AFP
Spanish train driver charged with homicide
Gays must not be judged or marginalised: Pope
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38 killed in bus mishap in Italy
A cross and roses left among the wreckage of the bus at the accident site in Italy on Monday. — AFP
Mursi’s supporters call for mass protest today
Supporters of Mohamed Mursi shout slogans at a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on Sunday. — Reuters
Nothing new for Russia in Snowden’s leaks: Dy PM
4 out of 5 US adults face poverty: Study
Pak prez poll: Nawaz’s aide set to win today
Indian given death penalty in UAE for raping
7-year-old
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Wave of car bombings in Iraq kills 54
Baghdad, July 29 Today, 11 car bombs hit nine different areas of Baghdad, seven of them Shiite-majority, while another exploded in Mahmudiyah south of the capital. Two more car bombs exploded in Kut, while two hit Samawa and another detonated in Basra, all south of Baghdad. A roadside bomb also killed five policemen, including a lieutenant colonel, north of Tikrit, while a magnetic "sticky bomb" killed a police captain in Anbar province. The attacks killed a total of at least 54 persons and wounded at least 232. The interior ministry warned of the consequences of the bloodshed. Iraq is faced with "open war waged by the forces of bloody sectarianism aiming to plunge the country into chaos and reproduce civil war", the ministry said in a statement. Iraq was racked by a bloody Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict that peaked in 2006-2007, when thousands of people were killed because of their religious affiliation or forced to abandon their homes under threat of death. The interior ministry today called for the "full support and cooperation of citizens with the security forces". The deadliest blast was in the eastern Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City, where two separate explosions killed nine civilians and wounded 33 others. Ambulances rushed to the scene where rescuers and the police were removing the charred and twisted remains of the car bombs from the bloodstained pavement. The force of the two explosions lightly damaged nearby houses and shops. Taxi driver Ali Khalil was passing nearby when the first bomb exploded. "I heard a thunderous explosion that shook my car and broke the rear window," 36-year old Khalil said. "I immediately pulled over and didn't know what to do while seeing people running or lying on the ground," he added.
— Agencies |
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Spanish train driver charged with homicide
Santiago de Compostela, July 29 Media reports have suggested that the 52-year-old driver, Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, was travelling at more than double the speed limit for that stretch of the line when the crashed happened. The train came off the line near the pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela, north-west Spain. The police detained Garzon Amo on Thursday, a day after what is Spain's deadliest rail disaster in decades, on suspicion of reckless homicide. He was still in hospital recovering from a light head injury he suffered in the crash. Yesterday, a police car delivered him in handcuffs to the courthouse for the closed hearing. He had spent the previous night in a police cell. Garzon Amo was dressed in a blue shirt and a scar was visible from his injury. Just hours before the court hearing began, regional health officials said a woman critically injured in the crash had died in hospital, bringing the toll to 79. The latest victim was a US national, the Galician High Court said, bringing to nine the total number of foreigners who died. Flowers and candles were placed at the gates of the city's cathedral, a year-round destination for Roman Catholic pilgrims, which will host a memorial service for the victims today. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, and Crown Prince Felipe are scheduled to attend the service. "We are really feeling the impact. People are praying. It is a great tragedy," said 70-year-old Marlen de Francisco, who sells souvenirs in the cathedral square.
— AFP |
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Gays must not be judged or marginalised: Pope
Rome, July 29 “If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge him?" the Pope said. In a broad-ranging 80-minute conversation with journalists on the plane bringing him back from a week-long visit to Brazil, Pope also said the Roman Catholic Church's ban on women priests was definitive, although he would like them to have more leadership roles in administration and pastoral activities. Pope defended gays from discrimination but also referred to the Catholic Church's universal Catechism, which says that while homosexual orientation is not sinful homosexual acts are. He expressed pain over scandals at the Vatican bank during a remarkably forthright press conference, his first since being elected in March to replace Benedict XVI, who became the first pontiff to resign in 600 years. The airborne encounter with journalists ranged over issues as varied as the pope's insistence on low-key security to his desire to slip out of the shackles of the Vatican to go for walks. The pope arrived back in Rome on Monday after a triumphant week-long tour of Brazil which climaxed with a huge gathering on Rio de Janeiro's famed Copacabana beach for a world Catholic youth festival, which organisers estimated to have attracted more than 3 million people. "The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalised because of this (orientation) but that they must be integrated into society," he said, speaking in Italian. "The problem is not having this orientation. We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem," he said. Francis was answering a question about reports of a "gay lobby" in the Vatican, after it suffered a string of scandals over paedophile priests and corruption in the administration of the Holy See. "You see a lot written about the gay lobby. I still have not seen anyone in the Vatican with an identity card saying they are gay," he joked. — Reuters
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38 killed in bus mishap in Italy
Rome, July 29 Rescuers wielding electric saws cut through the twisted wreckage of the bus overnight, looking for survivors after it had plunged to the ground yesterday night. At least 10-metres of the wall was torn away and large chunks were visible in a clearing below. The bus lost control near the town of Monteforte Irpino in Irpinia, a largely agricultural area about 60 kilometres inland from Naples and about 250 kilometres south of Rome, hitting several cars before plunging off the viaduct. Traffic on the stretch was slowed due to road work, officials said. State radio quoted a local police chief as saying the bus driver was among the dead. It was not immediately clear why the bus driver lost control of the vehicle, but prosecutors were investigating technical problems and had ordered an autopsy on the driver. A reporter for Naples daily Il Mattino, Giuseppe Crimaldi, told from the scene that some witnesses told him the bus had been going at a "normal" speed on the downhill stretch of the highway when it suddenly veered and started hitting cars. Some witnesses thought they heard a noise as if the bus had blown a tyre. The bus was carrying a group of weekend holidaymakers from the Naples. The group had arrived from small towns near Naples at a hotel on Friday afternoon, and had spent the weekend visiting an early home of Padre Pio, a late mystic monk popular among Catholics, Michele Montagna, the manager of the hotel said.
— AP |
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Mursi’s supporters call for mass protest today
Cairo, July 29 "We call for a million-person march under the banner of 'Martyrs of the Coup' on Tuesday," the Anti-Coup Alliance of Islamist groups organising the protests said in a statement. Also today, pro-Mursi Wasat Party head Abul Ela Mady and his deputy Essam Sultan were both arrested in Cairo for involvement in killing protesters in recent violence. In the worst violence seen since 61-year-old Mursi was deposed by the army on July 3, over 120 persons were killed in clashes with the security forces on Saturday. However, the Brotherhood's official website said at least 200 persons had been killed and some 5,000 wounded. Both men were arrested on charges of inciting violence, killing protesters and insulting Egypt's judiciary. Mady and Sultan were arrested in the Moqattam district of the Egyptian capital, and were then sent to the Aqrab prison, where nine Muslim Brotherhood leaders are being held, state-run MENA news agency reported. Prosecutors also ordered the arrest of Safwat Hegazy, a preacher known for his ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, on charges of inciting violence, after he led a march from Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in to the Nasr Road which degenerated into deadly clashes with security forces. Muslim Brotherhood supporters today said they staged three marches, including one targeted at the headquarters of military intelligence. Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddaf was quoted by the BBC as saying that there was no intervention by the military and no confrontation.
— PTI |
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Nothing new for Russia in Snowden’s leaks: Dy PM
Moscow, July 29 "Our technology experts didn't hear anything unexpected, it's just the naked truth that we already knew from other sources," Rogozin told journalists regarding the leaks made by the ex-National Security Agency contractor, who is awaiting the result of his Russian asylum application at a Moscow airport. The leaked information, however, "pushes us to act and hasten the creation of our own base of electronic components which we cannot do without", Rogozin added. Russia has long expressed concern that it relies overwhelmingly on foreign-made microchips and other components, even in its military sector. "The issue is information security," said Rogozin. "When we buy foreign machines, these machines are outfitted with programme support, which can have certain implants, and these implants can work at a certain moment to turn off the machine or to transmit certain information." "The key elements of this component base should be made on Russian territory," he added, Russian news agencies reported. Snowden has arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong with several laptops, reportedly containing classified information after leaking details of US surveillance operations at home and abroad. The 30-year-old has stayed at the Sheremetyevo airport since June 23 while the United States has revoked his passport and demanded that Moscow hand him over to face felony charges.
— AFP |
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4 out of 5 US adults face poverty: Study
Washington, July 29 According to the CBS News, the identified reasons for this increasing trend are increasingly globalised US economy, widening gap between rich and poor, and loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs. As nonwhites have approached a numerical majority in the US, eliminating the racial barriers have been the focus for the government to imply economic equality, regardless of race. Economic insecurity among whites engulfs more than 76 per cent of white adults by the time they turn 60, the report added. The survey defines economic insecurity as a year or more of periodic joblessness, reliance on government aid such as food stamps or income below 150 per cent of the poverty line. According to the report, 63 per cent of whites believe that the economy is poor and the risk of economic insecurity has risen to 79 percent. The count of America’s poor remains stuck at a record number 46.2 million, or 15 percent of the population, due in part to lingering high unemployment following the recession. More than 19 million whites (41 per cent) fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four, nearly double the number of poor blacks.
— ANI
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Pak prez poll: Nawaz’s aide set to win today
Islamabad, July 29 Pakistan Peoples Party withdrew its candidate Raza Rabbani and boycotted the election in protest to the date of polls being changed. Over 1,000 members of National Parliament and four provincial assemblies will cast ballots for largely ceremonial head of the state. Khursheed Alam, a spokesman of election commission, said the polling will start at 10.00 am and continue with break till 3.00 pm. The results of the election will be declared tomorrow itself. Hussain (73) is expected to easily win the poll as the PML-N has a clear majority in the electoral college.
— PTI |
UK coroner calls for probe into Indian student's death
UK school bans skirts for girls as young as 9 7 militants killed in US drone strike in Pak Canadian diplomats’ strike disrupts visa ops Tiger population in Nepal rises to 198
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Baghdad, July 29
Rome, July 29
Daring the military-backed government, supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi today called for a "million-person march" tomorrow against his ouster, even as the police arrested two top leaders of an Islamist party in a widening of crackdown on protesters.
"We call for a million-person march under the banner of 'Martyrs of the Coup' on Tuesday," the Anti-Coup Alliance of Islamist groups organising the protests said in a statement.
