The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	130 dead in migrant shipwreck off Italy Rome, October 3 Over 130 persons drowned today after a boat carrying up to 500 African asylum-seekers caught fire and sank off the Italian shore in one of the worst such disasters in the Mediterranean. “The dead include three children and two pregnant women,” said Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, who flew to the remote island of Lampedusa where the tragedy occurred. Rescue divers later said they had identified at least 40 more bodies in and around the sunken wreck at a depth of around 40 metres, just a few hundred metres from the shore. The final toll could rise to 300 or more since rescuers said only 151 survivors had been plucked from the water more than 11 hours after the disaster. “Seeing the bodies of the children was a tragedy. We have run out of coffins,” said Pietro Bartolo, a doctor. “In many years of work here, I have never seen anything like this,” he said. Lampedusa is one of the main entry points into the European Union for asylum-seekers crossing from Africa or the eastern Mediterranean. The UN estimates some 20,000 migrants have died at sea trying to reach Europe since the late 1990s, crossing on rickety fishing boats or dinghies. Survivors said they were from Eritrea and Somalia and had left from the Libyan port of Misrata. Antonio Candela, a local emergency medical worker, said: “The first assistance was provided by people on pleasure boats who heard the screams.” The migrants told rescuers they set fire to a blanket on the boat to attract the attention of coast guards after their vessel began taking on water and passing fishing boats ignored them. The fire spread quickly, triggering panic on board which caused the boat to flip over and sink, as desperate passengers jumped into the water. Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta called the incident "an immense tragedy" and the government has declared a national day of mourning tomorrow. — AFP Tragic trip The boat left from Tripoli with migrants from Eritrea The boat could have been carrying as many as 500 persons 151 persons were rescued but some 250 others are missing
	Giant hornets kill 42 in China Beijing, October 3 At least 42 persons have been killed and 1,640 others injured in China in a spate of attacks by giant hornets, roughly the size of a human thumb, health officials said today. Since July, hornets have invaded schools full of children and descended upon unsuspecting farm workers. Among the 1,640 persons injured in the attacks, 206 are receiving treatment in hospital, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said. "With the development of air-conditioning, urban landscaping and residential environment, hornets have started to migrate and relocate to cities, which has increased the probability of their hurting people," the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. It quoted Huang Rongyao — a senior official concerned with pest control in the city of Ankang, which has borne the brunt of the attacks — as attributing the phenomenon to warmer-than-usual temperatures in the region. — PTI
	US shutdown: No progress on budget impasse Washington, October 3 The political stalemate over the budget between the Democrats and Republicans showed no signs of easing today as a meeting between an "exasperated" US President Barack Obama and lawmakers failed to end the crisis that could spell doom for the American economy. Obama told lawmakers that he wasn’t going to negotiate over the need for Congress to act to reopen the government or to raise the debt limit to pay the bills Congress has already incurred, the White House said after the meeting, as the shutdown entered its third day. The US President reinforced his view that the House should put the clean government funding bill that has been passed by the Senate up for a vote. “The House could act today to reopen the government and stop the harm this shutdown is causing to the economy and families across the country," the White House said. — PTI NSA staff asked to go home Washington: The US National Security Agency has sent some staffers home because of the government shutdown despite crucial security services being exempted from the shuttering of offices due to lack of funds. — PTI
	Special to the tribune Still have level of fear about men: Anoushka Shankar Shyam Bhatia in London One of Ravi Shankar's daughters says she still has a "level of fear" about men, which is linked to sexual and emotional abuse that she suffered as a child at the hands of a family friend. In February, Anoushka Shankar, daughter of Sukanya Rajan and Ravi Shankar, first revealed the "groping, touching and verbal abuse" she suffered at the hands of a man "whom my parents trusted implicitly". In a video to support a global campaign to end violence against women - One Billion Rising - she revealed how "as a child I suffered sexual and emotional abuse for several years at the hands of a man my parents trusted implicitly". Now in an interview with the London Times to mark the release of her latest music album, "Traces of You", produced together with her half-sister Norah Jones, she elaborates a little more about her childhood trauma. "It went on for a few years, and then, thank God, it ended, but you look at the news and it's like 'Five year old girl raped', 'Two year old girl raped'. I can't read the newspaper in India without being traumatised every morning." Asked if the man who abused her was ever confronted, she says by the time she was ready to report, it was too late and he would have invoked the statute of limitation. "When my parents knew about it and wanted to do those things, we'd missed the opportunity." Sexual abuse z In February, Ravi Shankar's daughter Anoushka had revealed how she suffered ‘groping, touching and verbal abuse’ at the hands of a man her parents trusted z In her latest intervew, she says she still feels traumatised in India reading news of rape with young children every morning
	Under Taliban threat, Pak rules against death penalty Islamabad, October 3 Pakistan has scrapped plans to reinstate the death penalty, the government said on Thursday, following threats by Taliban militants to step up attacks in retaliation. A 2008 moratorium on capital punishment imposed by Pakistan's previous government expired on June 30 and the country had been due to execute two jailed militants in August -- a plan described by the Pakistani Taliban as an act of war. "Pakistan has decided to continue with the moratorium on capital punishment since the government is aware of its international commitments and is following them," Omar Hamid Khan, an interior ministry spokesman, said. The new government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif originally said it wanted to reinstate the death penalty in a bid to crack down on criminals and Islamist militants in a move strongly criticised by international human rights groups. Up to 8,000 persons languish on death row in dozens of Pakistan's overcrowded and violent jails. Pakistan's moratorium drew praise because of concerns that its courts and police were too inept to ensure the accused a fair trial. Pakistan did, however, break its own rules in 2012 when it executed a convicted murderer and a former army serviceman. — Reuters
	Pak court adjourns 26/11 case till Oct 24 Islamabad/Lahore, October 3 A Pakistani anti-terrorism court today adjourned the Mumbai attacks case for three weeks after the prosecution said India had not submitted a report on the cross-examination of key witnesses by a Pakistani judicial commission. Prosecution officials told Judge Attiqur Rehman of the anti-terrorism court in Islamabad that the report on the Pakistani judicial commission’s visit to India would be presented in court once the Pakistani government received it from India. Observing that summons could not be issued to witnesses till the report is submitted, the judge adjourned the case till October 24. Special Public Prosecutor Chaudhury Mohammed Azhar, who was part of the commission that visited Mumbai, told PTI, "It was an excellent visit from the prosecution's point of view." After the hearing, defence lawyer Riaz Akram Cheema said the Pakistani panel had raised several objections during the cross-examination of four witnesses in Mumbai. "The objections related to tampering with the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab, and the chief investigation officer and magistrate’s statements," he claimed. He said the defence lawyers had contended that Indian authorities had "deliberately" linked LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi to the Mumbai attacks. — PTI Kasab’s statement ‘tampered with’ The Pakistani panel is learnt to have raised several objections during the cross-examination of four witnesses in Mumbai recently The objections were related to tampering with the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab, and the chief investigation officer and magistrate’s statements
	Overflowing tank cause of new leak at Fukushima Tokyo, October 3 Another day, another radioactive-water spill. The operator of the meltdown-plagued Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has said that at least 430 litres spilt when workers overfilled a storage tank without a gauge that could have warned them of the danger. The amount is tiny compared to the untold thousands of tons of radioactive water that have leaked, much of it into the Pacific Ocean, since a massive earthquake and tsunami wrecked the plant in 2011. But the error is one of many the operator has committed as it struggles to manage a seemingly endless, tainted flow. — AP

BRIEFLY

Two Libyans killed in attack on Russian embassy
Tripoli: Two assailants were killed when protesters attacked Russia’s embassy in Tripoli, a Libyan minister said on Thursday, while denying Moscow’s claims that it had evacuated the embassy on his request. “Two Libyans were killed in the attack” on Wednesday, said Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdelaziz, adding that he had urged embassy staff not to spend the night in the compound for fear of a second attack. The attack was triggered by reports that a Russian woman killed a Libyan army officer. — AFP

Suit by Indian diplomat’s daughter to go on
New York: A US federal judge here has refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed against New York City and police officials by an Indian diplomat's daughter, who is seeking $1.5 million in damages for being jailed for a day on suspicion of sending obscene emails to her teacher. US District Court Judge John Koeltl of the Southern District of New York ruled in a 78-page order that the case filed by Krittika Biswas will not be dismissed in its entirety as sought by the defendants New York City, the New York Police Department and New York City Department of Education. — PTI

Global effort

Indian actress Shahana Goswami at the 18th Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. The festival will open with the world premiere of Bhutanese musical drama “Vara: A Blessing” in which she features. — AFP

HC accepts Zardari’s plea for security
islamabad: The Sindh High Court has accepted former President Asif Ali Zardari’s request for security as he fears that his life is in danger. The petition maintained that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the late wife of Asif Ali Zardari, was killed and he feared the same for himself. The petition stated that the former President faced threats from the Taliban. — TNS

Plane crash-lands in Lagos, 16 dead
Lagos: A plane with 20 persons on board suffered engine failure today shortly after takeoff in Lagos, crash-landing near an airport fuel depot and killing 16 persons, officials said. The Associated Airlines charter flight took off from the domestic terminal at Lagos' Murtala Mohammed International Airport. — AFP