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50 die as plane crashes in Russia
Militants attack Xinjiang police station, 11 dead
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Pak to put Musharraf on trial for high treason
Mandela unable to speak, quite ill: Ex-wife
Fire on cargo ship off Norway doused
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50 die as plane crashes in Russia Moscow, November 17 “Preliminary information suggested the people on board the flight - 44 passengers and six crew members - were killed,” a ministry spokeswoman said. “There were no children among the passengers,” she added. The local branch of the ministry in an earlier statement said 44 people had died when the jet, arriving from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, crashed on landing in the Volga city of Kazan at 7.25 pm. The Tatarstan Airlines plane “hit the runway and burst into flames”, Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement. Local news agencies reported the plane had tried to land thrice before crashing. Air safety in Russia is a major issue for the authorities following deterioration in the quality of domestic services after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Officials blame most problems on pilot inexperience and poor maintenance by the small and poorly-regulated airlines that have sprouted up across Russia in the past two decades. Kazan is the capital city of the Russian republic of Tatarstan. — AFP
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Militants attack Xinjiang police station, 11 dead
Beijing, November 17 "Nine militants holding knives and axes attacked a police station at Bachu county, killing two auxiliary policemen and injuring another two policemen," according to a report on xinhuanet.com, which cited a web report from the Xinjiang Government. "The nine mobs were gunned down on the site and local social order restored to normal," said the report, which identified one of the attackers with an apparent Uighur name. Many Uighurs call Xinjiang East Turkestan and the government often blames the frequent outbreaks of violence there on extremists agitating for an independent state. China's domestic security chief in November blamed a Muslim Uighur separatist group for a fatal vehicle crash in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in which five died. In April, 21 people died in Bachu county in what the government called a "terrorist attack". Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the main Uighur exile group, the World Uyghur Congress, said the last violence occurred after the police used electric rods to beat Uighurs, who went to protest at the police station, and then shot a protester dead. "China's so-called judicial reform is leading to local armed staff using excessive violence to repress Uighur protesters," he said in an email. He did not say what the protest was about. Many of the Turkic-speaking Uighurs chafe at Beijing's restrictions on their culture, language and religion, though the government insists it grants them broad freedoms. Xinjiang is a sprawling, desert-like region that borders Central Asian nations that were once part of the former Soviet Union as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan. — Reuters
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Pak to put Musharraf on trial for high treason
"Following the judgement of the Supreme Court and a report submitted by an inquiry committee, it has been decided to initiate proceedings against General Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 (for high treason) of the Constitution," Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a press conference here. "It is happening for the first time in the history of Pakistan and the decision has been taken in the national interest," Nisar said. He said the government will tomorrow write a letter to the Chief Justice to set up a three-member commission to try 70-year-old Musharraf. However, later the Interior Ministry clarified that the Minister meant Special Court and not a commission. The Minister said Musharraf would have to be held accountable for violating the Constitution. Nisar said an Inquiry Committee set up on June 26 in the wake of a Supreme Court decision has completed its task. He said the committee had submitted its report to the government yesterday and in the light of the report‚ a case under Article-6 of the Constitution can be initiated against Musharraf. The government has studied the report and decided to complain to the Chief Justice to form a three-member Special Court so that a case can formally be initiated against Musharraf under Article-6, Nisar said. He said the Chief Justice will identify three High Courts and one Judge from each from these courts will be taken in the Special Court. A Special Public Prosecutor will be nominated tomorrow itself for the case, Nisar said. He said Musharraf had refused to cooperate with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team but the agency has been able to collect a lot of evidence. He stressed that the government does not have any personal vendetta against Musharraf, who had overthrown the Nawaz Sharif government in a coup in 1999. Musharraf's party spokesperson Aasia Ishaque said, "This is an attempt by the government to divert the attention of the media from the sectarian violence in Rawalpindi." She said the former President would fight all cases against him. — PTI
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Pak orders probe into sectarian clashes
Islamabad, November 17 A judicial commission headed by Lahore High Court Judge Justice Mamoon Rashid Shaikh will conduct the probe into the Rawalpindi mayhem, which prompted authorities to call in Army to maintain law and order in the city. After a respite of three-and-a-half hours (9 pm to 12.30 am) last night, curfew was re-imposed as a preventive measure because the burial of those killed in Friday's clashes is set to be held today. Curfew was imposed within the limits of 19 police stations of Rawalpindi after Shias participating in a Muharram procession clashed with students from a Sunni seminary on Friday. Ten people were killed and over 40 injured in the violence. The police and a large number of soldiers continued to patrol various areas in Rawalpindi today as the situation remained tense. This is the first time in years that curfew has been imposed in the Punjab province and especially in Rawalpindi, which also houses the Army headquarters. Rawalpindi has been sealed off from Islamabad by containers and the imposition of curfew had ensured that most streets and roads remained empty and quiet. Only military and police personnel roamed the ghost town. The army has already been deployed in Multan and Chishtian town of Punjab province after clashes took place there also following the unrest in Rawalpindi. At least one person was killed and several injured, media reports had said.— PTI
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Nations should not dictate to Lanka, says Rajapaksa
Colombo, November 17 A day after British PM David Cameron gave an ultimatum for a free and independent probe into human rights violations in the country and called for a life of dignity and respect for the Tamils, Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka needed time for reconciliation and there cannot be a time limit for it. “We have a legal system and a Constitution. We have a process, it has started. It will take time. We have to change the mindset of the people not only in the north but also in the south," he told a media conference here at the conclusion of the three-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). "The conflict was there for 30 years. Not just Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims also suffered. It is my responsibility to look after them. But you cannot say you have to do this in one week or three or four months. It is unfair," Rajapaksa said. Asked about the March deadline set by Cameron, he said that Lanka can’t do it. "Be fair to us and help us. Nobody should dictate. You have to respect our views. You must not try to divide communities," Rajapaksa said in an apparent reference to Cameron's remarks. — PTI
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Israeli Prez warns over N-armed Iran
Paris, November 17 Shimon Peres said he appreciated France's firm stance in negotiations earlier this month on Iran's nuclear programme, adding that there should be "no let-up" in the international pressure on Tehran. "We are convinced that if Iran manufactures its bomb, all the countries of the Middle East will want to follow suit," the Israeli president told French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche. Peres will meet Francois Hollande today when the French president begins a three-day visit to Israel amid renewed efforts by the West to curb Iran's contested nuclear programme. His comments echo those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who urged France in an interview Saturday to stand firm in international negotiations. Israel and world powers suspect the Islamic republic's programme of uranium enrichment to be a covert drive to acquire a nuclear weapons capability, an allegation vehemently denied by Tehran. France took a tougher line than its Western partners in Geneva talks earlier this month aimed at resolving the impasse. Iranian hardliners blamed France for scuppering a deal that would have given the West guarantees Tehran was not acquiring atomic weapons in exchange for an easing of crippling economic sanctions against the Islamic republic. Israel — widely thought to be the Middle East's sole albeit undeclared nuclear power — has repeatedly warned its Western allies they were being too soft with Iran. — AFP
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Mandela unable to speak, quite ill: Ex-wife
Johannesburg, November 17 Winnie Madikizela-Mandela said the 95-year-old leader was, however, not on life support but he was no longer talking "because of all the tubes that are in his mouth to clear (fluid from) the lungs". "I have heard all this nonsense that he is on life support. He is not. He remains quite ill. But thank God, the doctors were able to pull him through from that infection that landed him in hospital," Winnie said. — PTI
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Fire on cargo ship off Norway doused
Helsinki, November 17 Norwegian rescue services spokesman Ola Vaage said the Britannia Seaways was sailing to the Norwegian southwestern port of Bergen on its own steam and was joined by a Norwegian navy vessel. He said, "All is well on board," with 20 crew and 12 military personnel. Vaage said today it was not immediately clear what caused the fire, which started in a container. He said the storm last night had abated and sailing conditions were good. The ship was expected in Bergen later today. — AP |
Deputy Libyan intelligence chief kidnapped Parents put up baby for sale for crying too much |
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Islamabad, November 17
Nobel Prize-winning novelist Doris Lessing dead