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Severe snow storm, low temp paralyse US
Violence grips B’desh amid political impasse
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Indian Mujahideen more lethal due to support from Pak: Report
US focused on taking ties with India forward
3rd Oz teen charged with assault on Punjabi student
Lawyer: Doctors may send Musharraf abroad
South Sudan peace talks begin as battles rage
Nepal’s Maoist party on verge of split
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Severe snow storm, low temp paralyse US
Boston/New York, January 3 Boston was hardest-hit by the first major winter storm of 2014, getting nearly 14 inches of snow, while some towns north of New England's largest city saw close to two feet of accumulation. Snow and cold stretched from the lower Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic coast, with Washington and New York's morning commutes also hampered by several inches of fresh powder. Meteorologists said the snow would taper off across much of the region by late morning, but dangerously cold conditions were expected to linger into Saturday. The National Weather Service said the mass of Arctic air would drop temperatures to 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit below normal, with record lows possible in some areas on Friday. "Over the next 24 hours we are going to see temperatures like we haven't seen in quite a while," said Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. "Parts of the state are going to see temperatures 20 degrees below zero (F/-29 C) - not with wind-chill, real temperatures.Some 1,868 US flights were canceled and 1,410 were delayed early on Friday. —Reuters Emergency declared in New York, New Jersey NEW YORK: The governors of New York and New Jersey declared a state of emergency and pleaded with residents to stay indoors on Thursday. The United Nations in New York and federal courts in New Jersey shut down, and New York public schools and the City University of New York closed. Schools were also closed in Hoboken and Jersey City, in New Jersey, and in Boston and Providence, Massachusetts. Federal workers told to work from home Washington: In Washington, the Office of Personnel Management told hundreds of thousands of federal workers they could work from home or take an unscheduled leave because of the storm. In Boston, downtown was sparsely populated, with many workers heeding Governor Deval Patrick's suggestion to stay home and avoid traveling on icy roadways.
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Violence grips B’desh amid political impasse
Dhaka, January 3
The Police said a driver and a trader were killed and three others injured when suspected activists of main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its fundamentalist ally Jamaat-e-Islami hurled petrol bombs on an onion-laden truck at northwestern Hakimpur of Dinajpur district overnight. "The driver apparently lost control over the wheels as the truck caught fire...it overturned and fell into a roadside ditch," a police officer said, adding that the driver and the trader were burnt to death. In the capital Dhaka, police said at least three persons, including a woman, sustained severe burn injuries when miscreants hurled a petrol bomb on a bus at Paribagh area this morning as the opposition's nationwide non-stop blockade on roads, railway tracks and waterways continued. Meanwhile, five makeshift voting centres housed at four schools were set on fire at Daganbhuiyan area of northwestern Feni, the hometown of BNP chief Khaleda Zia. Election commission officials said security vigil was intensified at identified trouble-prone areas following the acts of sabotages. — PTI US concerned over deteriorating situation
Washington: The United States has expressed its disappointment over the current political impasse in Bangladesh ahead of the January 5 general elections in the country. "We believe it's even more urgent than ever for the major parties to redouble their efforts to engage in constructive dialogue," State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf said on Thursday. Polls without BNP unacceptable to 77%: Survey
Dhaka: Over three-quarters of Bangladeshis believed the January 5 election would be “unacceptable” without the main opposition BNP's participation, and only 41 per cent would vote, according to a survey by the Dhaka Tribune newspaper. It found that 77 per cent of people felt the polls without the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) would not be acceptable, while 71 per cent believed the country is going in the wrong direction. |
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Indian Mujahideen more lethal due to support from Pak: Report
Washington, January 3 The report ‘Jihadist Violence: The Indian Threat’ by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars underlines that the Indian jihadist movement constitutes an "internal security issue with an external dimension.” “The Indian jihadist movement formed organically and as a result of endogenous factors, specifically communal grievances and a desire for revenge, but is more lethal and more resilient than it otherwise would have been, thanks to external support from the Pakistani state and Pakistan- and Bangladesh-based militant groups," said the 100-page report. The decentralised IM network has a loose leadership currently based in Pakistan, but moving between there and the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, said the report authored by noted South Asia security expert Stephen Tankel. “External support was a force multiplier for Indian militancy rather than a key driver of it. Although the IM receives support from LeT, it should not be viewed as an affiliate within the same command-and-control hierarchy. This distinguishes the IM from some of the other LeT cells active in India," it said. The report is based on research conducted between January 2012 to September 2013 and draws on primary and secondary source material and on field interviews conducted in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. — PTI IM leadership across the border
* The report 'Jihadist Violence: The Indian Threat' by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars underlines that the decentralised IM network has a loose leadership currently based in Pakistan *
The IM connects to and sometimes attempts to absorb smaller cells and self-organising clusters of would-be militants *
Beyond the direct threat, Washington has an interest in reducing Pakistan's strategic reliance on militant proxies, but doing so entails raising the cost of this policy and reducing its utility |
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US focused on taking ties with India forward Washington, January 3 “What we’re focused on at the State Department is moving forward with the bilateral relationship,” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf said yesterday. Harf was responding to questions on the India-US relationship in the wake of arrest of Khobragade on charges of visa fraud and misrepresentation. “We are focused on moving this relationship forward, working together on all issues. That’s certainly what our focus has been here,” she said, adding that Secretary of State John Kerry and other top officials have expressed regret over the incident and they want to move forward. Harf said the US was still reviewing the paperwork of Khobragade with regard to her transfer to the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations. “We received it on December 20. It’s under review. We can’t predict when that review will be complete and can’t compare it to previous requests because each is different and we evaluate each on its merits,” she said. “The legal process is separate, so obviously the Department of Justice and the Southern District of New York are handling those discussions. We think it’s important right now for there to be space for these private diplomatic conversations to continue. We obviously are committed to working with the Government of India on a way forward,” Harf said. A 1999-batch IFS officer, Khobragade, India’s Deputy Consul General in New York, was arrested on charges of making false declarations in a visa application for her maid Sangeeta Richard. She was released on a $250,000 bond. The 39-year-old diplomat was strip searched and held with criminals, triggering a row between the two sides with India retaliating by downgrading privileges of certain category of US diplomats among other steps last month. Days after her arrest, the Indian government transferred Khobragade to the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, with the view that this would give her the necessary diplomatic immunity. — PTI
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Lawyer: Doctors may send Musharraf abroad
Islamabad, January 3 Ahmed Raza Kasuri, a key member of Musharraf's legal team, said doctors at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi could make a recommendation to send the 70-year-old former army chief abroad for treatment. "Doctors' opinion will be final and the court is bound to follow it," he told reporters outside the hospital where Musharraf is being treated since he fell ill while travelling to a special court yesterday to face charges of high treason for imposing emergency in 2007. His legal team expects to get his medical reports by Sunday evening and they would be presented in the special court during the hearing on Monday, Kasuri said. — PTI
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South Sudan peace talks begin as battles rage
Ababa, January 3 Fighting intensified as the army moved on a key rebel-held town, even as government and rebel negotiating teams gathered at a hotel in neighbouring Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. "We have enough forces who will defeat the rebels within 24 hours," army spokesman Philip Aguer said in South Sudan, with reports of heavy battles involving tanks and artillery on the outskirts of Bor, a dusty town that has already exchanged hands three times since fighting began. “These forces — the rebels — are now retreating back,” Aguer said, quashing rebel claims that they themselves had been marching on the capital Juba. The US embassy in South Sudan ordered a further pullout of staff and urged all citizens to leave on an evacuation flight it had organised because of the "deteriorating security situation." — AFP
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Nepal’s Maoist party on verge of split
Kathmandu, January 3 “Party leaders should take the moral responsibility of the party's unexpected defeat in the election as per their hierarchy and it is obvious that the chairman should take a greater share of the responsibility for the election debacle," Unified CPN-Maoist senior leader Bhattarai said. — PTI |
Chinese consulate fire in US not a terror act: FBI Briton, New Zealander shot dead in Libya Pakistan to shut missions in Chile, Ireland Italian navy rescues over 1,000 boat migrants in 24 hrs Indonesian terror suspects planned US embassy attack ‘French secret agent’ planted bomb in London in 1984 Thatcher visited hairdresser 120 times in 1984: Diary Dogs poop in line with the Earth’s magnetic field |
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