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Awami League sweeps Bangladesh polls
Thai protesters prepare for ‘shutdown’
Sick Musharraf not to appear in court today
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US braces for bone-chilling Arctic blast
US heavy ice-cutter Polar Star in the Arctic. AFP file photo
5 Indians killed, 2 injured in 3 road accidents in Oman
Plane lands on busy US highway, 3 hurt
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Awami League sweeps Bangladesh polls Dhaka, January 5 Most voters preferred to stay at home fearing violence during the polling in 147 out of 300 constituencies in 59 districts. Candidates in other constituencies would be declared elected unopposed due to the boycott, officials said. According to media reports, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League won 95 seats out of the 147 up for elections. Jatiya Party (JP) secured 12 seats while 13 seats went to smaller parties or Independent candidates. Hasina won from Gopalganj and Rangpur constituencies. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia boycotted the polls after her arch-rival and Prime Minister Hasina rejected the Opposition's demand for a neutral caretaker regime for election oversight. Deadly violence flared across the country despite tens of thousands of security personnel deployed to maintain law and order. Police said 17 persons, mostly Opposition cadres, and a security personnel were killed today after the overnight deaths of an election officer and two other persons. A total of 390 candidates, mostly from the Awami League and its ally Jatiya Party, contested from 147 seats where the number of voters was nearly 44 million. Protesters hurled crude bombs at polling centres and stole ballot papers during the "one-sided" contest boycotted by the Opposition. Voting was suspended at 160 centres due to torching of booths and snatching of ballot boxes and papers. Opposition cadres set over 200 polling stations on fire. The outcome — a sweeping victory for Hasina's Awami League — was never in doubt because of the boycott. The party expressed satisfaction at the turnout. — PTI In numbers
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Thai protesters prepare for ‘shutdown’
Bangkok, January 5 The 7.5-km march led by Suthep Thaugsuban began from Democracy Monument, where the anti-government protests have continued for over two months. The march aimed to garner greater crowd support for the January 13 "Bangkok shutdown". Similar marches have been planned for Tuesday and Thursday, People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) spokesman Akanat Promphan said. Protesters plan to occupy Bangkok from January 13 and have vowed to prevent government officials from going to work. They have said power and water supply would be cut off to official buildings. Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul, in charge of the government's Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO), asked people not to support the PDRC's idea of occupying 20 major intersections in the capital. The planned shutdown is part of a bid to force the caretaker Cabinet to resign en masse. Surapong said such an action would be in violation of the law and rights of other people, and it would bring severe negative impact on the economy. Anusorn Iamsaard, Deputy spokesman for the ruling Pheu Thai Party, feared a Bangkok shutdown could increase the damage to the economy to more than 200 billion baht. — PTI
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Sick Musharraf not to appear in court today
Islamabad, January 5 A request would be submitted in court, seeking exemption for Musharraf from personally appearing, his aide and advocate Ahmed Raza Kasuri told Express News channel. The 70-year-old former commando, who plotted the Kargil conflict and staged a bloodless coup in 1999, was admitted to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi on January 2 after complaining 'heart problem' on his way to face treason charges at a special court. Musharraf is due to appear in court on January 6 and face treason charges for suspending, subverting and abrogating the Constitution, imposing an emergency in the country in November 2007 and detaining judges of the superior courts. He is the first General to be put on trial for treason. If convicted, he could get life imprisonment or the death penalty. — PTI
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US braces for bone-chilling Arctic blast
New York, January 4 Starting Sunday, the deep freeze will be felt in the northern US plains, including North and South Dakota, and through the Great Lakes region and Ohio Valley, according to the National Weather Service. It will be some of the coldest weather to grip the region in two decades, with blizzard conditions expected in the Central Plains and Great Lakes regions, forecasters said. "The last really big Arctic outbreak was 1994," said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. "Outbreaks like this don't occur every day." In northeastern Canada, about 1,10,000 customers were without power due to a transformer fire on Saturday linked to heavy snow, government officials and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro said. The push of Arctic air could bring record low temperatures from Montana to Michigan, before moving the Northeast, where it will arrive by early Tuesday, forecasters said. Temperatures in Chicago could drop to about minus 20 (minus 29 Celsius). Pittsburgh could see temperatures about 11 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 24 Celsius) by early Tuesday. Temperatures were forecast to fall to 30 below in parts of the north central United States early Sunday morning, and in Grand Forks, North Dakota, wind chills were expected to exceed 50 below. A high of 19 below is forecast for Sunday. "You grin and bear it and bundle up," said Rachel Osowski, a clerk at Hugo's Supermarket in Grand Forks. "You have to survive and function. You can't let the weather stop you." In such conditions, frostbite can set in on exposed skin within five minutes, forecasters warned. — Reuters US icebreaker to rescue Antarctic ships
Washington: The US on Sunday sent its heavy ice-cutter ‘Polar Star’ to rescue over 120 crew on board the Russian and Chinese ships trapped in the Antarctic, with ice up to 4m thick surrounding them. — PTI
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5 Indians killed, 2 injured in 3 road accidents in Oman
Dubai, January 5 Three children were killed and six others injured when a four-wheel drive vehicle with nine persons on board met with the accident on Thursday near Samad Al Shams in Ibra, about 140 km from Muscat, The Oman Times reported. Two seriously injured women are battling for their lives in hospital. Sunil Kumar Tharol and his family were travelling in the vehicle along with family friends Deepu Nair and Gopu Nair in Ibra when the accident occurred. Gopu had come from London to meet his brother Deepu, who lives in Oman. The dead were identified as Veda (11) and Vaibhav (3) -- the children of Tharol and Sreeja Tharol, both hailing from Kerala -- and a son of Gopu Nair. The wives of Tharol and Gopu -- Sreeja and Adhu, respectively -- are in a critical condition. In another accident, Indian expatriate Anil Kumar (39) from Kerala died after he was hit by a vehicle near a hypermarket in Khadhara on Thursday. The vehicle fled from the scene without stopping and Kumar died instantly, his friends said. An Ibra Technical College lecturer's mother died in another accident on the same day. Vimalakumari (60) died when a vehicle she was travelling in collided with a truck. The victim was on a visitor's visa in Oman and was travelling with her son's family and her husband when the accident took place. — PTI
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Plane lands on busy US highway, 3 hurt
New York, January 5 The single-engine plane made an emergency landing on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx yesterday afternoon, officials said. The Piper PA-28 was on its way to Danbury, Connecticut, heading north from the Statue of Liberty when it experienced engine trouble, a spokesman for the Fire Department of New York was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal. The pilot planned to land at La Guardia Airport in Queens but realised he would not be able to reach the runway. "They couldn't make it and landed on the expressway," the fire department spokesman said. The pilot and his two women passengers were taken to St Barnabas Hospital with minor injuries. One of the passengers suffered minor head injuries in the landing and was in stable condition, the police said. The plane hit some treetops before it landed, officials and witnesses said, spilling some fuel before touching down and rolling about 100 yards down the lane. — PTI
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20 killed in Baghdad bombings Jet in ‘near miss’ with UFO close to Heathrow US girl trapped in washing machine for 90 minutes 29 injured as Saudi jet makes emergency landing Ex-first lady Barbara Bush discharged from hospital Queen orders Harry to shave off beard |
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New York, January 4
New York, January 5
