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Suicide bombers storm govt building in Iraq, 24 killed
Afghanistan can’t keep on delaying security pact: US
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US ice storm freezes roads, thousands stranded
Progress slow during Syrian peace talks: UN
Ukraine House offers amnesty, Oppn refuses
b’desh arms case
‘Fahim visited Pakistan before Mumbai attacks’
Indian-origin woman kills daughter in US Saudi beheads Indian worker
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Suicide bombers storm govt building in Iraq, 24 killed Baghdad, January 30 The brazen attack on the building belonging to the Ministry of Transportation in northeast Baghdad coincided with a month-long standoff between the Iraqi army and anti-government fighters in the western province of Anbar. No group claimed responsibility but suicide bombings in Iraq are the trademark of Al-Qaida linked groups. A senior security source said the six militants took a number of hostages, most of them members of the Facilities Protection Service, and killed nine of them inside the building, which was used to receive visiting delegations. Four bombers detonated their explosives vests during the assault, a fifth was shot dead by security forces and the last died shortly after being shot, according to security officials. "The level of security measures in the building was less than normal because it is a service building and not a sensitive site," another security official said. A further 50 people were wounded in the attack. An Interior Ministry statement gave out a lower death toll - eight, including the six suicide bombers. Security officials blamed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for the attack and said they expected more in Baghdad in the coming days to distract the security forces and reduce pressure on their militants in the Anbar cities of Falluja and eastern Ramadi. The Sunni Muslim ISIL, backed by tribal fighters who resent the government, seized control of the two cities in the Sunni-dominated province of Anbar, bordering Syria, on Jan. 1. It is the first time Sunni militants have exercised such open control in Iraqi cities since the height of the insurgency that followed the 2003 US-led invasion. —Reuters
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Afghanistan can’t keep on delaying security pact: US
Warsaw, January 30 “You can't just keep deferring and deferring, because at some point the realities of planning and budgeting and all that is required collides,” Hagel told reporters late on Wednesday, aboard a military aircraft en route to Poland. The Obama administration has been pressing Karzai to sign the agreement, which was concluded last year, for months, warning that U.S. and NATO nations could be forced to pull all soldiers out by the end of the year, leaving Afghanistan vulnerable to Taliban resurgence. Karzai, meanwhile, has demanded an end to US military operations on Afghan homes and a step forward in hoped-for peace talks with the Taliban before he will sign the deal. Hagel said President Barack Obama was personally examining what a possible post-2014 US force in Afghanistan might look like, should the security pact be finalised this year. It is unclear whether the Obama administration would be willing to wait until after Afghanistan elects a new leader in April to finalise the deal, or whether it will call off plans for a post-2014 presence before then. Hagel said his counterparts from NATO nations were likewise concerned about the delay in finalizing their plans for Afghanistan beyond this year. — Reuters
US cancels funding for Afghan opinion polls
KABUL: The United States has cancelled funding for opinion polls in the run-up to Afghanistan's presidential election, a US-funded group said, after a first poll in December triggered accusations of US attempts to manipulate the outcome. The cut in funding comes as relations between the US and Afghanistan have been severely strained over President Hamid Karzai's refusal to sign a bilateral security pact. |
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US ice storm freezes roads, thousands stranded
Atlanta, January 30 The storm, which has killed seven people, on Tuesday swept over a region of about 60 million unaccustomed to ice and snow — stretching from Texas through Georgia and into the Carolinas — and forecasts called for more freezing weather on Thursday. Overnight temperatures in the Atlanta region are expected to remain well below freezing, with temperatures in the US southeast dropping into minus 10 to minus 7 Celsius on Thursday, hindering efforts to clear roads and abandoned cars that litter the region. Georgia officials said on Wednesday that the real progress in cleaning up the region would not come until after the icy roads begin to thaw, which could happen midday Thursday, meteorologists said. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed came under fire for his response to a storm that trapped hundreds of children in schools overnight, some without provisions, and created traffic jams stretching for miles on roads coated with 2 inches (5 cm) of snow.
Georgia Governor Nathan Deal said all of Atlanta's school children had been safely returned to their families by Wednesday evening, with help from the National Guard and State Patrol. The city's highways became parking lots and thousands of motorists, still stuck 24 hours after the storm hit, were seeking help and food. Workers who could not get home were setting up makeshift accommodations in stores and offices. The roads, littered with stranded cars, looked like a scene from the television show "Walking Dead," said DiCesare, who spent the night in her office with about 100 other employees. About 800 traffic accidents were reported in the city, officials said. At least five deaths in Alabama and two in Georgia were blamed on the weather. The storm took a toll on air travel across the region, with more than 2,600 US flights cancelled and hundreds of others delayed, as per FlightAware.com, a flight tracking website. — Reuters
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Progress slow during Syrian peace talks: UN
Geneva, January 30 "The ice is breaking, slowly, but it is breaking," Brahimi told reporters yesterday after a fifth day of talks in Geneva, which both sides described as "positive." He acknowledged he did not expect "anything substantive" to come out of the initial round, which is set to conclude Friday. But he stressed that simply getting the parties talking for the first time since the conflict erupted in March 2011 was an important step forward. "I hope that the second session will be more structured and productive,” he said. —
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Ukraine House offers amnesty, Oppn refuses
Kiev, January 30 President Viktor Yanukovych has granted several concessions to protesters who have packed the centre of Kiev for the last two months, including accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. But the opposition wants the head of state to go. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said after meeting Yanukovych that it was time for "real dialogue" to start and for "the violence and intimidation" to stop. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow would wait until a new government is formed in Ukraine before it considers releasing a crucial $15 billion bailout package for Kiev in full. — AFP
Ukraine Prez goes on sick leave amid crisis
Kiev: Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday unexpectedly took sick leave from work, stepping aside from a crisis that still has no end in sight. Yanukovych's falling sick with an acute respiratory infection is the latest twist in a crisis that has already seen him accept the resignation of the Prime minister in a bid to placate protesters. |
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ULFA leader, ex-ministers get death sentence
Dhaka, January 30 Barua, currently a fugitive whose whereabouts are unknown, was given the death sentence in absentia in the case of seizure of 10 trucks containing 4,000 weapons and 11 million bullets in April 2004. Jamaat-e-Islami chief and ex-minister Matiur Rahman Nizami and ex-junior home minister Lutfozzaman Babar in then Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government were also sentenced to death by the court in Chittagong. “The Metropolitan Special Tribunal-1 has handed down death penalty to 14,” said Samoy TV after the judge delivered the verdict. — PTI
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‘Fahim visited Pakistan before Mumbai attacks’
Lahore, January 30 An official of the Federal Investigation Agency told the court yesterday that Ansari had travelled to Pakistan. The official said Ansari travelled under the name of Hammad before the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, court sources said. — PTI
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Indian-origin woman kills daughter in US
Washington, January 30 Sujatha Guduru, 44, is under arrest after she admitted to detectives that she killed shooting Chetana Guduru, 17, twice before turning the gun on herself. — PTI |
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Saudi beheads Indian worker
Riyadh, January 30 Mohammed Latif was found guilty of having beaten to death his "sponsor," Dhafer bin Mohammed al-Dussari, with a sharp object and then dumping his body in a well, it was quoted by state news agency SPA as saying. — PTI |
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Cameron’s East India Company link
London, January 30 India Office Records went online this week shedding light on the lives of Europeans under the British Raj between 1698 and 1947. The documents show that Cameron's great great great great grandfather was John Talbot Shakespeare, a senior bureaucrat with the East India Company. They also show that Cameron is a distant cousin of television comic Al Murray, related through Kolkata-born novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, author of Vanity Fair. The information has been made available in partnership with the British Library, which holds these records in the original form or on microfilm at its reading rooms in London. — PTI British Raj records available online
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Indian-origin woman banker held in UK anti-terror raid Indian-origin doc faces re-trial in UK sexual assault case Three Indian-origin Aussies get civilian honours Pak SC rejects Musharraf's review petition Pak woman raped on panchayat order, 3 held NASA to make water on Moon and oxygen on Mars US lawmaker threatens to throw scribe off balcony Russian police arrest 2 for Volgograd attacks |
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Six suicide bombers burst into an Iraqi ministry building, took hostages and killed at least 24 people, including themselves, on Thursday before security forces regained
control.
A rare ice storm turned Atlanta into a slippery mess on Wednesday, stranding thousands for hours on frozen roadways and raising questions about how city leaders prepared for and handled the cold snap that slammed the southern US.
Ukraine's opposition today vowed further protests after defiantly rejecting an amnesty bill to free activists and ease the ex-Soviet country's worse crisis since independence.
Justin Bieber charged with assaulting limo driver