Mild tremors felt in Kutch, no casualty reported

AHMEDABAD: An earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter Scale struck Bhachau in Kutch district of western Gujarat today, Institute of Seismological Research (ISR) said here.

"The earthquake struck 22 km north of Bhachau, near Choburi, in Kutch district at 12:03 PM," ISR director general B K Rastogi said.

There were no reports of casualties or any property damage.

Kutch has been rocked by tremors measuring 2-4 on the Richter Scale in the past. The area had suffered a major devastation in the 2001 Gujarat earthquake.

08.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

26/11 attacks: Pak court issues summons to those who sold boat

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court conducting the trial of seven men charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks on Saturday issued summons to six witnesses for selling a boat and other equipment to the accused.

Judge Chaudhry Habib-ur-Rehman, who is conducting the trial behind closed doors at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for security reasons, issued the summons to Hamza Bin Tariq, Muhammad Ali, Mohammad Saifullah, Umer Draz, Saqib Iqbal and Atiq Ahmed, prosecutors said.

"The accused had bought the boat, an engine and related equipment from these private witnesses," chief prosecutor Chaudhry Zulifqar Ali told PTI after the hearing.

He said since Indian authorities had not yet responded to Pakistan's request to allow a Pakistani judicial commission to cross-examine and record the statements of four witnesses in Mumbai, the prosecution today requested the judge to proceed with the trial.

"There has already been a considerable delay in the case and the court should continue the trial proceedings," Ali told the judge during proceedings.

Prosecutors also requested the court to take up their application to conduct hearings every day.

The judge subsequently adjourned the case till April 6. The Pakistani judicial commission's visit to India has already been delayed by several weeks over the issue of Islamabad seeking an assurance that members of the panel will be allowed to cross-examine witnesses.

The commission is set to make a second visit to Mumbai to record the statements of four witnesses because the anti-terrorism court had rejected a report submitted after its first visit on the ground that the panel was not allowed to conduct any cross-examination.

The trial of the seven suspects, including Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, has progressed at a snail's pace due to repeated adjournments and various technical delays.

They have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks that killed 166 people in November 2008.

08.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ex-minister C C Patil rushed to Bangalore for treatment of bullet wounds

BANGALORE: Former Karnataka minister C C Patil has been rushed to a private hospital here from Belgaum for further treatment of bullet injuries he suffered in an accidental gunfire recently.

Chief minister Jagadish Shettar on Saturday visited the Manipal Hospital where Patil was shifted from KLES Hospital at Belgaum where he was undergoing treatment since March 18.

Speaking to reporters after visiting Patil, Shettar said the doctors told him that the former minister was recovering well. "I also pray to Almighty that he recovers soon and is back to normal work," he said.

55-year-old Patil, a loyalist of Karnataka Janata Paksha President and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, was wounded after his gunman opened fire accidentally in a melee when he was at a village in Gadag district to attend a function.

08.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bangladesh police arrest 4 Pakistanis with bombs, fake currency

DHAKA: Bangladesh police on Saturday said they have arrested four Pakistanis and 12 others and seized 8 crude bombs and 12.9 million in fake Indian currency while the group was allegedly planning subversive activities.

"Other than the Pakistanis, we arrested 12 Bangladeshis including a doctor while carrying out our overnight raids in different parts of the capital," police spokesman Manirul Islam told PTI.

He said plainclothesmen carried out the raids on a tip-off while they also seized eight crude bombs and a huge amount of counterfeit Indian and Pakistani currencies.

Islam said the four Pakistanis, two of them women, were found to be part of a counterfeit currency clique, who provided the money to Fariduddin Ahmed, a leader of the radical Jamaat-e-Islami party.

"During initial interrogations they admitted that their counterfeit money was being used to regroup banned militant outfits like Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI) and JMB (Jamaatul Mujaheedin)" after these groups had been neutralised in the past few years under a massive security clampdown," Islam said.

Islam said Ahmed was suspected to have masterminded major attacks on banks to use the money for buying weapons for militants.

Bangladesh witnessed massive street violence during the past two months over the 1971 war crimes trial with Jamaat-e-Islami leaders being the prime accused in carrying out atrocities while siding with Pakistani troops.

Law enforcement agencies have earlier said Lashkar-e-Taiba and several other extreme rightwing militant groups were still active in Bangladesh while they used its territory for transit to neighbouring India.

Security officials have also warned of militant groups generating funds for their operations by selling counterfeit rupees in India with the fake notes mainly being forged in Pakistan and carried to Bangladesh via Dubai.

08.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

First body found after Tibet landslide buries 83

BEIJING: Nearly 36 hours after a massive landslide buried 83 gold mine workers in Tibet, Chinese authorities today recovered one body even as no signs of life have been detected.

The body was found after more than 30 hours of digging by hundreds of rescuers, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The disaster struck a workers' camp of the Jiama Copper Polymetallic Mine in Maizhokunggar County, about 68 km from Provincial Capital Lhasa in the early hours yesterday.

Rescuers are still digging with their bare hands, as the narrow and damaged local roads had prevented much large-scale machinery from entering, Xinhua reported.

A rescue worker had described the chance of survivors being found as "slim", the report said, as teams using sniffer dogs and radar combed the mountainside in a hunt for survivors that was hampered by bad weather, altitude sickness and further landslides.

The disaster zone is located 4,600 metres above sea level. Temperatures as low as minus three degrees Celsius have affected the sniffer dogs' senses of smell.

The report quoted a rescue worker saying there were cracks along nearby mountains, which indicated further landslides were possible.

Yang Dongliang, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, said at the site an expert team has been formed to investigate the cause of the landslide.

A spokesman for the regional government said at a press conference that the identities of the buried miners have been confirmed as rescue work was continuing.

The victims were workers from Tibet Huatailong Mining Development Company, a subsidiary of the China National Gold Group Corporation, a state-owned company and the nation's biggest gold miner by output.

The landslide engulfed a three km area and 30 meters deep in average, covered with about two million cubic meters of mud, rock and debris.

As of noon time, more than 300,000 cubic meters of debris had been removed, according to Jiang Yi, an armed police officer engaged in the rescue.

08.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Union minister Vasan joins chorus of boycott of Commonwealth meet in Sri Lanka

CHENNAI: Joining the chorus for boycott of a Commonwealth meeting in Colombo over Sri Lankan Tamils issue, Union minister and senior Congress leader GK Vasan today said the venue should be shifted "if there is no change in Lanka's approach" towards ethnic Tamils.

"It is my personal opinion...I feel in the coming days, if there is no change in the approach of Sri Lanka (towards ethnic Tamils), the countries that voted (in favour of the US sponsored-resolution in UNHRC) should jointly make efforts to shift the venue of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to some other country," he told reporters here.

He also said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should attend the meeting on the basis of the collective decision.

Vasan's remarks come days after ruling AIADMK and M Karunanidhi-led DMK in Tamil Nadu demanded that India should boycott CHOGM scheduled to be held in November in Colombo. He said the Sri Lankan government should understand India's position and act accordingly.

Rejecting the charge that India watered down the US resolution against Sri Lanka at UNHRC, Vasan said India voted against Colombo for a second time. "The UPA government has clearly voted against the Sri Lankan government in the resolution. That shows the strong commitment India has towards the rehabilitation and resettlement of the Tamil people in the region," he said, adding India was in the forefront in bringing together major countries to vote against Sri Lanka.

It would be India's duty to ensure that Tamils in Sri Lanka lived in peace in their own land and regain their original status... The government of India will successfully take steps for our Tamil people in Sri Lanka," he said.

On the IPL Governing Council's decision not to play Sri Lankan cricketers in Chennai matches, he said though there was no link between sports and politics, the move was right.

Referring to the ongoing students protests on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, he said he would convey their sentiments to the Centre.

Replying to a question on the charge against the Sri Lankan high commissioner Prasad Kariyawasam, that he tried to instigate north Indians against people of Tamil Nadu, Vasan said, "He should speak befitting his position".

08.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Four car bombs kill 19, wound 72 in Baghdad, officials say

BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials say four car bombs have struck Shia mosques in Baghdad, killing at least 19 people and wounding 72.

A police officer says the deadliest bombing was in western Jihad neighborhood when a parked car bomb exploded as worshippers were leaving a mosque after Friday prayers. Seven people died there and 25 were wounded.

Another police officer says four worshippers were killed and nearly 20 were wounded in a bombing in eastern Qahira neighborhood. He says three people died and 15 were wounded in the eastern Zafaraniyah district and that another car bomb killed five and wounded 14 in the northeastern Binook neighborhood.

Three health officials confirmed the causality figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to talk to the media.

08.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Two dead, dozens feared trapped in Tanzania building collapse

DAR ES SALAAM: At least two people were confirmed dead and dozens feared trapped after a building under construction collapsed in Tanzania's main city of Dar es Salaam on Friday.

Hundreds of people, including residents and army rescuers, clawed through piles of rubble in an affluent area of the country's economic capital in the hunt for survivors.

The building collapsed as many people including children were working or playing nearby, witnesses said.

"I thought there was an earthquake and then I heard screaming. The whole building fell on itself," witness Musa Mohamed told AFP.

Dar es Salaam regional police chief Suleiman Kova said the rescue operation was "going well".

"So far we have managed to retrieve 19 people. Two of them are dead and are two seriously injured," he said as he briefed Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete during a visit to the scene.

Kova said that although it was too early to establish the cause of the accident, "the owner of the building would be held responsible and taken to task".

Scores of people were reportedly working in and around the building at the time of the incident at around 8.45am (0545 GMT).

Residents told AFP that during normal working days, the area bustles with activity from a mix of business people, passers-by and playing children

"My children normally come to play here during Sundays and holidays. I am not sure whether they are also trapped," one desperate local resident Elizabeth Richard told AFP through tears.

Next to her, rescue workers were dragging out pieces of wood, iron rods, chunks of sand and bricks from the 20-metre high piles of rubble with the hope of locating more survivors.

"I was terribly shocked with the strange noise," said Ramadhan Issa, a taxi driver who was having tea at a nearby restaurant at the time of the disaster.

"It will take us several hours to reach the pockets we suspect to have survivors," police officer Lameck Kundya told AFP.

Saidi Mecky Sadiky, the Dar es Salaam regional commissioner, said up to 60 people, including workers, food vendors and children could have been around the area, which has a mixture of both commercial and residential developments.

Kikwete posted messages of condolence on his Twitter account.

"We pray for those who have been afflicted by this tragedy. We pray for togetherness in this time of need," Kikwete said.

In 2008, another building collapse in Dar es Salaam claimed at least four lives.

"It looks like the city authorities are not serious with the enforcement of construction and housing laws. The city is undergoing a construction boom, but incidents of collapsing buildings are on the increase," city resident Rashid Abdallah said.

08.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

String of attacks kills at least 23 in Iraq

BAGHDAD: A series of car bombings in Iraq struck five Shia mosques as worshippers were emerging from Friday prayers, killing at least 23 people, officials said.

The attacks - four in Baghdad and one in the country's north - were the latest spectacular assaults staged by insurgents seeking to undermine the Shia-led government's efforts to achieve security across the country.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the bombings bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida's Iraq branch. The Sunni Muslim group, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, frequently uses car bombs, suicide bombers and coordinated blasts in an effort to sow fear among Shia and erode their trust in the government of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

In the first blast in Baghdad, a parked car exploded in Baghdad's western Jihad neighborhood, killing seven worshippers and wounding 25, a police officer said. Another bombing in the eastern Qahira neighborhood killed four and wounded around 20, while another blast killed three more and wounded another 15 in the Zafaraniyah district. A fourth car bomb killed five people and wounded 14 in the northeastern Binook neighborhood.

Three health officials confirmed the causality figures. All officials in Baghdad spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a group of worshippers as they were leaving a mosque after Friday prayers, killing three people and wounding up to 70, according to police Col Najat Hassan. A senior provisional health official, Sidiq Omar Rasool, confirmed the casualty figures in Kirkuk.

Also Friday, a roadside bomb struck a joint patrol north of Baghdad, killing an army officer and a police officer, a police official said. Seven others were wounded in the attacks in the town of Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles (90 kilometers) north of Baghdad, the official added on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to the media.

Violence has ebbed sharply since the peak of Sunni-Shiite fighting that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007, but Sunni insurgents still occasionally carry out high-profile attacks against Shiites, considering them to be heretics.

Friday is a particularly popular day for militants to undertake such attacks because of the rush of mostly men and boys who flock to the mosques throughout the country to hear traditional Muslim sermons and take part in communal prayers.

08.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

83 workers buried in landslide in gold mining area in Tibet

BEIJING: At least 83 workers were buried after a massive landslide hit a gold mining area in Tibet today.

The landslide took place in Maizhokunggar County of Lhasa, the regional capital, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The victims, including two Tibetans, were workers from a subsidiary of China National Gold Group Corporation.

Officials said rescue efforts were under way.

08.20 | 0 komentar | Read More