|
|
| June 27, 2007 | Wednesday | Jamadi-us-Sani 11, 1428 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Brown confirmed as Britain's new PM: official LONDON, June 27(AFP): Former finance minister Gordon Brown was confirmed Wednesday as Britain's new prime minister after a private meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, officials said. Brown and his wife Sarah left the monarch's official London residence after a longer-than-expected audience lasting some 55 minutes following his predecessor Tony Blair's formal resignation earlier.(Posted @ 19:00 PST)
Pakistan cyclone leaves 21 dead, 250,000 homeless GWADAR, June 27(AFP): Pakistani rescuers struggled on Wednesday to reach 250,000 people left homeless, and in some cases clinging to rooftops and trees, by a cyclone that lashed the coast and killed 21 people. “The cyclone and the rain have left around 250,000 people homeless,” Khuda Bakhsh Baloch, the relief commissioner of badly-hit Baluchistan province, told AFP, adding that dozens of villages were under water. Cyclone Yemyin roared in from the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, days after thunderstorms left around 230 people dead in Karachi and nearly 150 people were killed by rains in neighbouring India. The UN said the destruction in South Asia -- plus floods in Britain and heatwaves in southern Europe -- showed that the world must be better prepared to cope with the impact of climate change.(Posted @ 18:30 PST)
US to pick a special envoy to OIC WASHINGTON, June 27(AFP): President George W. Bush on Wednesday was to announce the creation of a post for a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, his spokesman said. In a speech scheduled for 1500 GMT at a rededication ceremony for The Islamic Center of Washington, Bush will announce that for the first time he will appoint a special envoy to the Islamic group, spokesman Tony Snow said.(Posted @ 19:55 PST)
Rapist Indian soldiers caught red-handed in occupied Kashmir SRINAGAR, occupied Kashmir, June 27 (AFP) – Police in occupied Kashmir had to fire shots in the air to rescue two Indian soldiers accused by furious villagers of trying to rape a 17-year-old Muslim girl, authorities and residents said Wednesday. The two plain-clothes soldiers had their scalps shaved and faces blackened after being overpowered by villagers in Kunan, near the town of Srinagar. “The two army men in civil dress entered our house demanding food and shelter. They asked my mother to leave and tried to rape me,” the unnamed victim of the alleged assault was quoted as saying by a local news agency. “I resisted and screamed and my neighbours rescued me,” she was quoted as saying. Police used batons and fired shots in the air to rescue the two while they were being paraded in a nearby town late on Tuesday. “The two are with us,” local police officer Khalid Ahmed told AFP from Bandipora town, adding police had also registered a complaint of sexual assault. “The two soldiers were on an information gathering mission when they were taken hostage by militant sympathisers,” army spokesman Colonel Manjinder Singh said. An 18-year-old insurgency and freedom movement has left more than 42,000 people dead, a third of them civilians, in occupied Kashmir, according to official figures. (Posted @ 11:50 PST)
Blair named Mideast envoy for quartet UNITED NATIONS, June 27(AFP): British former prime minister Tony Blair on Wednesday was named special envoy for the quartet seeking Mideast peace, a UN spokeswoman said.(Posted @ 21:25 PST)
Tourists flee Greek island fire ATHENS, June 27(Reuters):Tourists and locals fled fires sweeping the Greek island of Poros on Wednesday as firefighters, planes and a helicopter battled to control the flames. Fire brigade officials and islanders said hotels and homes in the Neorion area of Poros, some two hours from the port of Piraeus near Athens, had been evacuated. Television pictures showed the fire raging on Poros -- with homes and hotels only a few hundred metres away -- destroying pine forests, with black smoke billowing across the straits to the mainland town of Galata. Greece is experiencing its worst heatwave in 110 years that has already killed eight people, with temperatures reaching 46 Celsius (114.8 F).(Posted @ 21:20 PST)
Bush congratulates Brown WASHINGTON, June 27(AFP): President George W. Bush on Wednesday telephoned new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to congratulate him, and the two pledged to continue close cooperation, the White House said.(Posted @ 21:05 PST)
Africans want United Africa but many say “too soon” ABIDJAN, June 27(Reuters): From Cape Town to Algiers, many Africans welcome Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's plan for a United States of Africa with a strong voice on the global stage, but most say it simply comes too soon for a divided continent. Gaddafi is touring West Africa to promote the long-standing plan for a pan-African government which will be put to a summit of the African Union on July 1 in Ghana. The Libyan leader has won backing from Senegal, Zimbabwe and some other countries. But diplomatic heavyweights like South Africa and Uganda are staunch opponents.Many ordinary Africans say it is premature for the continent of nearly 1 billion people divided between rich and poor, black and Arab, Muslim and Christian, and criss-crossed by conflicts like the wars in Somalia and Sudan's western region of Darfur. In areas like trade, where Africa's impoverished farmers have clamoured in vain for the United States and Europe to scrap billions of dollars of subsidies, the continent could benefit from more negotiating power, officials say.(Posted @ 20:50 PST)
European lawmakers back CIA secret prison report STRASBOURG, June 27(AFP): European lawmakers on Wednesday approved a report that accused the CIA of having run secret prisons in Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2005 to interrogate terror suspects. The report also criticised Germany and Italy for having invoked a defence of state secrecy to obstruct the investigation into the covert programme. The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly backed the report by Swiss investigator Dick Marty by 124 votes to 37, with eight abstentions. Parliamentarians rejected numerous amendments submitted by Poland and Romania, which have both denied the accusations in the report presented in Paris on June 8. The report.also accused Germany and Italy of obstructing investigations into the covert programme “by invoking the concept of 'state secret'.” A statement from the parliament called for compensation for the victims of such unlawful acts. “Only Bosnia and Hercegovina and Canada ... had fully acknowledged their responsibilities regarding the unlawful transfers of detainees,” it added.(Posted @ 20:45 PST)
Pope Benedict appoints new media chief VATICAN CITY, June 27(AFP): Pope Benedict XVI nominated Italian bishop Claudio Mari Celli, 65, as his new communications chief on Wednesday, replacing John Patrick Foley who held the job for 23 years. Celli, born July 20, 1941, was previously administrative secretary of the the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. The pope meanwhile named Foley, 71, an American who became Vatican communications chief in 1984 under Pope John Paul II, as grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. The job involves supervising the Vatican's Osservatore Romano newspaper, Radio Vatican and the Vatican television centre, as well as relations between the Roman Catholic church and the media.(Posted @ 20:25 PST)
Global mobile phone use to hit record 3.25 billion LONDON, June 27(Reuters): Global mobile phone use will top 3.25 billion -- equivalent to around half the world's population -- in 2007 as cell phone demand booms in China, India and Africa, a survey said on Wednesday. From African farmers to Chinese factory workers, mobile phone subscriptions will pass the 3 billion mark in July and exceed 3.25 billion by the end of the year, according to a report by UK-based telecoms analysis company The Mobile World. More than 1,000 new customers are effectively signing up for mobile phones every minute around the world, the survey showed. “It took over 20 years to connect the first billion subscribers, but only 40 months to connect the second billion,” said The Mobile World Co-Founder John Tysoe. “The three billion milestone will be passed in July 2007, just two years on.”Analysts have forecast that 65 percent of all handsets made this year will be sold in emerging markets as manufacturers, such as Nokia of Finland and Motorola of the United States, push out low-cost phones and mobile phone operators cut call charges.(Posted @ 20:10 PST)
Mass graves yield more Srebrenica vicitms SARAJEVO, June 27(AFP): Several dozen skeletons have been exhumed from two mass graves in Bosnia believed to contain victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, a judicial official said Wednesday. The remains were found crushed and compressed -- suggesting that the bodies might have been interred elsewhere, then exhumed and re-buried with the use of bulldozers in a bid to conceal their fate. Four complete and 44 incomplete skeletons were uncovered in one mass grave in the Zeleni Jadar area, 15 kms south of Srebrenica, Jasna Subotic, spokeswoman for the local prosecutor's office, said. “The remains are so badly damaged that it is even possible that they have been reburied twice,” Subotic said, adding that forensic experts had also collected two bags of small bone fragments.Earlier this week, a smaller mass grave -- near the Potocari memorial cemetery where more than 2,400 identified Srebrenica victims lie buried -- was found, with five remains plus several detached bones, the spokeswoman said.(Posted @ 20:00 PST)
Nigerian opposition agrees to join government ABUJA, June 27(Reuters): Nigeria's largest opposition party will join the new government after the two sides agreed to work together on electoral reform and reviewing last-minute privatisations by the previous administration. The rival parties announced the deal on Wednesday after two days of talks called by President Umaru Yar'Adua. Yar'Adua wants to form a “government of national unity” because the April election that brought him to power was labelled “not credible” by international observers.The two sides agreed to work together to review the electoral process, the constitution and a series of privatisations made in the dying days of the last government, they said in a joint communique.(Posted @ 19:05 PST)
Four Iraqi police killed south of Kirkuk BAGHDAD, June 27(Reuters) Four Iraqi policemen were killed in an ambush on Wednesday near Kirkuk when gunmen opened fire on their vehicles, police said. A fifth policeman was wounded in the attack, which happened south of Kirkuk, a restive city of Sunni and Shi'ite Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds that lies 250 kms north of Baghdad, the police said.(Posted @ 19:00 PST)
India seeks to dispel fears over U.S. carrier visit NEW DELHI, June 27(Reuters): India sought to calm on Wednesday opposition to the first port call by a U.S. aircraft carrier, saying firm environmental measures were in place for the visit of the nuclear-powered vessel. The USS Nimitz is due to anchor off the southern port city of Chennai from July 1 to 5 in what has been termed as yet another landmark event in the growing warmth between Washington and New Delhi. But India's powerful communists have opposed the port call saying the United States was trying to absorb New Delhi into its sphere of military influence, while some port workers have expressed environmental fears about the nuclear carrier. The leftists have also planned to organise protests in Chennai during the port call.(Posted @ 18:55 PST)
Morgan to be next ICC president MUMBAI, June 27(Reuters): England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Chairman David Morgan will be the next president of the International Cricket Council (ICC), while India's Sharad Pawar will succeed him, a senior Indian board official said on Wednesday.“We have reached an understanding, now it only has to be cleared by the members,” the official, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters from London where a series of ICC meetings is in progress ahead of Friday's annual conference.Morgan will take over from acting president Ray Mali next year for a two-year term.(Posted @ 18:30 PST)
21 convicted in Kazakh child HIV-infection scandal SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan, June 27(AFP): A court in southern Kazakhstan sentenced 21 people to prison Wednesday for medical malpractice after 118 children and 14 mothers were infected with the HIV virus in hospital, of whom nine have died to date. The sentence passed by the court in Shymkent, which had started to read verdicts in the case on Tuesday, was eight years in prison for three of the defendants. Relatives reacted angrily at what they said were insufficiently severe sentences in the scandal, which shocked the oil-rich Central Asian country and revealed shocking corruption in hospitals, leading to the firing of the health minister.Three paediatricians at the hospitals where the infections occurred got eight-year sentences and 14 others were given jail terms ranging between nine months and seven and a half years. Four of the accused, including the former head of the regional health ministry, Nursulu Tasmagambetova, were given suspended sentences.(Posted @ 18:20 PST)
Israeli forces kill 12 Palestinians in Gaza raid GAZA, June 27(Reuters): Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians, mostly gunmen but also a 12-year-old boy and other civilians, on Wednesday in the deadliest raid in Gaza since Hamas seized the territory, medical workers said. The operation in Gaza City and the southern town of Khan Younis appeared to signal Israel intended to keep strong military pressure on Hamas along with its efforts to isolate the Islamist group financially and politically.(Posted @ 18:05 PST)
Potentially lethal H5N1 bird flu resurfaces in Europe PRAGUE, June 27(AFP) : A bird flu scare in central Europe was spreading Wednesday as Czech authorities said the H5N1 virus potentially lethal to humans had been found in a flock of chickens after discoveries among wild birds in Germany. The presence of H5N1 bird flu was confirmed on a poultry farm near the village of Norin, just four kilometers (2.5 miles) from a farm where some 6,000 turkeys were slaughtered last week after the deadly virus was detected there.The farm in Tisova was the first incidence of H5N1 bird flu in Europe in four months. Then on Sunday Germany joined the latest outbreak confirming six cases in wild birds found dead near Nuremberg, followed by another report Tuesday involving three wild swans in the east of the country.(Posted @ 17:40 PST)
Sudan's presidential adviser dies in crash KHARTOUM, June 27(Reuters): Sudan's powerful presidential adviser Majzoub al-Khalifa, who was key to signing last year's Darfur peace accord, died in a car accident in northern Sudan on Wednesday. The accident happened at about 0130 GMT on Wednesday. “He died in a car accident on his way to Shendi. He and his brother were killed and other members of his family were injured,” a presidential source said. No other vehicle was involved in the accident, which appeared to be the result of a blown tyre, the source added.The state news agency (SUNA) said Khalifa, born in 1952, and his brother would be buried in his home town of Taybat al-Khawad later on Wednesday. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and ministers flew to the area for the funeral. Other government employees embarked on the long drive to his village. Khalifa was one of the main interlocutors in the Darfur peace process and head of the government negotiating team in talks which led to the signing of a 2006 peace deal for Sudan's Darfur region between the government and one rebel faction. (Posted @ 17:05 PST)
Egypt announces find of Hatshepsut mummy CAIRO, June 26: (AFP): Egypt announced on Tuesday the discovery of the long-lost mummy of Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt's most famous female pharaoh, billed as the most important find since the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb. Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told a packed press conference in Cairo that one of two mummies found in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor about a century ago had been identified as Hatshepsut. (Posted @ 17:00 PST)
Tigers claim killing five Sri Lankan troops COLOMBO, June 27(AFP): At least five soldiers died in a Tamil Tiger assault on a Sri Lankan military post in the northwest on Wednesday, the guerrillas said, but the claim was denied by the defence ministry. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they killed the five soldiers and captured three automatic guns in a pre-dawn assault on an army sentry point in the district of Mannar. The rebels said they did not suffer any losses. The defence ministry however denied the rebel account and said one soldier died and another was injured. Both sides routinely make casualty claims that are impossible to verify independently. (Posted @ 16:17 PST)
At least 12 killed in Iraq violence BAGHDAD, June 27 (Reuters): At least 12 persons were killed in fresh incidents of violence in different cities of Iraq. In the first incident, a car bomb killed at least three people on Wednesday in an attack on police vehicles near a busy market in northern Baghdad, a witness said. Police said there was an explosion in the Suleikh district, adding 10 people had been wounded. The witness told Reuters he had seen at least three badly burned bodies and two police vehicles ablaze. In the second incident, a roadside bomb killed seven people including five police commandos in central Samarra on Wednesday, Iraqi police said. Two more civilians were killed in the aftermath of the blast when security forces opened fire. The blast in Samarra, 100 kms north of Baghdad, comes despite heightened security after the twin minarets of a Shi'ite mosque were blown up earlier this month. (Posted @ 16:12 PST)
Angry protests in Iran over petrol rationing TEHRAN, June 27(AFP): Angry youths torched petrol stations and long queues formed at fuel pumps after oil-rich Iran announced the start of fuel rationing, triggering nationwide protests on Wednesday. “Several stations were damaged by agitators,” state radio reported, as angry drivers joining long lines for fuel clashed with police after the surprise announcement that the rationing would take effect from midnight Tuesday. Stone-throwing demonstrators set ablaze a car and petrol pumps at a service station in northwestern Tehran late on Tuesday. The protests are the first outpouring of anger since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, although criticism has mounted recently in some economic circles that his policies were fuelling inflation and hurting the poor. Iran, OPEC's number two oil producer and the fourth in the world, announced on Tuesday that its rationing plan, aimed at reducing colossal state petrol subsidies, would extend to private cars and taxis. Long queues of cars, some several kilometres (miles) long, snaked from petrol stations in Tehran and across the country as armed police stood guard. In some areas, people turned up with buckets to fill up with fuel. (Posted @ 16:02 PST)
NKorea fires short-range missile SEOUL, June 27(AFP): North Korea appeared to have test-fired a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday as part of a routine military exercise, Yonhap news agency said. An unidentified government source told Yonhap that the missile with a range of some 100 kilometres (62 miles) appeared to have been fired at 0320 GMT. “We have secured information on the launch of a short-range missile off the east coast in North Korea's South Hangyong province... The launch was probably seen as part of North Korea's routine exercise,” the source was quoted as saying. South Korean officials refused to confirm the report. This was North Korea's third missile launch this year, Yonhap said. (Posted @ 15:55 PST)
Maoists blow up India rail station as strike bites KOLKATA, India, June 27 (Reuters) Maoist insurgents blew up a railway station and disrupted public transport across several Indian states on Wednesday, on the second day of a strike that highlighted their growing strength and national coordination. The insurgents used powerful explosives to blow up Biramdih railway station in a pre-dawn attack in West Bengal, disrupting links with many parts of east and south India, officials said. “Dozens of Maoist rebels tied up all the railway employees and just blew the station and torched whatever was left of it before melting into darkness,” said Mahabir Pyne, a local resident. In Andhra Pradesh, rebels called out employees of a coffee extracting plant from work near the port city of Vishakhapatnam, and blew it up. Authorities in many mineral-rich regions of south, east and central India suspended public transport. Shops were shut in rural areas and mining operations in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh states were suspended. On Tuesday, a goods train engine was blown up and another set ablaze in Jharkhand. Rebels also set ablaze five trucks transporting minerals in the state. (Posted @ 12:38 PST)
North Korea allows IAEA team to visit nuclear plant TOKYO, June 27 (Reuters): North Korea will allow a team of U.N. nuclear watchdog officials to visit the Yongbyon reactor it agreed to shut down under a disarmament-for-aid deal, Japan's Kyodo news agency said on Wednesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delegation headed by Olli Heinonen is already in Pyongyang to negotiate terms for inspectors to monitor the shutdown. “Tomorrow, we're going to Yongbyon,” Kyodo quoted Heinonen as saying. He said the team would return to Pyongyang on Friday.(Posted @ 09:47 PST)
Karachi Stocks up 97.89 points: KARACHI, June 27: At the close of trading the KSE-100 index was at 13669.03, up 97.89 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:17 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, June 27: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 61.22 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:17 PST)
Founder: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
Editor: Abbas Nasir
The DAWN Group of Newspapers
Haroon House, Dr. Ziauddin Ahmed Road, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
Phone:+92 (21) 111-444-777 Fax: +92 (21) 569-3995
webmaster@dawn.com
Make sure to reload these pages so you're viewing the current version.
|
|
|
Contributions |