Forget CA revival, Prez tells parties

THE HIMALAYAN TIMES, MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2012 www.thehimalayantimes.com
INTERNATIONAL
• THE WORLD OVER
Reuters
Bishop Guido Marini (right) looks
on as Pope Benedict XVI holds the
pastoral staff during a mass at the
end of the Synod of Bishops at the
Vatican, on Sunday.
No trim for Greek debt
BERLIN: Germany’s finance minister
has dismissed all suggestions that
governments and other public creditors
could agree to a so-called haircut
on their Greek debt holdings. However,
Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said
in an interview with Deutschlandfunk
radio broadcast on Sunday that
a debt buyback programme under
which Greece could get loans that
would enable it to pay off much of its
debts could be considered. Greece is
pushing for an extension of the deadline
to meet the terms of its bailout
programme, a move that is expected
to incur a great deal of extra costs.
The private creditors of Greece had
agreed earlier this year to take a hit on
their Greek debt holdings but publicsector
creditors were spared the burdern
of debt. —AP
Six die in accident
MANILA: A speeding bus on Saturday
slammed into a concrete wall that
surrounded a house after its brakes
failed while it was negotiating a
downhill curve in an accident that
killed six people and injured 43 others
in the central region of the Philippines.
Police said on Sunday that the
impact of the unfortunate incident
hurled the bus conductor out of the
vehicle in Cebu province’s Toledo city.
All the casualties were from the bus
itself. Police moved in and arrested
the driver. — AP
Freighter missing
MOSCOW: Officials said on Sunday
that a Russian ship with 11 people on
board has gone missing in the stormy
seas off the nation’s Pacific Coast. The
Russian Emergency Situations Ministry
said that it had received a signal
on Sunday from an emergency buoy
of the freighter Amurskaya in the Sea
of Okhotsk. The ship was en route
from the coastal town of Neran to
Feklistov Island in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Another ship, which was travelling
nearby, was ordered to search for the
missing freighter and its crew, but
couldn’t immediately locate it. An
amphibious plane has been sent to
the area to help in the search. — AP
Tsunami downgraded
WASHINGTON: A tsunami warning
for Hawaii has been downgraded, according
to an advisory that was issued
on Sunday by the Pacific Tsunami
Warning Centre. Evacuation orders
that had earlier been sent were
also lifted for the coastal areas, a
Hawaii civil defence official said. At
least 100,000 people in Hawaii were
ordered to move away from the
shoreline to higher ground late on
Saturday after a tsunami warning,
but the first waves were less forceful
than had been feared and no damage
had been initially reported. Sources
said that the tsunami had been triggered
by a powerful earthquake off
Canada’s Pacific coast. — Reuters
Protesters blocked
THESSAONIKI: A military parade
commemorating Greece’s entry into
World War II was held without interruption
as hundreds of Greek police
and troops were deployed to keep
anti-austerity protesters away. Authorities
deployed some 2,000 police
in the northern city of Thessaloniki
on Sunday, and for the first time ever,
the armed security forces lined the
annual parade route, including some
from an elite quick reaction force that
has served in Kosovo. A few hundred
left-wing protesters were easily kept
at bay until the parade ended and the
officials attending it had departed.
Last year, people protesting the government’s
tough austerity policies
during the country’s economic crisis
overran the parade ground, insulted
officials and forced the evacuation of
the then Greek President Karolos Papoulias.
— Reuters
Drone strikes kill 3
SANAA: Suspected US drone strikes
killed three Al-Qaeda militants on
Sunday in the northern Yemeni
province of Saada in the first such
raid against the militant network
there, tribal sources said. — AFP
Hurricane Sandy to hit US east coast tomorrow
Reuters
Hatteras Island, October 28
Weather forecasters warned
today that Hurricane Sandy
will affect a large area of the US
East Coast but said it was
too early to pinpoint where the
storm, which has the potential
to be the biggest to hit
the mainland, would make
landfall.
Government officials in several
states in Sandy’s path
faced tough decisions on
emergency plans, including
mandatory evacuations in vulnerable
coastal areas, and residents
scrambled to buy supplies
before the storm arrives
on tomorrow.
On its current projected
track, Sandy is most likely to
make US landfall between
Delaware and the New
York/New Jersey area, forecasters
said. However, the Miamibased
National Hurricane
Centre said it could not yet
predict the precise point. “It is
still too soon to focus on the
exact track ... both because of
forecast uncertainty and because
the impacts are going to
cover such a large area away
from the centre,” the NHC said
in an advisory.
While Sandy’s winds were
not overwhelming for a hurricane,
its width was what made
it exceptional. Hurricane force
winds extended 165 km from
its centre while its lesser tropical
storm-force winds reached
across 1,125 km.
This image taken from NOAA's GOES satellite on Sunday, shows Hurricane Sandy. US emergency officials braced for the potentially
massive impact of a so-called "Frankenstorm" as the hurricane lumbered north.
Sandy could have a brutal
impact on major cities in the
target zone. In New York, city
officials discussed whether to
shut the subway system in advance
of the storm, which
could bring the country’s financial
nerve centre to a
standstill.
The storm could cause the
worst flooding Connecticut
has seen in more than 70 years,
said the state’s governor, Dannel
P Malloy.
The storm was moving over
the Atlantic parallel to the US
coast at 20 km/h, but was forecast
to make a tight westerly
turn toward the US coast tomorrow
night.
Tropical storm conditions
were spreading across the
coast of North Carolina and
gale force winds are forecast to
begin affecting the New York
area and southern New England,
the NHC added.
Sandy could be the largest
storm to hit the US, according
to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s
website.
7.7 Richter quake hits islands off west coast of Canada
Agence France Presse
Vancouver, October 28
A major 7.7 magnitude earthquake
shook the Queen Charlotte
Islands off the west coast
of Canada today, prompting
some people fearing a tsunami
to move to higher ground.
The epicenter of the tremor
was located 139 kilometres
south of the town of Masset,
the US Geological Survey
said.
Numerous aftershocks,
some as large as magnitude
Anti-Assad
protest
dispersed
Reuters
Mecca, October 28
Saudi authorities quickly dispersed
a protest by hundreds of
Syrian pilgrims calling for the fall
of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
and denouncing what they
said was international failure to
stop bloodshed in Syria.
Protesters held up rebel flags
and marched toward the Jamarat
Bridge in Mina, east of the Saudi
Arabian city of Mecca, where
more than 3 million Muslim pilgrims
congregated for the annual
haj.
No one was hurt when two police
vehicles drove slowly in the
direction of the protesters with
the sirens on as the officers asked
the crowd through loudspeakers
to leave the area. The protesters
swiftly dispersed and merged
with thousands of other pilgrims
in the area, the witness said.
Saudi officials made it clear in
recent days that they want a politics-free
pilgrimage and urged
pilgrims to focus on performing
the rituals.
This year’s haj took place
against a backdrop of divisions
among Muslims, with Shi’ite Iran
and US-allied Sunni countries
such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and
Qatar backing opposing sides in
Syria’s civil war.
Saudi Arabia has led Arab efforts
to isolate President Bashar
al-Assad’s government and has
supported the rebels with money
and logistics.
At the protest, dozens of security
guards already deployed in
the area stood by without interfering.
“Syria lives forever despite of
you Assad,” the protesters shouted
as they streamed by a giant
wall at Jamarat Bridge used for
the ritual stoning of the devil,
one of the main rites of the haj.
Another slogan went: “We
don’t want Bashar, all Syriansraise
your arms up!”
The Syrian crisis also was evident
at Mount Arafat, scene for
the haj’s main rites, on Thursday
when some Syrians held up rebel
flags despite a call by Saudi Arabia’s
grand mufti to avoid raising
national and factional slogans.
4.6, followed the initial quake,
Canadian officials reported.
The regional West Coast-
Alaska Tsunami Warning Centre
also issued a regional
warning for coasts located
near the epicentre of the
earthquake.
Emergency officials in
British Columbia said a small
tsunami had been recorded
on a deep ocean pressure sensor,
but its effect was not immediately
known.
The officials urged residents
in low-lying coastal ar-
eas to be alert to instructions
from local officials and be
prepared to move to higher
ground.
“The tsunami alarm went
off and everybody went to the
evacuation site,” Danny Escott,
owner of the Escott
Sportfishing lodge near Massett,
told AFP by telephone.
Natural Resources Canada
said in a statement that the
temblor was felt across much
of north-central British Columbia,
including Haida
Gwaii as the Queen Charlotte
Agence France Presse
Rome, October 28
Italian ex-premier Silvio
Berlusconi’s warning that
his centre-right party could
withdraw its support for the
government was seen by the
press today as a declaration
of war against Prime Minister
Mario Monti.
“In the next few days we
will decide with the leadership
of my party whether it
is better to immediately
Islands are otherwise called,
Prince Rupert, Quesnel, and
Houston.
“There have been no reports
of damage at this time,”
the ministry added.
However, experts said
tremors exceeding magnitude
7.0 were extremely dangerous.
“A 7.7 is a big, hefty earthquake.
It’s not something you
can ignore,” said Gerard Fryer.
He explained that the latest
tremor had occurred partly
under an island, but mostly
withdraw our confidence or
to keep it, given the upcoming
election (in April),”
Berlusconi said at a press
conference on Saturday after
he was sentenced to jail
for tax fraud.
“We need to weigh this
government policy that
leads to a spiral of recession
for our economy” against
the way “a vote of no-confidence
could be seen by the
world of finance,” he added.
Reactions to Berlusconi’s
under shallow water.
“I think we have to be
thankful it happened where it
did,” Fryer said. “If that were a
heavily populated area, it
would have caused significant
damage.”
The earthquake reading
was based on the open-ended
Moment Magnitude scale
used by US seismologists,
which measures the area of
the fault that ruptured and
the total energy released.
The Islands has a total population
of 5,000.
Muslim pilgrims cast seven stones at a pillar that symbolises Satan during the annual haj pilgrimage near the holy
city of Mecca on Sunday.
Five killed in
P’ppine clash
Associated Press
Manila, October 28
Philippine marines who were
searching for long-held hostages
battled Al-Qaeda-linked militants
in a fierce clash today that killed
three marines and two insurgents
in the south, officials said.
The fighting continued sporadically
through the day in the mountainous
hinterlands of Patikul
town in Sulu province, where the
Abu Sayyaf movement has survived
in jungle encampments despite
years of US-backed Philippine
military offensives.
At least 10 other marines were
wounded in the clash, regional
military spokesman Lt Colonel
Randolph Cabangbang said.
Regional military commander
Major General Rey Ardo ordered
air force planes and navy ships to
back up the government forces,
ensure the recovery of the slain
marines and transport the wounded
to a hospital.
Cabangbang said the marines
had been deployed to check the
reported sighting of hostages.
Syrian jets bomb east Damascus
Reuters
Amman, October 28
Syrian fighter jets bombarded
suburbs of eastern
Damascus today,
continuing the air raids
launched on Sunni Muslim
neighbourhoods in
the capital since a UNbrokered
ceasefire was
supposed to begin two
days ago, opposition ac-
tivists said. There were
large explosions and
huge plumes of smoke as
Russian-made warplanes
hit the adjacent suburbs
of Zamalka, Irbin, Harasta
and Zamalka, they
said.
A statement by the Harasta
Media Office, an activists’organisation,
said
electricity, water and
communications had
been cut and dozens of
wounded at the Harasta
National Hospital had
been moved as the bombardment
closed in.
Activists also reported
fighting in the suburb of
Douma to the northeast,
where Free Syrian
Army fighters have been
attacking roadblocks.
Damascus is ringed by
Sunni districts.
comments were splashed
across the front pages of the
Italian press on Sunday, with
the leading Corriere della
Sera saying “Berlusconi
threatens to topple Monti”,
while other headlines declared
“Berlusconi attacks
Monti” and “Berlusconi
against Monti”.
“Berlusconi in his bunker
has declared war on Monti
and Merkel,” leftwing daily Il
Fatto Quotidiano said, referring
to Berlusconi’s accusa-
PAGE 7
“The size of this alone, affecting
a heavily populated
area, is going to be history
making,” said Jeff Masters, a
hurricane specialist who
writes a blog posted on the
Weather Underground
(www.wunderground.com).
Sandy could hit Boston, New
York, Baltimore, Washington,
DC and Philadelphia, one of
the most densely populated
regions of the country and
home to tens of millions of
people.
Forecasters said Sandy was a
rare, hybrid “super storm” created
by an Arctic jet stream
wrapping itself around a tropical
storm, possibly causing up
to 30 cm of rain in some areas,
as well as heavy snowfall inland.
Sandy killed at least 66 people
as it made its way through
the Caribbean islands, including
51 in Haiti, mostly from
flash flooding and mudslides,
according to authorities.
The approaching storm
forced a change of plans for
both presidential candidates
ahead of the November 6 election.
The White House said
President Obama canceled a
campaign appearance in Virginia
and another stop in Colorado,
and will instead monitor
the storm from Washington.
Republican challenger Mitt
Romney rescheduled campaign
events planned for Virginia
and was flying to Ohio instead.
10 killed
in reprisal
attacks in
Nigeria
Agence France Presse
Kaduna, October 28
A suicide attacker drove a car
bomb into a Nigerian church today,
sparking fierce reprisals that
saw a Christian mob burn a man
alive in a day of bloody violence
that left at least 10 people dead
and 145 wounded.
Christian youths took to the
streets of the northern city of
Kaduna with machetes and sticks
after the blast, targeting those
they believed to be Muslims as
anger again boiled over due to repeated
church bombings in recent
months.
Attackers beat a motorcycle taxi
driver near the church, then put
his bike on top of him before
dousing him with petrol and setting
him on fire, an AFP correspondent
who saw the violence
said. Two other bloodied bodies
apparently killed by the mob were
seen near the church. A rescue official
also spoke of the man being
burnt and said rescuers could not
save him because the mob was
too violent.
The mob also attacked an ambulance
in the ensuing violence,
but there was no indication that
rescuers were wounded.
“So far we have eight dead and
145 injured from the church
blast,” Musa Ilallah, regional coordinator
for the National Emergency
Management Agency, said,
noting that his death toll included
the suspected bomber.
The attacker rammed what residents
said was an SUV into St
Rita church, shaking the Malali
neighbourhood of Kaduna, a city
that has suffered a wave of deadly
violence blamed on Islamist extremist
group Boko Haram.
“All of a sudden it drove on high
speed and rammed into the
church wall, forcing its way into
the church premises,” said witness
Samuel Emmanuel.
“Initially I thought the driver
had lost control of the vehicle.
Suddenly there was a huge explosion
as the car reached the church
building. It was dust, fire and
smoke all over.” The bomb attack
has been confirmed and rescuers
had been rushed to the scene.
Berlusconi ‘declares war’ on Italy PM
Reuters
AFP / RSS
tion that the Italian prime
minister was following policy
dictated by German
Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Berlusconi, who was sentenced
to jail for tax fraud
last week, had earlier announced
he would not run
in next year’s election but
vowed to remain in politics
to reform the justice system
that found him guilty.
The scandal-hit threetime
premier was toppled in
November last year.