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Hillary Clinton is most WASHINGTON, Dec 30: First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton tops the list of women most admired by Americans, according to a poll.....more Death toll at 74 as ferry crash leaves hundreds missing DHAKA, Dec 30: The death toll in Bangladesh’s worst river tragedy this year rose to 74 as hundreds remained missing today more than 24 hours after two...more 12-year-old girl jumps to death over exam results SINGAPORE, Dec 30:A 12-year-old Singapore girl jumped to her death from a 12th-floor bedroom window when her father learned she had changed the ...more Probe to find Briton’s
LONDON, Dec 30: Britain has launched an investigation to find out whether a man from Birmingham had carried out a suicide bomb attack in Srinagar on Christmas day killing at least nine people including six Indian troops. .....more |
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Nepal TV operators put Indian movies back on KATHMANDU, Dec 30: Nepal’s cable television operators today said they had resumed broadcasting channels showing ......more
Amanullah accuses NEW DELHI, Dec 30: Pakistan-based leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Amanullah Khan ......more Powerful explosions MANILA, Dec 30: At least five powerful explosions rocked the Philippine capital one after the other today, killing at least. .....more 12-year-old girl jumps to death over exam results SINGAPORE, Dec 30: A 12-year-old Singapore girl jumped to her death from a 12th-floor bedroom window when her......more |
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Hillary Clinton is most admired woman in America: Poll WASHINGTON, Dec 30: First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton tops the list of women most admired by Americans, according to a poll. The New York senator-elect received the highest number of votes, 19 percent of the total, followed by talk show host Oprah Winfrey and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, each with 4 percent, in a CNN/USA today poll released last evening. Americans were less certain about which man they most admired, leaving a cluster of politicians and religious leaders at the top of the list. President Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II each received 6 percent. President-elect George W Bush and his defeated rival Vice President Al Gore each received 5 percent. Bush’s newly appointed Secretary of State, Colin Powell, also received 5 percent and the Rev. Billy Graham followed closely behind, with 4 percent. Clinton has topped the list of most admired men every year since he took office in 1993. Like her husband, the first lady has also been cited as one of the most admired women since 1993. Her high point came in the midst of the impeachment scandal in 1998, when she garnered 28 percent of the votes. The gallup organization conducted the poll of more than 1,000 adults from Dec. 15 to Dec. 17. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points. (REUTERS) |
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Death toll at 74 as ferry crash leaves hundreds missing DHAKA, Dec 30: The death toll in Bangladesh’s worst river tragedy this year rose to 74 as hundreds remained missing today more than 24 hours after two overcrowded river ferries collided head-on in heavy fog. Local officials said the search and rescue operation was hampered by fog and swift undercurrents, which are feared to have dragged many bodies downstream. Yesterday, 63 bodies were recovered from the wreckage of the ferries in the Meghna river after the collision, which occurred near the town of Matlab, 180 km east of the capital, Dhaka. River police in the neighbouring port of Chandpur confirmed the recovery of 11 more bodies early today, raising the death toll to 74. Rescue workers said the bodies picked up from the river included those of 22 children. A salvage crew dispatched from Dhaka joined the local rescue team amid fading hopes of rescuing the hundreds of missing passengers. Officials said the double-decker ferry Rajhangshi had more than 400 people on board as it struck the other vessel, Jalkopot, carrying an estimated 200 holiday makers returning to the capital after the Islamic Ed-ul-Fitr holidays. "It is a major river tragedy for Bangladesh this year," Shipping Minister Mufazzal Hussain Maya said. "We’re yet to ascertain what caused this disaster." Survivors said both ferries were travelling in dense winter fog, ignoring safety warnings. About 100 people were known to have survived. Both vessels were smashed in the accident. River police said the Rajhangshi, which left Dhaka earlier for the southern Madaripur town, sank 10 metres deep in the river with scores of people trapped in its body. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered an official investigation into the accident. (DPA) |
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12-year-old girl jumps to death over exam results SINGAPORE, Dec 30:A 12-year-old Singapore girl jumped to her death from a 12th-floor bedroom window when her father learned she had changed the results of her primary school leaving examination, a news report said today. Simran Kaur had earlier altered the aggregate score to 252 from the original 151, which placed her as a borderline case between the normal academic and normal technical streams, The Straits Times said. Normal technical students are deemed the weakest in the secondary school system. A score above 200 puts a student into the faster express course leading to O-level examinations in four years. The school posting and streaming results became known Thursday, and the newspaper said Simran’s father was checking her scores with the school. It was then Simran jumped to her death, the report said. Police are investigating the case. "Nobody will ever know what she was thinking of when she jumped," the father was quoted as saying. Psychiatrists said children who are distressed over exams to the point of becoming suicidal are often withdrawn, irritable or prone to bursting into tears. Some, however, show no outward signs that they are seriously depressed, and their suicide attempts can be unexpected. (DPA) |
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Probe to find Briton’s role in Srinagar blast LONDON, Dec 30: Britain has launched an investigation to find out whether a man from Birmingham had carried out a suicide bomb attack in Srinagar on Christmas day killing at least nine people including six Indian troops. "The British foreign and commonwealth office is in touch with the Indian police authorities in Srinagar through the British High Commission in New Delhi to confirm the report," an FCO spokesman said last night. He said they were unable to confirm the details of the dead man, but were liaisoning with the Indian authorities. Media reports prominently claimed here that a "bomber from Birmingham", 24-year-old Mohammed Bilal operating under the Nom De Guerre Abdullah Bhai, rammed into an Indian security post with a Maruti-load of explosives in Srinagar killing himself and six Indian soldiers. Three Kashmiri students returning home to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr were also killed in the blast. "Abdullah Bhai was named by Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Kashmiri militant group. We are in touch with the Indian police and we are waiting for the results of their investigation. It is for the indian police to investigate," the spokesman said. Referring to the forthcoming Anti-Terrorism Act that might come into force from February 2001, the spokesman said the UK Government was serious in curbing terrorism and that is why it is expanding the scope of terrorism laws and will punish those who incite terrorism "wholly or partly" outside Britain. The Terrorism Act 2000 will also take stock of weapons training and recruitment in Britain for terrorism purposes abroad, he said. ‘The Times’ quoting Jaish-e-Mohammed, had reported that a British students was responsible for the suicide bomb attack. The daily even published an image of a headline in Zarb-I-Momin, the Jaish newspaper, saying "Commander Bilal wrecked havoc in an Indian Army headquarters through his daring attack." According to the report, Bilal was born into a Pakistani family in Birmingham and grew up into a night club-going lad until he became a "born-again Muslim" at 18 after "seeing the Prophet Mohammad in a dream." Meanwhile, the London-based Muslim group Al Muhajiroun, known as the "Voice, the eyes and the ears of the Muslims" claimed a British student from birmingham was the suicide bomber. Sheikh Omar Bakri-Muhammad, group founder and judge of the Islamic court of the UK claimed that about 1,800 British Muslims took part service’’ each year. "We believe in a worldwide Islamaic order and we recruit people at debates and talks at university campuses and mosques throughout the UK. We then invite them for a meal and a talk and explain the situation of Muslims worldwide and then recruit them," he said. "They voluntarily agree to get military education in the homeland and when they have fully affiliated themselves both mentally and physically they migrate permanently or stay in this country to engage themselves in creating ideological and political change," he added. (PTI) |
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Nepal TV operators put Indian movies back on KATHMANDU, Dec 30: Nepal’s cable television operators today said they had resumed broadcasting channels showing Indian programmes, suspended after violent protests over alleged anti-Nepal comments by Indian movie star, Hritik Roshan. "Yes, we have resumed all our channels," an official at private cable operator, Space Times Network, told Reuters. Protesters clashed with police and attacked shops including ones owned by Indians, in riots that broke out in Kathmandu on Tuesday after rumours spread that Hrithik Roshan had said in an interview he did not like nepal or its people. Four people were killed and dozens injured in the violence. Hrithik Roshan denied making any negative comments about Nepal. After the violence, private cable operators switched off television channels showing Hindi movies and other Indian programmes and cinemas across Nepal stopped screening Hindi films. Hindi films and Indian television channels are hugely popular in Nepal where the domestic entertainment industry produces few films or television programmes. In another sign that the situation was returning to normal, Indian Airlines resumed flights to Kathmandu yesterday after suspending them on Wednesday because of the riots. (REUTERS) |
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Amanullah accuses Qureshi of giving up struggle NEW DELHI, Dec 30: Pakistan-based leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Amanullah Khan has accused Hashim Qureshi, founder leader of JKLF who surrendered himself to the Delhi Police yesterday, of having given up the struggle for Kashmir. In a BBC interview last night, Khan claimed Hashim Qureshi did not appear in Delhi all of a sudden: he was trying to return for the past four years. "During this time he was opposing the Kashmir movement and had become a supporter of India. About eight months ago he had said he would return to India in December." Hashim Qureshi had left Pakistan in 1986, having refused to work for the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Kashmir. According to Qureshi, the ISI then approached Amanullah Khan who readily agreed. Khan has himself confessed that his faction of the JKLF started terrorist activities in Kashmir by exploding two bombs in Srinagar in 1989. However, he bemoaned, that having used the JKLF, the Pakistani establishment (read ISI) dropped it in favour of fundamentalist groups.(UNI) |
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Powerful explosions rock Philippine MANILA, Dec 30: At least five powerful explosions rocked the Philippine capital one after the other today, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than 50. The first four blasts in Manila ripped through a train packed with commuters, a passenger bus along a main thoroughfare, a jeepney at the airport and a Plaza in front of the U.S. Embassy. A fifth explosion rocked a gasoline station in the financial district of Makati city, leaving a policeman dead and injuring another person. Most of the casualties were victims of the explosion at a station of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) in the busy district of Blumentritt in Manila. Blood and broken glass littered the area around the damaged LRT coaches. "The explosion was deafening," one survivor said. "There are still bodies inside." The simultaneous blasts took place after a ranking leader and a member of the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group in the southern Philippines was arrested in Manila. Police said the rebels were planning to conduct terror attacks in the capital. Chief Superintendent Edgar Aglipay, a regional Police Commander, said investigators were still trying to determine the motive and the explosives used in the attacks. "Let us not worry," he said. "We have already discussed contingency measures to secure the capital. We still don’t know the suspects."(DPA) |
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12-year-old girl jumps to death over exam results SINGAPORE, Dec 30: A 12-year-old Singapore girl jumped to her death from a 12th-floor bedroom window when her father learned she had changed the results of her primary school leaving examination, a news report said today. Simran Kaur had earlier altered the aggregate score to 252 from the original 151, which placed her as a borderline case between the normal academic and normal technical streams, The Straits Times said. Normal technical students are deemed the weakest in the secondary school system. A score above 200 puts a student into the faster express course leading to O-level examinations in four years. The school posting and streaming results became known Thursday, and the newspaper said Simran’s father was checking her scores with the school. It was then Simran jumped to her death, the report said. Police are investigating the case. "Nobody will ever know what she was thinking of when she jumped," the father was quoted as saying. Psychiatrists said children who are distressed over exams to the point of becoming suicidal are often withdrawn, irritable or prone to bursting into tears. Some, however, show no outward signs that they are seriously depressed, and their suicide attempts can be unexpected. (DPA) |
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