Sindh: Security arrangements finalized for Muharram
Pakistan Rangers Sindh have finalized all security arrangements for the month of Muharram-ul-Hara’am, trendpk.Com reported on Tuesday.
All important gatherings, conventions and caravans would be monitored through satellite and also aerial surveillance would be employed to ensure that no mishap takes place. Video recording of all majalis would also be done. A high level meeting took place in the Rangers’ headquarters Karachi to finalize the security arrangements for the month of Muharram. Senior police officers and Rangers’ personnel attended the meeting. Strict orders have been issued on implementing the pillion riding ban, keeping and possessing weapons and also against aerial firing. Security has been beefed up on all the airports, railway stations and other important places of all the cities whereas all the caravans and majalis would be monitored through satellite and CCTV cameras.
France Pension Reform Crisis Intensifies
October 29, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
PARIS: French lawmakers on Wednesday formally adopted President Nicolas Sarkozy’s fiercely contested law on pension reform, despite weeks of nationwide protests and strikes with even more planned.
The National Assembly voted 336 for and 233 against the law, which raises the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, on the eve of the latest in a series of protests that have threatened to bring France to a standstill.
Sarkozy must now sign off on the law and publish it in the official gazette, which a presidential advisor has said will happen around November 15.
Unions have nevertheless called for a ninth day of action on Thursday, including strikes and protest marches in more than 100 towns and cities, and another day of “family rallies” is planned for November 6.
Prime Minister Francois Fillion urged the country to pull itself out of the crisis, saying “the law of the Republic should now be respected by all” even as Socialists vowed to take the law before the Constitutional Court.
“Everyone should know how to come out of this protest with responsibility and a mutual respect,” Fillon said in a statement.
“In increasing the legal retirement age an important step has been taken to protect our welfare system in the face of the effect of demographic ageing. Our fellow citizens can view the future of their pensions with more confidence.”
Socialist lawmaker Marisol Touraine however charged that the law punishes the poor.
“You’ve spoken a lot about courage,” she told Labour Minister Eric Woerth, the architect of the law. “But you’ve chosen to make the weakest pay, to attack those with the least means.”
And Socialist leader Martine Aubry accused the government of abusing parliamentary procedure to shut down democratic debate, and pledged to fight on to delay the law being enacted.
“I tell the president, you won’t win against the French people,” she said.
Despite the call for fresh protests, Sarkozy’s supporters have pointed to a tailing off of industrial action in key sectors such as refining and fuel distribution as evidence that the strikers have failed.
Protests since the start of September repeatedly brought more than a million people onto the streets and the battle between unions and the government has seen Sarkozy’s approval rating collapse to less than 30 percent.
Thursday’s rally falls during the French half-term school holidays, and the president’s camp is hoping that this, alongside the passage of the law, will see the protest movement losing steam and a slow return to normal.
Half of France’s 12 refineries are returning to full production after workers voted to resume work, even if petrol is still in short supply with one filling station in five out of service.
And late Tuesday truckers warned of continuing shortages of petrol for two or three more weeks.
“There are still a lot of supply problems. There won’t be a return to normal for another two or three weeks, at best,” Nicolas Paulissen, a representative of the French truckers’ federation FNTR, said.
Rail travel has all but returned to normal after a train drivers’ strike hit the buffers, and Marseille bin men have begun to clear the 10,000 tonnes of rubbish that built up in the streets.
Thursday might yet see another impressive one-day strike, however, and protests planned for November 6 threaten to embarrass Sarkozy during a state visit by President Hu Jintao of China.
Strikes on Thursday will force the cancellation of 50 percent of flights at Paris Orly airport and 30 percent at other airports, the civil aviation authority DGAC said, similar to the previous day of action on October 19.
At the same time, unions said that public transport workers in 29 towns and cities would strike on Thursday, the seventh day of anti-pension reform strikes since August, down from a peak of 103 in September.
Previous strike-day rallies have drawn huge crowds, usually more than a million according to police estimates and as high as 3.5 million according to the unions, but labour leaders were cautious not to raise expectations.
“Our objective is not to beat any records,” conceded Bernard Thibault, head of the powerful CGT union, in an interview with the daily Liberation.
“But from what we’re hearing from the ground, we’ll see another good level of mobilisation, which will show that level of anger has not diminish.”
Sarkozy is aware that the law has not won him any new friends, but he is hoping that by facing down the protests he will appear strong in the eyes of his right-wing base as he prepares to seek re-election in 2012.
In the coming days he is expected to symbolise the re-launch of his strategy with a major cabinet reshuffle.
French strike hits petrol pumps
France’s 12 oil refineries remained blocked on Wednesday as workers continued strikes to protest against the reform of France’s pension system, union representatives said.
Nine of the refineries were producing no oil on Wednesday, two were in the process of halting production and one was operating at a minimum level, the CGT and CFDT unions said. Fuel supplies from all 12 refineries remained blocked, they added.
The strikes began at the refineries on Oct. 12, causing shortages this week at petrol pumps across the country. Widespread protests against pension reforms in France, which are now in their sixth day, are beginning to bite.
Petrol pumps are running dry and the airports in Paris are cancelling flights. One politician has said it is now a trial of strength between the government of Nicolas Sarkozy and the unions.
Britain, Germany, UAE refuse fuel to Iran planes: reports
July 5, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
TEHRAN: Britain, Germany, the United Arab Emirates have refused to offer fuel to Iranian passenger jets flying through their airports, Iranian news agencies reported on Monday.
neal parker
June 12, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
The driver Neal Parker, 58, ran through a net at the end of a track and died of head injuries after crashing at a “high rate of speed” during a qualifying round at the N.H.R.A. SuperNationals at Raceway Park in Old Bridge, N.J., the state police said. Parker was entered in the Top Alcohol Funny Car competition Parker was entered in the Top Alcohol Funny Car competition. The crash occurred shortly before noon.
“Parker … crashed Friday at a high rate of speed in the shutdown area during qualifying,” the NHRA said in a statement on its website. “On behalf of everyone at NHRA and Raceway Park, we are deeply saddened and want to 
pass along our sincere condolences to the entire Parker family.”
NHRA officials and New Jersey state police are investigating.
The car ran through a containment area with soft barriers, sand and a safety net and wound up in pieces in front of a wall at the edge of the raceway property. State police declined to comment on whether the car hit the wall or on eyewitness accounts that a drogue chute designed to slow the car failed to deploy properly.
Spectator David Farrah of Manalapan said it appeared the chute malfunctioned.
“It looked like the chute just didn’t open and he couldn’t stop,” Farrah said. “The car was just crushed. It was tragic.”
Another spectator, George Tompkins, 63, of Metuchen, said he left the stands shortly before the crash. He didn’t see the wreck, but said he heard it.
guatemala volcano
May 28, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Big volcanic eruptions in Guatemala
Rocks spewing from a volcano overlooking the Guatemalan capital, a television reporter slain, authorities said Friday. Three children are missing.
Major explosions also shook a towering volcano in the South American nation of Ecuador on Wednesday, forcing evacuations of three villages. There were no immediate reports of deaths.
Guatemala’s Pacaya volcano started erupting lava and rocks on Thursday afternoon, blanketing the Central American country’s capital with ash and forcing the closure of the international airport. President Alvaro Colom declared a “state of calamity.”
“We thought we wouldn’t survive. Our houses crumbled and we’ve lost everything,” said Brenda Castaneda, who said she and her family hid under beds and tables as marble-sized rocks thundered down on her home in the village of Calderas. The family was waiting for rescue teams to take them to a shelter at a nearby school.
The volcano covered parts of Guatemala City in ash, forcing the closure of the country’s main international airport.
Officials said La Aurora airport would remain closed into Saturday, and flights were being diverted to other parts of the country.
The government says it is evacuating 1,600 people from near the volcano and it has shut down the city’s international airport.
” height=”496″ />
guatemala volcano eruption
May 28, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
The Pacaya Volcano has erupted in Guatemala. The volcano is close to Guatemala City and the black ash is creating all sorts of problems for the citizens. The ash is approx. 2″ to 10″ thick and is hindering driving. The
Pacaya Volcano, like Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano, has closed down the international airport (La Aurora International Airport) because of ash in the air. Incoming flights are being rerouted to other airports in the country.
As if the eruption of Pacaya Volcano erupting isn’t enough, Guatemala is also experiencing a tropical storm and 2 earthquakes all at the same time. Water, ash and stones have been raining down on areas inside and close to Guatemala City. Towns are being evacuated in some parts. The government has urged people not to go outside of their homes unless absolutely necessary.
The falling ash is causing traffic accidents, at this writing 30 traffic accidents have been reported due to driving on ash filled roads. Ash is also falling in Amatitán, San Francisco of Sales, Calderas, Los Pocitos and San Vicente Pacaya. 3 children have been reported missing and a TV reporter was found dead. The TV reporter, Anibal Arcila, was killed from falling debris from the Pacaya volcano.
The President of Guatemala has declared a state of calamity. He has enacted a state of disaster for at least the next 15 days. The Pacaya volcano continues to have increased eruptive activity.
Guatemala is no stranger to volcanoes. They have 8 active ones. The Pacaya volcano is a tourist attraction. Many people go there and walk along the lava flows that were created by volcanic eruptions in 1989 and 1991. There are hiking trails around the volcano. Pacaya volcano has been erupting off and on since 1966
Volcano ash brings more air travel chaos to Europe
May 17, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
LONDON: Ash clouds from Iceland”s Eyjafjoell volcano brought fresh travel chaos to thousands of passengers Monday, as airports shut in Britain, the Netherlands and Ireland.
London Heathrow, Europe”s busiest air hub, and London Gatwick, were hit with a new round of delays and cancellations following a six-hour overnight shutdown.
Amsterdam, one of Europe”s key air interchanges, was closed for seven hours from 0400 GMT as the denser part of the ash cloud drifted east.
Around 1,000 flights in Europe would be cancelled, said Eurocontrol, the intergovernmental agency coordinating air traffic control, saying it expected 28,000 flights to operate Monday in the continent.
“The areas of ash concentration are mainly at low levels. During the course of the day, the current cloud is expected to disperse somewhat,” it added, saying it would affect mainly parts of Britain.
Heathrow, and Gatwick, Britain”s second-busiest airport, reopened at 0600 GMT, but airports in Northern Ireland stayed shut until at least 1200 GMT.
Other airports that had closed down temporarily reopened, but services were struggling to get back to normal.
“The Civil Aviation Authority has lifted the no-fly zone that has been affecting flights at Heathrow and Gatwick,” said National Air Traffic Services, which manages British airspace.
“The decision comes following further information from the Met Office about the nature and location of the ash cloud.
“The no-fly zone remains in place in two key areas, affecting operations in Northern Ireland and the Shetland isles.
“All other airports are open.”
Passengers at Liverpool arrived to find their flights were still cancelled, despite the flight ban being lifted for the airport.
“It”s been terrible. There”s just nothing going,” said Margaret Palombella, 55, who was heading to Portugal.
“They said I might be able to get away on Wednesday night.”
The disruption had knock-on effects in other countries, with planes stuck in the wrong places. Some 32 flights from Portugal were cancelled, authorities there said.
The latest ash closures came at the beginning of a week where air travel disruption was already expected, due to a five-day strike by British Airways cabin crew set to kick off Tuesday.
In the Netherlands, besides Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Groningen airports were temporarily closed, but Eindhoven and Maastricht airports were open.
The ash clouds are over “the western part of the country and are moving slowly east”, Dutch air traffic control spokeswoman Marjolein Wenting told AFP.
In Ireland, Dublin airport reopened at 1100 GMT after a 17-hour shutdown as the cloud moved east, Sligo was back in action at 0900 GMT and Donegal was to follow at 1300 GMT.
Outside of Dublin, the country”s other two principal airports, Cork and Shannon, remained open.
The volcanic dust at more concentrated levels presents a danger to plane engines, though some industry officials have complained that the safety measures and airport closures have been excessive.
British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh said blanket bans on flying were “a gross over-reaction to a very minor risk”.
British Prime Minister David Cameron”s spokesman said passenger safety was the government”s priority and it was down to experts to make a judgement.
Hovever, the new PM was “willing to listen to any views,” he added.
Europe”s skies were partially closed for up to a week in April following the eruption of Iceland”s Eyjafjoell volcano, in the biggest shutdown of the continent”s airspace for more than 50 years.
Britain”s Met Office weather service said Monday Eyjafjoell “continues to erupt”, with the ash plume thought to be seven to eight kilometres (four to five miles) high, with extremes at nine kilometres (5.5 miles).
The international airline industry body, IATA, has estimated last month”s shutdown cost carriers some 1.7 billion dollars (1.4 billion euros).
On Sunday, Eurocontrol said, disruptions in Ireland and northern Britain resulted in a loss of some 400 flights.
Siberia mine blast toll rises to 30: minister
May 10, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
MOSCOW: The death toll from twin methane blasts at a large Siberian coal mine has shot up to 30, Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said Monday, local news agency reported.
“According to the latest count, 30 people have died and 60 others missing are still trapped in the mine. We are still conducting searches,” said Shoigu, who was visiting the site of the disaster. He said the ventilation system, which was damaged by the blast, had been repaired and that rescue operations, called off after the second explosion, had resumed.
The first blast occurred late Saturday at the Raspadskaya mine in the Kemerovo region of Siberia while 370 people were working underground. Twelve miners were initially killed and 71 injured. Three hundred others managed to reach the surface and safety, according to local news agency. But around two hours later after rescuers had entered the mine to find survivors and bring corpses to the surface a second explosion occurred, trapping both the remaining miners and the rescue workers.
Ash from Iceland”s volcano shuts European airports
May 10, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
GENEVA: Airlines canceled hundreds of flights across Europe and added hours to trans-Atlantic journeys Sunday as planes were diverted around a large plume of ash spewed by an Icelandic volcano and stretching from Greenland to Portugal.
So far, the weekend cancellations have been a fraction of the flights nixed two weeks ago when jittery European air traffic authorities closed down much of the continent”s airspace for fear the volcano”s abrasive ash could harm jet engines. But the possibility loomed of continuing eruption, and rising costs to airlines from ongoing disruption.
The bulk of the cloud, measuring 2,100 miles long and 1,400 miles wide (3,400 kilometers by 2,200 kilometers), stretched over the North Atlantic, according to the Irish Aviation Authority. It ordered Ireland”s five westernmost airports to close Sunday afternoon but allowed the country”s three biggest airports in Dublin, Shannon and Cork to stay open.
Airlines diverted their trans-Atlantic traffic north and south of the cloud, causing congestion as planes tried to squeeze through remaining routes. Some connections were canceled entirely because of an offshoot of the main cloud that was snaking its way from Portugal through Spain, southern France and northern Italy, then up to Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria.
Eurocontrol, the Brussels-based agency that coordinates air traffic control centers throughout the continent, warned airlines to plan on taking on more fuel for the longer flight around the North Atlantic no-fly zone.
It said there would be approximately 24,500 flights within the European area Sunday, about 500 below average for this time of year. It said the ash cloud hovering over the continent was expected to dissipate and that most of the closed airports were likely to reopen later Sunday.
Daniel Gerstgrasser, a meteorologist with Switzerland”s national weather agency, said rain would help wash out the cloud by Monday morning and no further ash drifts were expected to reach the continent in the coming 24 hours.
Longer-term forecasts were less clear. Meteorologists say that until Eyjafjallajokul (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl), the volcano in southern Iceland, stops erupting, the future course of Europe”s ash crisis will depend heavily on the prevailing winds. The eruption of the glacier-capped volcano has shown no signs of stopping since it began belching ash April 13. It last erupted from 1821 to 1823.
Irish airline Aer Lingus apologized to its customers for a string of flight cancellations since Tuesday, when the ash threat returned to Irish air space after a two-week break. Its trans-Atlantic services to Boston and New York were operating Sunday subject to delays.
United Airlines canceled four flights from Rome, Geneva and Zurich to Chicago and Washington. Other trans-Atlantic flights were operating with an average delay of two hours, said spokeswoman Megan McCarthy.
European carriers including British Airways, Germany”s Lufthansa and Air France reported delays but no cancellations on trans-Atlantic flights.
Budget airline easyJet stopped all connections to and from its hub in Geneva while Portuguese airports reported 223 cancellations at Porto and Lisbon. Like many airlines, easyJet was using the short messaging platform Twitter to update passengers on the latest developments.
Air space in northern Italian was closed for six hours Sunday, and although Milan”s two airports were among those coming under the no-fly zone, other airports heavily used by tourists and Italians for weekend trips, such as Rome” airports and Venice”s Marco Polo airport, remained open.
Alitalia said Milan”s Malpensa airport quickly geared up to resume flights to New York, Tokyo and Moscow. It said the great majority of passengers who couldn”t fly out during the six-hour shutdown would be accommodated on flights later on Sunday.
Iberia canceled some flights to Germany and to and from regional airports in the north of the country including Bilbao, Valladolid, Salamanca and Burgos.
Switzerland”s national carrier canceled one trans-Atlantic route from Zurich to Washington and 21 others to destinations in Europe because of airport closures in Italy and Germany.
“There will definitely be additional costs” to airlines because of the latest disruptions, said Swiss spokesman Jean-Claude Donzel. So far however, the airline has no plans to pass these on to customers, he said.
Scandinavian operator SAS, which is headquartered in Stockholm, canceled four European flights. Spokesman Bertil Ternert said the company normally has around 700 flights on Sundays and therefore the financial impact would only be marginal.
Last month”s travel chaos — which lasted five days, saw much of European airspace closed and the cancellation of over 100,000 flights — stranded passengers around the world and caused airlines direct losses of more than euro1 billion ($1.3 billion).
