Thirty UN rescue teams on standby

GENEVA: Thirty international search and rescue teams stand ready to go to Japan to provide assistance following a major earthquake, the United Nations said on Friday.

“We stand ready to assist as usual in such cases,” Elisabeth Byrs of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) told Reuters in Geneva. “Thirty international search and rescue teams are on alert and monitoring the situation and stand ready to assist if necessary.”

UN disaster assessment and coordination teams, who deploy in emergencies worldwide to try to locate and treat survivors, normally include sniffer dogs and medical teams.

The biggest earthquake to hit Japan in 140 years struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, cars and farm buildings on fire. (Reuters)

Tsunami may wash over Pacific islands: Red Cross

GENEVA: The tsunami set off by Japan’s major earthquake is currently higher than some Pacific islands which it could wash over, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Friday.

“Our biggest concern is the Asia and Pacific region, where developing countries are far more vulnerable to this type of unfolding disaster. The tsunami is a major threat,” Paul Conneally, spokesman for the Federation, the world”s biggest disaster relief network, said in Geneva.

“At the moment, it is higher than some islands and could go right over them,” he said.

The biggest earthquake to hit Japan in 140 years struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, cars and farm buildings on fire.

India’s Prithvi-II missile fails to take off

India’s nuclear capable Prithvi-II ballistic missile failed to take off during a user trial from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur on sea, off the Orissa coast on Friday.
The test-fire was held as a part of user’s trial by the armed forces. According to defence sources, the failure to lift Prithvi-II was due to a snag either in the main missile or the sub-system, including the launcher.
The last four user’s trials of the surface-to-surface missile were successfully conducted during the about one year period, from the same site in the ITR. The last trial was conducted on June 18.
The Prithvi -II has a strike range of 350 km and a two stage engine. It is nine metres long and a metre wide and can carry a payload of 500 kilograms.
It has already been inducted into Indian armed forces. It is equipped with an advanced inertial navigation system and has features to deceive anti-ballistic missiles.

CCTV footage of Jinnah Hospital attack released

LAHORE: A CCTV footage of yesterdays” attack on Jinnah Hospital has been released to media by the hospital authorities.

According to the footage attackers used backdoor to enter the hospital at 11:31pm.

Five persons including three policemen were gunned down when at least four terrorists clad in police uniforms stormed into the ”well-guarded” emergency ward late night, in a futile bid to rescue or kill an under-treatment terrorist injured in the attack on an Ahmedi worship place in Model Town on May 28.

Attackers open indiscriminate fire as they entered into ward and patients were seen running towards Surgical Unit to save their lives, footage of camera installed at Surgical Unit 4 showed.

A police officer tried to hide behind a door and later ran out of the area. Injured can also be seen crying for help

Protesters baton charged in Karachi

KARACHI: Police baton charged participants of a rally trying to reach US Consulate here today. Imamia Organization organised the rally against Israeli aggression.

Protestors clashed with police near Fawara Chowk when they tried to reach US Consulate to protest against Israeli assault on aid convoy.

When they failed to disperse the protesters, the police fired tear gas shells and used water cannon. Later, some protestors managed to reach the Consulate.

Women also participated in the rally.

Cyclone 1100KM south-southwest of Karachi

KARACHI: The depression in Central Arabian Sea since Monday has intensified into a Tropical Cyclone and is presently located at about 1100 Km south-southwest of Karachi.

Tropical Cyclone is expected to move initially in north-westerly/northerly direction during next 24 hours. After that it is likely to re-curve in north-easterly direction towards coastal areas of Indian Gujrat and Sindh Coast, Director General Pakistan Meteorological Department Dr. Qamaruzzaman Chaudhry said Tuesday afternoon.

Tropical Cyclone is expected to further intensify into a Severe Tropical Cyclone after crossing 20N (on Thursday), he stated.

Based on probable track and estimated intensity of Tropical Cyclone, widespread rain with scattered heavy fall accompanied by gusty winds (60-80 knots) is expected along Sindh-Makran coast from Thursday evening to Saturday.

Fairly widespread heavy falls with strong gusty winds (80-100 knots) are expected over Lower Sindh including District Thatta, Badin, Tharparkar, Umar Kot, southern areas of Hyderabad Mirpurkhas Districts on Friday, Saturday. Karachi is also likely to receive thundershowers accompanied by strong dust storm during the period.

Due to this Cyclone, the sea conditions are going to be Rough to Very Rough in next 48 hrs, and High tides are also expected to develop near Sindh-Makran coast on Friday, Saturday.

Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre of Pakistan Meteorological Department warned fishermen of Sindh and Balochistan who are in open sea should return to the coast before Wednesday evening. All fishermen are advised not to venture in open sea from Thursday to Saturday.

BP tests tricky oil plug plan

LOS ANGELES: BP began critical testing of its “top kill” plan to plug the gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well as President Barack Obama vented frustration over the energy giant”s inability to contain what is likely the largest U.S. oil spill ever.

Five weeks into the unchecked disaster, Obama has told aides to “plug the damn hole” and plans to make his second visit to the Louisiana Gulf coast on Friday.

But before he heads to the disaster zone, Obama is expected to send a message on Thursday to the oil industry of tougher safety requirements for offshore drilling rigs, an official said.

Mega Millions Winning Numbers 8/28/09

NEW YORK: The winning numbers have been drawn for the $330-million Mega Millions lottery.

The winning numbers are:

37-1-17-31-54
Mega Ball 31

That’s the second largest jackpot in history. The cash payout is estimated at $210.4 million.

Friday’s jackpot in the Mega Millions multistate lottery game has grown to $333 million.

That’s the second largest jackpot in history. The cash payout is estimated at $210.4 million.

The largest payout so far has been a $390 million jackpot shared by a New Jersey couple from Cape May County and a truck driver in Georgia in 2007.
New Jersey Lottery Results

01-17-31-37-54-31

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Mega Millions Winning Numbers 8/28/09 was first posted on August 29, 2009 at 11:29 am.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.

CIA Torture Investigation, Dick Cheney Slammed

WASHINGTON: Former US vice president Dick Cheney Friday slammed a Justice Department probe into alleged abusive interrogation techniques by CIA agents as an “outrageous political act.”

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday to be aired at the weekend, Cheney said the investigation would do long term damage to America’s ability to protect itself, adding the administration should not punish agents for doing their jobs.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Monday he had named assistant US attorney John Durham to review the CIA interrogations of detainees at secret sites overseas to determine whether any laws were broken.

But Cheney, who has called on the Central Intelligence Agency to release proof that harsh interrogation techniques provided key information in stopping attacks, slammed the probe.

“We had a track record now of eight years of defending the nation against any further mass casualty attacks from al Qaeda,” he told Fox.

“The approach of the Obama administration should be to come to those people who were involved in that policy and say, ‘How did you do it? What were the keys to keeping this country safe over that period of time?’” Cheney said.

“Instead, they’re out there now threatening to disbar the lawyers who gave us the legal opinions — threatening contrary to what the president originally said.

“They’re going to go out and investigate the CIA personnel who carried out those investigations,” Cheney added.

The Department of Justice on Monday revealed details of a report by a CIA inspector general showing that interrogators at secret CIA prisons threatened to kill the children of September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Other detainees were threatened with the rape of family members, execution, shooting and torture.

“I have concluded that the information known to me warrants opening a preliminary review into whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of specific detainees at overseas locations,” Holder said.

But Durham’s probe will be limited to examining whether there is sufficient evidence to charge individual agents with violating the special interrogation rules they were given after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

If Durham’s investigation concludes that US laws were broken, it is not clear whether Holder would chose to go ahead with prosecutions.

Obama had previously made clear that CIA interrogators, acting on the basis of legal guidelines drawn up by former president George W. Bush’s administration would not face the wrath of the law.

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CIA Torture Investigation, Dick Cheney Slammed was first posted on August 29, 2009 at 12:19 pm.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.

Eastern US Warned By Tropical Storm Danny

MIAMI: Tropical Storm Danny approached the US east coast on Friday and could bring rain and high surf to the northeast by the weekend, as forecasters warned of dangerous waves and rip currents.

Even though the eye of Danny was forecast to bypass the outer banks of North Carolina Saturday, New England and the Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were warned to monitor the storm as it churned northward.

Ocean swells, winds and rain could dampen the day for mourners at the funeral service for late senator Edward Kennedy in the northeastern state of Massachusetts Saturday if Danny continues on the same northwestern trajectory.

At 2100 GMT, Danny was churning in the Atlantic at six miles (nine kilometers) per hour, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).

The eye of the storm was about 330 miles (535 km) south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and 810 miles (1300 km) south-southwest of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Danny, with top winds at 40 miles (65 km) per hour, could strengthen slightly again later in the day, the NHC said.

A tropical storm watch remained in effect for parts of the North Carolina coast, while forecasters urged people to remain on the lookout along the northeastern US coast as well as the Canadian Maritimes.

“Large swells from Danny are expected to produce dangerous surf conditions and life-threatening rip currents along the US east coast during the next day or two,” the NHC said.

The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and ends on November 30.

The only other hurricane this Atlantic was Hurricane Bill, which was downgraded this week as it swept over Canada’s east coast.

So far, 2009 has seen one of the calmest starts to the hurricane season in a decade, which researchers have attributed to the development of an El Nino effect in the Pacific.

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Eastern US Warned By Tropical Storm Danny was first posted on August 29, 2009 at 12:35 pm.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.