MQM demands suo motu notice on Ilyas Bilour statement

 

The emergency meeting of the coordination committee of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was simultaneously held in Karachi and London to discuss the statement of Awami National Party (ANP) leader, senator Ilyas Bilour, during a programme of a private TV channel.

 

According to MQM coordination committee, the ANP leader has confessed ANP’s involvement in the Karachi unrest during the talk show.

 

The coordination committee has asked the Supreme Court to takes suo motu notice on Ilyas Bilour statement.
 

Lahore man pulled alive from factory rubble after 47 hours

 

A man, Asghar Ali, has been rescued from the rubble even after 47 hours. While rescue teams are struggling to save other lives, as the death toll from the accident rose to 19.

 

As per details, the three-story factory collapsed on Monday in Lahore after a gas explosion, killing at least 21 people and trapping dozens.

 

“The factory has completely collapsed and two houses next to it as well,” an emergency official said, adding that authorities were having trouble getting heavy rescue machinery to the area because of narrow streets.

 

According to sources, at least 60 people including 25 women were at work when the factory, which produced veterinary medical products, crumbled.

 

Rescue workers on Tuesday had pulled out a 60-year-old woman, Saliha Bibi, alive.

 

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has also taken the notice of the incident and sought report within 48 hours.
 

Asia stocks muted as Greek debt talks drag on

 

Japan s Nikkei 225 fell 0.2 percent to 8,916.09. South Korea s Kospi rose 0.3 percent to 1,979.30 and Hong Kong s Hang Seng was 0.6 percent higher at 20,826.19. Benchmarks in Taiwan and Singapore rose while mainland China fell.

 

Greek political leaders have been haggling over the details of a cost-cutting package required for the country to get more urgently needed loans from international lenders; some €130 billion ($170 billion) in bailout money is on the line.

 

Without an injection of emergency money, Greece will likely default on its bond repayments on March 20 an event that could shake European banks and other private lenders with Greek debt on their books.

 

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have warned Greek leaders that they need to push through the austerity measures or risk letting the country go bankrupt.

 

“The stakes are high with a potential disorderly default and Eurozone exit on the cards should no agreement be reached,” analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said in an email.

 

The Dow Jones industrial average fell or 0.1 percent to close at 12,845.13 on Friday. The Standard & Poor s 500 index slipped marginally to 1,344.33. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.1 percent to 2,901.99.

 

Benchmark oil for March delivery was up 36 cents to $97.28 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 93 cents to finish at $96.91 per barrel on the Nymex on Monday.

 

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3122 from $1.3125 late Monday in New York. The dollar rose to 76.64 yen from 76.59 yen.
 

6 countries ban import of Pakistani medicine

 

Following the deaths caused by faulty PIC drugs, six countries have banned the import of medicines from Pakistan, a move that would badly affect the export of locally-manufactured medicines.

 

According to sources, the countries include Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Kenya and three other African nations.

 

Export of locally-manufactured medicines adds over $193 million annually to country’s foreign exchange.

 

Amid lingering spurious drugs issue, an emergency meeting has been called in Karachi to devise a strategy to counter production of fake medicines.

 

So far 128 cardiac patients have died due to adulterated drugs provided by Punjab Institute of Cardiology.

Famine over in Somalia but emergency remains: UN

 

But the situation remains dire with nearly a third of the population needing emergency support, the UN said on Friday.

 

“The United Nations declares an end to famine conditions in Somalia,” the UN Somalia Food Security Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) and the US famine warning network, known as FEWS NET, said in a statement.
 

Somalia: Islamist rebels ban ICRC

 

Somalia s Islamist Shebab rebels on Monday banned the ICRC, ordering it to close all emergency relief operations in war-torn regions struggling from famine.

 

The Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab said in a statement it had “decided to fully terminate the contract” of the ICRC, claiming it had handed out expired food and because it had “falsely accused the mujahideen of hindering food distribution.”
 

London: Two suspected devices found in Canterbury

British army bomb disposal experts were called in to the city of Canterbury and the centre was partly evacuated after the discovery of a suspect package, but the device was a hoax, police said Saturday.

Police also launched an investigation late Friday into a small fire in a shop and suspicious activity at the cricket ground in the historic city in southeast England.

The package was discovered by a member of the public near the railway station, prompting emergency services to stop trains, close roads and lock down the centre of the city, a popular tourist destination famed for its ancient cathedral.
But police said in a message on Twitter early Saturday that it was not an explosive device.

 ”We can now confirm that the suspect package on the railway line is not an explosive device, but an elaborate hoax,” said a message from Kent Police on Twitter. The force added that it was “designed to look like an explosive device. It will now be forensically examined.”

Police were called to a second incident at a branch of food and clothes retailer Marks and Spencer where a small fire had been discovered, although they said it was unclear whether the two incidents were linked.

It was not clear what caused the blaze, which was discovered at 5:10 pm (1610 GMT) in the baby changing area on the shop s second floor, and quickly extinguished.

Police said that they were checking “reports of suspicious activity” at Canterbury cricket ground, where the Indian team earlier played Kent as part of their tour of England. No injuries were reported at any of the incidents.

Hurricane Irene to make landfall at U.S. East

NEW YORK: Energy companies on Friday activated emergency plans as the densely populated U.S. East Coast braced for blackouts from Hurricane Irene that could affect millions.

Meantime, three major New York-area airports will close to domestic and international arrivals beginning at noon EDT on Saturday due to Hurricane Irene, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.

John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport in New York as well as Newark Liberty International Airport, however, will remain open to departures, the Port Authority said in an alert on its website.

Major U.S. airlines are in the process of cancelling most of their flights through the weekend at the major New York-area airports.

Oil refineries in the U.S. Northeast scaled back operations and pipeline operators warned of potential delays for fuel distribution. The Coast Guard said it had no plans yet to shut the New York Harbor, but energy traders said delays could affect the delivery hub for millions of barrels a day in crude and oil products, by pipeline, barge and ship.

Storm-caused blackouts could be a huge menace, energy experts, meteorologists and U.S. officials warned.

“The range of possibilities from this storm is enormous,” said energy analyst Tim Evans at Citi Futures in New York.

“We could see anything from blackouts putting the entire Northeast in the dark, to only very localized problems.”

At 2 p.m. (1800 GMT), Irene’s center was 300 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, churning northward. It weakened early Friday to a Category 2 hurricane from a 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, but was expected to retain hurricane force and scour the length of the mid-Atlantic coast on Sunday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said power outages could last days, with flash flooding in coastal areas and strong winds expected to reach far inland.

Irene may leave 5 million to 7 million people without electricity, a Deutsche Bank meteorologist wrote in a report, adding high tides due to a new moon on August 28 could exacerbate storm surges.

Although the East Coast does not have major offshore oil and gas production like the hurricane-prone Gulf Coast, its huge power and pipeline networks, nuclear plants and refineries mean the energy stakes are high as Irene bears in on North Carolina.

The storm threatens to tear up to the Northeast starting Saturday.

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 knocked out Gulf Coast refining for weeks, months for some plants, while the last major hurricane to batter the East Coast, Gloria in 1985, left millions without power but caused little lasting damage to energy infrastructure.

As a category 2 storm, Irene already packs winds between 96 and 110 miles per hour and storm surges of 6 to 8 feet.

East Coast utilities were lining up thousands of workers from as far away as Texas to descend on storm-ravaged areas through the power industry’s mutual aid program. Crews would clear fallen trees and debris and restore power as quickly as possible after Irene passes.

“If the storm tracks anywhere close to the worst-case scenario, it will be a very major mobilization,” said Jim Owen of trade group Edison Electric Institute.

East Coast oil refineries, which process up to 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude, planned to brave Irene without total shutdowns. But some were scaling back, the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association (NPRA) said.

Sunoco’s Marcus Hook refinery in coastal Pennsylvania has cut rates by 25 percent to 140,000 bpd, a source familiar said.

Irene’s severity had nuclear power plant operators near the coast securing equipment and battening down the hatches.

Dominion Resources Inc, which shut its Virginia-based North Anna nuclear plant on Tuesday following an earthquake, said the plant would remain closed through the storm.

Hurricane winds may cause Dominion to idle other reactors along the seaboard over the weekend, the company said, even though they are built to withstand winds of up to 360 miles per hour.

Any closure of the New York Harbor could create backlogs of ships waiting to deliver crude or fuels, but would not be likely to cause a prolonged supply crunch.

Oil terminals in the East Coast region had around nine days of crude supply on hand last week.

The consumption region, known as PADD 1 in the refining industry, depends largely on imports of fuel, and its depots currently hold enough gasoline to cover 23 days of regional demand, 46 days for heating oil, according to the NPRA.

The largest U.S. refined products pipeline, 2.37 million bpd Colonial line, continued to operate normally on Friday but said it expected deliveries to be partially affected by Irene.

Colonial ships fuels including gasoline and diesel to terminals in Irene’s projected path, including Virginia, Maryland, and New York Harbor, where the line ends.

“This is not Katrina,” said Jim Beck of the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“PADD 1 has plenty (of crude) to ride out any kind of supply disruptions. We are well-covered with (oil) products for this time of year.”

Several oil terminals were due to close temporarily. Pipeline and terminal operator Magellan Midstream partners was shutting oil terminals in North Carolina and Virginia on Friday. Enterprise and Kinder Morgan planned to close some coastal terminals.

Prices of front-month gasoline futures in New York Harbor retreated 1.1 percent on Friday. They had gained more than 3 percent Thursday on concerns over supply disruptions.

In the Bahamas, which was pounded by Irene on Thursday, Buckeye Partners said its massive 21.6 million barrel Borco oil shipping terminal was restarting on Friday. AGENCIES

Iran: Seventy Feared Dead in an Air Crash

Seventy people are feared to have been killed in an air crash in Iran on Sunday night whereas 32 others were rescued with minor injuries.

The plane was on an internal flight from Mehrabad Airport in Tehran to the north-western city of Urmia when it crashed in heavy fog near its destination, state media reported.

Emergency crews were able to rescue up to 50 people from the wreckage with relatively light injuries, according to preliminary reports. Initial reports said that 105 people were on board in total.

The crash will once again focus attention on the state of the Iranian air industry, which has had difficulty in maintaining its fleet amid economic difficulties and international sanctions.

There have been at least five other major disasters since December 2005, the most recent being the loss of a Caspian Airlines jet en route for Yerevan in Armenia which came down in north-western Iran in July 2009 with the loss of all 168 on board.

According to reports, the plane involved in the latest incident, an Iran Air Boeing 727, was one hour late in departing because of bad weather across parts of the country.

Arizona: US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot in the head

Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman, has been shot in the head at point blank range by a gunman who opened fire on a public meeting that she was holding in Tucson, Arizona today.

At least 11 others including some of her staff members were reported to have been injured, some seriously, and there were reports that between four and six people had died including a Federal Judge. There were conflicting reports over whether Miss Giffords had herself been killed.

Miss Giffords, 40, who is married to astronaut Mark Kelly, was talking to a couple outside a Safeway grocery store when the attacker ran up and opened fire indiscriminately.

Andrea Gooden, an eyewitness who was working across the road from the scene, said: I heard about 15 shots. Then there were people racing across the parking lot. She said there were many sheriffs and firefighters on the scene within minutes.

A respected US website reported another eye-witness, Steven Rayle, who was on the scene at the time of the shooting and helped to hold the suspect down while waiting for police. He told The event was very informal: Giffords had set up a table outside the Safeway and about 20-30 people were gathered to talk to her. The gunman, who may have come from inside the Safeway, walked up and shot Giffords in the head first.

According to Mr Rayle, who is a former Accident and Emergency doctor, Giffords was able to move her hands after being shot.

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