Two Westerners kidnapped in Pakistan held by Taliban

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Two Western aid workers kidnapped in Pakistan in January are being held by the Pakistan Taliban near the border with Afghanistan, a senior militant commander told Reuters on Saturday.  

Gunmen stormed a house in Multan in southern Punjab province on Jan. 19 and drove away with two foreigners — one an Italian citizen and the other believed to be a German.  

“The two NGO (non-governmental organization) workers who were kidnapped in Multan nearly a month ago are in our custody near the border. We haven’t made any demands yet,” a senior commander of the Pakistan Taliban said.  

“They are in good health.”  

A Punjab provincial police chief said last month the foreigners were being held for ransom.   

Criminal gangs often target foreign aid workers in Pakistan in hope of securing large ransoms for their release. Pakistani officials say militant groups such as the Taliban are also involved in kidnappings.       

The senior commander said the Westerners were being held by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella group of Pakistani militant factions formed in 2007 which is also allied with the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda.  

In January, a Kenyan aid worker and his Pakistani driver went missing in southern Sindh province. A British doctor with the International Committee of the Red Cross was kidnapped by gunmen from the southwestern city of Quetta on Jan. 5.  

Last year, American aid worker Warren Weinstein was kidnapped from the central Pakistani city of Lahore. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for Weinstein’s abduction in December.  

In July, a Swiss couple was kidnapped from the southwestern Baluchistan province by the Pakistani Taliban.  

Such kidnappings in Pakistan put off long-term investors. Foreign direct investment in Pakistan fell 37 percent to $531.2 million in the second half of 2011 from $839.6 million in the final six months of 2010. AGENCIES

Fabio Capello quits as England coach

 

Fabio Capello quit as England coach on Wednesday just four months before the European Championship, after publicly challenging the Football Association s decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy.

 

The Italian, whose contract was due to expire after Euro 2012, walked out on the job after four years following an hour-long meeting with FA chairman David Bernstein and general secretary Alex Horne at Wembley Stadium.

 

Bernstein publicly undermined Capello last week by not consulting him before taking the captain s armband from Terry, who is facing a racism trial. Capello criticized the decision on Italian television, insisting it was “absolutely” the wrong decision.

 

Such a public breach with his employers meant there was no way forward in the job for the Capello.

 

“We have accepted Fabio s resignation, agreeing this is the right decision,” Bernstein said. “We would like to thank Fabio for his work with the England team and wish him every success in the future.”

 

The former Real Madrid and Juventus coach replaced Steve McClaren in the job after England failed to qualify for Euro 2008.

 

Capello clung onto his job in 2010 despite England s disappointing World Cup campaign. Now England needs a new manager for Euro 2012.
 

Ibrahimovic banned for 3 Serie A matches

 

He has been banned for hitting an opponent, ruling him out of a key clash with Italian league leader Juventus.

 

In the 64th minute of Milan s 0-0 draw with Napoli on Sunday, Ibrahimovic was expelled for slapping his right hand on the side of defender Salvatore Aronica s face.

 

Ibrahimovic will miss a difficult game at Udinese next weekend, a game at Cesena the following weekend and the match with Juventus on Feb. 25.

 

Milan trails Juventus by just one point but the Turin club also has a game in hand.

 

Ibrahimovic has scored 15 goals in Serie A thus far, one behind league leader Antonio Di Natale of Udinese.

 

Last season, Ibrahimovic was banned five matches for disciplinary incidents.
 

Crime rate climbs amid Brazilian police strike

 

Troops locked down the Brazilian city of Salvador on Sunday as an elite unit prepared to besiege the legislature and arrest armed police officers whose strike action has sent homicides spiraling.

 

A force of 2, 600 army, navy and federal police was ordered to quell unrest in the northeastern state of Bahia after leading police officers went on strike on Wednesday demanding higher pay, weeks before the annual Carnival.

 

Homicides have skyrocketed since the strike. State officials said 81 murders were reported over the past five days, more than twice the number for the same period last year. Assaults and store lootings also increased.

 

“There are 40 men of an elite group that arrived to capture the strikers,” a state government source said, as soldiers patrolled key intersections in the city and kept watch over its popular beaches.

 

The head of the state legislature, Marcelo Nilo, urged the strikers to leave the building before midnight Sunday. The site “cannot be used as a refuge for those fleeing justice,” Nilo said.

 

Scores of armed policemen demanding an amnesty have been occupying part of the building since the strike began, Bahia state government spokesman Robinson Almeida told AFP.

 

“The government knows that 99 percent of us are armed. If they try to evict us there will be a bloodbath,” an unidentified police officer told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

 

One strike leader was arrested on Sunday on charges of “incitement to violence, forming gangs and theft of public property,” officials said. Arrest warrants were outstanding against 11 other leaders.
Local residents were fearful.

 

“For the last two days I have not left my apartment,” Italian businessman Marco Baghin told reporters. “It made no sense to risk being attacked or robbed.” Bahia Governor Jaques Wagner has declared the strike illegal and asked for federal help.

 

Brazil s top army commander, General Enzo Martins, told the Agencia Brasil that 900 more soldiers were being deployed to Bahia to help provide additional security.

 

The strike and the spike in violence came just two weeks before millions of tourists were expected to arrive for Brazil s premier tourist event, the Carnival.

 

Bahia, Brazil s fourth most populous state with a population of 13.6 million, is an important center for Carnival celebrations.
“This strike, in the way it is being carried out, is unacceptable,” Brazilian Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo said.
Crime fears were having a dire economic affect.

 

Pedro Galvao, president of the Association of Travel Agencies of Bahia, told Brazil s O Globo newspaper that 10 percent of tourists had already canceled their air and hotel reservations for the Carnival.

 

Some 10,000 police officers, or one third of the Bahia police force, were on strike, demanding a 50 percent pay raise,

 

better work conditions, and no retaliation, the state Public Safety Department said. The average wage for a state officer is about $867 a month.

 

Bahia police also went on strike in 2001 for one week demanding a pay raise.
 

Big freeze grips Europe with 200 dead

LONDON: Temperatures have plunged to new lows in Europe where a week-long cold snap has now claimed more than 220 lives as forecasters warned that the big freeze would tighten its grip over the weekend.

A total of 223 people have died from the cold weather in the last seven days according to an AFP tally, with Ukraine suffering the heaviest toll.

People have been found dead on the streets in some countries, while thousands have been trapped in mountain villages in Serbia. In Italy, Venice’s canals started freezing over and even Rome was dusted in snow.

The lowest temperatures recorded in Europe were in the southwest of the Czech Republic, where the mercury dropped as low as minus 38.1 degrees Celsius (minus 36.5 Fahrenheit) overnight Thursday.

The EU executive said Friday that vital Russian gas deliveries had dropped in nine countries, with Russian giant Gazprom invoking flexibility clauses as it also braves a cold snap. Supplies fell 30 percent in Austria and 24 percent in Italy.

Ukraine’s emergencies ministry raised its death toll to 101 since the cold snap took hold, 64 of whom died on the streets.

Almost 1,600 people have sought medical attention for frostbite and hypothermia and thousands have flocked to temporary shelters.

The chilling temperatures killed eight more people over 24 hours in Poland, bringing the death toll to 37 since the deep freeze began a week ago, police said.

Temperatures plunged to minus 35 Celsius in some areas of Poland Friday.

In Bulgaria parts of the River Danube froze over, while another six people were found dead from the cold, bringing the overall tally to 16 in the last week, according to local media.

Most of the dead in the European Union’s poorest country were villagers found frozen to death on the side of the road or in their unheated homes, the reports said.

More than 1,000 Bulgarian schools remained closed for a third day amid fresh snowfalls and piercing winds in the northeast.

In neighbouring Romania two more people died, bringing the overall toll to 24, and hundreds of schools remained closed.

In Rome, residents experienced only their second day of snow in 15 years, with white flakes covering palm trees, ancient Roman ruins and Baroque churches across the capital.

Up to five centimetres (two inches) of snow fell in some districts and ancient monuments like the Colosseum were closed to visitors for fear of damage to the structure.

Canals in Venice, where temperatures fell as low as minus 5 Celsius, started freezing. However trains resumed normal service across the country except in and around Bologna and on a local line near Rome after days of delays.

Three people have died due to the extreme weather in recent days, including a homeless man found in Milan on Thursday.

An Italian ferry with over 300 people aboard got into difficulties off the port of Civitavecchia, north of Rome late Friday, hitting a harbour wall and ripping the side of the ship, port authorities said.

Two tugs managed to bring the “Sharden” safely in with all passengers and crew safe and sound.

In Estonia, a man was found frozen to death on a street in Tallinn, the first reported death there.

France also reported its first death after an 82-year-old man suffering from Alzheimer’s wandered out of his home in his pyjamas in the eastern French village of Lemberg and died of hypothermia.

One person died in Serbia, but teams of workers ploughed through snowdrifts to get food, supplies and aid to thousands of residents of mountain villages cut off by the weather.

“To help a woman who needed to reach a hospital we were breaking through two-metre (six-foot) snow drifts, which lasted for two and a half hours,” said Vedran Taskovic, a rescuer in the southeastern town of Vranje.

The cold snap has also killed people in the Baltic countries of Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Austria and Greece.

Swathes of Britain were bracing for snow after temperatures plunged to minus 11 degrees Celsius overnight in some areas, with authorities warning that the cold could catch people off-guard after a warmer-than-normal winter so far.

Further north, about 40 people were injured in about 100 road accidents caused by powdery snow and icy conditions, police said.

The first snows to hit Belgium caused more than 1,100 kilometres (700 miles) of traffic jams on roads and highways, said automobile associations. The last record was 948 kilometres registered in February 2010.

Algerian officials announced they had cancelled ferry services to the southern French port of Marseille because of the conditions. AGENCIES

Rome witnesses unusual snowfall

 

Thick snowflakes are falling on Rome, a rare occurrence for a capital usually blessed by a temperate climate, and other parts of the country are experiencing frigid temperatures unseen in years.

 

The last substantial snowfall in Rome was in 1986, though there have been other cases of lighter snow since then.

 

Snow began falling in the late morning Friday, leaving a light dusting on trees and cars. It wasn t clear if there would be any significant accumulation on the ground. The north of the country has also been gripped by snow and ice that is disrupting train travel.

 

Temperatures plunged as low as minus 22 Celsius (minus 7 Fahrenheit), in Trepalle, a village in the Italian Alps.

Waka Waka girl Shakira’s birthday today

LOS ANGELES: A Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, known professionally as Shakira is celebratingher birthday today (Thursday).

Shakira was born February 2, 1977). Born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, Shakira began performing in school, demonstrating her vocal ability with rock and roll, Latin and Arabic influences with her own original twist on belly dancing.

Shakira emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s. Shakira is a native Spanish speaker and also speaks fluent English and Portuguese as well as some Italian, French, Catalan and Arabic.

After a poor commercial reception with local producers on her first two albums, and being little-known outside Colombia, Shakira decided to produce her own brand of music.

In 1995 she released Pies Descalzos, which brought her great fame in Latin America and Spain, and her 1998 album ‘Dónde Están los Ladrones’ was a critical success selling over 7 million copies worldwide.

In 2001, aided by the worldwide success of her first English single “Whenever, Wherever” that became the best selling single of 2002, she broke through into the English-speaking world with the release of Laundry Service, which sold over 13 million copies worldwide.

Four years later, Shakira released two album projects called Fijación Oral Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation Vol. 2. Both reinforced her success, particularly with the best selling song of the 2000s, “Hips Don’t Lie”.

In 1995, Shakira founded the Pies Descalzos Foundation. It is a Colombian charity with special schools for poor children all around Colombia. During her career, Shakira has performed at a large number of benefit concerts. Among the most famous are the Live 8 benefit concert in July 2005, the Live Earth concert, Hamburg where she headlined the show, as well as the “Clinton Global Initiative” created by former US President Bill Clinton.

She was also invited to the Oval Office by President Barack Obama in February 2010 to discuss early childhood development.

She has won two Grammy Awards, eight Latin Grammy Awards, twelve Billboard Latin Music Awards  and has been Golden Globe-nominated.

She is also the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, and the second most successful female Latin singer behind Gloria Estefan, having sold over 70 million albums worldwide.

Her U.S. album sales stand at 9.9 million. In the fall of 2009, Shakira released her sixth studio album She Wolf worldwide gaining a lot of critical praise for her eccentricity and writing skills. The album sold roughly 2 million copies around the world.

Shakira’s “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)”, was chosen as the official song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The song has received generally positive critical reception, and has become a worldwide smash hit and the biggest selling World Cup song of all time.

On YouTube, the English version of the music video is the 4th most watched video of all time with over 441 million views. When she released her seventh studio album, the bilingual Sale el Sol in October 2010, she gained back her Latin following, which Shakira described as being the main goal for the album.

The album has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Since 2009, Shakira’s musical career suffered from a strained relationship with her label Epic Records, which resulted in lack of promotion and investment from Epic Records towards her two latter studio albums; She Wolf (2009) and Sale el Sol (2010). TrendPK

Protesters throw shoes at Ban Ki-moon convoy

 

Protesters threw shoes, sand and small stones at the convoy of UN chief Ban Ki-moon as he entered the Gaza Strip for a visit on Thursday.

 

An AFP correspondent on the Gaza side of the Erez crossing from Israel said a crowd of around 50 people, many of them relatives of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, threw objects at Ban s car as he drove past them.

 

Federal hospitals staff protest enters 33rd day

 

The workers of federal hospitals including nurses and other medical staff protesting against service structure staged sit-in outside PIMS Hospital and left working in hospitals and the junior doctors are forced to work as nurses and paramedics.

 

According to Secretary Capital Administration and Development, workers protest unfair as the ministry has forwarded the summary of employees’ demands to the primer minister and the notification will be issued after approval of the summary.
 

Capsized cruise ship to take up 10 months to remove

GIGLIO, Italy: The cruise ship that capsized off Italy’s coast will take up to 10 months to remove, officials said Sunday, as rough seas off the Tuscan coast forced the suspension of recovery operations.

Officials called off both the start of operations to remove of 500,000 gallons of fuel and the search for people still missing after determining the Costa Concordia had moved four centimeters (an inch and a half) over six hours, coupled with waves of more than one meter (three feet).

A 17th body, identified as Peruvian crew member Erika Soria Molina, was found Saturday. Sixteen crew and passengers remain listed as missing, with one body recovered from the ship not yet identified.

Officials have virtually ruled out finding anyone alive more than two weeks after the Costa Concordia hit a reef, but were reluctant to give a final death toll for the Jan. 13 disaster. The crash happened when the captain deviated from his planned route, creating a huge gash that capsized the ship. More than 4,200 people were on board.

“Our first goal was to find people alive,” Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the operation, told a daily briefing. “Now we have a single, big goal, and that is that this does not translate into an environmental disaster.”

University of Florence professor Riccardo Fanti said the ship’s movements could either be caused by the ship settling on its own weight, slipping deeper into the seabed, or both. He also could not rule out the ship’s sliding along the seabed.

Gabrielli noted that the body of a man recovered from the ship remains unidentified, despite efforts to obtain DNA samples from all of the missing, meaning that officials cannot preclude that the deceased is someone unknown to authorities. Costa has said that it runs strict procedures that would preclude the presence of any unregistered passengers.

Experts have said it would take 28 days to remove fuel from 15 tanks accounting for more than 80 percent of all fuel on board the ship. The next job would be to target the engine room, which contains nearly 350 cubic meters of diesel, fuel and other lubricants, Gabrielli said.

Only once the fuel is removed can work begin on removing the ship, either floating it in one piece or cutting it up and towing it away as a wreck. Costa has begun the process for taking bids for the recovery operation, a process that will take two months.

Gabrielli said the actual removal will take from seven to 10 months — meaning that the wreck will be visible from the coast of the island of Giglio for the entire summer tourism season.

Residents of Giglio have been circulating a petition to demand that officials provide more information on how the full-scale operations can coexist with the important tourism season. At the moment, access to the port for private boats has been banned and all boats must stay at least one mile (1.6 kilometers) from the wrecked ship, affecting access to Giglio’s only harbor for fishermen, scuba divers and private boat owners.

“We are really sorry, we would have preferred to save them all. But now other needs and other problems arise,” said Franca Melils, a local business owner who is promoting a petition for the tourist season. “It’s about us, who work and make a living exclusively from tourism. We don’t have factories, we don’t have anything else.”

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