Three missing after Philippine tourist boat capsizes

MANILA: Ten foreign tourists were rescued but three local crewmen remain missing after their boat capsized off the popular Philippine resort island of Boracay, according to police.

The motorised vessel carrying seven Britons, two Chinese, one Australian and the three Filipino crew members capsized on Thursday afternoon, according to a statement released by national police headquarters in Manila.

The Boracay tourist police dispatched a boat to the scene and rescued all the foreigners but the three sailors could not be found, the statement said.

The search for the three is continuing, the statement said, without giving a reason for the mishap. AGENCIES

MQM urges fast rescue of stranded miners

TrendPK.com

LONDON: Quaid MQM Altaf Hussain has urged the government to step up efforts to dig out the miners trapped underground in Abbottabad district, reports TrendPK on late Thursday.

At least seven miners are still stranded in phosphate mines for last two days. Four among eleven miners’ dead bodies have been recovered so far.

In a statement issued from London, MQM chief stressed on the need on war-footing for the fast rescue of ill-fated trapped miners.

Altaf Hussain also lunched appeal to the officials of all defense institutions to make use of available resources including moving their activists to dig out stranded miners, the statement said.

Hussain directed his party’s activists based in Abbottabad to participate in rescue operation, the statement added. TrendPK

Ijaz moves Commission to record his statement abroad

TrendPK.com
ISLAMABAD: American-Pakistani Businessman Mansoor Ijaz requested the Supreme Court (SC)-appointed Memogate Commission to record his statement abroad, as he is unable to come to Pakistan over serious threats to his security in Pakistan.

Ijaz’s counsel Akram Sheikh Advocate filed the plea which says the apex court has delegated the commission with powers to log statements abroad.

The petition says he is every other day being threatened that he will not be allowed to leave the country. It should be mentioned here that Federal Interior Minister Rehman A. Malik has previously said Ijaz’s name could be put on exit control list (ECL) if the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) recommends so.

“I am all the willing to come to Pakistan. And, through my evidences, the impression will be dispelled that I don’t want to come to Pakistan,” Ijaz said. TrendPK

Killing of French troops ‘individual action’: Karzai

KABUL: The killing of four French troops by an Afghan army soldier was “an isolated and individual action” and did not represent the anger of the Afghan people, President Hamid Karzai said Sunday.

Karzai was speaking after meeting French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet who flew to Kabul in the wake of the shooting at a French base on Friday.

The president “expressed his sadness” over the incident, a statement from the presidential palace said.

“The attack against French forces by an Afghan army soldier does not represent the anger of Afghan people but it is just an isolated and individual action,” he said.

It was a matter of concern that for the second time “an Afghan army soldier turned his weapon on French soldiers” and the ministry of defence had been assigned to investigate the issue, the statement said.

The French defence minister said Saturday that he had been told that the Afghan soldier who killed the troops was a Taliban infiltrator, but Karzai did not mention this allegation.

The Taliban say they are investigating to see whether the shooter had links with the insurgents, suggesting that some attacks by Afghan soldiers are prompted purely by patriotism and anger towards the “invading enemy”.

Longuet had thanked Karzai for his condolences “and assured his country’s continued assistance to Afghanistan”, the statement said.

The defence minister had said “France will sign long term strategic treaty with the government of Afghanistan… and will continue its assistance to Afghanistan beyond 2014″, according to the statement.

When news of the shooting broke on Friday an angry French President Nicholas Sarkozy warned that France could pull its troops out of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan before the planned withdrawal in 2014.

Earlier Sunday, Longuet and General John Allen, the US commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan, presided over a solemn repatriation ceremony for the bodies of the four French troops at a snowy Kabul airport.

“The enemy will not hesitate to resort to the worst acts of treachery. Your mission was symbolic: to live with Afghan soldiers, to teach them and not to protect yourselves,” said NATO Lieutenant General Olivier de Bavinchove.

“You died for a just cause: for righteousness and freedom,” he said at the the ceremony attended by some 700 soldiers and Catholic and Protestant clerics.

The four coffins, accompanied by photographs of the fallen soldiers, were draped in the French flag before being carried aloft into the snow-covered jet French presidential jet.

Longuet held talks with  Karzai, Allen and the Afghan interior and defence ministers on how better to protect French troops training Afghan soldiers as part of NATO’s mission.

Six French soldiers have been shot dead in just three weeks by Afghans they were training.

Twelve of the 15 soldiers wounded in Friday’s attack have already been evacuated to France. Two others, too badly wounded to travel, are being treated in the American military hospital at Bagram base in Afghanistan.

The last soldier is being treated at a French hospital in Afghanistan. AGENCIES

Pirates hijack ship with 21 Indian sailors

The Mumbai-based Director General of Shipping (DGS) said in a statement that the Fairchem Bogey was hijacked on Saturday while it was at anchor outside the port of Salalah.

Piracy for ransom is a well-organised and lucrative operation in Somalia that has expanded into a vast area off the coast. In 2010 a record 1,181 seafarers were kidnapped by pirates, according to marine safety experts.

The Fairchem Bogey, managed by Mumbai-based Anglo-Eastern Ship Management, was seized while it was waiting for berthing instructions.

“The Omani Coast Guard… were warned off by the pirates who asked them to move away to avoid casualties to the crew,” Anglo-Eastern Ship Management said in the statement.

Oman lies at the mouth of the Gulf, a strategic, heavily patrolled waterway which channels the bulk of the world s crude oil shipments.

In June this year, six Indian sailors were freed after being held for 10 months by Somali pirates. They were kept in chains, often without food or water and said they were treated “like animals”.

More than 100 suspected pirates have been caught and are awaiting trial in India following a series of skirmishes with the navy near the country s Lakshadweep islands this year.

Burney to start anti-graft drive after Eid

According to a press statement, rights activist Ansar Burney has said that at present Pakistan is facing a dire and painful period in its history.

“The politicians have joined hands and completely plundered this country to the brink of destruction. They have looted the treasury, bankrupted national institutions, sold off natural resources and even our sovereignty,” said Burney.

“The people have no food or water, no shelter, no electricity, no education, no healthcare, no jobs and no security. Every basic necessity has been stolen from us as a result of rampant and unchecked corruption,” he added.

“Look where we stand today, the very people we elected to protect us, are the people now responsible for dead bodies across the country. Murderers and plunderers now hold most important posts in the country,” added Burney.

“We have unimaginable violence now spreading all over the country between those holding power and those wanting it – all for the sake of a further opportunity to plunder the nation that little bit more.”

“It is now up to the civil society to take steps to rid the country of this evil before it is too late, and the Ansar Burney Trust announces to kick-start a massive anti-corruption movement following Eid as a first step towards saving our country,” read the statement.

Altaf welcomes restoration of LG system

The MQM chief in his statement issued from London that he offered congratulations to the Pakistan People’s Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement for conducting successful dialogs and restoring the local government system in Karachi and Hyderabad.

He offered gratitude to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari for their efforts to establish peace in Karachi.

He said that decision taken about Sindh would prove a mile stone for the promotion of democracy in the country.

Earlier, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad issued the ordinance to restore local government system and cancel the commissionerate system in Karachi and Hyderabad on the night between Saturday and Sunday.

The decision came at a meeting between PPP leader Babar Awan, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad at the Sindh Governor’s House.

India says Pakistan shown as terror ‘sanctuary’

NEW DELHI: The killing of Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden near Islamabad is further evidence that terrorists find “sanctuary” in Pakistan, Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Monday.

We take note with grave concern that part of the statement in which (US) President Obama said that the firefight in which Osama bin Laden was killed took place in Abbottabad ‘deep inside Pakistan’,” Chidambaram said in a statement.

“This fact underlines our concern that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in Pakistan,” he said. AGENCIES

Two and a Half Men- Has Been Canceled?

Charlie Sheen has well and truly put his foot in it this time, Warner Bros have decided to discontinue production of Two and a Half Men! According to reports the news came after Charlie Sheen was interviewed on a radio show. On the radio show Sheen insulted the show’s creator Chuck Lorre to such an extent that it provoked the statement of cancellation soon after.

“Based on the totality of Charlie Sheen’s statements, conduct and condition, CBS and Warner Bros. Television have decided to discontinue production of Two and a Half Men for the remainder of the season.”

Sheen’s struggle with drugs and alcohol has been well documented by the media. The actor himself has been very outspoken about his dissatisfaction with the shows uncertainty. Two and a Half Men has been a hugely successful sitcom, making Charlie Sheen one of the highest paid TV actors at this time.

Christina Aguilera’s Super Bowl Performance

Christina Aguilera has spoken out about her performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Sundays Super Bowl in Arlington, Texas. She repeated a line and also fumbled a few other words of the Anthem. Christina has made a statement to the Associated Press.

“I got so caught up in the moment of the song that I lost my place,” Christina also said in her statement “I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of it’s sic anthem still came through.”

Overall, it was a spectacular evening’s entertainment and the much anticipated break time commercials didn’t disappoint either. A commercial for Best Buy featured the unlikely pairing of Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne. But let’s not forget what the night really was all about. This year the Super Bowl was won by the Green Bay Packers.

Next Page »