Huge tsunami slams coastal Japan after 8.9 quake

TOKYO: A massive 8.9 magnitude quake hit northeast Japan on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, cars, farm buildings on fire and boats, media and witnesses said.

At least one person was killed in Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo where four million homes were without power. The quake caused many injuries, fires and a wall of water across the coast, prompting warnings to people to move to higher ground.

There were several strong aftershocks. In the capital Tokyo, buildings shook violently.

TV pictures showed a vast wall of water carrying the debris and even fires across a large swathe of coastal farmland near the city of Sendai, which has a population of one million.

Public broadcaster NHK showed flames and black smoke billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country were halted.

Black smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama’s Isogo area. TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks floating in water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed into the water.

Kyodo news agency said there were reports of fires in Sendai where waves carried cars across the runway at the airport.

The western prefecture of Wakayama ordered 20,000 people to evacuate after further tsunami warnings.

“WORST IN 20 YEARS”

“The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks,” Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo.

“It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago.”

The Tokyo stock market extended losses after the quake. The central bank said it would do everything to ensure financial stability.

Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers” hands. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand, said Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura.

Hundreds of office workers and shoppers spilled into Hitotsugi street, a shopping street in Akasaka in downtown Tokyo.

Household goods ranging from toilet paper to clingfilm were flung into the street from outdoor shelves in front of a drugstore.

Crowds gathered in front of televisions in a shop next to the drugstore for details. After the shaking from the first quake subsided, crowds were watching and pointing to construction cranes on an office building up the street with voices saying, “They”re still shaking!”, “Are they going to fall?”
Asagi Machida, 27, a web designer in Tokyo, sprinted from a coffee shop when the quake hit.

“The images from the New Zealand earthquake are still fresh in my mind so I was really scared. I couldn”t believe such a big earthquake was happening in Tokyo.”

The US trendpk.comlogical Survey earlier verified a magnitude of 7.9 at a depth of 15.1 miles and located the quake 81 miles east of Sendai, on the main island of Honshu. It later upgraded it to 8.9.

A police car drove down Hitotsugi Street, lights flashing, announcing through a bullhorn that there was still a danger of shaking.

Japan”s northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world”s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

Anti-Gaddafi people form crisis committee

BENGHAZI: The National Libyan Council based in the rebel-held east named a three-member crisis committee on Saturday to cover military and foreign affairs in a bid to streamline decision-making.

The council has said it will act as the face of the rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi’s rule but says it is not an interim government. It also wants to shift its base from the eastern city of Benghazi to Tripoli, although the capital remains firmly under Gaddafi’s control.

The council repeated its call for foreign air strikes to help dislodge the man who has been in power for 41 years and has used warplanes and helicopters against rebel forces. Rebels accuse him of hiring African mercenaries for help.

Political science professor Fathi Baja, a Benghazi-based member of the rebel February 17th Coalition, said of the committee:

“This will encourage people because they have chosen some very strong names. Also, they reflect a balance as they are from different places and different tribes.”

The council named Omar Hariri, one of the officers who took part in Gaddafi’s 1969 coup but was later jailed, as head of the military. Ali Essawi, a former ambassador to India who quit last month, was put in charge of foreign affairs.

Mahmoud Jebril, who had been involved in a project called “Libyan Vision” with other intellectuals before the revolt to establish a democratic state, will head the crisis committee. The council said the group aimed to streamline decision making.

Other new members include dissident Ahmed Zoubeir who, under Gaddafi, spent longer than the 28 years South Africa’s Nelson Mandela was held in prison, as well as Selwa Adrilli, Fathi Terbil and Fathi Baja.

Other ministers are to be announced at later dates.

Speaking at a news conference, the head of the national council, ex-Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said the body did not want foreign troops on Libyan soil and had sufficient forces to liberate the country.

“There is a feeling on the street that if Gaddafi can employ foreigners to fight for him then why cannot we?,” he said.

“Our people have the numbers and the determination to liberate all of Libya, but we will ask for air strikes to help us do this in the shortest possible time.”

He also said the young, mostly civilian fighters in the rebel force would be replaced by a more professional fighting force. He did not say when. AGENCIES

Fans Attack Shakib Ul Hassan Home

After the shameful defeat by 9 runs from West Indies, Bangladeshi fans firstly attack the bus of West Indies and then they attack on the home of Captain Shakib Ul Hassan. In  the attack on West Indies bus there were no damage to any player. The players were angry after the attack and they said that it was not fare to attack on the touring nation.

Egypt: President Mubarak refuses to step down

In a television address President Mubarak said that he would transfer power to prove that the demands of protesters will be met by dialogue. He said that his newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman would serve as a transitional leader. Egypt s President Hosni Mubarak looked likely to step aside on Thursday after the military high command took control of the nation in what some called a military coup after two weeks of unprecedented protests. Convinced about the honest intentions of young protesters, Mubarak was also said to be set to repeat that he would not run for another term as president in September elections. Anything less than quitting could provoke a powerful reaction from the street where the core of protesters want his immediate resignation and reject any political maneuvering that allows him to stay on in some capacity, perhaps as a figurehead. News that Mubarak may hand over power, or be unseated, in this key American ally in the Middle East had provoked loud and emotional cheers in Cairo s Tahrir Square, the focal point for pro-democracy demonstrations. But some in the crowd were quick to protest they did not want military rule.

Ahead of the address, hundreds of thousands flocked to the square and the surrounding streets with some organizers saying this had been the biggest turnout yet to celebrate their role in modern Egyptian history. Some danced and others played drums just out of joy and excitement. Mubarak would announce constitutional procedures before handing over powers.

Gujranwala: 4 year old killed by drowning in the drain

Once again, a mother lost her child due to negligence of WASA in Gujranwala. Four-year old Daniyal, a student of nursery class, accidently fell into a drain and got killed. Daniyal was playing around in the street when after sometime he got missing. When the locals tried to find him, they searched a nearby drain and found Daniyal’s dead body in the drain. Asmat Ullah, a resident of Kaccha Aimanabad, says that he lost his four-year old son today due to Negligence of WASA workers.

Las Vegas Gadget Show Ends

Gadgets revealed at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas flop more often than they pop.

Microsoft provided a sneak peek at a radical new version of Windows, Verizon showed the first consumer gadgets for a wireless network that’s faster in many cases than wired broadband, and many manufacturers showed tablet computers with the potential to give Apple’s iPad a run for its money. Touch-screen tablet computers crowded the show, as brand names large and small showed off a slew of devices meant to compete with Apple Inc.’s iPad. From a hardware standpoint, companies touted features that the iPad doesn’t yet have, such as front- and rear-facing cameras for video chatting and taking high-definition videos and the ability to operate over wireless carriers’ new and forthcoming high-speed networks, together known as 4G. As for software, the upcoming Honeycomb version of Google Inc.’s Android software seemed a popular choice. For now, only plug-in laptop modems can take advantage of it, but at the show, Verizon showed off smart phones from Motorola, LG Electronics Inc., HTC Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. set to arrive in the first half of year, along with two tablets. However, Verizon promptly stole its own thunder by inviting journalists to a second press conference on Tuesday in New York, less than a week after its big reveal in Las Vegas. It’s widely believed that Verizon will announce that it will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone, now available in the U.S. exclusively through rival AT&T Inc. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that this is the case. Intel and AMD, whose processors are the brains of PCs, unveiled new chips with significant design changes, in part to help them hold off threats from tablets and smart phones. The idea is to make traditional, low-cost computers using their chips more competitive with the mobile devices. Last year’s big new thing in TVs, 3-D, didn’t catch on as manufacturers had hoped. One problem might be the bulky, expensive, battery-powered glasses the sets need. This year, LG Electronics Inc. is trying a different take on 3-D, with light, inexpensive glasses of the kind used in movie theaters.

A Minute With Nicole Kidman working on "Rabbit Hole"

LOS ANGELES: Oscar winning actress Nicole Kidman has scored positive reviews, and a Golden Globe nomination, for her role as a mother dealing with the death of her child in the independent film “Rabbit Hole.”

The film was released last week in major US theaters and expands around the country starting on Christmas day.

“Rabbit Hole” is based on the Pulitzer prize-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire. Kidman stars alongside Aaron Eckhart as grieving couple Becca and Howie. Kidman also produced the film, marking it the inaugural project from her company, Blossom Films.

Kidman, who lives in Nashville with her country star husband Keith Urban and their daughter Sunday Rose, spoke about the film, her family and being a mother.

Q: How did you come across the play?
A: “I read the review of ”Rabbit Hole” in the New York Times. Living in Nashville, I get the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. That”s my contact with the city because that”s where I used to live and I”m a theater buff. When I read the review, I thought, ”Gosh, that sounds like rich material.””

Q: As a mother, you felt for Becca”s pain?
A: “When we first optioned the play, I wasn”t pregnant. This has been years in the making, so there wasn”t a thought of being pregnant. I thought I”d never get pregnant. But I get what she goes through. I get her relationship with her mother, her sister, God. I get the way in which she is so angry.”

Q: How did you prepare to play a woman who goes through something no parent should ever have to face?
A: “I read stuff. I tried to go to a grief group but I was told ”No, you”re not allowed. You can only step into these rooms if you lost a child.” I totally get it, yet for whatever reason, that rawness was available to me. Maybe it was from giving birth (to daughter Sunday Rose) 11 months prior.”

Q: The subject must have made for a difficult shoot.
A: “It was more like there was a big thrust to honor the people who are going through this right now. There”s almost something lifting you up, going ”Come on, if someone can actually be living this, I can be living this.””

Q: How has motherhood impacted your career?
A: “Time is the most precious thing. I”m very particular about how I spend it. I”m more reluctant to leave my family. Keith and I are very tight, and we”re never separated. If we are, it”s no more than three days.”

Q: How is motherhood today different than it was when you were raising Connor and Isabella (with ex-husband Tom Cruise)?
A: “I raised two kids when I was in my 20s, but that was a different thing. I was a kid and still so young mentally and emotionally — a totally different mom.”

Q: And now?
A: “There is something about mothering late in life. A lot of it is I want to stay alive for Sunday. There is plenty of deep fear and emotion. Sunday has healed an enormous amount in me. It”s a very private thing, but she just has.”

Q: What”s Sunday like now?
A: “She”s two and a half and in what we call ”the raccoon” stage because she”s into everything. She”s into this, she”s into that. She”s just really hard to wrangle at this stage.”

Q: Were you like that as a kid?
A: “I don”t think so. I was more placid. But Keith rode BMX bikes and grew up in a pretty rambunctious family. Sunday”s got a lot of her dad”s face and a lot of his DNA.”

Q: You and Keith were both raised in Australia and you”re now living the country life in the United States. Does Sunday have any of your Aussie roots in her?
A: “Our daughter is a Tennessee girl, but she still says ”G”day mate.” She says both ”Hi y”all” and ”G”day mate.””

Q: Any plans on expanding the family?
A: “We”re hoping for another one!”

Oliver Stone graces the 12th Mumbai Film Festival

Click above for more event stills

Mr. Amit Khanna and Mr. Srinivasan Narayanan introduced the most celebrated Oliver Stone to one and all present at the MAMI 12th Mumbai Film Festival’s press conference. The audience was thrilled to have such a talented person amongst them. The conference started and Mr. Stone shared his thoughts and experiences with all…

Oliver Stone shared, “The issue with my movies is that people expect.” Wall Street was initially not liked by people, but slowly the people started understanding the story is about love, trust, classic drama and betray. It is about relationships, father – daughter, mother-son. The protagonist of his movie goes through a lot of changes due to his circumstances in life.

Shooting of Alexander
Stone explored India along with Mr. Noorani to choose locations, he also travelled to Jaipur in search of interesting landscape and finally zeroed on Ladak. He brought along a few American crew members and they shot in March 2004 for Alexander in Ladak. Alexander’s last explored land was India so they shot a scene of Alexander in Ladak.

When asked about his feeling towards films, Oliver Stone said, “I am very passionate about making films and every single movie I make matters to me.”

On his upcoming movie for next year
“It is about the untold history of United States. It is about a lot of heroes who no one knows about. It is about a decision of why a bomb was dropped on Russia. Overall the mixture of all the untold history of America is the base of his upcoming film,” said Stone.

On Indian Cinema:
“Indian Cinema is very vast, every week there are new films. It’s difficult for him to keep track of so many of them and their names. But the Indian films have a mix of romance, tragedy and comedy all in one – so I really like the way it is done,” stated Oliver Stone.

Shoot in India:
Oliver Stone said that he tried to do City of Joy, “I would love to have Daniel Luck to do Slumdog Millionaire.” In fact, he tried to shoot City of Joy but it did not happen, and it went to another director, “There is a destiny to every film.” said Oliver.

There are movies that do not do well when released but they gain momentum in due time.

US seeks to boost CIA presence in Pakistan: report

WASHINGTON: The United States is trying to expand a secret CIA operation designed to eliminate radical Islamic militants’ havens located in Pakistan near the Afghan border, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Citing unnamed senior officials, the newspaper said that in recent weeks the administration of President Barack Obama had asked Pakistan to allow additional Central Intelligence Agency officers and special operations military trainers to enter the country to intensify pressure on militants.

The requests have so far been rebuffed by Islamabad, which remains extremely reluctant to allow a larger US ground presence in Pakistan, the report said.

On Friday, the United States made a new bid to improve its uneasy war partnership with Pakistan by offering a two-billion-dollar arms package but warned it will not tolerate human rights abuses.

The five-year

US uses dollars to spur Pakistan to fight Taliban

Obama administration officials have privately warned Pakistani leaders that continued inaction against Taliban and al Qaeda havens bordering Afghanistan could jeopardize some of the large US cash payouts on which Islamabad depends.
According to a report of Wall Street Journal, the warnings raise the stakes for talks this week in Washington between US and Pakistani officials, after months of growing tensions in which the administration has delivered a steady drumbeat of criticism of Islamabad’s perceived unwillingness to take stronger action against the Afghan Taliban and its allies.
US officials also have periodically offered optimism and increased help, including proposing added military aid earlier this week.
The US is under pressure to show gains in the war in advance of the planned drawdown of US troops, due to begin in July. It has ramped up military operations in Afghanistan’s south and east, facilitated Afghan-led talks with the Taliban, and stepped up a campaign of drone strikes against militant groups that stage cross-border attacks from Pakistan.
Those efforts have heightened the need for support from Pakistan, which says it has stepped up its own efforts but doesn’t have the resources to go into the regions where the militants are based because of other needs.
The White House also has decided not to provide equipment or training to Pakistani Army units that have been accused of killing prisoners or civilians, according to a military official. That move follows a US investigation into a recent video that showed Pakistani military personnel killing a prisoner. About a half dozen units will be affected by the new policy, reported first by The New York Times.
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama dropped by a meeting of his top advisers and Pakistani officials, including the military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. A White House statement issued afterwards highlighted the need to increase pressure on extremist safe-havens but didn’t repeat previous White House praise of Islamabad fighting militants.
Funding represents the greatest U.S. leverage over Islamabad. US military and civilian funding for Pakistan totaled more than $3.5 billion over the last year, according to congressional estimates. But concerns have risen in Congress about how that money is spent and whether Pakistan is obstructing U.S. goals in Afghanistan.
The administration said this week it intends to increase annual grants for Pakistan to buy U.S. defense equipment, but officials warned that Congress could pare that back.
Administration and congressional officials also said hundreds of millions of dollars a year in so-called Coalition Support Fund payments, which reimburse Pakistan for its military operations against militants, could face future cuts.
The U.S. hasn’t made any reimbursement to Pakistan since May 27; the Pentagon is reviewing the requests. The U.S. reimbursed Pakistan $1.3 billion between January and May for Pakistani operations conducted in 2008 and 2009, but has not paid for operations in 2010.
On Thursday, an official with the Pakistani military spy agency said Islamabad wants to take part in the peace contacts between Kabul and Taliban officials, warning that excluding Pakistan could jeopardize them.
Obama administration officials say they want to include Pakistani representatives, in part to help ensure that Islamabad doesn’t try to scuttle the talks. Some Western and Afghan officials say they believe Pakistan’s spy agency arrested Taliban second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Feburary to halt talks that excluded Islamabad. Pakistan denies this.

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