Badin: Revenue workers, police clash over distribution of relief goods

BADIN: A clash erupted between workers of Revenue Department and police over distribution of relief items among food-affected people in Badin District on Monday.

Revenue staff held a protest demonstration against the police in front of DCO Office.

Flood victims are in dire need of drinking water and food, but the administration has stored the relief goods in godowns.

Meanwhile, floodwater is now heading toward sea from Badin. But several villages are still under the water. TrendPK

Load shedding to continue until 2018: WAPDA

The National Assembly Standing Committee for Water and Power meeting was held in Islamabad under the chairmanship of Ghulam Mustafa Shah.

Briefing the committee, Water and Power Development Authority Chairman Shakil Durrani said that Mangla Dam would be filled up to 1210 feet by the end of this year. This will enhance the water storing capacity of the dam by 0.8 million acres.

He said that hydro power cost Rs 1.05 per unit while the power generated by the IPPs cost Rs 10.18 per unit.

He said that hydro power generation saved Rs 41 billion for the national exchequer in 2010.

The WAPDA chairman said that load shedding cannot be overcome until 2018 and power demand would soar to 130,000 megawatt by 2030.

He said that India could not build dams on three western rivers, adding that the 16 kilometre long tunnel of Jhelum Hydro Project had been constructed.

During the meeting, Standing Committee for Water and Power member Sajjadul Hassan said that the power outage of 22 hours a day was unacceptable and the PEPCO office in Okara would be burnt, if load shedding were not stopped.

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.

Indus Water Commissioner removed form post

Commissioner of Indus Water Basin Treaty Jamaat Ali Shah has been removed from his post and deputy water commissioner Sheraz Memon has been given additional charge of acting commissioner.

Jamaat Ali Shah has been removed over poor performance in water dispute between Pakistan and India and he has been made OSD. Jamaat Ali Shah was appointed as commissioner in 1993.

Low water levels prevail in Tarbela, Mangla

ISLAMABAD: Low water levels prevail in both main dams of the country on Tuesday (today).

In Tarbela Dam, the water is at 107.33 feet, while in Mangla Dam it is 106 feet above dead level.

The drinkable water reservoir in Tarbela Dam is 3398000 acre feet while in Mangla Dam it is 1929000 acre feet, sources of the Meteorological Department said. TrendPK

Cambodian monks bless dead after night of horror

PHNOM PENH: Saffron-robed Buddhist monks chanted as onlookers gazed silently across a bridge piled with the shoes and torn clothing left behind by victims of a stampede in Cambodia’s capital.

The body count stood at 375 by sunset on Tuesday and was expected to rise. Many people were missing and Cambodians had many questions about one of the darkest days of their country’s

recent and troubled history.

The cause of the stampede on the Diamond Gate bridge late on Monday, the last day of an annual three-day Water Festival, remained a mystery.

“Everyone is shocked that this can happen to us,” said Chhun Sreypong, 45, clutching her one-year-old baby and looking out across Phnom Penh’s Tonle Sap river, from where scores of limp bodies were dragged.

“Those who died were mostly youngsters. Many mothers have lost their children. No one knows why this

Death toll reaches to 350 in Cambodian stampede

PHNOM PENH: Thousands of people stampeded during a festival in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, leaving at least 350 dead and hundreds injured in what the prime minister described as the country’s biggest tragedy since the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.

A panic-stricken crowd celebrating the end of the rainy season on an island in a river tried to flee over a bridge and people were crushed underfoot or fell over its sides into the water.

Disoriented victims struggled to find an escape route through the human mass, pushing their way in every direction. After the stampede, bodies were stacked upon bodies on the bridge as rescuers swarmed the area.

The prime minister’s special adviser, Om Yentieng, denied rumours that many of the victims were electrocuted by lighting cables and that the panic was sparked by a mass food

Inaugural of RPP to be held today

The inaugural ceremony of the 232 MW rental power plant would be held today at Karachi Port Trust (KPT).

An official associated with the project said that the officials of Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB), Ministry of Water and Power and the representatives of the Turkey based power ship ‘Kaya Bey’ would also attend the ceremony.

The power ship had anchored at the Karachi Port on Thursday. After the ceremony, it will be sailed to the Ibrahim Hyderi Harbour where it will be connected to the Korangi Thermal Station on Nov 24, the official said.

Supply of 5 million gallons of water suspended to Karachi

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI: Electricity supply to Pipri Pumping Station 4 has been suspended, water deliver to Karachi severely affected, Trend Pk learnt Thursday.

According to Water Board sources, since 4 at morning, due to suspension of electricity, supply of 5 million gallons of water suspended to Karachi. Trend Pk

Deepa Mehta to shoot Midnight’s Children in Sri Lanka

Oscar nominated director Deepa Mehta and multi-award-winning author Salman Rushdie’s screen adaptation of his extraordinary multi award-winning international bestselling novel Midnight’s Children will commence shooting in Sri Lanka in January 2011.

Shabana Azmi, Irrfan Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Nandita Das, Chandan Roy Sanyal and Seema Biswas will star in the English language film.

The film is being shot in Sri Lanka because Mehta has sworn off India following her nightmare experience shooting Water at Varanasi locations. Water was subsequently shot in Sri Lanka. But Midnight’s Children could yet run into problems because in the late 1990s the BBC was planning to film a five-part mini-series of the novel with Rahul Bose in the lead, but due to pressure from the Muslim community in Sri Lanka, the filming permit was revoked and the project was cancelled.

Mehta and Rushdie have been working together on the screenplay for the past two years. International sales agents FilmNation are handling the film and have already concluded distribution deals with E1 in the UK and UGC in France.

FilmNation CEO Glen Basner said, “At once epic, comic and magical, Midnight’s Children conjures images and characters as rich and unforgettable as India herself. It’s a wonderful project and we are humbled that we have been chosen to represent it.”

Midnight’s Children is the riveting personal story of Saleem, and his changeling twin Shiva, who are both born right at midnight on August 15, 1947, just as India gained its independence from the British Raj. We learn about other children born close to Independence Midnight who, like Saleem, possess special powers and can communicate with each other telepathically. He is not alone. The lives of all the Midnight’s Children are magically tied to the fate of Mother India. Saleem grows up in the shadow of the Raj, in a former British compound. His romantic nature (and his ability to “dial up” his Midnight’s Children comrades telepathically) keeps him afloat. Then shattering revelations about his true identity and a forbidden love send him spinning. Wars and terrible hardships overwhelm Saleem and the other Midnight’s Children but through it all, a bruised and hard-earned sense of hope and renewal is restored.

Midnight’s Children won both the 1981 Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. It was awarded the “Booker of Bookers” Prize and the best all-time prize winners in 1993 and 2008 to celebrate the Booker Prize 25th and 40th anniversary. Midnight’s Children is also the only Indian novel on Time’s list of the 100 best English-language novels since it’s founding in 1923.

Mehta said of her passion for the novel, “I am intrigued by epic stories with complex people who have many layers and secrets, and tricks up their sleeves. This great novel of Rushdie’s is one of the most famous examples of this kind of generous storytelling, and had an instantaneous appeal for me.”
Speaking of his relationship with Mehta, Rushdie said, “Deepa asked me who had the rights to Midnight’s Children, and I told her that I did. She said “Can I do it?” and I said “Yes.” When asked why this was a such quick, sure decision for him, “Because her work has great beauty, and I always follow the passion.”

Midnight’s Children is produced by David Hamilton with Executive Producers Doug Mankoff and Andrew Spaulding from Echo Lake Entertainment and Steven Silver and Neil Tabatznik from Blue Ice Entertainment.

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